Spoils of War by Catrin Collier Read Free Book Online

registered dead.’
    ‘I don’t know if British law applies to Stalinist Russia, Huw.’
    ‘Masha? She’s alive?’ Charlie looked at the telegram in Huw’s hand.
    ‘If this woman is your wife she’s in a displaced persons’ camp in Germany.’
    ‘And she remembers me. After sixteen years she still remembers.’ Charlie was more animated than Andrew had seen him since his return.
    ‘She must have told her story and somehow, someone connected her with you. All we have is this enquiry.’
    ‘Do you have an address where I can write?’
    Huw handed him the telegram. ‘I’ll be honest with you, Charlie. I haven’t a clue what will happen now. The sergeant assumed it was a cut-and-dried case of bigamy, that this was some woman you met during the war, took a fancy to …’
    ‘In one of the Nazis’ forced labour camps?’
    ‘The sergeant doesn’t always think things through, Andrew.’
    ‘I must know how Masha is, how she survived, what happened to the rest of my family … our child …’
    ‘And Alma?’ Andrew reminded.
    ‘I need to talk to her.’ Charlie looked at Huw. ‘That is, if you’re not taking me away.’
    ‘I’m not arresting you, Charlie. But I think it would be best if you come up to the station tomorrow. It might be easier for you to talk to us there. And in the meantime I’ll see if I can find out anything else about this woman. From what you told me there’s no guarantee she’s your wife.’
    ‘She knows my name, where we married …’
    ‘And that you’re living here. From what I’ve heard, most refugees will lie, steal, sell their mother and give their right arm to be allowed into this country. Who’s to say that this woman didn’t meet your wife somewhere and pinch her story in the hope of conning you into paying her passage over here?’
    ‘Then you think she might not be Masha?’ It was as if someone had switched the light out in his eyes.
    ‘It has to be a possibility. We’ll start our enquiries by asking for a photograph. Hopefully she’ll not have changed too much.’
    ‘After sixteen years in camps she’ll have changed.’
    ‘Do you want me to tell Alma about this?’ Andrew asked.
    ‘No, I’ll tell her.’
    ‘Would you like Bethan or me to stay here tonight?’
    ‘Thank you, Andrew, but no.’
    ‘If you need us, telephone, day or night, it doesn’t matter, we’ll come.’
    Tony leaned on the bar of the Graig Hotel and ordered another pint of beer from the vaguely familiar, blowsy barmaid.
    ‘You’re Judy Crofter, aren’t you?’ he asked, after deciding that there was no way her brassy blonde hair could be natural.
    ‘And you’re Tony Ronconi. Your sister was in school with me.’
    ‘Seeing as how I’ve six of them, it would have been difficult for you to have gone to school round here and not have had one of them in your class.’
    ‘Just as well you’re wearing uniform.’ She pushed the fifth beer he’d ordered in two hours towards him. ‘Orders are, two pints and over, only to be given to serving soldiers.’
    ‘It’s good to know I’ve given up nearly seven years of my life for something.’ He lifted his pint, ‘Cheers.’
    ‘Cheers,’ Judy Crofter smiled as she wiped a cloth over the bar in front of him.
    ‘So, do you want a drink?’ he asked, taking the hint.
    ‘I wouldn’t say no to a port and lemon.’
    ‘Did I give you enough money?’
    ‘Oh yes.’ She opened the till again and tossed most of his change into it before pouring herself a drink. ‘So, how much leave you got?’
    ‘All over bar the official demob next week.’
    ‘Nice to put your feet up and see the family.’
    ‘Yes,’ he agreed cryptically. ‘Judy, you haven’t got any rooms here by any chance, have you?’
    ‘Rooms for a party, you mean?’
    ‘For me to sleep in,’ he corrected irritably.
    ‘Why do you want to sleep here when you live in Danycoedcae Road?’
    ‘Because the house is full with my mother and the kids home.’
    ‘I know what