THE HEART OF DANGER by Gerald Seymour Read Free Book Online Page B

shot."

    "We are only doing our job, a neutral job, sir."

    34

    "One minute, and it will be me that shoots you."

    "Perhaps another day, perhaps we can go over another day, sir."

    "Get the fuck out."

    The Canadian was still smiling as he reversed the jeep away from the
    bridge, away from the track that led to the ruin of Rosenovici, away
    from where they had dug the previous week. He smiled all the time
    that
    they were watched by the drunk kids and Milan Stankovic. The jeep
    lurched back onto the Bovic road, and he lost the smile and cursed
    quietly to himself. He had never seen the old woman, but he had heard
    she was there, in the woods above the village, and he had three times
    left food for her and the food had been taken. Perhaps it was just
    a
    story, that the old woman was there, perhaps it was the stray and
    abandoned dogs that took the food. The Kenyan said, "Maybe he has
    a
    problem with his bowel movement. Our good friend did not seem happy
    ..
    ." "Not as happy as a hog in dung." The Canadian knew. It was the big
    mouth. The big mouth had said, "There have been no atrocities here.
    We
    Serbs have always treated our Croat enemies correctly and with care."
    It was the big boast that said, "There are no hidden graves here.
    We
    have nothing to be ashamed of." The big mouth and the big boast in the
    grimy dining hall of the administration building at the TDF camp in
    Salika, and all the guys around him to hear it. The Canadian had
    put
    in his report, and he had heard that Milan Stankovic was called to
    the
    summit chat in Belgrade, and the village was a headless chicken, and
    the Professor had been dragged off the Ovcara dig for the day .. .
    The
    Canadian could smile when he remembered how they had been, the mothers
    in the village, the old men and the kids, when the jeeps had shown
    up
    in the week before, and not been able to deny that he had the
    permission of old shit-sour face to go hunting a mass grave. The
    Canadian could smile when he imagined old shit-sour face coming back
    from the Belgrade knees-up to find a nice corner of a dug field, empty
    .. . "Mister, do you think we could have given him something for his 35

    bowel movement, a pill, something to make him happy .. . ?" The
    Canadian said, "A stone turned, under the stone was a secret, and
    the
    secret's abroad and public knowledge, that might just have stopped
    his
    bowel movement." "But, mister, you're not talking evidence."

    The Canadian police sergeant, far from Toronto and Yonge Street, and
    far from the whores and the pushers of home, had not caught a good
    night's sleep since they had prised the black-grey earth from a young
    woman's face. No, he was not talking evidence ... It was that sort
    of
    place, Sector North, the sort of place where evidence did not come
    easy.

    It was rare for Arnold Browne to lose his temper.

    '.. . Don't ever do that to me again, Penn, or you're lost,
    forgotten.
    Just remember what you are, and you are ex, Penn. You are ex-Five,
    you
    are ex-A Branch. You may once have, stupidly, harboured the illusion
    that there is a way back let me tell you, Penn, that the way back
    is
    not via spitting in my face. You don't think on it, you don't
    consider
    it, you damn well jump to it, and I was doing you a favour ... I can
    get a score of ex-Herefords who would give the right cheek of their
    arses for a job like this, and I gave your name .. . Got me?"

    "Yes, Mr. Browne."

    "You don't patronize by thinking and considering, you bloody well
    get
    on with it."

    "Yes, Mr. Browne. Thank you, Mr. Browne."

    He slapped down the telephone. Yes, rare for him to lose his temper,
    and he felt no better for it. His anger was because of his memory
    of
    Dorrie Mowat, and God alone knew what a pain the child had been ..
    .

    He had left home early.

    36

    He had left home while Jane was still feeding Tom. He had called
    once
    from the front door, and she must have been distracted because she
    hadn't called back to him from upstairs.