THE DAWN PATROL

CHAPTER XII (Part 2)

We pulled off the main road and followed a small lane as far as we could. The Mole, nothing but a wide ditch by any standards, flowed gently on our left. Willows grew along the banks, their long tendrils combing the water’s surface so that the trees framed the stream in a natural arbour and then faded into the distance as the stream changed course. The road followed the course of the stream and then abruptly turned away. Ray kept thinking we were moving farther away and wanted to stop before it was too late.

“You said you wanted to drop the body into the stream,” Ray said. “Well, if we keep moving away from it, we’re gonna have to drag it back a mile just to get close.”

“We don’t want to be too obvious,” Jack said.

“This ain’t bein’ obvious.”

“Alright, stop the car here then,” Jack said. Ray hit the brakes.

“I gotta take a piss,” he said, and stomped off into the trees.

I sat with Jack in the car, looking at Cecelia who was looking out the window and strangely quiet. Jack was staring out in the opposite direction.

“Are you going to kill me now, Jack?” she asked finally.

“I’m trying to think of a way out of this,” Jack said softly.

“There is no way out.”

“There’s always a way out,” Jack said. “If there wasn’t a way out, I’d’ve been dead a long time ago.”

Ray came back. “Okay, let’s get this done.” He opened the back door and pulled Cecelia out of the back seat, telling her to sit on the wet grass. Then he went to the trunk and tried to open it, fumbling with the keys.

“Look at me,” he said. “I don’t even get this nervous when we’re going up on a mission.”

“That’s because you already know you’re going to make it back,” Jack said as he took the keys from Ray and opened the trunk.

We stood looking at the dead man.

“What d’ya wanna do?” Ray asked.

“Me and Bobby’ll take him down to the stream. You stay here and watch Celia.”

“I’m not gonna say that’s a bad idea,” Ray grinned. “I mean, you know what you wanna do, right? And why would you wanna leave something like that to me an’ Bob? Yeah, sure, I’ll watch her. Give me your gun.”

“Why do you want my gun?”

“What if she tries to run away?”

“Where’s she going to run to?”

“What if she tries to hit me when I’m not looking?”

“Hit you with what?”

“A rock. She’s a prisoner, isn’t she? When you watch a prisoner, you keep them under guard, and that means you have a gun on them so they don’t do anything stupid. It’s a deterrent.”

“A deterrent?” Jack said, and handed him the gun. “Do you know how to use it?”

“It’s got a trigger don’t it?” Ray said.

“Safety’s on.”

“Now it’s off,” Ray said.

We picked the body up out of the trunk. I grabbed its feet, and Jack took the shoulders. It was heavier than either of us thought, and we almost dropped it. When we had it clear of the trunk, Jack closed it and looked out across the North Downs. There was a gradual slope and we could see the Mole in the distance flashing in the morning light. There were trees and tall grasses—enough cover so that anyone out for a walk along the trail wouldn’t see us.

Jack hefted the body over his shoulder and started the long walk. I fell in behind him, pulling on a shoot of grass and sticking it in my mouth like I used to do when I was a kid. It reminded me of our hunting treks back home—Jack riding Napoleon, and me on Marshal Ney—when we’d ride out to the edge of the property line and check Dad’s traps. I followed him then, just as I did now, and I thought how I’ve always followed him.

I thought he would slow down, or tire—I could see a sheen of sweat on his neck near his collar—but he trudged ahead without complaint. I lit up a cigarette, looking at the smooth rolling hills in the distance, the grass still wet with dew and clinging to my pants, my shoes wet. There were birds rustling in the brushes, and once I thought I saw a fox, but it was gone like a trace before the wind.

I saw spider webs hanging in the branches of trees and they reminded me of Jenny’s Dream Catcher. I found myself wondering how they were doing without us. I’d not had a letter from home for months now, and the prospect of returning once I’d completed my last mission—only seven more I told myself—was something I was more than looking forward to.

Jack stopped and dropped the body, and I snapped out of my nostalgic melancholy and looked at it where it lay at my feet.

“We’ll toss it in here. Looks like a good spot,” Jack said as he undid his tunic. He was sweating heavy, and wiped the sweat from his face with his hands.

“Remind me never to do that again,” he laughed.

“Why didn’t you stop and let me carry him for a while?”

“I thought it was a short trip.” We both looked up the slow rising slope and then laughed.

“It’ll be a longer trip back,” I said.

“That it will,” he said. “That it will.”

We both looked down at the body, and suddenly Jack kicked it. He stepped back and rubbed his face in his hands, and then kicked it again, biting back a scream. He looked at me and I could see tears in his eyes. He stepped back, putting his hands behind his head as he crouched down and fought with his feelings as he tried to get control of himself.

“Let’s do this,” he said, and bent down to pick it up by the feet. I grabbed the hands and we heaved it into the water, watching as the gentle current floated it down stream.

“Why didn’t you take the I.D.?” I asked.

“Because I want whoever he works for to know.”

“But they’ll know he was with Cecelia. Are you going to—” I didn’t even want to finish the question. I didn’t want to know the answer.

Jack shook his head. “No. I decided that a long time ago. I wanted to kill her when I had her in the room—God, did I want to kill her for what she did. I thought, how many people has she sent to their death because of something I might have said? Did they follow me when I was in France, and then just wait until I was gone before they swooped in and killed anyone and everyone I may have been in contact with? If I was going to kill her, it would have been then.”

“What changed your mind?”

“It was a long drive,” he smiled. “Too much time to think.”

“About what?”

“That I loved her. Before all of this...before Ray said anything, I loved her. I’d like to think she loved me. I don’t expect that she does anymore, but I’d like to think that she did. She wasn’t German. They obviously had something on her and were forcing her to give them information. That bastard did,” and he nodded at the body. “I might have been able to help her if she would have told me. But she was too scared.”

“What’re you going to do instead?”

“I have friends.”

“You mean spy friends?”

He grinned. “I’m not a spy. I fly over to France, jump out of a plane, and do recon missions.”

“Sounds like a spy to me,” I grinned.

“It doesn’t matter. I know someone who lives out this way. He said if I was ever in a jamb, to give him a shout. Well, I’m shouting. I’m thinking...if I can leave Celia with him and his wife, maybe she can start her life over again? Not many people get a second chance at anything, and getting a second chance at life seems like a pretty good—”

There was a gunshot. We both looked up the hill, and then began running as fast as we could. A moment later, there was a second shot.