TWENTY-SEVEN
Miles Linley arrived at O’Connor’s Bar less than an hour after Swan’s telephone call had interrupted supper at his lodgings in Donnybrook. He entered the snug, which Swan had had to himself since Henchy’s departure, with the flustered air and evasive expression of a man uncertain just how serious the problem was that confronted him. But his uncertainty was not destined to be prolonged.
‘What’s this all about, Cygnet?’ he asked with forced joviality. ‘You sounded a touch overwrought on the blower.’
‘Do you know Lorcan Henchy, Linley?’
‘Never heard of him.’
‘He’s the previous tenant of the flat I’m renting for you.’
‘Really? Well, no reason I should have, then.’
‘He was here earlier.’
‘Was he? What of it?’
‘He reckons I’ve been duped.’
‘Duped? What are you on about?’
‘It’s simple enough. Deceived. Lied to. Taken for a ride. By you.’
‘This is preposterous. I don’t know what nonsense this fellow’s been feeding you, but—’
‘Save it. Just tell me, here and now, to my face: is it true Henchy was bribed and threatened into moving out?’
‘Of course not.’
‘Only he claims he was, you see. And he also claims he’s found out why, which somehow I don’t think has anything to do with you and Celia. Because that grubby little secret wouldn’t be worth a thousand pounds, now would it?’
‘A thousand pounds?’
‘The price of Henchy’s silence.’
‘The fellow’s mad.’
‘Mad or not, he wants an answer within twenty-four hours.’
‘Look, there must have been some—’
‘Misunderstanding? I should say. But before you utter any more denials you might later regret, consider this. Henchy proposes to deal with you through me. He won’t negotiate with you direct. And he seems confident you don’t know where he’s been living since he left Merrion Street. So, either you tell me the truth or you dare him to do his worst. You’ll be a better judge than I am of whether you can afford to do that. To help you assess the risk, I’d better give you a name he asked me to mention.’ Swan lowered his voice. ‘Heider.’
Linley sighed and rubbed his eyes. ‘Damn it all to hell,’ he murmured.
‘Is that an admission you’ve been lying to me?’
‘No. I …’ Linley turned away, as if unable to face Swan. ‘Yes. But I had to. It was a matter of …’
‘A matter of what?’
Linley polished off the remainder of his whiskey in a single swallow. ‘We can’t talk here. I can explain everything. But …’ He managed to look back at Swan. ‘We’d better step outside.’
‘I’m sorry, Cygnet,’ Linley began, as he led the way towards St Stephen’s Green. ‘It’s true. I’m not having an affair with Celia. I needed someone unconnected with the legation to rent the flat and you providentially presented yourself as a candidate, so I … spun you a yarn I thought you’d fall for. No harm would have been done if Henchy hadn’t crawled back out of the woodwork. You wouldn’t have suffered by the deception. It was … a white lie.’
‘So you were trying to spare my feelings in some way, were you?’
‘Not exactly. It’s, er … a delicate business.’
‘Very. Sensitive, perhaps I should say. It’s a matter of … national security. And naturally … I’m not referring to the nation we find ourselves in at the moment.’
Reaching the corner of St Stephen’s Green, they crossed over to the entrance to the park. The keeper was locking the gate in preparation for closure, so they headed south along the pavement, next to the railings. The light still held and the air was warm. Their voices were hushed in the silence of the summer evening. Swan was holding his anger in check, awaiting the moment when he would know whether the lies Linley had told him could in any way be justified.
‘What I’m about to say mustn’t go any further, Cygnet. I’m deadly serious. These are state secrets. I’m breaking the Official Secrets Act just by discussing them with you. But if we’re to stop Henchy making trouble, I can’t very well keep you in the dark about the sort of trouble that might be. I must have your assurance you won’t breathe a word of this to anyone else.’
‘You are going to tell me the truth this time, aren’t you, Linley?’
Linley cast him a rueful sidelong glance. ‘I appear to have no alternative.’
‘Then you can rest assured I’ll keep it to myself.’
‘Good.’
Linley warmed up for his explanation with a swig from a hip flask, which he then offered to Swan. The taste of fine cognac came as a pleasant surprise, though perhaps it should not have. Linley had never been one to stint himself.
‘This is how it is. De Valéra knows that if Germany overruns England, as he believes they will, Éire, neutral or not, won’t be far behind. So, he’s planning ahead, considering what kind of accommodation he can come to with Hitler. Is he to be a Pétain or a de Gaulle or something in between? And can he somehow achieve Irish unification in exchange for an acceptance of German over-lordship? We think this so-called spy the Germans parachuted in, Heider, may be more in the way of a negotiator, you see, proposing a deal acceptable to both Dev and his former friends in the IRA. The failure of the police to capture Heider in that recent house raid had a put-up look about it to us, as if they didn’t really want to catch him at all. The pressing question is: what does Heider have to offer? Guarantees of Irish unity and autonomy in exchange for opening a back door for a German invasion of England? It’s possible. And it’s very worrying. You don’t need me to tell you how narrow the thread is the old country’s hanging by at the moment. It could be all up for us if Dev strikes terms with Berlin.
‘What does this have to do with thirty-one Merrion Street? Well, it’s quite simple, really. The flat overlooks the entrance to Government Buildings, where Dev has his office. It enables us to monitor all comings and goings. It means we know who calls on him and for how long. The identity of those visitors and the duration of their visits may provide clues to his intentions. Early warning is what London requires above all else. It may become necessary to launch a pre-emptive invasion of Éire from the North if it appears Dev is willing and likely to stab us in the back. I was charged with finding a suitable spot from which to carry out such surveillance. Henchy’s flat was one of several that fitted the bill. Enquiries suggested he’d be the tenant most easily induced to move out – an impecunious solitary with no visible means of support; someone unlikely to cause us any problems.’
‘You got that rather dramatically wrong.’
Linley sighed heavily. ‘So it appears.’ They had turned the corner now and were traversing the southern side of the Green. ‘Anyway, winkling Henchy out of the flat was one thing. I was also required to arrange a tenancy that couldn’t be traced to the British Legation. I needn’t spell out for you how disastrous it would be if the Irish found out what we’re doing. I was still wrestling with how to accomplish that when I heard you’d been picked up by Special Branch.’
‘And you calculated you could turn my gratitude for being bailed out to your advantage?’
‘It’s not as bad as you make it sound. I was doing my patriotic duty. I just didn’t tell you that you were doing yours.’
Patriotic duty. It was an argument Swan could not easily defeat. If the situation was as critical as Linley had described, it was impossible to condemn him for what he had done. ‘You might have levelled with me,’ Swan nevertheless complained. ‘I’d hardly have refused to help out with so much riding on it.’
‘For God’s sake, Cygnet, it was a top-secret assignment. I had no authorization to let someone like you in on it.’
‘What do you mean – someone like me?’
‘A civilian who’d come over from England to visit an IRA internee. A man Irish Special Branch are highly suspicious of. Frankly, you’re the last person we’d want to involve.’
‘But you are involving me.’
‘Because I have to. If Henchy’s found out what we’re up to and reports it to the authorities, our goose is cooked. He has to be stopped.’
‘Pay him, then.’
‘And then what? Blackmailers always come back for more. No. It’s not as simple as stuffing Henchy’s mouth with gold, I’m afraid.’
‘I doubt he would come back for more. This is all about his daughter, actually.’
‘What daughter?’
‘She lives with her mother in Cork. He showed me her photograph. He’s quite sentimental about her and wants to see she has a good education.’
‘My heart bleeds.’ Linley pulled up and rounded on Swan. Now he was the one, it seemed, who was suppressing anger. ‘Listen to me, Cygnet. This is not some kind of operetta. This is the survival of our country. Henchy and his daughter in Cork can go to blazes for all I care. When MacDonald came over last week he as good as offered Dev the North on a plate if Dev would only bring Éire into the war. We’re that desperate.’
‘How does Craigavon feel about that?’ It struck Swan as inconceivable, in point of fact, that Northern Ireland’s notoriously intransigent Prime Minister should have consented to such a proposal. And he was right.
‘Craigavon doesn’t know anything about it. If he did, he’d be spitting blood. You see? There are people far more important than you we haven’t … levelled with.’
‘How did de Valéra respond when MacDonald offered him what he’s always wanted?’
‘He said he’d think about it. And he’s still thinking. A great deal hinges on the eventual answer. Which way will he jump? The surveillance operation may give us a clue. Hence its vital importance.’
‘All right, all right. You’ve made your point. I can see you had little alternative but to string me along.’
‘So, my apology’s been accepted, has it?’
‘Yes. Of course.’ They shook hands then, like the two English gentlemen they wished to be thought, and walked on round the Green.
‘When did Henchy say he’d contact you?’ Linley asked.
‘Seven o’clock tomorrow evening.’
‘Very well. I’ll alert my boss tonight. He’ll confer with his bosses in London tomorrow. You and I had better meet at six so that I can tell you what to say to Henchy.’ He fell silent for a moment, then said musingly, ‘A thousand pounds. Well, well, well. The fellow has more nerve than I gave him credit for. It’s a dismal insight into human nature, even so. If he was a loyal Irishman, he’d have gone straight to the authorities. Instead, he seizes an opportunity to enrich himself.’
Now hardly seemed the moment to mention the share Swan had been promised of Henchy’s pay-off. Instead he asked mildly, ‘Do you intend to ask me to deliver the money to Henchy?’
‘If we decide to pay up, yes. You’re not going to object, are you?’
‘No, no. As you say, we all have to do our bit. And Henchy’s insistent on dealing only with me. But what about Moynihan’s mob? It could get sticky if they were on my tail when I meet him.’
‘I’ve seen no sign of them this evening.’
‘Nor me. They seem to have laid off today.’ That was only partly true. In fact, Swan had gone to some lengths to lose the fellow he had believed to be following him earlier by a hazardous last-minute race for a train leaving Westland Row station. He had got off at the next stop and walked from there to the Quilligan house. Naturally, he had no intention of recounting any of that to Linley. ‘I fear they won’t lay off for good, though.’
‘There are various reliable techniques for shedding unwanted company in emergencies. I’ll run over some of them if you like.’
‘I think you’d better.’
Linley laughed for the first time that evening. ‘We’re making quite the undercover operative of you, aren’t we, Cygnet?’
‘Apparently so.’
‘It’s on my conscience that I’ve placed you in an invidious position. It had to be done, but I don’t want you to think I did it without a qualm. As the new tenant at thirty-one Merrion Street, you’d find yourself in hot water with the authorities if they discovered what the flat was being used for. We’d have a full-scale diplomatic incident on our hands, but you’d certainly have grave difficulties of your own. Deportation would be the least of it, I should say.’
‘That thought had already occurred to me.’
‘I’m relieved to hear it.’ Linley shot Swan a knowing grin. ‘For a moment, I was beginning to believe you were doing all this just for King and country.’