Rag and Bone: A Billy Boyle World War II Mystery (A Billy Boyle WWII Mystery, Band 5) - Softcover

Benn, James R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1569479968 ISBN 13: 9781569479964

Verlag: Soho Crime, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

The fifth Billy Boyle investigation

American Lieutenant Billy Boyle is assigned to London by his uncle, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, to investigate the murder of a Russian security officer in the buildup to D-Day. Billy recognizes that this is a politically charged case, pitting Allies against one another, and that he must proceed with caution. The Polish contingent is incensed over evidence that implicates the Russians in the murder of hundreds of Polish prisoners in the so-called Katyn Forest Massacre, and Scotland Yard thinks this murder of a Soviet officer may be a revenge killing—perhaps perpetrated by Billy’s friend Kaz, a Polish baron in exile. But Billy doesn’t buy it. Can he find the real murderer, exonerate his friend, and prevent Allied relations from falling to pieces at this critical moment of the war?

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

James R. Benn is the author of ten books in the Billy Boyle series: Billy Boyle, The First Wave, Blood Alone, Evil for Evil, Rag and Bone, A Mortal Terror, Death’s Door, A Blind Goddess, The Rest Is Silence, and The White Ghost. A librarian for many years, he lives in Hadlyme, Connecticut, with his wife, Deborah Mandel.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter One
Naples, Italy
Late December 1943
 
Everyone was happy. The sky was a vibrant, vivid blue,
clear in every direction. The breeze out of the north felt crisp and cool at
our backs. Sunlight warmed our faces as it cast long, thin shadows across
the gray decks of the destroyer. I stood close to Diana, our hands clasped
discreetly amid the folds of my flapping trench coat. We were on duty
with the boss, but this was light duty, an excursion out of Naples harbor
to the island of Capri, twenty miles due south. Nobody was paying us
any mind, so we stood together at the rail, close, touching when we could,
making believe it was a holiday outing. Diana and I had been through a
lot, separately and together, the terrible and the wonderful. For the last
two days we’d enjoyed each other’s company as never before, as if all the
burdens and terrors of the past had decided to take a holiday as well. We
were together, neither of us in danger, and we had time alone. Nights, as
well as days.

I heard Kay Summersby laugh. She and the general were huddled in
the lee of the deck gun, sheltered from the wind. He leaned in to speak
to her, their heads touching. She laughed again and laid her hand on his
arm briefly, before she glanced at the naval officers grouped around them.
It was a passel of navy brass, all shiny braid, big grins, and ready with a
light whenever Uncle Ike pulled a cigarette from the pack in his coat
pocket. They reminded me of doormen at the Copley Plaza the week
before Christmas.

I could tell Uncle Ike was happy. He looked relaxed, and his smile
was natural, not the posed face he used for politicians and photographers.
Hell, he had just been told by the president of the United States himself
that he’d been picked as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary
Force. Uncle Ike had been expecting to be sent back home, or to watch
the big show from the Mediterranean. Instead, he’d beat out his own boss,
General Marshall, and gotten the top job, along with a handshake from
FDR. Add blue skies and a beautiful woman to the mix and you had all
the wartime happiness any man could handle. This was his last day in
Italy, and he’d wanted to see the famous Isle of Capri, which he had
ordered turned into a rest center for combat troops on leave. He’d made
this cruise into a treat for the HQ staff, his family of secretaries and aides
who worked long hours, seven days a week, keeping the paperwork, and
the war, moving along.

Kay was happy, too. She’d just received her orders to accompany
the general to London, along with most of his core staff. Not that
anyone thought she wouldn’t, but she’d been on pins and needles for
a while, especially when odds were that he was headed back to the
States. Kay, a British citizen, would have been left behind. When he
got the Supreme Commander job, I’d almost asked Uncle Ike if Aunt
Mamie would move to London, but fortunately thought better of it.
He was my relative, of a distant sort, but he was also the highestranking
general this side of the Charles River, and I was a dime-adozen
lieutenant. And I liked Kay, whatever was going on between
them. Maybe nothing, maybe something. Who was I to judge? There
was a war on.

I sneaked a kiss, tasting the salt from the sea spray on Diana’s lips.
Kay saw us and raised her eyebrows in mock horror. Diana laughed, and
put her arm through mine, as loose strands of her golden hair caressed
my face. We were in love, Diana Seaton and I. It had been rocky for a
while, but right now we were walking on air. I had a week’s leave, and it
would be ten days before she departed for wherever the Special Operations
Executive was sending her. It seemed like we had forever.

“Look,” Diana said, pointing to Mount Vesuvius off the port bow.
“Smoke.”

“That’s all we need,” I said. The night before, a thin trail of lava had
snaked down the mountain. The locals said it happened all the time, and
there was nothing to worry about, unless the mountain exploded. Then
worrying would be of little help, so why bother? I felt the same way about
the war, so I understood.

“Let’s hike up there, Billy,” Diana said. “I want to see the crater.”

I leaned in to whisper to her. “Diana, in ten days you’ll be jumping
out of an airplane. How about we take it easy until then?”

“I never said anything about an airplane, Billy Boyle,” she said, jabbing
her elbow into my ribs. “You’re not afraid of a dormant volcano, are
you? Or of being beat to the top by a woman?”

“That thing belches molten lava! But you’re probably in better shape
than I am, I’ll admit it. I haven’t had much to do since Ireland, while
you’ve been busy with training exercises.”

“I promise to go slowly. We’ll pack some food in the morning, and
have a picnic.”

“On a volcano.”

“It does sum things up fairly well.”

I didn’t argue the point. I was happy, too. Yesterday Uncle Ike had
pinned the silver bars of a first lieutenant on me, along with the Purple
Heart for a wounded arm that still ached. It was a step up from a second
louie, finally. He’d apologized for taking so long, explaining that he didn’t
want headquarters staff getting more than their fair share of promotions.
I didn’t quibble, even though Purple Hearts are pretty rare around typewriters
and filing cabinets. Now I was looking forward to celebrating the
new year with Diana in Naples, wearing my best Class A uniform, silver
bars polished and sparkling in the candlelight of the fanciest restaurant
I could get us into.

I watched Diana gaze at the smoldering, distant mountain and wished
there could be a medal for her. She wore a British uniform without any
insignia, and few people would ever learn how she’d served. I knew about
her first mission, since we’d stumbled into each other in Algiers. But this
time, there wasn’t much to go on. Of course, she wouldn’t tell me a thing,
but I had noticed her practicing her Italian, speaking with any Neapolitan
who would spend time with her. Since most were starving, the extra
rations she passed around insured a steady stream of chatterboxes. So I
figured Italy, somewhere north of the Volturno River, which left a lot of
territory—all in German hands—where the British might want to plant
a spy.

“It’s Rome, isn’t it?” I asked, keeping up the playful banter.

We’d almost called it quits over her working with the Special
Operations Executive, until I decided it was crazy to lose her because I
was worried about losing her. I’d taken a bullet through the arm not too
long ago, and that brush with death made me think things over. Maybe
we would both survive this war, maybe one of us, perhaps neither. So why
not make the best of the time we had together? I’d decided if the choice
was to be happy or be miserable, why not go for happy? If either of us
ended up dead, at least we’d have had our day in the sun. And today it
was as if happiness were contagious. Smiles all around, a beautiful day,
nothing to worry about for the moment, if you ignored the fitful plumes
of smoke rising from the volcano off the port bow.

“You’re the detective, you figure it out,”...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Soho Crime
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2011
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1569479968
• ISBN 13: 9781569479964
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 386
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Soho Press; https://sohopress.com/the-best-of-soho-press-2021/; ; 4 rue Fernand Laguide; Corbeil Essonnes; Ile de France; 91100; Frankreich