Read By Any Name for Free Online

as a compliment, thank you.’
    ‘But I won’t be left to your tender loving care much longer. They’ll lock me away in a military hospital.’
    ‘If you prefer to stay here, we won’t turn you over to them.’
    ‘After my performance just now you won’t have any say in the matter.’
    ‘We’ll see.’ Elizabeth opened the door. ‘I’ll rustle up a bar of plain chocolate – and some tea. Rest, even if you can’t sleep.’ She glanced around the room. The newspaper clipping she’d shown John had disappeared. Someone had given orders to keep the room clear and empty. She wondered who.
    Elizabeth heard the murmur of voices when she retraced her steps along the corridor. A notice had been pinned to the door of the day-room; PRIVATE MEETING IN PROGRESS. Dave looked up when she entered.
    ‘You took your time, Dr Santer,’ Heddingham reproved.
    ‘John was distressed. I stayed with him until he calmed down.’
    ‘You have a special interest in this case?’
    ‘No more interest than I have in any other patient’s welfare,’ she replied defensively.
    ‘Dr Santer,’ Major Simmonds lectured as though he were giving a tutorial to slow-witted recruits, ‘we didn’t ask you and Mr Watson to sign the Official Secrets Act as a routine measure. This case has alarming aspects, which could threaten the security of this country.’
    ‘At the moment we don’t even know who John West is.’
    ‘Precisely.’
    Dave moved to the edge of his seat. ‘The lieutenant-colonel and Major Simmonds want to take custody of our patient.’
    She recalled the conversation she’d just had with John.
    ‘If you’d prefer to stay here, we won’t turn you over to them.’
    ‘After my performance just now you won’t have any say in the matter.’
    ‘Custody?’ she repeated. ‘You’re arresting John?’
    ‘We can’t do that until we find out who he is and what – if anything – he’s done,’ the lieutenant-colonel stated baldly.
    ‘Given his knowledge of the equipment used by British forces, I would have assumed that your files would be an obvious place to start looking for clues to his identity,’ Elizabeth suggested.
    ‘After an exhaustive search through our files and computers, we have found no records of any missing servicemen, from our own forces or those of other nations stationed in the UK,’ Heddingham asserted.
    ‘But surely some men would be on leave.’
    ‘We have contacted all of them.’
    ‘All of them?’ Elizabeth murmured incredulously.
    ‘Aren’t some of them mountaineering or caving or white water rafting in the wilds? I thought the army encouraged such activities.’
    ‘We do, Dr Santer. But all our personnel follow the basic rules. They always inform our rescue services of their projected positions and estimated time of return. We’ve had over twelve hours and in this day and age that’s more than we need to establish all of our personnel’s whereabouts. Every private, NCO and officer in the British Army has been accounted for. Whoever “John West” is, he’s definitely not a member of the British Armed Forces.
    I’d stake my reputation on it.’
    ‘And his finger prints are not on police record,’
    Major Simmonds added. ‘So he’s not a common criminal either.’
    ‘But he could be a past member of the forces,’
    Dave persisted.
    ‘We paid special attention to the records of all ex-servicemen in his age group who’ve left the army during the past ten years. We placed him somewhere in the twenty-six to forty age group.’ Major Simmonds replied.
    ‘I think forty might be pushing it,’ Elizabeth sat back in her chair.
    ‘As you said yourself he is superbly fit.’
    ‘But you can’t just take a man into custody without having the slightest idea who he is,’ she protested.
    ‘In this day and age we can’t afford not to, particularly as the conference is imminent.’
    ‘Conference?’ Dave looked blank.
    ‘The World Peace and Disarmament Conference.
    It was all over the news