Page 88 of Whispers At Dawn
Jack approached, his shirt dripping with blood. ‘Good job, Seagrove.’
‘Is it your shoulder?’ Lizzie took a sharp intake of breath to calm herself. Her voice was strained and his praise barely registered as she prayed silently that the shooter hadn’t hit a vital organ.
‘I’ll be fine. It’s a flesh wound, that’s all.’
Lizzie breathed properly for the first time since he’d been shot.
‘Who have we here?’ Jack said.
When they leaned over and saw the assailant’s face, in the light of the torch, Lizzie and Jack recognised him instantly as Von Schneider’s driver, his features now distorted in agony.
Lizzie pulled off her yellow scarf in one sharp movement and tied it around Jack’s shoulder over the torn, blood-stained shirt. ‘Press this to it until you board the plane, and they can bandage you properly.’
‘Yes, miss,’ Jack replied, a sardonic smile on his lips.
Lizzie rifled through the pockets of the man’s military tunic and withdrew a wad of money, a large ornate key, a gold pocket watch and a slim notebook. She shone the torch onto the pages and scanned the text as she read aloud. ‘It looks like a list of names of informants and notes.’
Jack peered over her shoulder as she ran her finger down the names until it hovered over Michel and Isabelle Dubois, which was the most recent entry. Beside it were the scrawled words:Luc Saint-Clair’s nephew visited every summer.From London.
There was a woman’s name next to theirs, listed as the informant.
Jack let out a low whistle.
‘He was well and truly onto us,’ Lizzie said.
The man shifted on the ground and mouthed something. Lizzie leaned over to catch his laboured words.
‘You’ve lost the war,’ he gasped.
Armand released one final ragged breath as the life shuddered from his body. Then his eyes glazed over like a curtain closing after the last encore.
A vision of Abraham, the Jewish soldier he had executedin a trench in the Great War, before stealing his gold pocket watch, haunted him in his last second of consciousness and accompanied him straight to the gates of hell.
CHAPTER 46
Jack turned to Lizzie as the navigator waved again. ‘We can’t make them wait any longer.’
‘You’re injured and need treatment,’ Lizzie said. ‘Please go with them.’
‘I’m not leaving you here,’ Jack replied, his tone resolute.
‘But if I leave with you, who will clean up this mess? There are too many loose ends that point to Luc.’
Lev and Hannah reappeared and walked towards them. ‘We’ve searched the area, and it’s all clear. He must have acted as a lone wolf.’
Hannah pointed to the blood on Jack’s shirt. ‘How are you holding up, Raven?’
Jack said he was fine, but his skin had a sickly pallor, and Lizzie’s panic grew as she studied his face.
‘He should leave on the plane and get treatment. He’s been hit in the shoulder,’ she said.
Hannah nodded and exchanged a meaningful look with Lev.
Lev said, ‘You two have done what you needed to do. Get out whilst you can, and we’ll finish up here.’
Lizzie said, ‘I will stay, but Raven must leave.’
The sound of the Lysander’s engine whirred louder and Lizzie knew time was running out. They must decide now.
