Death In Captivity by Michael Gilbert

moment you look as if you were auctioning it.’
    There was another silence, and they heard Byfold’s voice.
    ‘I demand to be taken to Colonel Lavery.’
    ‘I fear that Colonel Lavery has no jurisdiction in this case.’
    ‘Then I protest.’
    ‘You may make your protest in the criminal court that tries your case.’ Benucci’s voice had lost a lot of its suavity. He sounded vindictive and triumphant.
    There was a further stamping of feet. The hut door slammed and the lorry drove away.

 
     
Chapter 5
Goyles is Given a Job
     
    At ten o’clock on the morning following Byfold’s arrest Goyles knocked on the door of Colonel Baird’s room and was asked to come in. When he saw that Colonel Shore and Commander Oxey were there, he apologised and prepared to back out.
    ‘Come right in,’ said Colonel Baird. ‘This isn’t a committee meeting. Have you got some news for us?’
    ‘That’s what I wanted to ask you, sir,’ said Goyles. ‘Have you heard anything more about Byfold?’
    ‘Not a thing. Just a typical Italian trick.’ He slapped angrily at a fat black fly on the wall. “They might have been kidnapping him, not arresting him, the way they went about it.’
    ‘I expect they thought there would be a riot if they walked in and took him,’ suggested Commander Oxey.
    ‘Might have been, at that,’ said Colonel Shore.
    ‘What’s the worst they can do to him?’ asked Goyles, putting into words for the first time something that had been worrying him all night. ‘They can’t try him, can they – he’s a prisoner of war?’
    ‘I wouldn’t be too sure about that,’ said Baird. ‘I remember a case in one of our camps – it happened in the prison cage at Asmara, when I was temporarily in charge of it – a lot of real, dyed-in-the-wool, last-ditch Nazis got the idea that one of the other prisoners was a traitor. I don’t know if he really was, or if it was just that he didn’t say “Heil Hitler” smartly enough when spoken to – anyway, they ganged up on him, and one night, after lights-out, they held a set-piece trial and found him guilty, and strung him up. They didn’t even pretend to be sorry about it – told everybody what they’d done.’
    ‘What happened to them?’
    ‘The three ring-leaders were shot,’ said Baird shortly.
    ‘I see,’ said Goyles. A sudden, quite terrifying idea had occurred to him which he took a good deal of pains to suppress.
    ‘I’m afraid,’ went on Baird, ‘if they convince themselves that they’ve got a good case, there’s no doubt they could – well, they could make things very sticky for Byfold.’
    ‘Even though they know he didn’t do it?’
    ‘We know he didn’t,’ said Baird. ‘And if the worst comes to the worst we could tell them the truth. But why should they believe us even then? We might have been making the whole thing up to save Byfold’s skin.’
    ‘Yes,’ said Goyles. ‘And, of course, we’d lose the tunnel’
    ‘It wasn’t only the tunnel I was thinking of,’ said Baird, ‘I think it’s a good tunnel, and it might be a very useful tunnel. But if it came to a direct showdown – tunnel or Byfold – I guess I know which way we’d vote. But it isn’t. We could lose both of them, quite easily, if we played this wrong.’
    ‘There’s only one possible thing to do,’ said Commander Oxey. ‘To my mind, it’s clear as day. We’ve got to find out what actually happened, who killed Coutoules, and why and where – and how his body got in that tunnel.’
    Colonel Baird turned to Goyles.
    ‘Would you like to take that on?’ he asked.
    Goyles looked considerably startled.
    ‘The Committee would back you, of course. It’s not the sort of thing they could very well undertake officially. You’re a friend of Byfold. It would be quite a reasonable assignment for you. We’ll give it out that anyone who’s got any information about Coutoules – where they saw him last – whether they noticed anything suspicious – that