“Once the car surfaced, however,” Canidy said, zshe was of course anxious to put it to work in the war effort. And who was the most deserving person we could think of?” Bitter chuckled.
“So we painted’u. S. Army’ on the doors, and Whittaker’s serial number on the hood.”
“Whittaker’s serial. number?”
“We haven’t figured out how to get the proper papers for it yet,” Whittaker said. “We are trusting in the hunch that very few MPS are going to demand the trip ticket of a U. S. Army Packard driven by an English lady sergeant.” “Stevens has chosen to look the other way,” Canidy said. “But I suppose there are those who would consider my personal Packard violates some petty regulation or other.”
“So be careful, Ed,” Whittaker said.
“There’s a moral in this tale, Edwin,” Canidy said.
“I’d love to know what it is.”
“If you hadn’t been nosy and asked questions, you would not now possess potentially damaging information.
If you should now encounter an overzealous policeman, you can no longer honestly proclaim innocence. “What am I supposed to say if I get stopped?” Bitter asked.
“Don’t get stopped,” Canidy said. “That would be easier.”
“Jesus!” Bitter said.
“When Jamison and I stole the Ford,” Whittaker said, “and Colonel Stevens caught us, Dick told him it was part of the agent training program.
I don’t think we could get away with that one again.”
“Normally, I would deliver a lecture reminding you to tell the admiral nothing you don’t absolutely have to,” Canidy said. “The only reason you’re not getting it is that you haven’t been here long enough to learn anything.
” Bitter looked at Whittaker.
“Welcome to the other side of the looking glass, Ed,” Whittaker said.
“III be damned,” Bitter said.
“Are you going to tell him about our agent-in-place at Fersfield?” Whittaker asked.
Canidy smiled.
“I don’t think so,” Canidy said. “Let’s see if he can guess.” Shaved and in a freshly pressed uniform, Bitter stood an hour later in the entrance foyer of Whitbey House. He had still not quite made up his mind whether his leg was being pulled, either about illegal Packards or stolen Fords, or whether or not Canidy–and by contagion the others–was a little paranoid about being spied upon by the French and the English as well as the Germans.
But there was undoubtedly a Packard, a custom-bodied, right-hand-drive, 1939 Packard. The driver’s compartment was canvas-roofed, and the front fenders held spare tires. It was the kind of car that belonged at a mansion like Whitbey House, and it now seemed credible that the duchess had hidden it, that Jamison had found it, and that Canidy had appropriated it for his own use. u. S. ARIMSF was lettered on the passenger compartment door, and numbers that probably were indeed Whittaker’s serial number were neatly lettered on the hood. A strip of white paint edged the lower fenders, and the headlights were blacked out except for a one-inch strip.
People grudgingly conceded Whittaker’s contention that neither a British policeman nor an American MP was likely to stop this car and demand its papers.
Sergeant Agnes Draper stepped out from behind the wheel and walked up the shallow stairs to the door.
“Good morning, Commander,” she said. “Let me have your bag, sir.”
“I can handle the bag, thank you,” Bitter said.
She walked ahead of him to the car and opened the door for him.
He wondered if she knew that the car was illegal. He put his small bag on the thickly carpeted floor and stepped in. She closed the door, then got behind the wheel.
On the way to London, Sergeant Draper told him that High Wycombe had been a girls’ school before requisitioning. Then she delivered sort of a travelogue on the villages they passed through.
Bitter was having trouble dealing with Sergeant Draper. He had always had trouble dealing with enlisted men on a personal basis, and it was worse when the enlisted man was a woman. He remembered the soft warmth of her hip against his in the Dorchester bar. And, he thought a little bitterly, Canidy’s refusal to treat her as an officer is supposed to treat an enlisted man/ woman made things even more difficult.