The Veteran is a detective short story by Frederick Forsyth

Frederick Forsyth

Frederick Forsyth, CBE is an English author and occasional political commentator. He is best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan and The Cobra.-...

 first published in 2001.

Plot summary

The story is written in chronological order, beginning from Day 1 (Tuesday) to Day 24 (Thursday).

• Day 1: Mr. Patel witnessed an old man being mugged by two men, one beefy (Harry Cornish) and one lanky (Mark Price). The old man punched the beefy man in self-defence and was hurt badly by the resultant retaliation. Mr. Patel called the police and the old man was sent to the hospital. Due to massive injury, his head was bloated beyond recognition and thus could not be identified.

• Day 2: Detectives Jack Burns and Luke Skinner interrogated Mr. Patel and made him flip through several photo albums. They managed to identify the muggers as Mark Price and Harry Cornish. Jack Burns went to look for evidence.

• Day 3 to 9: Police artist did a sketch of the old limping man, hoping to identify the man. The portrait was reported on newspapers, but the man still could not be identified as none came forward. Price and Cornish were detained and they refused to speak during interrogation. Lou Slade tried to defend Price and Cornish, but was losing hope because the detectives had found too much evidence against them. The limping old man died on the 5th day.

• Day 10 to 17: The turning point.QC James Vansittart, helped Slade to defend Price and Cornish. He faked several alibis, and a story that fitted the evidence and "showed" that Price and Cornish was not at the scene of the crime during the mugging. Price and Cornish go along with this story.

• Day 18: The climax of the story. During the court case, the detectives, constables, doctors and Mr. Patel showed their evidence. However, Vansittart skillfully showed that Price and Cornish were not at the scene during the mugging. Mark and Cornish were acquitted and the case closed.
  Burns finally meets Albert Clarke a.k.a. Nobby. Nobby had been on holiday and has just returned to London. He tells Burns that the limping old man was his friend Peter. After investigation, they find Peter’s house. In the house they discover various Army memorabilia and medals. Among the memorabilia is a framed picture showing four soldiers wearing a flaming sword cap badge, inscribed “Mirbat, 1972”; the photo shows a sergeant, a corporal, a trooper and an officer. The trooper is Peter Benson, and the officer, surprisingly, is Vansittart. Burns realises that the justice Vansittart had discussed with him was "not the justice of the Old Bailey, but of the Old Testament."

• Day 24: Burial of Peter Benson at the Special Air Service
  Special Air Service
  Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
  
   cemetary in Hereford. That evening the bodies of Price and Cornish are discovered; the cause of death is ligature strangulation by piano wire.

Main characters

• Mr. Vijay Patel, a shopkeeper at Meadowdene Grove, who witnessed an old limping man being mugged by Mark Price and Harry Cornish.
• Peter Benson, the limping old man, who died 5 days after being mugged. His name is only revealed at the end of the story.
• Mark Price and Harry Cornish, the “villains”
• Jack Burns and Luke Skinner, detectives.
• Lou Slade, the lawyer of Mark Price and Harry Cornish.
• James Vansittart, Queen Counsel, one of the most successful barristers (lawyers) in London.
• Albert Clarke, a pensioner who helped to identify the limping old man.

Quotes

"You can now live in a bloody great city like London, with millions of people around you, but if you keep yourself, as he must have done, no-one even knows you exists.

"This may surprise you, Mr. Burns, but it has to do with the triumph of justice." -- Vansittart.