For the last time I swam out beyond the reef, and for half an hour hoped that the dolphins might come. They did not and I swam back, showered and changed, picked up my old canvas and leather campaign bag from the bed and went out to where the pick-up was parked in the yard. I didn"t look back as I drove up through the palm plantation, but I made myself a promise that I"d be coming this way again.
I parked in the front lot of the hotel and lit a cheroot. When Marion finished her shift at noon she came out the front entrance and set off down the drive with her cheeky little bottom swinging under the mini skirt. I whistled and she saw me. She slipped into the pa.s.senger"s seat beside me.
"Mister Harry, I"m so sorry about your boat. We talked for a few minutes until I could ask the question.
- "Miss. North, while she was staying at the hotel, did she make any phone calls or send a cable?"
"I don"t remember, Mister Harry, but I could check for you.
"Now?"
"Sure," she agreed.
"one other thing, could you also check with d.i.c.ky if he got a shot of her?" d.i.c.ky was the roving hotel Photographer, it was a good chance that he had a print of Sherry North in his file.
Marion was gone for nearly three-quarters of an hour, but she returned with a triumphant smile.
"She sent a cable on. the night before she left-" Marion handed me a flimw copy. "You can keep this copy," she told me as I read the message.
it was addressed to: "MANSON FLAT 5 CURZON STREE7 97 LONDON w. j and the message read: "CONTRACT SIGNED RETURNING HEATHROW BOAC FLIGHT 316 SAt.u.r.dAY."There was no signature.
"d.i.c.ky had to go through all his files - but he found one." She handed me a six-by-four glossy print. It was of Sherry North reclining on a sun couch on the hotel terrace. She wore her bikini and sungla.s.ses, but it was a good likeness.
"Thanks, Marion." I gave her a five-pound note.
"Gee, Mister Harry," she grinned at me as she tucked it into the front of her bra. "For that price you can take what you fancy."
"I"ve got a plane to catch, love." I kissed her on the little snub nose, and slapped her bottom as she climbed out of the cab.
Chubby and Angelo came out to the airport. Chubby was to take care of the pick-up for me. We were all subdued, and shook hands awkwardly at the departure gate. There wasn"t much to say, we had said it all the night before.
As the pistonengined aircraft took off for the mainland, I glimpsed the two of them standing together at the perimeter fence.
I stopped over three hours at Nairobi before catching the BOAC flight on to London. I did not sleep during the long night flight. It was many years since I had returned to my native land - and I was coming back now on a grim mission of vengeance. I wanted very much to talk to Sherry North.
When you are flat broke, that is the time to buy a new car and a hundred-guinea suit. Look brave prosperous, and people will believe you are.
I shaved and changed at the airport and instead of a Hillman I hired a Chrysler from the Hertz Depot at Heathrow, slung my bag in the boot and drove to the nearest Courage pub.
I had a double portion of ham and egg pie, washed down with a pint of Courage while I studied the road map. It was all so long ago that I was unsure of my directions. The lush and cultivated English countryside was too tame and green after Malaya and Africa, and the autumn sunshine was pale gold when I was used to a brighter fiercer sun - but it was a pleasant drive over the downs and into Brighton.
I parked the Chrysler on the promenade opposite the Grand Hotel and dived into the warren of The Lanes. They were filled with tourists even this late in the season.
Pavilion Arcade was the address I had read so long ago on Jimmy North"s underwater sledge, and it took me nearly an hour to find it. it was tucked away at the back of a cobbled yard, and most of the windows and doors were shuttered and closed.
"North"s Underwater World" had a ten-foot frontage on to the lane.
It was also closed, and a blind was drawn across the single window. I tried without success to peer round the edge of the blind, but the interior was darkened, so I hammered on the door. There was no sound from within, and I was about to turn away when I noticed a square piece of cardboard that had once been stuck on to the bottom of the window but had fallen to the floor inside. By twisting my head acrobatically, I could read the handwritten message which had fortunately fallen face up. Enquiries to Seaview, Downers Lane, Falmer, Suss.e.x. I went back to the car and took the road map out of the glove compartment.
It began to rain as I pushed the Chrysler through narrow lanes.
The windscreen wipers flogged sullenly at the I spattering drops and I peered into the premature gloom of early evening.
Twice I lost my way but finally I pulled up outside a gate in a thick hedge. The sign nailed to the gate read: NORTH SEAVIEW, and I believed that it might be possible to look southwards on a clear day and see the Atlantic.
I drove down between hedges, and came into the paved yard of an old double-storeyed red-brick farmhouse, with oak beams set into the walls and green moss growing on the wood-shingle roof. There was a light burning downstairs.
I Parked the Chrysler and crossed the yard to the kitchen door, turning up my collar against the wind and rain. I beat on the door, and heard somebody moving around inside. The bolts were shot back and the top half of the stable door opened on a chain. A girl looked out at me.
I was not immediately impressed by her for she wore a baggy blue fisherman"s jersey and she was a tall girl with a swimmer"s shoulders. I thought her plain - in a striking manner.
Her brow was pale and broad, her nose was large but not bony or beaked, and below it her mouth was wide and friendly. She wore no make-up at all, so her lips were pale Pink and there was a peppering of fine freckles on her nose and cheeks.
Her hair was drawn back severely from her face into a thick braid behind her neck. Her hair was black, shimmering iridescent black in the lamplight, and her eyebrows were black also, black and boldly arched over eyes that seemed also to be black until the light caught them and I realized they were the same dark haunted blue as the Mozambique current when the noon sun strikes directly into it.
Despite the pallor of her skin, there was an aura of good and glowing health about her. The pale skin had a l.u.s.tre and plasticity to it, a quality that was somehow luminous so that when you studied her closely as I was now doing - it seemed that you could see down through the surface to the flush of clean blood rising warmly to her cheeks and neck. She touched the tendril of silky dark hair that escaped the braid and floated lightly on her temple. It was an appealing gesture, that betrayed her nervousness and belied the serene expression in the dark blue eyes.
Suddenly I realized that she was an unusually handsome woman, for, although she was only in her mid-twenties, I knew she was no longer girl - but full woman. There was a strength and maturity about her, a deep sense of calm that I found intriguing.
Usually the women I choose are more obvious, I do not like to tie up too much of my energy in the pursuit. This was something beyond my experience and for the first time in years I felt unsure of myself.
We had been staring at each other for many seconds, neither of us speaking or moving.
"You"re Harry Fletcher," she said at last, and her voice was low and gently modulated, a cultivated and educated voice. I gaped at her.
"How the h.e.l.l did you know that? I demanded.
"Come in." She slipped the chain and opened the bottom of the stable door, and I obeyed. The kitchen was warm and welcoming and filled with the smell of good food cooking.
"How did you know my name?" I asked again.
"Your picture was in the newspaper - with Jimmy"s," she explained.
We were silent again, once more studying each other.
She was taller even than I had thought at first, reaching to my shoulder, with long legs clad in dark blue pants and the tops thrust into black leather boots. Now I could see the narrow waist and the Promise of good b.r.e.a.s.t.s beneath the thick jersey.
At first I had thought her plain, ten seconds later I had reckoned her handsome, now I doubted I had ever seen a more beautiful woman. It took time for the full effect to sink in.
"You have me at a disadvantage," I said at last. "I don"t know your name."
"I"m Sherry North," she answered, and I stared at her for a moment before I recovered from the shock. She was a very different person from the other Sherry North I had known.
"Did you know that there is a whole tribe of you? I asked at last.
"I don"t understand." She frowned at me. Her eyes were enchantingly blue under the lowered lashes.
"It"s a long story , , .
"I"m sorry." For the first time she seemed to become aware that we were standing facing each other in the centre of the kitchen. "Won"t you sit down. Can I get you a beer?"
Sherry took a couple of cans of Carlsberg lager from the cupboard and sat opposite me across the kitchen table.
"You were going to tell me a long story." She popped the tabs on the cans, and slid one across to me, then looked at me expectantly.
I began to tell her the carefully edited version of my experiences since Jimmy North arrived at St. Mary"s. She was very easy to talk to, like being with an old and interested friend. suddenly I wanted to tell her everything, the entire unblemished truth. It was important that from the very beginning it should be right, with no reservations.
She was a complete stranger, and yet I was placing trust in her beyond any person I had ever known. I told her everything exactly as it had happened.
She fed me after dark had fallen, a savoury ca.s.serole out of an earthenware pot which we ate with home-made bread and farm b.u.t.ter. I was still talking but no longer about the recent events on St. Mary"s, and she listened quietly. At last I had found another human being with whom I could talk without reserve.
I went back in my life, in a complete catharsis I told her of the early days, even of the dubious manner in which I had earned the money to buy Wave Dancer, and how my good resolutions since then had wavered.
It was after midnight when at last she said: "I can hardly believe all you"ve told me. You don"t look like that - you look so," she seemed to search for the word, "wholesome." But you could see it was not the word she wanted.
"I work hard at being that. But sometimes my halo falls over my eyes. You see, appearances are deceptive," I said, and she nodded.
"Yes, they are," and there was a. significance in the way she said it, a warning perhaps. "Why have you told me all this? It is not really very wise, you know."
"it was just time that somebody knew about me, I suppose. Sorry, you were elected." She smiled. "You can sleep in. Jimmy"s room tonight," she said.
"I can"t risk you rushing out and telling anybody else."
I hadn"t slept the night before and suddenly I was exhausted. I felt as though I did not have the strength to climb the stairs to the bedroom but I had one question still to ask.
"Why did Jimmy come to St. Marys! What was he looking for?" I asked. "Do you know who he was working with, who they were?"
"I don"t know." She shook her head, and I knew it was the truth.
She wouldn"t lie to me now, not after I had placed such trust in her.
"Will you help me find out? Will you help me find them?"
"Yes, I"ll help you," she said, and stood up from the table.
"We"ll talk again in the morning."
Jimmy"s room was under the eaves, the pitch of the roof giving it an irregular shape. The walls were lined with photographs and packed bookshelves, silver sporting trophies and the treasured brica-brac of boyhood.
"Me bed was high and the mattress soft.
I went to fetch my bag from the Chrysler while Sherry put clean sheets upon the bed. Then she showed me the bathroom and left me.
I lay and listened to the rain on the roof for only a few minutes before I slept. I woke in the night and heard the soft whisper of her voice somewhere in the quiet house.
Barefooted and in my underpants I opened the bedroom door and crept silently down the pa.s.sage to the stairs. I looked down into the hall. There was a light burning and Sherry North stood at the wall-hung telephone. She was speaking so quietly into the receiver, cupping her hands to her mouth, that I could not catch the words. The light was behind her. She wore. a flimsy nightdress, and her body showed through the thin stuff as though she was naked.
I found myself staring like a peeping Tom. The lamps light glowed on the ivory sheen of her skin, and there were intriguing secret hollows and shadows beneath the transparent cloth.
With an effort I pulled my eyes off her and went back to my bed.
I thought about Sherry"s telephone call and felt a vague disquiet, but soon sleep overtook me once more.
In the morning the rain had stopped but the ground was slushy and the gra.s.s heavy and wet when I went out for a breath of cold morning air.
I expected to feel awkward with Sherry after the previous night"s outpourings of the soul, but it was not so. We talked easily at breakfast, and afterwards she said, "I promised I"d help you; what can I do?"
"Answer a few questions."
"All right, ask me."
Jimmy North had been very secretive, she did not know he was going to St. Mary"s. He had told her he had a contract to install some electronic underwater equipment at the Cabora-Bossa. Dam in Portuguese Mozambique. She had taken him up to the airport with all his equipment. As far as she knew he was travelling alone. The police had come to the shop in Brighton to tell her of his murder. She had read the newspaper reports, and that was all.
"No letters from Jimmy?"
"No, nothing." I nodded, the wolf pack must have intercepted his mail. The letter I had been shown by Sherry"s impostor was certainly genuine.
"I don"t understand anything about this. Am I being stupid?"
No." I took out a cheroot, and almost lit it before I stopped myself. Okay if I smoke one of these?"
"It doesn"t bother me," she said, and I was glad, for it would have been h.e.l.l giving them up. I lit it and drew in the fragrant smoke.
"It looks as though Jimmy stumbled on something big. He needed backing and he went to the wrong people. As soon as they thought they knew where it was, they killed him and tried to kill me. When that didn"t work they sent out someone impersonating you. When she thought she knew the location of this object, she set a trap for me and went home. Their next move will be a return to the area off Big Gull Island, where they are due for another disappointment."
She refilled the coffee cups, and I noticed that she had applied make-up this morning - but so lightly that the freckles still showed. I reconsidered the previous night"s judgement - and confirmed that she was one of the most beautiful women I had ever met, even in the early morning.
She was frowning thoughtfully, staring into her coffee cup and I wanted to touch one of her slim strong-looking hands that lay on the tablecloth near my own.
"What were they after, Harry? And who are these people who killed him? she asked at Last.
"Two excellent questions. I have leads to both - but we will tackle the questions in the order you asked them. Firstly, what was Jimmy after? When we know that we can go after his murderers."
"I have no idea at all what it could be." She looked up at me.
The blue of, her eyes was lighter than it had been last night, it was the colour of a good sapphire. "What clues have you?"
"The ship"s bell. The design upon it."
"What does it signify?"
"I don"t know, but it shouldn"t be too hard to find out. I could no longer resist the temptation. I placed my hand over hers. It felt as firm and strong as it looked and her flesh was warm "But first I should like to - check the shop in Brighton and Jimmy"s room here. There might, be something we can use."
She had not withdrawn her hand. "All right, shall we go to the shop first! The police have already been through it all, but they might have overlooked something. "Fine. I"ll buy you lunch." I squeezed her hand, and she turned it in my grasp and squeezed back.
I"ll take you up on that," she said. and I was too astonished by my own reaction to her grip to find a light reply. My throat was dry and my pulse beat as though I"d run a mile. Gently she removed her hand and stood up.
"Let"s do the breakfast dishes."