Dangerous Inheritance (20 page)

‘She has reason to be,' Fleur replied. ‘She is known as the “wailing widow” because she got herself nominated a Senator and the leader of her husband's Party after his assassination by making capital out of his death and going round every village weeping over their children. Since then the men she has allowed to run the country have set everyone by the ears: the Sinhalese élite, the Press, the merchants, the Catholics, the Hindus, the Mohammedans, the Dutch burghers, the British. There are scores of people who would put a bullet into her if given half a chance.'

Four miles further on they turned off to the left and pulled up outside the Zoo. It was said to be one of the best in Asia. There they spent a happy two hours looking at the animals and a wonderful collection of tropical fish in the Aquarium, then watching the elephants perform in a natural amphitheatre shaded by fine trees. Afterwards she drove him back to her home for tea and, just before they reached it, she pointed out a fine building standing back from the road, with several tennis courts.

‘That,' she said, ‘used to be the British Club, but the Government commandeered it as a playground for children.' Then she added with a laugh, ‘But the children have turned out to be government officials and Civil Servants.'

Over tea Simon asked her about the sort of life she led, and she told him that, apart from the fact that Douglas was constantly worried about the way things were going and that she did not get on with her mother-in-law, she had nothing of
which to complain. They had many friends, both British and Sinhalese, she was on the committees of several charities and spent four mornings a week at the Family Planning Clinic, where she felt she was doing really worth-while work.

Simon said ‘Ner' and ‘Um'd and nodded his birdlike head while she talked freely but, he thought, a shade too quickly and cheerfully about her activities; so that when he left her he had the impression that she had not been entirely frank with him, and he was a little depressed by the thought that their talk had not resulted in a resumption of their old intimacy.

When he got back to the Galle Face he found a cablegram from Rex. It had been sent from Delhi to say that a fault had developed in one of the engines of his aircraft and that, instead of arriving in Colombo on the 27th as planned, he would be delayed until the 30th, and not to book rooms for him as he would be staying at the American Embassy.

As the Duke and Simon had been greatly looking forward to having Rex with them within the next twenty-four hours they were naturally disappointed; but it made no material difference to Simon with regard to his business in Colombo. Rex's financial contacts there were mainly American agents, whereas Simon's were associated with London, and he had already made a number of appointments with tea planters, land agents and other people he wanted to see.

Next morning, Thursday the 27th, de Richleau's advertisement appeared in the
Times
and Fleur came to lunch with him. In the evening she returned with Douglas and his parents, who came to pay their respects. While they were having drinks Simon, who had been out all day, joined them and later the two friends dined quietly together.

On the Friday Douglas arrived unannounced just before lunch, to find the Duke enjoying a glass of champagne on the glassed-in verandah at the front of the hotel. He was carrying a brief-case, which he put carefully between his legs as he sat down at de Richleau's table then, when a glass of wine had been poured for him, he said:

‘I have a buyer for your mine; but I'm a bit doubtful if you will be willing to accept his offer.'

‘Why?' asked de Richleau. ‘Is it a very poor one?'

‘No. On the contrary, I consider it very good. That is, as things are at the moment. Mr. Aron's intelligence service must be quite exceptional to have picked up several weeks ago a rumour that the Government might decide to put a ban on money being sent out of Ceylon. The secret can have leaked out here only quite recently. But since we talked of it at lunch on Tuesday several people have mentioned it to me. In consequence, no foreign-owned company will now put money into anything until the situation clarifies, and we've had no enquiries at all about the advertisement from quarters from which we might expect them. That being so, I'd certainly advise you to accept this one; but you may not wish to do so, because it comes from old d'Azavedo.'

‘What! That rogue!'

Douglas smiled. ‘Yes. And what is more, he is offering to buy back the mine with assets that we have some reason to suppose he stole from you.'

‘Well, I'll be damned! Of all the barefaced impudence. Tell him to go to the devil.'

‘I thought you would feel like that about it; but as I am acting for you it was up to me to transmit his offer to you.'

At that moment Simon appeared, mopping the perspiration from his sloping forehead with a silk handkerchief. De Richleau greeted him with a laugh. ‘Come and listen to this, Simon. Would you believe it? That villain d'Azavedo has had the audacity to make an offer for Olenevka.'

‘Has he?' Simon sat down, signed to the waiter to bring another glass and added, ‘How much?'

‘I neither know nor care. The fellow did his best to have me and our friends murdered. I wouldn't let him have the mine back for all the tea in China.'

‘I'd part with most things for that,' Simon grinned. ‘Lot of tea in China.' Then he looked across at Douglas and repeated, ‘How much?'

‘About twenty-four thousand three hundred pounds, more or less.'

‘Why “more or less”?'

Douglas took a drink of champagne, then replied, ‘D'Azavedo and his son came to my office first thing this morning. He said he wanted to buy back the mine, largely for sentimental reasons, because Olenevka had been his home for most of his life. He added that on account of the past, His Grace might be reluctant to sell the mine to him, so he was prepared to pay a bigger price than we were likely to get elsewhere now that properties have suddenly become difficult to dispose of.' Pausing for a moment Douglas opened his brief-case, took from it a flat leather zip-up folder about twelve inches long by six wide, laid it on the table and said, ‘This is what he offered.'

While the others looked at him in some surprise, he unzipped the folder and turned back its leather flap, revealing the shallow bottom which was divided into scores of tiny compartments. Very nearly all of them held a cut precious stone large enough to make a valuable ring, and the effect of the whole as they blazed in the strong sunshine was positively dazzling.

‘Phew!' Simon whistled, craning forward his head. ‘Must be worth a packet.'

‘There are more than four hundred of them,' Douglas told him, ‘and at least a third of them would fetch over three figures on the market. D'Azavedo put their value at twenty-five thousand pounds, but he asked me to have an independent valuation made of them in his presence; so I sent for Gunasena, whom I know to be trustworthy. It took him and an assistant the whole morning to weigh and assess them, then he signed a statement that at auction they should fetch approximately twenty-four thousand three hundred pounds. When d'Azavedo was running the mine it was probably worth about forty thousand pounds. But it has deteriorated a lot since, and with this threat of a currency embargo I've been advised that we'd be lucky to get fifteen for it today; so this is an exceptionally good offer.'

‘Funny, d'Azavedo making his offer this way,' Simon remarked. ‘Why couldn't he sell the stones, bank the money and pay by cheque?'

‘To dispose of them to the best advantage would take time,'
Douglas replied, ‘and he is anxious that the deal should go through quickly.'

‘Then he has been counting his chickens,' said the Duke. ‘He proposed a deal of this kind originally and I was prepared to accept it. Then in a most unscrupulous manner he endeavoured to bring about the death of myself and my friends. I'll have no truck with him.'

Simon's dark eyes flickered from side to side. ‘Now, wait a minute. Great mistake to mix personal relationships with business. Argument about him being a crook doesn't hold water anyway. You believed him to be a forger from the beginning, yet you were ready to do a deal with him.'

‘A forger is somewhat different from a man who has tried to commit murder.'

‘No real proof that he didn't lose his nerve. But let's agree that he tried to do you in. Doesn't make this lot of sparklers worth a penny less. Mine's no good to you. Doubt if you'd ever get anything out of it as long as that chap de Zoysa is running it. Put in another manager and the odds are he'll do no better. Even given you get one who is a fire-ball and dead honest, you won't be able to take out of Ceylon any profits you make.'

De Richleau shrugged. ‘We have been over that already. It is my reason for deciding to sell. And, as I have told you, since I have an ample income already, I should not be greatly disappointed if, from beginning to end, I got nothing out of Olenevka.'

‘Um, I know that. But you'll admit that it is now of no value to you unless you do sell.'

‘Certainly. But Douglas says I might get fifteen thousand from some other source.'

‘Hang it all! That's nearly ten thousand less than you are being offered.'

‘True; but by a man with whom I do not desire to have any dealings.'

Simon's agitation at the thought of throwing away such a sum was apparent. ‘You mustn't let personalities enter into this,' he insisted. ‘Or look it at another way. Odds are most of these stones are the stock that was in d'Azavedo's safe before his workshop was burnt out. If so, by rights they're yours. He's
offering to let you have them back. And for what? For something you want to get rid of anyway.'

Douglas passed a hand over his smooth dark hair. ‘Mr. Aron is right, you know. It is a hundred to one that these are the stones that should have been handed over to me for you last year. Anyway, assuming that the mine is worth fifteen thousand pounds, and I greatly doubt if we could get more for it, by accepting d'Azavedo's offer you would be making an extremely handsome profit.'

Occasionally Simon made jokes against his own race and now, spreading out his slender hands, he said with a heavy Jewish accent, ‘And der man vot takes a profit don't never go broke. For God's sake be sensible. However rich you are, take the man's offer. If you don't want the money you can always give it to someone else.'

The Duke smiled and shook his head, but not very firmly. Then Douglas said, ‘There is one aspect you may not have considered. Owing to the state into which the mine has been allowed to fall, and labour difficulties, d'Azavedo will be letting himself in for a packet of trouble before he can hope to make it a paying proposition again. In fact, it's a gamble which he may have reason to regret later. As you have no cause to like him, why not leave him holding this somewhat dubious baby?'

‘That is the best argument for accepting that has yet been put forward,' said de Richleau. ‘All things considered, perhaps the two of you are right and I should be a fool not to take the fellow's money, or rather these gems.'

Having noticed a waiter eyeing the blazing array of stones with fascinated amazement, Douglas had already zipped up the leather cover of the shallow case. Now he slipped it back into his brief-case and said, ‘Very well, then. I'll prepare a contract of sale. It should be ready by Monday.'

As he stood up the Duke invited him to stay to lunch but he shook his head. ‘No, sir. Thanks all the same; but I'm temporarily responsible for this lot. D'Azavedo insisted that I should bring them to show you. He probably thought the sight of them was more likely to tempt you than just a description of
them. I brought one of my clerks with me in the car and I've got a gun on me. All the same, the sooner I've handed them back to d'Azavedo the better I'll be pleased, and he's waiting for me in my office.'

The rest of that day and Saturday and Sunday passed uneventfully, except that on Sunday morning Simon had a telephone call from Rex. On the flight it had emerged that the mechanics in Delhi had failed to put the faulty engine of his aircraft one hundred per cent right; so he had thought it best to come down at Trincomalee. He had Truss with him and they were motoring down to Colombo, but they did not expect to get in until late that night; so would not come to the Galle Face until Monday morning.

Simon was out for a good part of the week-end, but Fleur called every afternoon to spend a couple of hours with de Richleau and twice had meals with them. On Sunday evening Simon had been invited to dine with a Mr. Chandrasekera, the chairman of one of Ceylon's largest insurance brokers, and as Fleur and Douglas had a long-standing dinner engagement for that evening, the Duke was left on his own.

Max always shaved him in the morning and helped him to dress; but he never kept his man up late, as he was perfectly capable of putting himself to bed and invariably did so on Sundays when Max had his evening off. On this occasion he went straight to bed after dinner and settled down to read. Then, at a little after ten o'clock, his telephone rang.

When he answered it a high-pitched male voice said, ‘I speak wiv Mistair Aron, no? Hotel desk say he out. Say you also friend Mistair Missus Rajapakse. They have accident. Cars crash. Both hurt. Missus Rajapakse hurt very bad. They ask friends at Galle Face come quickly. Very urgent. They in my house. I send car fetch you. Ten minutes, yiss. You come pliss. No time for lose.'

Quickly the Duke asked for further particulars, but received only a jumbled repetition of the facts that Fleur and Douglas had been injured in a car smash and that a car was being sent to fetch him. Then, before he could ask the address of the house into which they had been taken, the man rang off.

From the urgency of the summons he gained the impression that Fleur's injuries were so serious that she might be dying. The moment the line was clear he rang Max's room, hoping he would be there to come along and help him dress more quickly, then come with him; but there was no reply, so evidently Max was still out. Panting a little he got into his clothes as swiftly as he could; then, as he did not know where to get hold of Simon, he scribbled a note telling him what had happened.