Suddenly at Singapore (12 page)

“You’ll be safe soon, tuan,” the rower said, with a sudden cheerful politeness which might well be that he was expecting a tip.

I nodded, knowing he wasn’t going to get one.

I wondered how safe I was now, whether there was a bellowing going on down there in Singapore, with a lot of people looking for what was left of me. If Sorumbai’s men had watched Kim unloading and then followed our route across Malaya I could almost certainly expect to be in prison pretty soon. All that was needed to put me there was an official complaint and the evidence. Quite a few of my men might well be in jail ahead of me.

De Vorwooerd had been right, of course, my insistence on using the cross country route had been a kind of lunacy. It involved me with two governments, not one, and no doubt this wouldn’t be a matter for co-operation between them, and I might well have two separate sentences to serve. Kang would be waiting for me, with all the pieces of his little jigsaw nicely fitted together. It would certainly mean the end of Harris and Company, as well as a lot of other things.

I couldn’t see Ruth waiting for her convict, in Singapore or anywhere else. And Russell Menzies would fix things up for her, there would be plenty of money still, that was one consolation, enough, too, to look after my men who had been nabbed. They might get off fairly lightly if the centrepiece of the pattern was available and Russell worked hard to arrange things.

The boat bumped against the very end of a long, stone jetty. The rower shipped his oars and with the kind of flurry of smiling service put on by an hotel servant at the moment of the guest’s departure fished about under the seats for the two sticks of jungle hardwood made for me by the rebels. The salt water had done something unpleasant to my jungle sores and I needed those sticks. I hauled myself out on to stones, and then up from my knees on to the sticks. The happy smile on the rower’s face was almost pretty to see.

“I’ve no money. Not a cent.”

As I’d thought the smile was not from his merry heart. He said something in Cantonese, very low in his throat, and then prodded his craft out on to the water again.

The rough surface of what was really a mole around the outer harbour didn’t make the going easy for me. It took all of twenty minutes to get up to the bund, and there I had to climb a small wall, sweating from the effort. Afterwards I had to sit down, on the pavement, humped over, looking like a beggar in rags, with his sticks.

Still, some things were all right. Up in this wakening town with its flowering trees I could get hold of money and there were people who would recognise me. I could pay for my bed, eventually. It was a nice thought.

A cart creaked by, an ox cart, with a man leading the ox. He looked at me just as I looked at him and I could see he was startled. I pulled off the peaked cap and threw it over the wall behind me.

“I need your help,” I called out.

He hesitated. He was a Chinese coolie and his reluctance was understandable. He’d probably seen white drunks before, down by the harbour in the early morning before they were tidied away.

“I want a taxi. If you’re going up into the town find a taxi and send it here.”

The coolie didn’t nod, he just gave a yank on the lead and the ox began to plod away with the groaning cart. I put my head on my knees again and waited.

I’d forgotten what a well-organised island it is, every-one with a strong civic sense. My coolie sent the police.

They came towards me from their car, one Chinese and one Malay, very immaculate in new uniforms not long on, a little reminiscent of the days of the British Raj in this neat little colony which so much had bypassed. They were a shade uneasy, too, in a way their colleagues in Singapore wouldn’t have been. Unsavoury as I might look to them I belonged to the big league which still held quite a bit of power. Both the policemen looked as though they would prefer to refer the matter to someone senior, and I was glad of this.

At my Virginia military academy we learned about the voice that gives orders and I learned more about it during prolonged stays in England where that voice is still obeyed. I used it.

“I’ve met with a series of accidents. And I need to get to hospital. Will you kindly take me?”

The Chinese stared, the Malay recognised the voice.

“Who are you … sir?” the Chinese asked.

“I’m ill at the moment. My identity can be established later. But my name is Harris, Paul Harris.”

I looked at them for a reaction to this. There was none. Either their cerebration was sluggish at this hour or there was no general call out for me as a criminal.

“How did you get to this place … sir?”

“It’s a long story. Do you mind if I see a doctor before I tell it? And I’ll be obliged if you’ll help me up. My legs don’t function very well just now.”

The Chinese came quite close, I was sure to get the whiff of whisky. All he got was a faint reminiscence of garlic, that and the general pong from my clothes and suppurating jungle ulcers. He stepped back again.

It was the Malay who helped me up. I adjusted my crutches and began to move towards the car, before I was invited. The Malay stayed by me, the Chinese went on ahead, half angry, but he did open the car door. I crept into the back and was grateful for the soft springing. The police anywhere do themselves well with cars. We moved off, two clipped necks in front of me. The policemen didn’t talk.

“If you’re thinking about taking me to the station first,” I said, “I’d rather you didn’t. I’m feeling a little as though I might pass out. If you’re interested in me you can send a man to the hospital. As you can see I’m not in a position to run very far.”

“Have you come from Malaya?” the Chinese asked.

“Yes,” I lied.

“And why did you not find a hospital on the mainland?”

“I thought I’d be better dealt with here.”

“Did you cross by ferry?”

“As you know the ferry is not running at this hour. I came in a sampan from the coast. I’ve been in the jungle and had rather a hard time. It happens out here, you’ll agree?”

They took me to the hospital and up the steps. The Malay helped me on those and I went very slowly indeed. My breathing was noisy. The young man’s face was anxious, the policeman who hasn’t got his statement and is troubled by that. The Chinese might even now be using his car radio and I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything except getting cleaned up and lying someplace where I didn’t have to think.

There was a lot of thinking to be done but I could only face a minimum of it. I sat down in the cool hall with its faint smell of disinfectant and slumped forward again, leaning on those sticks. The Malay pattered off. I didn’t hear his return, only a voice that was blessedly Irish.

“Heavens alive. And what have we here now?”

I looked at her. She was clean and crackled. She had a face shaped for smiles as well as the brogue.

“I was washed up by the tide, Nurse.”

“You look it, I must say. Come along now, in here. Then I’ll get the house doctor.”

“Can you put me by a phone while you’re doing that?”

“Not without Matron’s permission, and she’s not on duty.”

“Och, let me have a damn’ phone!”

“You’ll not use language, please!”

“I’ve got loved ones who want to know.”

She laughed.

“That’s not too easy to believe, I’m sure. I’d have thought they’d have lost patience.”

“I was not found in the gutter from drink, Nurse.”

“Indeed? I’m sure there’s many a better man than you that’s said that and fooled nobody.”

I pulled up my trouser leg and showed her an ulcer above the knee.

“That’s just one of them,” I said.

The nurse showed no reaction but it convinced the Malay policeman. He turned and went down the hall, his boots clicking.

“Please let me phone?”

“Is it a local?”

“No. Singapore.”

“And can you pay?”

“Ask the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China. The manager’s name is Wilson.”

“I know. We took out his appendix. Oh, well …”

I put the call through to Russell Menzies at his house number, shivering a little as I waited for the buzzing to be answered. The room I was now in carried on that emphasis on hygiene. I sat in the middle of it, a kind of contamination.

“Menzies here.”

“Russell? It’s Paul.”

He made a sound a little like a snore.

“Where in hell’s name are you?”

“Penang. Look, Russell, will you please listen to me. I don’t think I’ve got long. I’m in hospital. I’m going to be here for a bit. I’m crocked up. I want to know a little about what the position is. The police brought me. They’ve gone, but I think they’ll be back. Have they got any reason to hang around me?”

“Paul. I’m a bit woozy from sleep. And yours isn’t a voice I expected to hear before breakfast.”

“I know. But you’re hearing it. I’m back, if there’s much point in that.”

“There are a few still who might think there is.”

“Russell! Has anything broken down in Singapore?”

“Broken? Oh, I get you. No.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m your lawyer, you clot! How much chattering do you want to do over this line?”

“Just enough to let me go to bed and sleep.”

“Well, you can. I’ve got de Vorwooerd here with me.”

“You’ve … what?”

“Kim brought him down. Thought the air was healthier down here. He’s all right. Except he thinks you’re dead.”

“You tell him … Oh, thank heaven!”

“Good to know you were worried.”

“I’ve been in a kind of hell.”

“You walk right up and knock on the door, don’t you? Don’t worry, I’ll tell him now. And Ruth.”

“Yes, and Ruth.”

“You’re not phoning her yourself?”

“I don’t think I’ll get the chance. The doctor will be here in a minute. Tell Ruth that …”

“That you’re a little overdue, but everything is fine, just fine.”

“Russell … I’m …”

“It’s all right, I’m coming up. I’ll catch a plane.”

“Can you?”

“I shouldn’t, but I’m going to. I’ll have Ruth notified when I’m on the way to the plane. Otherwise she’d be with me.”

“No!”

“I thought that would be your reaction. I’ve been sorry for Ruth. Very. You see someone called Kate Raine went and told her things.”

“Kate did … what?”

I couldn’t take it in.

“Tell the doctor to give you a great big sedative. One of their specials. And I’ll see you when you come out of it. What’s the matter with you?”

“Bit kicked around. About Kate …?”

“Let it wait. And don’t talk to anyone. No one’s got a right to ask you questions. Tell them your lawyer’s coming. I’ll phone the hospital myself. You’re not to be disturbed. And have a private room. Lie down and shut up.”

“Yes, Russell. It’s good to hear …”

“I’m doing it all from love,” he said, and hung up.

I
WOKE CLEAN
, rigid in a bed, packed into it, under drawn sheets. I felt my legs tight in bandages and remembered being wheeled into the operating theatre still in the clothes I’d worn in the jungle. They must have needed all the lights in there to turn me into something human again. I was back in a nice world of soft lighting and the gentle buzz of a fan, in a room that was obviously for patients with money, equipped with its own veranda beyond an arch. It was night.

There was a light out on the veranda.

“Nurse,” I said.

Russell Menzies came through the arch.

“It’s Big Brother instead. What do you want?”

“A drink.”

“You can have your choice, water or orangeade.”

“Water. How long have you been here?”

“A long, long time. I’ve been catching up on contemporary fiction out there on the veranda. I brought my own whisky but you’re not getting any.”

“You could have waited in the hotel.”

“This is just as cosy. I booked you the suite where they put rajahs with prostate trouble. It’s your money and I’m spending it for you. How do you feel?”

“Wonderful.”

“That’s my brave boy. I had a talk with the doctor. He says it’s amazing you’re not dead. One of your ulcers was an inch deep.”

“I felt that.”

“He says he doesn’t think you’ll get blood poisoning now and that you’ll be able to move in about three weeks. No amputations so far.”

“Thanks. I knew I hadn’t gangrene.”

“He asked me about those ulcers. I said leech bites. Is that what you wanted me to say?”

“Yes.”

“What were they?”

I told him. I went on from there to tell him just what had happened on my trip away. Russell sat down to listen, pushing a small chair back on to its two rear legs until I was sure it would collapse under him. He lit one of his cigars, which would be against regulations, and listened blowing rings up at the ceiling.

“You think Sorumbai killed your brother?”

“I think he gave the order,” I said.

“And are you satisfied? You got the killer.”

“I didn’t get him. My friends did.”

“Your friends! Heaven help us all!”

“Tell me about de Vorwooerd.”

“Not much to tell. Your man Kim is smarter than you. He can smell a rat. There was something in the Kuantan situation he didn’t quite like, maybe it was you bringing a girl friend. He doesn’t look the type who would mix business with pleasure himself.”

“He’s been to see you?”

“Sure, sure, everything open and above board, company agent in your absence and all that. I’ve been running your business.”

“Thanks.”

“You’ll get my bill. Kim’s a smart boy. He had an impression there were suddenly too many people in Kuantan. So he had a look around. He didn’t actually see you driving away from the hotel, but he got wind of it. So he more or less collected old de Vorwooerd by force and did a bunk. Sailed away in his pretty junks. The stuff is cached.”

“Oh.”

“Johore, actually. See how much your lawyer knows now? Damn’ little he doesn’t know, as a matter of fact. I pumped de Vorwooerd. The old man thought everything was over, that you’d had it. So did your wife and so did Kate.”

“I’ve been waiting for you to tell me about that.”