The Snow Tiger / Night of Error (49 page)

I looked into MacDonald’s eyes and realized I was up against a stone wall. Nothing would be done for three months and then the whole affair would be hushed up, covered in a web of red tape.

I wrote my lawyer’s address on a piece of paper. ‘I would be obliged if you would let me know the results of your investigation. You can write to that address.’

‘I will let you know, M. Trevelyan. I am sure there will be a simple explanation.’ He half stood up, clearly dismissing me.

I went immediately to the British Consul and got no joy. He was urbane and civil, pointing out that everything MacDonald had said was true and that the only thing to do was to wait. ‘They’ll investigate the matter, don’t you worry, Mr Trevelyan. If old Schouten has made a mistake they’ll find out.’

But he didn’t sound convincing even to himself.

I said, ‘What kind of man is this Schouten? I gather you know him.’

The consul shrugged. ‘An old Islands type – been here for years. He’s done some good work in the past.’

‘But not lately?’

‘Well, he’s getting old and –’

‘Hitting the bottle,’ I said viciously.

The consul looked up sharply. ‘Don’t blame him too much for that. He lost his entire family when the Japs invaded New Guinea.’

I said bitterly, ‘Does that excuse him for killing his patients?’

There was no reasonable answer to that, and I pulled myself together and changed the subject slightly.

‘Have you heard of a man called Jim Hadley?’

‘A big Australian?’

‘That’s the man.’

‘Of course he’s never been in here,’ said the consul. ‘We’ve no official connection, but I’ve seen him around. He’s well known here as a rather hard-headed type, not a man to be crossed I’d say. Your brother chartered his schooner for a while.’

‘Is he really that tough?’

He frowned. ‘Very much so. Not a consular tea party type at all. I wouldn’t recommend him.’

‘What about a man called Kane?’

‘Is that the other Australian? His partner, I think – I’ve seen him with Hadley. It’s the same answer, I’m afraid; I’ve never spoken to him.’

‘Tell me honestly – do you think the administration is dragging its heels in this matter?’

He sighed. ‘I’ll have to speak bluntly, Mr Trevelyan. When your brother died he was on the run from the police. He was suspected of murder.’ As I was going to interrupt he raised his hand. ‘Now, don’t tell me that’s ridiculous. Most
murderers have brothers, like yourself, who refuse to believe anything ill of their kin, especially at first hearing.’

That wasn’t what I was going to say, but I kept my mouth shut.

‘When he died, complete with death certificate signed by a qualified medical man, the police called off the hunt, and quite naturally so in my opinion. At the present time the administration has a hell of a lot on its plate, and they had no reason to suspect anyone else. But they’ll get around to investigating the new evidence you’ve brought them sooner or later.’

‘When the trail is totally cold.’

‘I do see your point,’ he said. ‘I don’t think I can do anything about it. But I’ll try.’

And with that I had to be content.

When I reboarded
Esmerelda
I felt blue. I think I had expected my news to come with a devastating shock, and it had been dismissed as a hiccup. Clare was on deck and she said sunnily, ‘Isn’t this a beautiful place?’

‘It stinks,’ I said sourly.

‘What are you mad at? You look as though you wouldn’t care if the whole island sank into the sea.’

‘It’s these damn colonial French. Justice – but at a snail’s pace. The British here aren’t much better either.’

‘No dice with the Governor?’

‘Oh, they’ll make a new investigation in three months – or three years. He doesn’t want to lose his precious Dr Schouten. If he looks too closely he might have to arrest the doctor for unprofessional conduct and he doesn’t want to do that, so he’s going easy on the whole thing – sweeping it under the carpet in the hope that it’ll be forgotten. He’s got much more important things to do than to find Mark’s killer.’

She was sympathetic and I began to loosen up a little. After a while I even felt cheerful enough to ask her to dine
with me, and to my delight she agreed at once. I excused myself and went in search of Geordie, whom I found tinkering with the engine in company with two of the crew. Everyone else had vanished ashore. I took Geordie aside and told him what had happened.

He wiped the oil from his hands and said, ‘Then you’re stymied.’

‘Looks like it, as far as authoritative aid goes.’

‘Now’s the time to put some pressure on Campbell. You won’t get anywhere without him if you want to see Schouten. It’s a pity you can’t interpret one of those drawings to read Tanakabu – or perhaps you can scare up some good scientific reasons for going there.’

‘As well there as anywhere,’ I said morosely. ‘I’ll work on it.’

I spent the rest of the day wandering around the town and picked out a restaurant for the evening, and when it came Clare and I took ourselves off for an enjoyable time during which we both avoided any of the subjects concerning the voyage, and got to know each other better. Campbell had booked himself and Clare into a hotel for the time we were to stay in Papeete, but I had declined his suggestion that I too make such an arrangement, so at the end of the evening I escorted Clare to her new temporary home and came back to the ship feeling weary but reasonably happy.

Early the next morning I saw the
Eastern Sun
enter harbour. Geordie disappeared with Ian and Jim, and I wandered on deck to find Danny Williams just reboarding.

‘Morning, Mike,’ he said. ‘Just back from me detective stint.’

‘What’s all this?’

‘The skipper arranged for some of us lads to keep an eye on Kane. Yesterday he was at the post office and suchlike, and then he holed up in a spot called Quin’s Bar. I had Nick follow him today, and I’ve sent Bill down to hang around
Quin’s again – we think it’s his meeting-place. Yesterday he was asking for someone there.’

‘Good enough,’ I said. ‘Why not yourself, though? Tired of playing copper?’

‘I thought I’d better pull out. I followed Kane all over Panama and I thought that if I did the same here he might twig.’

I nodded in satisfaction. Danny was using his brains. After a while Campbell and Clare came on deck, clearly rested and ready for a fresh start, and I decided that this was as good a time as any to work on him. But he anticipated me.

‘Clare’s been telling me that you want to go and see this Schouten.’

I looked at Clare. I hadn’t told her that but she must have been reading my mind, and I was grateful. I said, ‘Under the circumstances, I thought it might be a good idea.’

Campbell frowned. ‘I don’t know about that.’ He dug into his pocket and produced a letter. ‘Suarez-Navarro are on the move again – heading towards Rabaul. They should be there by now.’

‘Do you know if they’re doing any dredging?’

He shook his head. ‘My man doesn’t say, but I don’t think he could know without a flyover.’

‘Do you want to follow them?’

Campbell shook his head again irritably as though shaking flies away. ‘It’s not what I want to do. You don’t seem to know where to go next, and apparently Ramirez does. Maybe we should follow him.’

I looked up and saw a small party coming on board, Paula Nelson diminutive between Ian and Jim, Geordie shepherding her with her suitcase. ‘Miss Nelson’s here,’ I said. ‘Let’s see where this leads us. If she can identify Hadley for me here we may not have to go and see Schouten.’

Campbell and Clare had been told that Paula was coming to Papeete and were both full of curiosity about her. I
went over to greet Paula, who looked frankly delighted to see me, and introduced her. I cocked an eye at Ian, who grinned easily. ‘No trouble,’ he said. ‘No one tried anything.’

‘Thanks, fellows. We’re glad to see you, Paula. Did you have a good trip?’

‘It was wonderful! I’ve never been on one of those big cruise ships before. And say – I hope you don’t mind but I didn’t work my passage. It was kind of fun to be one of the tourists for a change.’

‘That’s great,’ I told her. Before I had a chance to say anything more I saw Nick Dugan coming up and speaking urgently to Geordie, who then levelled a pair of binoculars at the harbour mouth. I left Paula with the Campbells and joined Geordie at the rails.

Nick said, ‘There’s the man who was talking to Kane in Quin’s Bar.’ He pointed. ‘He’s just gone on board a schooner – and they’re getting under way.’

I took the glasses and focused them on the schooner. A big bull of a man was standing at the wheel, apparently bellowing orders to his native crew. They were getting under way very smartly and there wasn’t much time to lose. I had a sudden intuition and called Paula over sharply, thrusting the glasses into her hands.

‘Look at that ship and tell me if you can identify anyone.’

She had a bit of difficulty focusing at first but then she got it and gave a shuddering gasp. ‘It’s Jim Hadley,’ she said. ‘And that’s his ship, the
Pearl.
’

Campbell snatched the binoculars and had a look himself.

‘Where’s Kane?’ I asked urgently.

‘Still at the bar, last time I saw him,’ Nick said. ‘Bill’s on his tail.’

Ian Lewis had joined us and seemed eager and willing to go on an immediate chase. ‘How soon can we get under way, skipper?’ he asked Geordie.

‘Too long, and half the crew isn’t here,’ said Geordie. ‘But there’s no need to go chasing after him – I saw that schooner in Panama. He’s following us, damn his eyes.’

I said, ‘So Kane lied again in Panama. I wonder what he’ll say this time?’

‘He’ll say that his chum Hadley is nowhere around and he’ll ask if he can stay with the
Esmerelda
a bit longer,’ Geordie guessed.

Ian looked at him and nodded thoughtfully. ‘Skipper, I think it’s time we all knew what was going on,’ he said gently. ‘Who is yon lad, anyway?’

Geordie and I exchanged glances. It was indeed high time.

He said, ‘Ian, gather the lads together – just our bunch, that is, not my regular crew. We’ll put you all in the picture sometime later today – somewhere ashore I think. I’ll be happier with you lot in the know, anyway.’

‘Come to my hotel,’ said Campbell, taking over as he liked to do. ‘I’ll arrange for a room big enough for all of us, and we’ll pool information. You too, Miss Nelson. I want a word with you, Mike.’

He led me aside.

‘I feel as though we’re losing out on this thing. I thought we could use Kane to feed Ramirez phoney information, but it’s not working out that way. Kane is reporting our every movement, and we’re learning nothing.’

I laughed. ‘I bet his report puzzles Ramirez. He’d have a hell of a job trying to find the last place we dredged.’

Campbell watched the schooner
Pearl
going out through the pass in the reef. ‘What do we do now?’

‘We can’t go after Hadley; we don’t know where he’s going and he has too big a start for us to follow. Besides these are his home waters; he could easily give us the slip. If we do anything through government channels we get wrapped in red tape. That leaves Schouten …’

‘I thought you’d say that. But Ramirez is in Rabaul. What’s he
doing
there?’

‘Waiting to follow us, at a guess; when he thinks we’ve hit pay dirt. I’m sure Suarez-Navarro don’t know any more than we do, or they’d be there. But this all started with Mark’s death and Schouten was present. I think we should talk to him, if only to clear up some unanswered questions.’

He nodded. ‘Clare had that idea too. She came up with the idea that perhaps all of Mark’s gear wasn’t returned to England – that Schouten might have some stuff stashed away. How about that?’

‘I’d have to ask Paula – she might know something.’

Campbell drummed with his fingers on the mast tabernacle. ‘I tell you – I’m split in two on this thing. After all, we did pull a boo-boo at Minerva, and that was a month wasted. We’ll spend nearly a fortnight back-tracking to go and see Schouten and that fortnight might be precious. And God knows what Ramirez will be doing.’

He fell silent and I let him ruminate for a few minutes.

‘I suppose we may find something that’ll short-circuit the whole damned affair. All right, it’s worth the risk. We’ll go. But if we get no answers there I’m calling the whole thing off.’

I was too delighted with his decision to worry about the threat. I could take care of that later, if necessary. We went over to rejoin the two girls, who had been chatting together with Geordie.

‘We’re going to Tanakabu,’ I told them briefly and Geordie looked very pleased, while Clare cheered softly. Paula, of course, only looked puzzled.

‘Paula,’ I asked, ‘do you know if the stuff of Mark’s that you sent home was everything of his – could he have had more elsewhere?’

‘I really don’t know for sure, Mike. But I don’t think so. He never had much stuff while he was with me.’

I had an idea. ‘Paula, you’re going to join in the briefing this afternoon, which I’m sure you’ve realized is going to be very confidential. After all, you have a lot to contribute. But we may be going off soon after that and as I’ve brought you here I can’t just leave you. You’re my responsibility now, you know. Would you like to come along with us?’