by John Molloy
“Who did you say you are again?”
“Richardson’s.”
“Never heard of them, Ballarrat you say?”
“Yes, Ballarrat.”
“New to me, but anyway, if all this police activity is completed overnight it could be sometime late tomorrow morning.”
“Right thanks mate.”
As he was getting back into his car, a squad of custom men pulled up got out of two cars. Before he could drive away one of them hailed him. “Where are you coming from sir?”
“I just heard about this ship and I drove in to have a look. She’s the talk of the town.”
“Is she now, well I wouldn’t know. Get out please I want to search your car.”
Danny got out and the custom officer went through his car. He searched under the seats, the trunk and glove compartment. He even looked under the bonnet. Wow, Danny thought, what’s he looking for? If only I could tell him who I was and ask him to give Tukola’s cabin a right going over, he might achieve something.
“Go ahead sir, and come onto these docks only if you have business.”
The old clerk was coming out. Blimey, Danny thought, I better be off before he says I’m from the mythical Richardson’s! The custom officers boarded and if ever a ship got a thorough searching, this was it. They went through her with a fine tooth comb. Henry was glad he had hidden that key; they could have been instructed by the senior detective to search for the single missing key. If Tukola had anything incriminating in his cabin he surely would have taken it and found a hiding place for it.
Because there was no shore leave, confinement in their cabins was like doing solitary in prison. The only entertainment was the radio stations that threw out an assortment of music - mostly pop, but very welcome. Henry was stretched out on the couch reading his precious atlas and making mental notes about some key events of the voyage when Gary Conrad came in with two mugs of tea.
“Here you are old mate.”
Henry sat up and took the mug.
“Thanks Gary, what’s the atmosphere like around the recreation room?”
“There’s no atmosphere because there’s no one there. All hands are either out on deck or in their cabins.”
Gary’s radio was blaring out pop music. “There goes that song again” said Henry, sipping his tea. “Itsi bitsi teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini, it’s engrained on my brain.”
“I wouldn’t mind being on a beach looking at them tiny bikinis; do you think they’ll lift this shore restriction?”
“I really don’t know. It’ll depend solely on how the investigation goes. They’re not going to let a serious killer go ashore, there’d be an outcry from the civic authorities if they put the lives of young girls needlessly at risk. If you were in their place how would you react with a wife or sister, they’d certainly stay indoors until this ship sailed. But they can’t expect a whole city to do that because of our madman killer.”
“Jesus Henry, I never looked at it that way, of course they’re right, and I can’t see them catching him. What have they to go on, sod all?”
“Well you never know, the fingerprinting could turn up something, and like what you saw down in the hold; the crewman going with the girl. Other crewmen might have seen the same.”
“I wonder would it make any difference, because I wasn’t a hundred percent sure.”
“Did you tell them anyway what you saw?”
“No, to tell the truth I was afraid in case they might say to him that I told them. I couldn’t be sure Henry, and I have to spend the next six months on board with this bastard.”
“You see Gary, that’s why they’re not going to catch him, because lads are afraid of him, if he’s the same one you’re talking about.”
“The fellow I’m talking about is a dangerous bastard.”
“Have you seen him fight or use a knife before?”
“I don’t want to say anything but I saw him use a knife on a girl outside a pub in a port in West Africa called Conakry, it was in a slum area, dark with no lighting. He cut her arm and then he grabbed her, but when he saw me he let her go. He said she stole money from him. She was only a young poor black kid. I never told anyone about it and there was nothing from the girl, so I don’t think she went to the police. It wouldn’t make much difference in a place like that, he could have killed her and walked away and no one would have seen anything.”
“Do you want to tell me his name, even just for protection for yourself?”
“How would it be protection for me if I told you, it could only make it worse if other people know about it, and he’d blame me?”
“Well, if ever you think you are in danger you can tell me and I’ll be as much help as I can.”
“Thanks Henry, it’s good to know anyway.”
Next morning the hatches were opened at seven hundred hours and discharging began. The police presence remained and the no shore leave was still in place. Henry went out on deck at every chance he got and looked around to see Danny; he was so anxious to hear first-hand how the investigation was progressing. Danny, he knew had contacts and they would keep him up to date with the whole operation. The dockers were discharging the jute as if their lives depended on how fast they could get it out. Henry stood at the gunwale looking out over the quay wall where he thought he might see Danny coming along the dockside. The men unloading the ship were avoiding the crew men like they were lepers; they only spoke to the deck hands when they needed something done, like lowering derricks, or tightening or loosening guy ropes. When they came on board, they wanted to know which hatch had the girl been killed in. The gang assigned to number four refused work that hold. They stood around and the foreman told them to go ashore at nine hundred hours. A priest came on board at eleven hundred hours and went down the hatch and blessed where the girl had been killed. He also said some prayers, and then the dockers consented to discharge the cargo. Henry overheard one man remark to his work mate: “They should take her out into deep water and put a torpedo into her, sink the lot.”
Henry wasn’t sure if he meant crew and all but he supposed he did.
“Hey mate, had a bad voyage?” There was Danny standing behind him. “Go to the stern and wait for me.”
Henry walked aft and pretended he was inspecting the mooring ropes, and then he stood looking out over the stern. He lit a Lucky Strike. I’m smoking way too much of late, he thought.
“Right Henry, we better make this as fast as possible, I’m not supposed to be on board so I’m masquerading as a docker.”
Henry blew a puff of smoke. “What progress are they making with the investigation?”
“As you realize it’s early days yet, but from what I can gather, the missing key is playing a big role with them; they think whoever has that key is more than likely their man. From the captain’s statement she locked her door and she was warned not to open it for anyone unless she was certain of their intentions. The senior officers are of the same mind that she didn’t open the door. So how did the killer gain access?”
“Danny, do you know who has that master key?”
“No mate.”
“I have it. I took it in Bombay to search Oswyn’s cabin and I intended to search Tukola’s cabin. The former was searched but couldn’t get Tukola and his roommate away together so we never got to search his cabin.”
“Holy Christ, Henry! You have been incriminated in the murder of the girl in Bombay and there’s a warrant circulating for your arrest. Now you tell me you’re their chief suspect for this girl’s murder and disappearance. For fuck sake tell me what you’re saying is not true.”
“It’s so true to be unreal. My man in Bombay who shall remain nameless, suggested he make a dummy key to replace the one I stole, so that’s how that came about. Now you must remember there are two more master keys which could have been taken and replaced.”
“Who had the other two keys?”
“The captain had one and the chief steward the other.”
&nbs
p; “Who could have access to the captain’s cabin to steal his key, not many I presume. So who could have access to the steward’s room to borrow his key?”
“I suppose in theory, any of the catering staff could have taken it, including my roommate, Gary Conrad, who by the way is contemplating jumping ship here.”
“He can forget that. From what I know there will be no shore leave, the hope of a breakthrough could come from the fingerprints, but that’s going to take a long time, you’ll be in your next port before that’s done. Henry, the sooner this ship sails for your sake the better. Have you got that key hidden away safely?”
“Yes I have, and I hope to get inside that Tukola’s cabin before our next port. I’m going to have to think up something drastic to achieve it. I got to examine the body of the girl from Colombo and it had all the hallmarks of our man; he badly beat her, strangled her so he actually broke her neck and then did all the other usual stuff. Another strange thing you might be able to enquire about, when I was in the hospital during the early hours examining the body, I heard a strange sound outside the door. The person was whining softly and then scraped something on the door. When I examined it next day it looked like a face, two eyes a nose and mouth with lines running across them like stitches. If you walk down the deck there on your way ashore, I’ll walk ahead and stop outside to show you which one it is. By the way, did you ever uncover why the cloths are stuffed into the orifices and why the fish hooks?”
“No Henry, to be honest I didn’t try to find out, but I will now. I’ll go now and I hope to make contact before you sail. Do look after yourself.”
“I will.”
He followed Henry and stood to examine the hospital door.
Loading continued and the cargo came out faster than it went in. The ship was then shifted round to another dock where the huge silos were situated for the loading of grain. They would be here for about three days and then bound for Japan with eleven thousand tons of wheat.
The day before sailing, Gary Conrad was very agitated and spent a lot of time around the after deck. He confided in Henry that he was contemplating jumping ship. He said that with her cargo nearly loaded she was low in the water and he could jump onto the quay wall somewhere from the after deck.
“What do you think? He asked Henry, “I was going to try sometime in the early hours, about three in the morning.”
“You know there’s a dock policeman on duty at the entrance to the docks, so you’d have to swim round to another part of the dock and climb up one of those ladders.”
“I can swim but not that far, it’s a hundred yards across to the other side. So I’d chance hiding on this side and when the ship sailed, I’d make my move.”
Henry didn’t want to be seen as too opposed to the idea, and he had to go along with him to maintain his cover. “The only thing is if they catch you, they’d make you a prime suspect for the murders. You know, for trying to run away and all that.”
“I’d explain how I was in fear of one of my ship mates and didn’t want to sail with him. They’d surely understand.”
“It’s up to your Gary. I’ll help you if there’s anything I can do. Let me know what you decide?”
“It won’t be until tomorrow night, that’s our last night before sailing. Did you hear we’re bound for Japan? Have you ever been there? They have the best ports in the world.”
“No, I’ve never been to Japan. I wonder if there’ll be any restriction on our shore leave there, especially if there are no developments catching this murderer.”
“Hard to say, I hope I won’t have to worry about it. I’ll be here running around with some nice little Aussie babe and not bothered.”
Not if I have anything to do with it, thought Henry, as he changed into a clean shirt and combed his hair.
“Time for duty again.”
The next day Gary Conrad wouldn’t commit himself to saying whether he was going to jump ship or not; he skirted around the subject whenever Henry mentioned it.
Henry was hoping Danny might make an appearance but there were very few dockers on the ship now, only a handful compared to when loading general cargo. So it wouldn’t be so easy for him to masquerade as one of them.
A dust cloud from the grain hung over the whole area and all doors and ports had to be kept closed, so Henry couldn’t go on deck to look for Danny; a couple of minutes out there and he would have been covered in fine white dust. The word going around was that the ship would be sailing at midday next day. Henry had his letters ready to post. As usual, he had to give them to the chief steward who would give them to the ship’s agent. He wondered at the risk in that. What if the letters were opened by the police authorities, he thought. It wasn’t beyond the bounds of imagination they would do something like that if they thought it could further their investigation. To hell he decided, he couldn’t chance it, he’d incriminate Vera and blow his own cover.
Coming from the pantry with a mug of tea he met one of the dockers in the alleyway. He was all covered up and had only a slit for his eyes, white dust falling and trailing behind him. He had a leather bag on a length of pole that the dockers stuck out under the grain chute to catch samples of the grain pouring into the ship’s hold. As the man approached Henry, he lifted the cloth mask off his face. Henry stared at his eyes with their white powdery lashes.
“Bloody hell, Danny! I barely recognized you.”
“Where can we talk?”
Henry turned back and went out onto the off side alleyway; the dust here wasn’t as bad and there was no one around. Henry was anxious for any news that might help him, but Danny had to disappoint him. There was no breakthrough, they were still going with the same theory; the man who had the key was their main suspect.
“I have some letters to post. Would you do the honors for me, I don’t want to chance giving them to the ship’s agent.”
Henry went to his cabin and got the letters.
“Here you are Danny, and in this envelope is our forwarding address for Japan, it’s a port called Shimizu. Please write me and let me know if there are any developments from the fingerprinting. Also Danny, there’s another problem. My roommate, Gary is going to jump ship sometime in the early hours of tomorrow morning and this will be a blow to everything. We need to keep them all together until the whole business is solved.”
“I agree wholeheartedly. He cannot be allowed to jump ship here. I’ll let my contact know, and don’t worry, he definitely will not get ashore.”
“But Danny, he said he might jump over her side down somewhere off the after deck, he won’t try the gangway. He intends to hide and not try the main gate until the ship has sailed.”
“Henry don’t worry, he’ll sail. I’ll guarantee you that.”
“I’m not too worried, Danny. To keep up my cover I’ve told Conrad that I would help him jump ship, but if he does, I have my own contingency plan to ensure he won’t get very far.”
“That’s good Henry, but listen for God’s sake, be careful. This man you’re hunting is very dangerous. He is capable of killing, not only girls but anyone he might think is getting in his way. Good luck.”
“Thanks Danny, and good luck to you.”
Henry was lying in his bunk, studying his atlas. He looked at his watch it was just coming up to midnight. Gary Conrad came in with a towel around his middle after showering.
“Have you decided what you are doing?”
“I’m going.”
“Do you want me to do anything like keep look out or such?”
“Would you come out on deck and keep lookout on the policeman at the end of the gangway? I’ve been watching him and he often comes on board to go into the pantry to get a cup of tea from our watchman.”
“What time does he generally do that?”
“They make tea at three so that’s the time I intended to go.”
“I’m getting a bit of shut eye. Call me when you’re ready to go.”
“Right mate, I’ll do that.”
Henry showered and went to his duty. He laid the saloon table before the second steward asked him the whereabouts of Gary. “I don’t know, he wasn’t in his bunk this morning, that’s all I know.”
The chief steward came into the pantry, “the galley boy is missing.” Then the second steward chipped in, “and Gary Conrad is also on the missing list.”
“Two gone?
“Better report this to the captain, are you sure now lads?”
“They’re just not around,” was the second steward’s reply.
Henry said nothing and went about his duty laying the saloon tables. The officers arrived for breakfast and all the talk was about the two missing men. The silos were pumping the last of our cargo into the holds and a buzz at the prospect of sailing was in the air. The captain came and sat at the head of his table. He’d aged years in a few days; he looked feeble and helpless as he turned to the chief officer. “Did you notify the authorities of our two jumping ship?”
“Yes sir, I did. If we don’t get them back we’ll find it hard to get any crewmen to replace them, with the name this ship has now gotten for herself.”
“I couldn’t agree more, it’s a sad day for us all. How did they get ashore, wasn’t there a policeman on duty?”