Dangerous Inheritance

by Dennis Wheatley

  When they had done, Rex’s usually smiling face was set in a grim frown, and he said, ‘Then young Truss has gotten himself in one hell of a mess. It’ll be prison for him if he’s caught, and it’s a dollar to a dime that he will be. It’s certain that the police will telephone ahead and have road blocks put out.’

  ‘Um,’ Simon nodded. ‘And it’s not even as if they’d got a good start. Full marks to them, though, for making the attempt. Poor little Fleur. She seems fated to get herself in muddles.’

  The Duke looked at van Goens. ‘When do you think we can hope to get any news?’

  ‘I expect there will be an announcement over the radio in the first news bulletin tomorrow morning,’ the ex-Inspector replied. ‘But I’ve still a few good friends in the police; so I thought I’d go out and see if I can pick up anything.’

  His suggestion was accepted gratefully, and when he left them the Duke had some cold supper sent up for his friends. While they ate it he told them in more detail about the part that Mirabelle had played and the finding by Truss and Fleur of Vinala Fernando’s remains.

  ‘If only we could have hooked that on to Lalita,’ Rex sighed. Then, after a moment, he added, ‘I’ll tell you what, though. If we put every private dick in Colombo on the job we might get him for having done in his mistress. If we could, and seeing we could show his motive, that would put Truss and Fleur in better case as having enabled Douglas to escape only because they had grounds to believe that Lalita intended to have him murdered, too.’

  ‘Um. Well worth trying,’ Simon agreed.

  The Duke nodded. ‘We will talk to van Goens about this, when he gets back. If we succeeded, with strong representations from the American Ambassador and British High Commissioner, we might even get our young people off.’

  It was midnight by the time van Goens returned. Momentarily their faces brightened as he said, ‘They got clear of Colombo,’ then fell again when he added, ‘but only by shooting up the police car that was following them. The incident occurred out in the suburbs. Apparently Mr. Van Ryn blazed off through the back window with the Sten gun he snatched.’

  ‘Oh, God! Did he kill anyone?’ gasped Rex.

  ‘No, sir. I think he did his best to avoid that by firing low at the radiator and tyres. But the car ended up in a hedge and the two men in it were badly injured. One was a sergeant in the Security Service. He was cut about the face and may lose an eye. The other was a clerk at Police Headquarters. He’s got a broken arm and two smashed ribs. To that we have to add that the shots I heard when I was outside the prison were Mr. Van Ryn putting two bullets through the foot of a warder.’

  Rex groaned, ‘May the Lord deliver us. How’ll we ever get him out of this?’

  There was no comfort that his friends could offer the unhappy father, and nothing they could do but wait for a radio announcement in the morning. De Richleau then put up the idea of making the utmost efforts to trace Mirabelle’s murderer.

  Van Goens shook his head. ‘The police will be treating it only as a routine case, Your Grace; and in the bad part of the city such murders occur with some frequency, so they are rarely solved. I’ll put all my own men on the job and instruct the other agencies if you wish, but I can’t hold out much hope of success. It’s a hundred to one that d’Azavedo paid some criminal to kill her for him, and even if the man were traced I doubt if we’d get any further. If he could be persuaded to give away who employed him, directly an investigator learned that it was Colonel d’Azavedo he would drop the enquiry like a hot brick. He’d be too scared for his own skin to get himself into a tangle with a senior officer of the Security Service.’

  ‘Nevertheless, I would like you to do all you can,’ replied the Duke. ‘And put an advertisement in all the papers as soon as possible, offering a reward of five thousand rupees for information leading to the murderer.’

  Next morning they waited impatiently for the news. The papers carried only brief stop-press statements, but it ranked as second item in the radio bulletin. From its earlier part they learned nothing new, but it went on to state that after scattering police who had endeavoured to halt the escapers’ car in Gampaha, the car had been found abandoned at the entrance to a village eight miles beyond the town, and that from the village the car of a Mr. Nissanka had been stolen; so it was assumed that the fugitives had continued their journey in that. The number and make of the car were then given, followed by descriptions of Douglas, Fleur and Truss with an urgent appeal to the public to acquaint the police at once with any information which might lead to the arrest of these dangerous criminals.

  Why they should have abandoned their own car for a 1954 Ford the listeners could not imagine, but they took considerable comfort from the knowledge that the fugitives had succeeded in evading capture during the night. Given sufficient petrol, even in an old Ford they should have had no difficulty in covering the hundred and forty miles to the neighbourhood of Kalkudah while darkness lasted; so, unless they had met with an accident, they should by then have been at the rendezvous for some hours.

  The Duke produced his map and Rex agreed that Elephant Point being such a prominent feature on that part of the east coast, with the aid of the railway line from Polonnaruwa to Kalkudah he should have no difficulty in locating it. Then he said:

  ‘I’ll not take the Captain of my aircraft because if trouble arises out of this he could be charged with taking an active part in an illegal operation. But I’ve had plenty of practice landing my big new kite; so you need have no worries about that.’

  Knowing that he had been a member of the Eagle Squadron—that gallant band of Americans who had volunteered for service with the R.A.F. long before the United States had entered the war—the others did not doubt his capabilities for a moment, as he went on:

  ‘My crew can’t be held responsible for anything I do, and in case you wanted to make a quick get-out I told them last night that they must stand by for a take-off any time. But there’ll be formalities to go through at Katunayake even though I’ll say I’m only flying up to Trinco’, and some of those surly bastards there may create delays; so I’ll get off right away.’

  Soon after they had wished him luck and he had left them, Mr. Rajapakse was announced. The elderly lawyer was both agitated and angry. Very naturally he was greatly distressed about Douglas but he held Truss and Fleur to blame for having greatly intensified the trouble his son was in, through having organised his escape. With good reason he contended that, whereas Douglas had been arrested only for a very minor offence, his having broken prison with companions who had fired upon the police had both ruined his career and laid him open to the most serious penalties.

  Unless they confided to him the whole of their dealings with Lalita and Mirabelle, he could not be given the imperative reason for getting Douglas out of prison; and that de Richleau was averse to doing. Much, too, as he would have liked to comfort the distraught father, to let him know that there was a good chance that his son might be picked up and flown out to Madras that afternoon would have been to risk his telling his wife and other interested parties, so have jeopardised the security of the operation. In consequence the Duke took the blame on himself for having organised the escape and, for some ten minutes, showed considerable forbearance in listening to a diatribe of tearful reproach from his visitor.

  Mr. Rajapakse having taken his departure, van Goens came in to report that he had engaged every ‘private eye’ available in Colombo to investigate Mirabelle’s murder and that he had put his own staff on to check up on Lalita’s movements for the whole of the Tuesday, in the hope that should the murderer be run to earth it could be shown that Lalita had been in communication with him.

  As a precaution against the fugitives being captured, the Duke and Simon sat down to compose a note of warning for Richard. When they had agreed upon it, the cable ran:

  Regret to tell you Fleur in serious trouble. Stop. Rex and Simon with me and hope to deal with situation. Stop. Will keep you informed of developments.
Stop. Love to you both from us all de Richleau.

  Simon went down to send it off and they then waited anxiously for the midday news. After a repetition of the gist of the earlier announcement it was stated that that the Ford had been found abandoned thirteen miles south of Dambulla and it was believed that the fugitives had taken to the jungle in that neighbourhood. An intensive search was in progress for them and it was not expected that they could for long remain untraced. A reward of two thousand rupees was offered for information that would lead to their capture.

  As they listened de Richleau and Simon looked at one another in dismay, then Simon said, ‘This is bad! Oh, very bad! Unless they’ve managed to pinch another car they’ll never get to Elephant Point by this afternoon.’

  ‘No,’ the Duke agreed, with a heavy sigh. ‘And if those three poor children have taken to the jungle, Lord help them. Douglas may know something of it, but being a townsman I doubt that. I do, of course, from my travels in many places; but I have always gone on safari with the best weapons, trackers who knew their work, and a score of porters bearing tents, food and other necessities. Without such aids they are certain to lose their way, and become exposed to all sorts of dangers—wild animals, snakes, blundering into morasses, not to mention the leeches and mosquitoes.’

  They lunched with little appetite and spent a miserable afternoon. At half past five Rex returned angry and disgruntled. Having said that the airport people had made no trouble about his taking off, he went on:

  ‘But that bloody fool van Goens has let us down. Elephant Point is no more than a rocky promontory and for miles on either side of it the jungle comes right down to the sea. Even a helicopter couldn’t land anywhere near. He ought to have proposed a rendezvous north of Trinco’, somewhere on the Vanni coast. It’s all sandy desert up there. I passed over it three weeks back when we flew down from Delhi.’

  ‘See any signs of them on the Cape?’ Simon asked. ‘They should have been wearing bright red handkerchiefs on their heads.’

  ‘Not a thing. And I hadn’t much hope I would after having learned about the noon broadcast, though I flew up all the same. Seems they’re bogged down in the jungle some place short of Dambulla. All we’ve got to hang on to now is that they’re still free. But how long they’ll remain so, God alone knows.’

  ‘Then you missed the news summary that is put out at two o’clock every afternoon,’ said the Duke. ‘From it we learned that early this morning a horse and covered cart were stolen in the southern outskirts of Dambulla and the police think it probable that the fugitives have continued their journey in it. That at least improves their chances. In a day and a night, even allowing for half that time being given to resting the horse, a light cart might cover the seventy or eighty miles between Dambulla and Elephant Point.’

  ‘Then there’s a hope they’ll make it!’ Rex declared with sudden optimism, ‘anyhow by tonight. I’ll fly up again tomorrow.’

  Simon shook his head. ‘What’s the good if you can’t land and pick them up?’

  ‘I could drop a message,’ Rex suggested. ‘Give them a date to pick them up some place north of Trinco’.’

  ‘Ner. That would mean another eighty-mile trek for them and nights sleeping in the jungle. Doubt if they’d ever make it. Got to think of another way. Now, wait a minute; I’ll tell you. We’ll hire a motor launch. Go up and take them off in that. Then go on to some little port in southern India.’

  ‘Crossing the island to Kalkudah by road is only about a hundred and forty miles; but to go half-way round it by sea is a very different matter,’ the Duke demurred. ‘I think it very unlikely that you would be able to get there that way by tomorrow afternoon.’

  Getting out the map, they made a rough assessment of the distance and estimated that for a launch keeping in fairly close to the coast it would be about three hundred and sixty miles.

  ‘Not a hope for tomorrow afternoon, then,’ Simon muttered. ‘Should be able to get there next day, though—sometime Sunday. If they do manage to reach Elephant Point, it’s unlikely they’ll leave it. Not till they decide there’s no hope of their being picked up, anyhow.’

  ‘Simon’s right,’ said the Duke. ‘Both about going up in a sea-going launch and that they will remain there until they despair of your coming to their rescue. Where else could they go? They are utterly unfitted to maintain themselves for any length of time in the jungle; and on Truss’s performance so far I don’t see them giving themselves up.’

  ‘O.K.’ Rex stood up. ‘I’d best go out and set about hiring a suitable vessel. If I’m to make the rendezvous by Sunday I’ll have to have her put to sea first thing tomorrow morning.’

  Simon stood up too. ‘Think I’ll come with you. Wouldn’t have been any use in your aircraft, and I’ve never been much good in a boat except…’ he tittered into his hand, ‘an electric canoe on the Thames in the reaches above Maidenhead. But you’ll have a Sinhalese crew. May make trouble when they tumble to what we’re up to. You show me how and I might help to read the Riot Act.’

  For the first time in hours, Rex grinned. ‘That’s true. I’d be glad to have you along, Simon. Let’s get going.’

  While they were absent the evening news broadcast took place. The Rajapakse escape had become Number One news item. But it was clear that the police were baffled. They asked the public to keep a look-out for the fugitives, either in a covered cart or on foot, in all parts of central Ceylon. So evidently they had no idea whether their quarry had continued on to the north, turned east or west, or possibly turned back south into the jungles of the highlands.

  When Rex and Simon returned, de Richleau gave them this good news and, somewhat cheered, they all went down to dinner. Over the meal the others told him that they had succeeded in chartering a sea-going launch with a crew of four, ostensibly for a trip up to Trincomalee, and had arranged with her captain to go on board at six o’clock next morning. They had then gone to the American Embassy and Rex had borrowed, through one of his friends there, two pistols and ammunition, in case the crew of the launch had to be coerced into obeying orders, and a Stars and Stripes to show if they entered any port. Later Simon got hold of the head waiter and gave him a handsome tip to have a hamper full of food and drink packed up to take with them.

  When they had returned to the sitting room, de Richleau asked Rex, ‘If you succeed in picking them up and reaching southern India, what do you intend to do then?’

  ‘We’ll make for the nearest city that has an airport. That will probably be Madras. Then I’ll cable the Captain of my aircraft to bring her over. You and Max can come in her. Then, after dropping you all off in Europe, Truss and I’ll head for home.’

  The Duke nodded. ‘Thank you, Rex. I only pray that we may all meet in India in a few days’ time. What I had in mind, though, was that the attention of the police might be drawn to a cable from Truss’s father and they would think it very queer that you should have left Ceylon while your son was still a hunted man. If they then communicate with the Indian authorities at the place from which the cable was sent they will learn that Truss, Fleur and Douglas are with you, and out of malice may impound your aircraft.’

  ‘Yes; I suppose that is a possibility.’

  ‘We could avert it if instead of a cable to your Captain, in which you would have to use your name, you sent one to me. Simply the name of the city you wish your ‘plane to go to with the spelling reversed and signed … well, let us say Porthos. But you will have to give me a note for your Captain telling him to act on any instructions I may give him.’

  ‘Um! Excellent idea,’ Simon nodded. ‘Can’t be too careful.’ So, sitting down at the desk, Rex wrote the note. Then, as they had to be up very early in the morning, de Richleau wished them luck and they went off to bed.

  Next day the papers splashed the Rajapakses’ escape. There were long articles about it, a photograph of Douglas with an account of his career, another of Fleur, with particulars of her social activities and work for the Family Pla
nning Association, others of the warder who had been shot, the injured sergeant and the wrecked car.

  Van Goens busied himself all day with the attempt to trace Mirabelle’s murderer, so the Duke spent the long hours alone, a prey to alternate hopes and fears. There was no fresh news until the evening broadcast, when it was given out that the stolen covered cart had been found with one of its wheels off at the side of the road from Polonnaruwa to Kalkudah. On hearing this, de Richleau’s gloom increased as he thought of the three young people now, presumably on foot and faced with the dangers of the jungle.

  After an almost sleepless night, he sent early for the Sunday papers. They again contained many columns about Douglas and Fleur. Photographs of their marriage had been dug up, and enlargements made of Richard, Marie Lou and de Richleau himself. He was stated to be Fleur’s grandfather and Truss to be her cousin. About Truss, Rex and the millionaire banking family to which they belonged there were also pieces.

  The tone of many of the articles caused the Duke additional worry; as it was clear that for Douglas, having been a well-liked and respected man, there would have been considerable sympathy had he remained in prison only on a charge of receiving smuggled goods, and it was implied that he had foolishly allowed himself to be persuaded into making his escape; whereas Fleur and Truss were condemned for having made it possible and the injuries that had been inflicted on their victims had aroused public indignation to a point which made it certain that any court would deal harshly with them if they were captured.

  An hour later a cable was brought to him. It read:

  Away from home when yours arrived. Stop. Comforted that you are coping but greatly worried. Stop. Have booked seats on Tuesday’s aircraft will fly out if you advise. Stop. Our thoughts are with you all. Stop. Richard Marie Lou.

  For the time being he could send them no word of comfort, and if the pick-up planned for that afternoon proved successful there would be no point in their making the long, expensive journey. So he decided not to send a further cable until he had definite news.