It was hopeless. Even as I ducked into the cabin I caught the acrid and dangerous stink of petrol. It was so strong that I knew any attempt to start the engines would send the boat up like a bomb. Philips had not only wrecked the radio but he’d done something to the fuel system. I doubted if he’d holed the tanks, but the fuel lines were probably ruptured. There’d be enough petrol slopping around in the bilges to blow the boat into matchwood.
I went back on the quay and looked at the other boat, the one in which the reinforcement had arrived. It was then I realised I didn’t even know who I had killed – was it Steve or Terry?
The boat was small, about nine feet long, and with a four-horse pusher at the stern. To take a thing like that to sea at night carrying a badly injured woman would be an act of madness. I didn’t know the waters, I didn’t even know if I could negotiate the pass through the coral and, if we got outside, those long Atlantic trade wind rollers were too much to face at night in a small open boat.
I looked across at the mainland again. There was only one thing for it: to cross the lagoon and see what I could do over there. If Bette Haslam’s friends were anything like Bette Haslam, that would be like a solitary Christian entering an arena full of lions. She had cooked up this mad scheme of hijacking LH713, and anyone she had persuaded to go along with her would be as crazy as she was. The plan she had developed was pretty elaborate, so it was likely there’d be a whole pack of wild beasts.
I went back into the house to check my lion-taming equipment. There were three pistols: Bette’s, with seven rounds, Negrini’s with four, and Steve’s – or Terry’s – with a full clip of eight. I laid the guns in a line and went over to Leotta. ‘How are you doing?’
‘Better,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry that Jill got caught in the crossfire.’
‘Not your fault,’ I said. ‘You did what you had to do. Jill was just unlucky – collateral damage, as they call it in the army. Are you up to moving?’
‘Where to?’ she asked cautiously.
I didn’t answer that one immediately because I didn’t know how she’d take it. ‘Have some more tea,’ I said. ‘And put a slug of rum in it this time.’
The shrill ringing of the telephone made everyone jump. John immediately made as if to answer it, so I said, ‘Don’t touch that phone.’ He looked quizzically at me. ‘That’s got to be a call coming in from Mrs Haslam’s crowd. They’re in control of the exchange. If you answer it, they’ll want to speak to her and they’ll know something’s up.’
Leotta said, ‘If we don’t answer it, they’ll still know something’s up.’
She was right, damn it, but it was the lesser of two evils. I said, ‘Better that they wonder what the hell’s going on over here than that they know for sure that she’s run into trouble. With a bit of luck they’ll leave it for a while and try phoning again before they think of coming over here to check on her.’
I turned away and took John by the elbow, leading him out of earshot. ‘Are there any weapons in the house?’ I asked in a low voice.
‘No, sir. There’s nothing to shoot on the estate.’ I smiled at the irony. ‘All we have is fishing gear.’
‘Scuba stuff?’
‘Some of that, sir.’
‘Show me.’
I followed him through the house until we entered a room at the other side. I flashed the light around and saw game fishing rods racked up neatly and air bottles in a row against the wall. ‘Are you looking for anything special, sir?’
‘Spear guns.’
‘Ah!’ He stepped forward and opened a cupboard. I shone the light over the racked guns. Well, not guns, really – more like catapults for shooting spears. I took one that looked powerful and selected three spears. Shooting pistols causes loud bangs and I had an idea it would be better to be as quiet as possible on the mainland. The ability to kill silently at a distance appealed to me.
I said, ‘How old are you, John?’
‘Seventy-four, sir.’ He paused. ‘Why, sir?’
‘I’m going to the mainland and I’d like someone to come with me. I don’t know the ground over there and I’ll be likely to stumble into trouble alone. I need someone who can direct me to the telephone exchange.’
There was a silence before he said, ‘I can do that, sir.’
As soon as he spoke I regretted opening my mouth. It was a completely unfair position to put him in and I had no right to do it. It would have been a hell of a thing to ask someone half his age.
I shook my head in the darkness. ‘No, forget it. I shouldn’t have asked. It’s too much. You stay here and look after Mrs Salton. Miss Tomsson is elected for the job.’
‘Miss Tomsson? Is she well enough, sir?’
‘She’ll have to be,’ I said unsympathetically.
‘But sir – you don’t know where the telephone exchange is.’
‘Draw me a diagram,’ I said.
II
When we got back, Leotta was on her knees by Jill. If it hadn’t been for the bandage on her arm and a few splashes of blood on her clothes, I’d have said she was fully fit and ready for action. I squatted down beside them. ‘How are things, Jill?’
‘Not too good,’ she whispered. ‘I’m okay if I don’t move.’
‘I’m going out to roust up a doctor. You just lie quietly.’
Leotta said, ‘Where are you going?’
‘Ashore. It’s time the telephone exchange was opened up for outgoing calls. Come on.’
I stood up and she scrambled to her feet. As I turned away she caught my arm. ‘Me?’
I laid a comforting hand on hers, where she was clutching me, then I turned away and crossed the room. ‘John, can you fire a pistol?’
‘I never have done, sir. You just point and pull the trigger?’
‘Take the safety catch off first.’ I gave him the pistol with the full clip as Leotta arrived at my side. I said, ‘It’s possible that someone will come looking for Bette. You’ll have to hold the fort, John.’
‘I’ll do my best, sir.’ His voice was as quiet and tranquil as though I’d asked him to serve the midday rum punch.
‘Before you shoot, make sure it’s not us coming back.’
‘I’ll turn on the lights outside,’ he said. ‘There’s a switch by the door.’
‘That’s a good idea.’ I paused, wanting to bolster Leotta for what might lie ahead. ‘Miss Tomsson and I will be trying to stay out of trouble over there. You might find trouble looking for you, John. Think you can handle it?’
‘I can try.’
‘That’s all anyone can do. Come on, Leotta.’ Without giving her time to think, I walked to the door. When I got to the edge of the quay she was still with me, so I said, ‘Get into the boat.’
She stepped down into the small boat and I handed her the spear gun and the spears before joining her. My pockets were heavy with two pistols but I didn’t want to burden her with the responsibility of carrying one. She’d made a fine job of patching herself up, but firing a gun with only one useable arm is a tough proposition. I wasn’t even sure about the spear gun but I figured it would be less of a liability than a pistol. I flashed the light discreetly at the engine and found the pull cord. As I was wrapping it around the pulley, she said in a low voice, ‘I must be mad.’
‘Everybody’s mad tonight, Leotta,’ I said. ‘Your only chance of coming out on top is to be madder than anyone else. That’s how wars are won.’
I hauled on the pull cord and the engine started the first time. I said, ‘Listen carefully. When we go across there we go quietly. The sole aim of this operation is to get to a working telephone and to be able to use it for at least five minutes – longer if possible, but five minutes will do. We don’t shoot at anyone and we try not to be shot at. Okay?’
I opened up the throttle but kept the speed down so as to make as little noise as possible. As we crossed the lagoon to the shore, I heard the insistent bell of the telephone in the house behind us and prayed nobody would have a brainstor
m and pick it up. After what seemed like an age, it fell silent. We neared the quay and I leaned forward and said to Leotta, ‘The exchange is in the estate office, in that group of buildings there.’
John’s diagram had been a relief. The exchange could have been up near the airstrip and I didn’t want to go anywhere near there. As we approached the quay, I cut the engine and drifted in to bump gently against the stonework. I grabbed the edge and held on, waiting and listening, but there was nothing to be heard. My fingers encountered a mooring ring, so I half-turned and whispered, ‘Give me the painter.’
When the boat was tethered, I went up on to the quay on my belly. A light shone from a building on the other side of the boathouse, where the estate office was, but that was all there was to be seen. Leotta handed up the spear gun and the spears, and I helped her ashore. I put my lips to her ear. ‘Stick close to me,’ I said. ‘We go all the way around and avoid open spaces.’
So we went quietly, trying to behave as much like ghosts as possible, and gradually we approached the window with light streaming from it. I flattened myself against a wall and edged closer to look inside the room. The first thing I saw was a switchboard, which made me more cheerful than I’d been in hours. The second thing was something that cut my cheerfulness off at the roots: a hand coming into view to pick up a cup of what could have been coffee.
I drew back my head, counted to ten, took a deep breath and looked again. The man was sitting at the switchboard sipping from the cup and reading a comic book. He must have given up trying to telephone the house. Maybe he thought Mrs Haslam was too busy showing off her sharpshooting skills to answer the phone – there had been plenty of shots fired, after all. As he put the cup down again and flipped a page, I glanced around the room and noted thankfully that he had his back to the door.
Again I withdrew, flapped my hand at Leotta, and ducked down to pass under the window and towards the door of the office. Gently I turned the handle and applied a slight pressure. It would be unreasonable to expect that the man had locked himself in, and I was glad to find that, in spite of the comic book evidence to the contrary, he was indeed a reasonable man. The door was open.
We slipped into a darkened hallway. A light shone under a door. I strung the spear gun, put in a spear, took a pistol from my pocket and whispered, ‘Open that door when I tell you. Quietly.’
We crept up to the door and I waited until Leotta had her hand on the door knob. ‘Now!’
Light flooded into the hall as the door swung open. The man had his back to me, teetering on two legs of the chair as he relished the adventures of Bugs Bunny. I stepped inside the room and said, ‘Take it easy.’
The two front legs of the chair thumped to the floor and the man looked over his shoulder. He froze as he saw me – and what I held in my hands. I went around in a semi-circle until I faced him and then approached to put the spear’s point to his throat. ‘If I pull this trigger that spear will go through your throat and six inches out the other side. All it needs is one squeak out of you.’
He leaned back, trying to avoid the point. I said, ‘Leotta, take this spear gun. Keep it where it is and if this boy makes a wrong move, pull the trigger.’
She came up and took the spear gun from me. Without using her left arm, she lodged the stock of the weapon against her torso to brace it and rested the point against the man’s throat. I kept him covered with the pistol as I moved behind him because with Leotta the way she was, I needed a reserve. Come to think of it, he didn’t know she was a semi-invalid and because her face was like death itself, perhaps she was the more effective. At any rate, he didn’t move a muscle.
I took the magazine from the pistol, ejected the round from the breech, then slammed the gun heavily against the side of the man’s head. He gasped and jerked as I hit him again and finally he collapsed. Leotta looked sick and lowered the spear gun.
I put my hand under the unconscious man’s armpits and hauled him away from the switchboard. There was a big cupboard with a lot of electrical repair gear in it, which came in very handy. There were some robust cables to tie him up with and the cupboard was big enough to hold him. Before I closed the door on him, I made sure he was securely gagged. It could be that he’d choke to death but I didn’t care much about that.
All this took time and when I had finished, I saw that Leotta was staring at the switchboard. I said, ‘Can you work this thing?’
She shook her head. ‘I wouldn’t know how.’
‘Okay,’ I said as I sat down. ‘Stand by and keep watch.’ I looked at the switchboard and bit my lip. There were a lot of wires ending in jacks and a lot of corresponding sockets. The problem was which jack went into which socket to get an outside line? I didn’t want to make a mistake and have bells jangling indiscriminately on the estate.
There was a group of three jacks at the top of the board, which were isolated. I pulled at one of them and it came out trailing a wire. Now the problem was where to put it. I put on the earphones, adjusted the microphone under my chin, and hesitated with my hand poised. There were three sockets at the bottom of the board so I held my breath, plugged the jack into one of them, and was rewarded by the welcome sound of the dialling tone.
Rapidly I dialled Hanna’s number and while I listened to the ringing tone, I scanned the board. Some of the sockets were labelled and some weren’t, but one was marked ‘Butler’s Pantry’ and I noted that for future reference.
Someone came on the line. ‘Superintendent Hanna’s office.’
‘I want to speak to Hanna.’
‘I’m sorry, sir. I think he has just left.’
‘Get him,’ I said savagely. ‘For Christ’s sake, get him!’
‘Is it an urgent matter, sir?’
I held myself in. ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Very urgent.’
‘I’ll see if he’s still in the building.’ The telephone at the other end clattered.
I waited for five full, fat minutes, each one containing more seconds than a respectable minute should. I looked around to see where Leotta was and saw she was at the window. ‘Not there,’ I said. ‘You can be seen against the light. Go out into the hall and wait at the main door. Have it open a crack so you can see.’ I nodded towards the spear gun. ‘Do you think you can handle that thing? You might need it.’
Leotta nodded, grabbed the spear gun and went out into the hallway. I could hear her struggling to manipulate it with her one good arm.
Time crawled on.
Something graunched in my ear and a familiar voice said, ‘Superintendent Hanna speaking.’
‘This is Kemp. I want you …’
‘I’ve been trying to get hold of you,’ he said.
‘Shut up!’ I snarled. ‘Listen but don’t interrupt. There’s a flight to Frankfurt tonight – LH713. It’s carrying a few million dollars …’
He came in quickly. ‘I know that, but how do you?’
‘Will you, for Christ’s sake, shut up and listen? If you can, stop the flight. It’s going to be hijacked.’
His voice changed suddenly to a sharp crispness. ‘Wait!’ He was gone a couple of minutes then came back. ‘Go on.’
‘It’ll fly out, give a Mayday call, and then vanish from the radar. You’re supposed to think it’s crashed. It’ll be landing at El Cerco some time after that. This is what it’s all been about, Hanna. This is why Salton was killed.’
‘Where are you?’
‘At El Cerco. We’re in a tricky position. There’s a gang here, number unknown. I’m ringing from the estate exchange but I don’t know how long I can stick here. Get your men here fast.’
‘That could be difficult. El Cerco is isolated. You’d better get out of there.’
‘The gates will be guarded,’ I said. ‘Besides, I’m needed here. There’s been a lot of killing, Hanna. Negrini’s dead and so is Mrs Haslam and another man. Jill Salton has been shot in the gut and she’s in a bad way. We need a doctor.’
There was a startled silence. ‘Jesus!’ said
Hanna uncharacteristically. ‘That sounds like a massacre.’
‘It’ll be worse than that if you don’t move fast. That plane is full of passengers.’
I gave him a brief rundown of what had happened and our present position, and ended by saying, ‘We’re going back to the house. I don’t have the muscle to face this lot. I think I can plug in a telephone line to the house, so wait for my ring. It’ll come inside an hour or not at all. Don’t you ring here because I might make a mistake on the switchboard, and I don’t want telephones ringing on the estate.’
‘All right,’ he said. ‘I’ll wait for your call, but I’ll get things moving at this end. I’ve already enquired about the plane. No answer yet.’
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Wish me luck. And pull your finger out.’
I broke the connection and plugged in the outside line to the socket marked ‘Butler’s Pantry’, then I picked up the pistol and went into the hall, closing the door behind me. Leotta was by the office entrance. ‘Anyone out there?’ I asked softly.
‘I haven’t seen anyone.’
I took her place and checked outside. Nothing moved, so I said, ‘We’re going back to the house.’ She sighed heavily, as though in relief.
We slipped outside and I carefully closed the door to the office, then we flitted back the way we had come. As we approached the boathouse, I heard voices and the crunch of gravel on the road leading up to the airstrip. Before I knew what was happening, Leotta grabbed my wrist and pulled me inside the boathouse with her. We stood behind the open door and listened. My heart was beating like a trip hammer. God knows what Leotta felt like.
The voices came nearer and I could distinguish the words. A deep voice was saying, ‘… should have been back by now. Goddamn that trigger-happy bitch! She’ll wreck this operation.’
‘We didn’t reckon on Kemp coming back by sea,’ said the other, lighter voice. ‘Someone had to go out there and keep a lid on things.’
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