An ambulance wailed in the distance. The Spaniards had used their radio to call one. Robert looked down at the handcuffs around his wrists and grimaced.
“Guess I’ll be going away for a while. But hey, the police chief is right. At least I’ll be able to kick the bottle. Maybe it’s better this way.”
I put a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll put in a word and make sure you don’t get accessory for murder. Saving the police chief’s life will probably shave a few years off too.”
Robert nodded, not looking at me.
I walked outside. I needed some air. Gerald was out there smoking a cigarette and watching the ambulance round the corner of the old fort and make its way toward us.
“He’s a friend of yours?” Gerald asked incredulously.
“He’s not a bad guy. Just a drunk. Just a dumb drunk who wanted a second chance and loused it all up.”
“Another victim of Tangier,” Gerald said, dropping his cigarette on the ground and crushing it with his heel.
CHAPTER TWENTY
When we got back to Tangier police headquarters, we hadn’t sat down in Gerald’s office for more than ten seconds before Chason burst in, his face livid. He thumped down two books and a stack of photos on Gerald’s desk.
“Look at this! Just look at this!”
We looked, and it was all we could do not to laugh. The books were two of the dirty French ones Electric Eddie had shown me at his house.
“These got sent to my wife! The nerve of some people. And the photos are worse. To think someone would debase the good name of the French Foreign Legion with such filth.”
I picked up the stack of pictures. They showed a bunch of legionnaires, sans pantalon, doing unnatural things to camels.
“The poor camels,” I said. Gerald plucked a photo out of my hand.
“They’re going to get fleas if they keep that up,” he said.
“I’m surprised they can keep it up at all,” I said. Gerald put his hand over his mouth to hide his smile.
“This is outrageous!” Chason bellowed.
“Any suspects?” I asked, wearing my best poker face.
Chason threw his hands up. “In this town of degenerates, who knows? It could have been any of a thousand people. To find such things in my wife’s bureau is an intolerable insult. I swear I will track the person down. I’ll do it if it takes a year!”
“Best get started then, my good man,” Gerald said.
Chason stormed back out, slamming the door behind him.
Gerald pulled out his bottle of Scotch and two glasses. “Notice how he said he found them in his wife’s bureau?”
“Yeah,” I said as I took the glass he offered me. “Looks like the little lady kinda liked what she saw.”
“Just goes to show you shouldn’t look in your wife’s bureau,” Gerald said, sipping his Scotch. “You might not like what you find. Best to stay unattached like we are.”
“Speaking of, we need to count out Melanie’s money, and everyone else’s share as well.”
Gerald took out the money we’d recovered and with my tally sheet started counting out the cash for each and every one of the customers who had hired me. The envelope Robert had been carrying in his jacket contained the exact amount taken from our friends. The poor guy had been good to his word.
“So what’s going to happen to the Greeks?” I asked.
“They’ve hired a lawyer, a good one. The regular sailors are all claiming they knew nothing about the cocaine. Most likely they’ll be found innocent or get a slap on the wrist.”
“Good. They’re just working men.”
“Working men working as smugglers,” the police chief grumbled. “The first mate was caught red handed so he’ll be doing some years. Demitrios will as well since it’s his ship. I doubt if we can make them accessories to the bank heist. We have no solid proof.”
“We have that confession.”
“We have a confession that they threw some furniture and a bank safe in the water. A good lawyer can assert that they didn’t know about the stolen money. The best we can hang on them is illegal dumping.”
I chuckled, then grew serious. “I suppose Tymon gets a murder rap.”
“Only for a heroin dealer, and he cooperated with police. He won’t hang. Considering the circumstances his lawyer will probably be able to plea bargain it down to manslaughter.”
“There’s that at least. And Robert?”
“Grand theft and fraud, with a few years knocked off for saving our lives. I’ve put in a word with the judge.”
I shook my head and helped Gerald count out the rest of the dough. He poured me a second Scotch without asking, knowing that I needed it. We doubled checked each amount, making sure each person got their share before the banks got their grubby mitts into it. I even counted out Laszlo’s money, minus my expenses. After a bit of paperwork, Gerald put the stacks of notes into separate envelopes with each customer’s name on them and entrusted them to an officer. The customers would have to come to the station and sign for them. I wondered if Laszlo would dare. Gerald handed me Melanie’s envelope.
“I trust you with this.”
“Very nice of you.”
“You’d best be on your way. I suspect Melanie is anxious to see you.”
I waved the envelope in the air. “She’s anxious to see this.”
Melanie was over the moon to get her money back. As soon as I showed up at her cafe and the waiter announced “Le Petit”, she hooked an arm around me and led me upstairs to her apartment. I told her everything that had happened.
“Poor Robert,” she said. “We all liked him, but he should have never moved here.”
“You know Paul, Jane’s husband? He once told me that while Tangier doesn’t make a man fall to pieces, it attracts men who are going fall to pieces anyway.”
“That sure is the truth,” she said, spreading out the money on the bed. “At least I won’t fall to pieces. I get to keep my cafe and stay right here with you to make sure you don’t fall to pieces either.”
“Me? Fall to pieces? There’s too much to do. Me and Electric Eddie have a thousand copies of the Communist Manifesto to distribute.”
She looked up and me. “Not tonight you don’t. You’re taking me out.”
I ran my fingers thought that lovely blonde hair. “Sounds good to me. What shall we do tonight?” I asked.
“Want to go to Dean’s?”
I grimaced. “Too much of a fuss. Let’s wait on Dean’s until this thing blows over. They’ll be gossiping about something else soon enough.”
Tangier had a long memory but a short attention span. They’d be gabbling about something else before week’s end, but the story of the stolen bank would come up again every now and then. It was sure to become yet another Tangier legend.
Melanie gave me a sultry smile. “Why don’t you give me a cigarette while we’re thinking about it?”
I pulled a pack out of my pocket and gave it a little jerk so one stood out. She looked me in the eye as she took it and put it to her lips.
Fast draw. We both pulled out our lighters and lit them. She beat me by a mile. Maybe I should let her come along for the gunfights after all.
We paused. Smiled. Put the flames together. Melanie lit.
Leaning back, she took a long drag, letting the smoke waft out her nostrils. Then she put the cigarette to my lips.
I breathed it in, filled my lungs. Next thing I knew her lips were to mine, and I let out a slow exhalation into her mouth. We eased into a long, languishing, deep kiss as the cigarette smoke shrouded us in haze.
What happened after that is none of your damn business.
HISTORICAL NOTE
Tangier in northern Morocco was an International Protectorate from 1924 until a newly independent Morocco reclaimed it in 1956. During those years, the city and a small area of land around it was dubbed the International Zone and ruled jointly by the United Kingdom, France, Spain, the United States, Portugal, Italy, Bel
gium, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Until independence, the rest of Morocco was divided up between France and Spain, with little left over for the Moroccan Sultan.
For reasons that remain unclear, the various powers decided to make Tangier not only a free port, but a place that allowed what those governments never allowed back home. Drugs were rampant. Prostitutes of both sexes and all ages were freely available. Money laundering was smiled at, passports cursorily checked, and only the simplest paperwork was required to set up any sort of business. It was a place where one could reinvent oneself. And for many, that reinvention was the path to quick personal downfall. Tangier has always been a relaxed but not terribly forgiving town, and the stories of the wastrels and overdoses outnumber the tales of the glamorous parties and scintillating cafe conversation.
The theft of the South Continental Bank was an actual incident, although the particulars around the crime are all my own invention. As far as my research shows, the real Pieter Vlamin got away with his clients’ savings, never to be seen again.
Besides the slippery Mr. Vlamin, many of the other characters in this book are real people. Observant readers will have already picked out William S. Burroughs as well as Paul and Jane Bowles. All three became important writers, although Jane Bowles has now sadly been all but forgotten. Jane’s mental problems and substance abuse only got worse, and she died young. Her husband continued to live and write in Tangier for several more decades.
Kiki stayed with William S. Burroughs for a couple of years before he grew too old to keep the writer’s attention. Eventually he moved to Spain, where he was murdered by a male lover in Madrid.
Dean of Dean’s Bar was a famous figure throughout the last years of the Interzone era. It would be impossible to write a book set in that time and not have Dean’s bar in it because, as they used to say, “Everybody goes to Dean’s.”
Gerald Richardson was the real Tangier chief of police at the time of the South Continental Bank disappearance, and he did write his memoirs. Crime Zone was published in 1959. While long out of print, it is well worth tracking down for those with an interest in the era. It is this book that first alerted me to the strange story of the stolen bank.
Other books that helped me were The Dream at the End of the World: Paul Bowles and the Literary Renegades of Tangier by Michelle Green, and Tangier: City of the Dream by Iain Finlayson. Both have proven to be invaluable sources of information, as have my many friends and acquaintances in Tangier, where this book was written.
I would also like to thank the librarians at the American Legation in Tangier for opening up their research facility to me. The Legation library has one of the best collections on Moroccan history and culture in the world, and an excellent archive of the Tangier Gazette.
(Oh, and Mister Bob was real too, although that cry has not been heard on the streets of the city for many years.)
About the Author
Sean McLachlan worked for ten years as an archaeologist in Israel, Cyprus, Bulgaria, and the United States before becoming a full-time writer. He is the author of numerous fiction and nonfiction books, which are listed on the following pages. When he’s not writing, he enjoys hiking, reading, traveling, and, most of all, teaching his son about the world. He divides his time between Madrid, Oxford, and Cairo.
To find out more about Sean’s work and travels, visit him at his Amazon page or his blog, and feel free to friend him on Goodreads, Twitter, and Facebook.
You might also enjoy his newsletter, Sean’s Travels and Tales, which comes out every one or two months. Each issue features a short story, a travel article, a coupon for a free or discounted book, and updates on future projects. You can subscribe using this link. Your email will not be shared with anyone else.
Fiction by Sean McLachlan
The Case of the Purloined Pyramid (The Masked Man of Cairo Book One)
An ancient mystery. A modern murder.
Sir Augustus Wall, a horribly mutilated veteran of the Great War, has left Europe behind to open an antiquities shop in Cairo. But Europe’s troubles follow him as a priceless inscription is stolen and those who know its secrets start turning up dead. Teaming up with Egyptology expert Moustafa Ghani, and Faisal, an irritating street urchin he just can't shake, Sir Wall must unravel an ancient secret and face his own dark past.
Available in electronic and print editions!
The Case of the Shifting Sarcophagus (The Masked Man of Cairo Book Two)
An Old Kingdom coffin. A body from yesterday.
Sir Augustus Wall had seen a lot of death. From the fields of Flanders to the alleys of Cairo, he’d solved several murders and sent many men to their grave. But he’s never had a body delivered to his antiquities shop encased in a 5,000 year-old coffin.
Soon he finds himself fighting a vicious street gang bent on causing national mayhem while his assistant, Moustafa Ghani, faces his own enemies in the form of colonial powers determined to ruin him. Throughout all this runs the street urchin Faisal. Ignored as usual, dismissed as usual, he has the most important fight of all.
Available in electronic edition! Print edition coming soon!
Trench Raiders (Trench Raiders Book One)
September 1914: The British Expeditionary Force has the Germans on the run, or so they think.
After a month of bitter fighting, the British are battered, exhausted, and down to half their strength, yet they’ve helped save Paris and are pushing towards Berlin. Then the retreating Germans decide to make a stand. Holding a steep slope beside the River Aisne, the entrenched Germans mow down the advancing British with machine gun fire. Soon the British dig in too, and it looks like the war might grind down into deadly stalemate.
Searching through No-Man’s Land in the darkness, Private Timothy Crawford of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry finds a chink in the German armor. But can this lowly private, who spends as much time in the battalion guardhouse as he does on the parade ground, convince his commanding officer to risk everything for a chance to break through?
Trench Raiders is the first in a new series of action novels that will follow the brave men of the British Expeditionary Force through the major battles of the First World War a hundred years after they happened. The Battle of the Aisne was the start of trench warfare on the Western Front, and it was there that the British and Germans first honed their skills at a new, vicious brand of fighting.
Available in electronic edition!
Digging In (Trench Raiders Book Two)
October 1914: The British line is about to break.
After two months of hard fighting, the British Expeditionary Force is short of men, ammunition, and ideas. With their line stretched to the breaking point, aerial reconnaissance spots German reinforcements massing for the big push. As their trenches are hammered by a German artillery battery, the men of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry come up with a desperate plan—a daring raid behind enemy lines to destroy the enemy guns and give the British a chance to stop the German army from breaking through.
Digging In is the second in a new series of World War One action novels that will follow the brave men of the BEF through the major battles of the First World War a hundred years after they happened. The Battle of Ypres was the first of many great slaughters on the Western Front, and it was there that both sides learned the true horror of the world’s first global conflict.
Available in electronic edition!
No Man’s Land (Trench Raiders Book Three)
No Man’s Land—a hellscape of shell craters and dead bodies. Soldiers have fought over it, charged across it, and bled on it for a year of grueling war, but neither side has dominated it.
Until now.
An elite German raiding party is passing through No Man’s Land every night, attacking the British trenches at will. The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry need to reassert control over their front lines.
So the exhausted men of Company E decide to set a trap, a nighttime ambus
h in the middle of No Man’s Land, where any mistake can be fatal. But the few surviving veterans are leading recruits who have only been in the trenches for two weeks. Mistakes are inevitable.
Available in electronic edition!
Christmas Truce
Christmas 1914
In the cold, muddy trenches of the Western Front, there is a strange silence. As the members of a crack English trench raiding team enjoy their first day of peace in months, they call out holiday greetings to the men on the German line. Soon both sides are fraternizing in No Man’s Land.
But when the English recognize some enemy raiders who only a few days before launched a deadly attack on their position, can they keep the peace through the Christmas truce?
Available in electronic edition!
Warpath into Sonora
Arizona 1846
Nantan, a young Apache warrior, is building a name for himself by leading raids against Mexican ranches to impress his war chief, and the chief’s lovely daughter. But there is one thing he and all other Apaches fear—a ruthless band of Mexican scalp hunters who slaughter entire villages.
Nantan and his friends have sworn to fight back, but they are inexperienced, and led by a war chief driven mad with a thirst for revenge. Can they track their tribe’s worst enemy into unknown territory and defeat them?
Available in electronic edition!
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