Suddenly at Singapore (13 page)

“Business first, domestic affairs later. Am I tiring you?”

“Cut it out, Russell.”

“This Kate arrived back in Singapore with an escort. Man came all the way with her. Let her do the driving. Offered her cigarettes but wouldn’t let her stop for tea. Took her right to her little bungalow in the hotel grounds and left her. She didn’t know whether he was waiting outside or not. She didn’t know what to think. But as soon as she could she went straight to Ruth. One of those woman to woman things. That’s what you’ve got waiting to sort out. Don’t try to take the easy way out with blood poisoning.”

“I can’t see why Kate went to my wife! Kate betrayed me!”

“What? Hold on, old boy. You’re pretty sick.”

“Look here, I’m not imagining this. All that gun point stuff, it makes a nice story. But it doesn’t tally with the facts as I know them. Don’t forget I was there, I was watching Kate. She was helping them!”

“Phooey! Delusions. Under stress yourself. Are you suggesting that the gal was in cahoots with Sorumbai?”

“Yes!”

“This is one of those times when I clear my throat and speak as your lawyer. I don’t know what’s set you off on this tack, but it’s a dangerous one. It could turn out to be a very expensive one, if there was a libel suit. And you’re in the kind of economic position which makes you vulnerable to that sort of thing. Whatever you think you know about what happened up there in Kuantan I suggest you don’t talk about it.”

There was no use going on with this to Russell. I lay there, trying not to glare at him, but the silence between us didn’t seem to disturb him at all. He waited for me to break it, and I did finally.

“What did Ruth do when Kate went to her?”

“Ruth came to me, very sensibly, like a shot. And she brought Kate with her. We had a council of war and decided just to wait. It wasn’t easy for me to persuade the girls, but it was the only course. It was obvious you’d been flown out of the country. I thought you might come up to trial, if that was part of what they wanted in taking you alive. And when we heard of your arrest I was to get busy and do what I could. That was all I could do. Or anyone could do. Short of coming to look for you, and I’m not that devoted a lawyer.”

I looked at the ceiling. In a moment I said:

“What about Kang?”

“Oh, he came to see me once. I said you were away on business. He looked like he would enjoy using a bit of hose pipe on me in a police cell, but he went away again. Oh, and he picked up Kim, too. But Kim had arrived in Singapore with the most lovely legit, cargo. If that boy wasn’t already the commodore of your fleet I’d promote him. Does he get a share of the profits?”

“Yes.”

“That’s the way to keep your pals. You can cut me in on Harris and Company, too. Feeling dizzy now?”

“I’m wondering about Ruth.”

Russell pushed the chair even farther back and bellowed with laughter.

“Forgive the old bachelor,” he said.

The Irish nurse came in.

“Now, what’s all this?”

She whipped out a thermometer and shoved it in my mouth. Russell watched.

“You’ll find it up, Nurse. A hundred and two point seven. A fever that affects husbands when they’re thinking hard. Look at the poor man. Me heart goes out to him.”

“I think it is time you went to the hotel for your dinner, Mr. Menzies,” Nurse said.

Russell heaved himself up.

“All right. I didn’t enjoy your tea. Two slices of thinly buttered bread and a cake from the bazaars. The profit they must make in these places! Or are you paid a vast salary, Nurse?”

“I am not, indeed.”

“It’s a vocation.” He pointed a thumb at me. “Keep him alive. There’s a commission in it for you.”

And then he went out.

“What a man,” Nurse said. “I shouldn’t think there’s much he holds sacred. How are you feeling now?”

“I enjoy lying without moving,” I mumbled.

“Well, you go on doing it. There’s no one’ll move you to-night. You’ll have a light supper. Mr. Menzies tells me you’re a rich man.”

“Did he?”

“But eccentric, he says. Are you?”

“Maybe, a bit.”

“You were an awful mess this morning. You wouldn’t like to have heard the things they were saying in the theatre. What were you doing, prospecting for something?”

“That’s just about it.”

“The things men’ll do to get more money. They can never content themselves. And they die, young from it.” She pulled out the thermometer. “He was right, you’re up. I’ll get the doctor.”

“For heaven’s sake, I’ll be all right.”

“I’ll have to tell the doctor.”

Dr. Blane was a young man with the kind of looks which would make his women patients disregard even poor qualifications and have him anyway. With me he looked a little bored.

“Having a long talk with your lawyer, Harris?”

“Well … a little time.”

“You damn’ well shouldn’t have been. About those ulcers. I noticed what seemed to be a burn.”

“I used a cigarette to get the leeches off.”

“And slipped?”

“That’s right.”

“I just mention this because the police have been asking me questions. They want to ask you some when you’re fit. I believe they’re looking for the man who ferried you over from the mainland. There’s an inspector.”

“What name?”

“Kang. Old friend of yours?”

“Acquaintance.”

“I told him you wouldn’t be fit to see anyone tonight. Was that correct?”

“Thank you, Doctor.”

I was glad when the doctor had gone without taking my temperature again.

So Kang had flown up from Singapore. There could be very little doubt that he was keeping a watch on Russell. And perhaps listening on telephone wires, too. He’d known where to come. Russell had to be tipped off. I’d get the nurse to do that.

I mayn’t have been entitled to it, but I had a good night. After the doctor’s morning visit I was told I could have visitors for fifteen minutes and Russell came in with Kang. The inspector was as unrumpled as ever, he brought freshness like a douche of cologne. Beside him Russell looked like a fat man bearing the white man’s burden, but with his continuous dampness there was no way of telling whether this occasion warranted it specially.

Russell arranged chairs, like a lawyer settling clients. Kang smiled.

“How are you feeling, Mr. Harris?”

“I’ll live.”

“Even after your terrible experiences? I had quite given you up for dead.”

“Oh.”

“Not, of course, that it was strictly my responsibility since you had evaded my guards and left the island.”

“Not strictly.”

“But I’m still looking for a murderer, Mr. Harris. The man who killed your brother.”

“He’s dead,” I said, looking straight at Kang.

Russell was doing things with his handkerchief and I began to get the feeling that he was very deliberately not looking at me.

“You mean General Sorumbai?” Kang asked politely.

“Yes. I must say you’re well informed, Inspector. But I do mean the general. I’m not saying he murdered my brother himself, of course he didn’t, just one of his bully boys. But I’m not such a fool as to imagine we’ll ever find a hired assassin. In my view the debt is paid. And the case can be closed.”

Kang shook his head.

“I’m afraid I can’t agree, Mr. Harris. I am quite convinced that the killer of your brother is still at large in Singapore.”

To say I was winded then is putting it mildly. I knew by this time that Kang wouldn’t produce something like this for effect. He believed what he said, but it was absurd. It made no kind of sense at all. The people behind Jeff’s death must have had political motives. There wasn’t any other motive. I said this.

Kang took out a packet of his foul cigarettes, glanced around as though for a no-smoking sign, and then lit up. He inhaled and let the smoke trickle out of his nostrils. Then he looked at me with an expression that suggested kindness, as though with fools one learned patience.

“I think we can wash out the political motive,” he said. “In fact I’ve already done so.”

“But why?”

“Because I’ve found the gun which killed your brother.”

“What the hell do you mean?”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Harris. I have no wish to excite you when you are ill. I thought you would only be interested. Mr. Menzies here, also felt that you should know about this. We’ve been in consultation.”

“You found the gun … how can you be sure?”

“Oh, ballistic examination. It can be proven in any court. The gun we now have in our possession is the one used to kill your brother. I wonder if this opens up a new line of thought to you as well as to us? You see, I cannot see why a professional assassin would wish to throw away what you might call the tool of his trade. It doesn’t seem to make sense, does it, Mr. Harris? Guns are expensive in Singapore, even on the black market. But there is no need for me to tell you such things.”

Russell still wasn’t looking at me. He was most aggressively neutral in all this, and somehow I resented his attitude. Once again Kang was leading me gently where he wanted to go.

“Where did you find this gun, Inspector?”

“Ah. In the Botanic Gardens.”

“In the …? How the hell did you find it there?”

“You may well ask. Once again we have been very lucky. You know, the police
are
quite often. Sometimes I wonder how we would get on without luck. One needs enormous patience and also luck. So we know that the killer went to the Botanic Gardens some, time after killing your brother and threw away his gun. Why? That is the question I ask myself. I can find no sensible answer as yet. Perhaps I must once again show great patience and wait for more luck.”

“Why have you come here to tell me this, Inspector?”

“I have come once again to ask for your complete support and help in my investigations.”

“You mean you haven’t had it?”

Inspector Kang nodded.

“That’s what I mean, Mr. Harris.”

I stared out at the straits, the glittering water seen through an arch, past Russell fumbling with a cigar, taking a long time to trim it. He wasn’t trying to help me now and he didn’t mean to.

“All right, Inspector,” I said. “I’m willing to play along with you.”

“Thank you. There is something I would like to say, Mr. Harris. It is simply this. I am at the moment attempting to track down a murderer. Any interest I have in you or in the affairs of Harris and Company is because of that. You are not the only firm in Singapore who would not welcome a complete revelation of all its activities, very far from being the only one. The fact is, however, that in this matter I am not concerned with any activities, legal or otherwise, which do not involve Singapore Island itself. Do I make myself plain?”

“Yes.”

“You have your own views as to who killed your brother. You perhaps evaded my police in order to do something about that personally. You as good as told me you didn’t care what I did about the matter. Do you feel that way now?”

“No,” I said, feeling a little sick.

“Good. The position seems to me plain. I told you earlier there were too many motives behind the death of your brother, too many reasons why he could have been murdered. All these motives could have been the reason for his death, but I don’t think they were. I think we have to look for something much simpler than trouble outside of Singapore. And that is where I want your help.”

“But I can’t help you! I … I never thought about anything else. There isn’t any local motive, if that’s what you’re after. Certainly not that I can think of. Jeff had no personal enemies. I can’t think of anyone.”

Inspector Kang got up. He began to walk around the room and then at the arch to the veranda he turned and stared at me.

“Mr. Harris, whoever killed your brother threw away the gun because he did not expect to have any further need of guns. Isn’t that obvious? It was evidence that had to be got rid of when a job had been done. For a long time I felt that you were marked down for the next victim. But since the finding of the gun I don’t believe that any more. The killing was not part of some plan to wipe out Harris and Company as an effective concern. That seems to me plain. That’s why I think the motive was personal, do you understand?”

“Yes, I understand. But I can’t help you, Inspector. I really can’t. I can’t think of a thing. Unless …”

“Yes?”

“The Miss Feng you interviewed …?”

“I haven’t forgotten her, Mr. Harris. Tell me, why did you go to Kuantan in the company of a Miss Kate Raine?”

“So you know all that, do you?”

“Naturally. I’m not a fool!”

“If I ever suggested you were I apologise.”

He smiled. He seemed really amused.

“You haven’t answered my question, Mr. Harris. Why did you choose Miss Raine to get you off the island? Because she is someone with whom you are intimate?”

“Not in that sense.”

“In what sense, then?”

“She was a very good friend of mine.”

“Only a friend?”

“Yes!”

“And you went to Kuantan and registered together into the rest house because you were showing Malaya to a foreigner, is that it?”

“In a sense … yes!”

“In a sense? Mr. Harris, I suggest you’re not being frank with me. If you have any confidence which you wish kept private in this matter you can count on me to help you as far as possible. I may as well tell you that we know Miss Raine visited your brother not very many evenings before he was murdered. There is no suggestion that she knew him at all well, but she had dinner with him on this night and stayed in his flat until a quarter to eleven after it. It is also known that when your brother was murdered you were in Kuala Lumpur with Miss Raine, staying in the same hotel.”

“That’s quite true, we were. Which makes all your investigations of Miss Raine somewhat pointless, doesn’t it?”

“I’m not suggesting Miss Raine murdered your brother. I’m interested in her relations with you!”

“We were friends, no more!”

“And that’s all you will tell me?”

“It’s all there is to tell you!”

“Very good, Mr. Harris. You have helped me. More than you know. And now I’ll leave you. We’ve been too long, I think, with a sick man. The doctors, no doubt, will be angry. Just one thing I have to say; there is, of course, now no check or hindrance on your movements. You will not have my ‘boys’ as you call them, I believe, on your tail all the time. Unless the murderer has a supply of guns it seems unlikely that you are next on any list.”