The Valley of the Shadow (22 page)

TWENTY-ONE

The cabin of the
Daisy D.
was not the ideal place for police interviews. However, Coxswain Kulick had told Megan the lifeboat was to be met in Padstow by an ambulance or two and a minibus to bundle everyone off to hospital. After their ordeal, some if not all would need medical attention.

A hospital was a still less hospitable environment for questioning witnesses than a crowded cabin, even though the cabin was pitching and rolling. At least the motion was regular now. Megan was pleased to find it didn’t bother her, and most of the Indians seemed able to cope. A lifeboat man was dealing kindly and efficiently with the three who couldn’t.

The taciturn Charles had distributed blankets. He and Gavin handed round hot drinks. Megan was glad to warm her hands on a mug of bouillon.

The obvious person to begin with was Mr. Nayak. For a start, he spoke English. Also, he appeared to have some authority, perhaps as the eldest, as well as having been the one to stay behind to make sure his ailing sister was cared for and to keep watch over the body of his father.

He was between a middle-aged woman and a man of about Megan’s own age, perhaps a couple of years younger. The older pair both sat slumped on the bench, scarcely aware of her approach. The young man stood up and came towards her.

“How do you do,” he said formally. He sounded more like an English colonial expat than an Indian. “May I introduce myself? I’m Ajay Nayak. You’re Miss Pencarrow, I think?”

“Yes,” Megan admitted, not sure whether being Miss Pencarrow was a good thing in his eyes or a bad. Had someone told him she was a police officer? She shook hands. “How do you do.”

“I’m told you saved my cousin Kalith’s life, and so, all of us.”

“I got him out of the sea, with a lot of help. Whether I saved his life … I haven’t heard the latest news. He was pretty ill when I last saw him.”

“But thanks to you and to him, the rest of us have been rescued. Except for my grandfather. He chose to stop eating as soon as the shortage of food became obvious, so that the children and my sister could have more.”

“He and Kalith are responsible for your survival.”

“Kalith is the only one of us able to swim. He used to go swimming with the black children, much to the family’s horror, though secretly I envied his boldness.”

This was all very well, but it wasn’t getting Megan any further. The
Daisy D.
was ploughing steadily towards Padstow. She glanced at the elder Nayak. He had closed his eyes. His son, on the other hand, was alert and seemed cooperative.

“Sir—”

“Please call me Jay.”

“I should tell you that I’m a police officer.”

“So was I.” He grinned sourly. “But they’re all African now, except the top brass—white, of course. And I don’t suppose they’ll be there long, but at least they’ll be able to come to Britain when they’re kicked out.”

“I’m sorry.” Megan paused. “But you’ll understand why I’ve got to ask questions, and the sooner the better.”

“Yes.” He looked around the cabin, where his family were variously talking, brooding, dozing, or being sick. “Not here.”

“Let’s see if Coxswain Kulick will let us have a corner of the wheelhouse. I don’t fancy out on deck.”

“Nor do I.” He followed her up the winding stair.

At her request, the skipper waved them over to the chart board. She took out her notebook. “I’m Megan. Also known as DS Pencarrow.”

“I was a sergeant. Not detective, but still … Do you suppose—No, it’s no good trying to guess what will happen to us. At least most of us are alive. You want to know how we came to be in such a mess. I take it you know about the situation in Kenya and Uganda?”

“Roughly.”

“My grandfather chose British citizenship for the family, but we didn’t come here soon enough and they changed the rules. We didn’t have any choice about leaving Africa. I was sacked from the police and we were forced to sell our family business. At a huge loss, of course. Africanisation. We came to Britain, with British passports in our hands. I can show them to you.”

“That’s all right, I believe you. Though you’ll have to produce them sometime, of course.”

“For all the use they are,” he commented bitterly. “After we were turned away, we tried other places, without success. We were back in Mombasa … well, not exactly
in
Mombasa.”

“How do you mean?”

“In the harbour, on board a tramp steamer. They wouldn’t let us land. A sailor came to us, a lascar, as they call Indian sailors, and told us he’d met a man on shore who had offered to get us into Britain. For a price, naturally. I should say, my grandfather had the foresight to move much of the family’s assets abroad before it was too late. We had to leave most of our belongings behind when we were taken, at dead of night, by water to a larger ship. A freighter.”

“Its name?” asked Megan, pencil poised.

Jay shook his head. “Everything that might have given it away was covered.”

“Damn. An elementary precaution, I suppose. But you must have been on board for some time. Surely—”

“We were taken down to a hold. In one corner, they’d built three rooms out of plywood. Easily dismantled. Electric light. No plumbing, but a cubicle with what you’d call basic facilities. Very decent, really. We managed quite well. That’s why I didn’t expect and can’t understand—Why go to all that trouble?”

“We’ll find out,” Megan said grimly. “Go on.”

“They fed us well enough. We had the same food as the lascar seamen. They told us the purser provided rations for us.”

“That suggests everyone aboard knew about your presence.”

“Such was my impression, though I never heard anyone say so outright.”

“Maybe one of your family did. Did you talk with the lascars in English, or in your own language?”

“They spoke what you might call sailors’ English and sailors’ Hindi. Our native language is Gujarati. Among us, we have varying abilities in English, Hindi, and Swahili. I myself have little Hindi.”

“But excellent English.” She smiled at him. “Which is a great help. And luckily Kalith speaks at least enough to bring us looking for you.”

“He speaks as well as I. If he was able to tell you so little, he must indeed be in bad shape.”

“I’m sorry I can’t give you more recent news. Coxswain Kulick might be able to find out.” They both looked at the skipper. He was peering into the gloom. The sky had darkened without Megan’s noticing, And the
Daisy D.
was definitely tossing about more than she had been. “But on the whole I’d rather not distract him. As soon as we land…”

She wondered what they would face when they arrived at Padstow. The promised ambulances would probably take them to the Bodmin hospital, the closest. Would the Bodmin district police be there, or would Scumble manage to wangle his way into staying in charge? Immigration officials? If it came to a battle between the immigration people investigating unlawful entry and the police investigating homicide, who took preference?

Time would tell. And meanwhile, Megan had to make the best of the time left to her.

“Do you know where the ship went after leaving Mombasa, Jay?”

“Through the Suez Canal. That part was obvious from all the stopping and starting, as well as dictated by geography.”

Megan tried to picture a map of that area of the world and failed dismally. “The Horn of Africa?” she ventured.

He grinned. “Yes, round it. Gulf of Aden, up the Red Sea and via the canal to the Mediterranean. The ship made several stops. I have no idea where.”

“You didn’t by any chance count the days between ports of call?”

“I think my uncle did to start with, going by his watch and the arrival of meals. But it began to seem pointless. Day and night were alike. We were never allowed to leave the hold. We could neither see nor hear anything beyond it.”

“Any guess at the cargo?”

“Trying to guess was one of our chief entertainments,” he said dryly. “I don’t know about other holds, but ours was mostly stacks of big hessian bales. They had a sort of greasy, animal smell. We decided, probably wool—unwashed fleeces. Therefore, probably Australia or New Zealand.”

Megan perked up. “That gives us somewhere to start! How did you get from the ship to the cave?”

“Hazardously! We were lowered one by one to what I think you’d call a motor yacht. At night, of course.”

“With its name carefully hidden, I assume. At sea? In a harbour?”

“At sea.”

“City lights on the horizon?”

“Not that I saw. Perhaps on the other side of the ship.”

“But you didn’t notice the sort of glow in the sky that a big city always makes?”

After a moment’s thought, he shook his head. “No.”

“Pity. Though it does mean Falmouth isn’t ruled out. It’s small enough not to have that sort of halo.”

“Falmouth?”

“A port in southeast Cornwall. Oh, maybe you don’t know, your cave is on the North Coast of Cornwall, which is the southwesterly tip of England. How long were you on the yacht?”

“Through one day and into the next night. Then they anchored. We could hear the chain let down. After a while, they let us all up on the deck. It was very dark, no light but a couple of torches. Two men. They showed us a stack of boxes and told us they contained supplies for us. That was when we found out we were not to be put ashore at a place where we could find our own way inland. The man giving the orders—”

“One of them definitely seemed to be in charge?”

Jay hesitated. “I think so. I had the impression that he was the boss, the captain of the yacht, maybe the owner. He had an educated voice, or so it seemed to me. The other said very little, and his accent was so thick I couldn’t understand much of it. A common seaman, I think.”

“Foreign or local? Oh, I suppose you wouldn’t know. It’s too much to hope that you saw their faces.”

“They both wore caps—hats—that covered their faces, all but the eyes and mouth.”

“Balaclavas. They were well prepared.”

“Yes, except … But I’ll come to that in a minute. The captain explained that it was too dangerous for so large and conspicuous a group to travel together. We were to wait in a safe place for a day or two, then we’d be picked up a few at a time and taken to various nearby harbours.”

“He didn’t say where? Name any places?”

“No. We and our few suitcases were transferred into a rowboat, two or three at a time along with a couple of crates of supplies in each boatload, and taken to the cave. Kalith and I were last as they needed our help with the last boxes.”

“Did both the men appear to know how to get to the cave?”

“I’m not sure. The seaman was rowing. The captain was in the front, directing him, but that could have been so he didn’t have to keep looking over his shoulder. Also, the captain had a very powerful torch he turned on when we got close, and a pole he used to fend off from rocks. You went there, didn’t you?”

“Yes. Part of my job.”

He nodded. “Then you’ll understand that we were surprised and alarmed to see where we were expected to wait. But what choice did we have?”

“None, realistically. The men went with you into the cave?”

“The seaman led the way, carrying a box. Kalith and I managed the last one. The captain sent the seaman back to the boat. The women were crying and my children were frightened. My grandfather asked if there was not somewhere more civilised where they, at least, could stay while waiting to be picked up. The captain said—he was sneering—that beggars can’t be choosers. My grandfather told him we were not beggars. Perhaps unwisely, but he had dealt honestly with us until that moment, bringing us all the way from Mombasa.”

“You’re sure he was running the show the whole time?”

“Well, no. I assumed so, but the yacht may have been his only part in it. Anyway, we paid someone extremely well for the journey, and I’m certain he got his share. Everything was well planned, well prepared, as you said. I don’t think the plan included demanding more money when we’d so nearly reached our destination. It seemed to me he just decided at that moment, suddenly, he wanted more.”

“Why do you think so?”

“The way he looked. There was a paraffin lantern, quite bright. I saw his face change, what I could see of it—his eyes and his mouth. A book we read at school,
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
—Do you know it? It was like that. One minute he was helping us, the next he was telling us everything had cost more than expected and he needed more money to pay the man who was to pick us up.”

“And again, you had no choice. Would you recognise him? His eyes, his mouth, his voice?”

“If you ever find him, I think so. I’m pretty certain.”

“We’ll find him. You’ve given me plenty to start with. My boss, DI Scumble, is bound to come up with a long list of questions I should have asked. One thing I know he’ll want is all your names. We’d better begin with your grandfather—I’m very sorry we arrived too late for him.”

“He saved my children by giving them his share of the food. His memory will be always honoured.”

Megan couldn’t think of anything to say that wouldn’t sound trite, so she was silent for a moment, as she had been beside the old man’s body.

Coxswain Kulick chose the moment to say, “Sergeant, we’re going to get pretty busy here shortly, as we turn into Padstow Bay. The storm’s coming up fast and will likely hit as we cross Doom Bar into the Camel estuary. The two of you will have to go back to the cabin.”

“Yes, sir.” To Jay, she said, “That’ll work better, actually, because you can point out each person as you give me the names.”

They went down. Gavin was stowing the galley equipment. Most of the refugees seemed much revived after the hot drinks, and the little boy, Jay’s son, had stopped retching. He ran to Jay, who picked him up and held him as he talked to the family briefly in their own language—Goodge-something? Megan hoped she had written it down.

He included her name and rank, so she assumed he was introducing her. The words “detective sergeant” appeared to excite some consternation. Jay spoke again, soothingly.

Then he went round the cabin giving her all the names and, in English, their relationships. At her request, he also told her which of them spoke English. She scribbled madly, hoping to be able to interpret her notes later, and to find out the proper spellings. An attempt at a family tree might be useful, too.