The Atlas Murders (14 page)

Determined that her husband
shouldn’t know the full horror of what happened in that place she said, “Yes,
they beat the poor child and harmed his little mind. Please God he’ll grow out
of it.”

*****

The morning duties for Henry
brought him to the junior radio officer’s cabin where he went about the normal
work of making his bunk, cleaning the wash hand basin which was spotless
anyway, a quick vacuum of the small carpet, a little dusting and that seemed to
be it. The place was meticulously tidy. Henry wrestled with temptation to look
through his drawers and personal belongings but resisted until he was sure of
Sweeney’s watch keeping times when he could work without fear of being caught.
He thought he would do a little everyday - one drawer at a time - there was no
hurry.

Back in the pantry he was
given a tray to take coffee to the third mate on watch, also the two radio operators.
He was pleased to get an opportunity to see the bridge and radio shack and know
how far it was from the junior’s cabin as this would give him a direction of
his footsteps if he were to come down while he was searching. His cabin was
directly below the bridge next to the captain and the senior radio man. The
most difficult place to search would be Oswyn Welland’s cabin. He was sharing a
cabin with another deck apprentice and it would be nigh impossible to have both
apprentices out of their cabins at once, especially as when at sea. So some of
this search work would have to be done while in port. For the moment he’d
concentrate on Sweeney and Conrad. Hadar Tukola was also sharing with another
able seaman on the port side along the deck hands alleyway.

When he finished duty that
evening he took a stroll on the after deck with a number of crewmen who were
outside to get away from the oppressive heat of the accommodation. The cool sea
breeze was refreshing and he saw some of the deck hands and firemen bringing
out blankets - they were going to bed down on deck. He was looking for Tukola
although he didn’t know what he looked like but he hoped to maybe hear someone
call him by name. He knew he was colored; his father being from the Celebes,
and as yet he had seen no colored crewmen. Maybe he was the only one. If so
he’d be easy to spot.

Gary Conrad was leaning on
the gunwale admiring the sunset and Henry went to stand alongside him. He
turned to Henry. “Beautiful isn’t it?”

 “Yes it’s kind of mesmeric.”

 “What’s that big word mean?”

 Henry regretted using the
word. Maybe Conrad would think he was a bit of an education show off.

“You know,” he replied, “kind
of like being hypnotized.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,
but do you know what it reminds me of?”

 Henry looked along the
ship’s side and as darkness descended so the sparkling sea became more
spectacular and beautiful.

 “No, what?”

“You ever see the fire flies,
the way they fly around switching on and off their lights. I’d sit and watch
them for hours.”

Henry had never seen
fireflies but knew what they were like.

 “Yes, I know they are pretty
and much alike just what their name implies beautiful to watch.”

The crewmen were picking
spots around the deck to place their blankets and pillows.

 “What do you think about
sleeping out under the stars, that cabin of ours is very hot those old air
vents are no better than an old bird’s fart?”

 Henry thought this would be
a great opportunity to get Conrad out of the cabin for a long enough time to do
a search.

“I’ll try it for another
night and if it gets too stuffy. I might move out tomorrow or the next night.”

“Well as you wish, but I’m
going to bed down on the boat deck - nice cool breeze up there.”

Henry waited until well after
midnight to be sure Conrad wasn’t changing his mind about sleeping on the boat
deck, before he started to search of his belongings. The first drawers revealed
normal clothes. Henry was careful not to show any sign of disturbance. His
personal stuff was in a case in the locker. Here he found letters from family,
mostly his mother and sister. One also from his solicitor; this he had received
in Fremantle and it stated he was to present himself at the local police
station on his return to answer questions regarding accusations from his former
wife about assault, causing bodily harm and rape. His solicitor was
condescending telling him to contact him as he would accompany him to the
police station, and not to worry, because these charges would be dealt with
accordingly. He found an assortment of girly magazines and soft porn - not
unusual he thought, for men in this job. A pocket in the lining at the bottom
of the case showed a bulge. He pulled out photos of a girl tied in bondage on a
bed, she looked as if she was smiling and enjoying herself. She was naked. He
found an assortment of these of the same girl in different poses. He wondered
who this girl was until he found a wedding picture, they were one and the same -
it was the young wife. My goodness, something must have gone seriously wrong as
she seemed to be enjoying what he saw in the photos. He replaced them and went
to his closet; here he found a fishing rod and an assortment of lines, a box of
lures with a lot of hooks. He examined one of the hooks and tried to think of
the ones that were attached to Shirley’s body. They all looked alike. He
replaced them and went to his clothes on hangers. He searched all the pockets
and came up with a wallet containing money of various currencies, a passport,
sunglasses, a picture of himself and his ex-wife in happier times. And in an
inside pocket he nearly overlooked, he found a sealed letter addressed to his ex-wife.
He wondered why Conrad hadn’t posted it. Henry was disappointed and somewhat
relieved to have found nothing incriminating, but he couldn’t be ruled out - he
was still a suspect.

That night Henry slept
fitfully, but he was happy with his transition to merchant seaman.

Next morning while cleaning
Sweeney’s cabin, he ventured into a drawer under his bunk. He quickly tossed
through clothes, all clean and ironed neatly laid out, he saw nothing untoward.
But as he laid his hands to smoothen down the clothes, he felt something hard.
He found a book tucked into a woolen jumper. He opened the door to listen for
footsteps, but there was only the muffled sound of the throbbing engines. It
was a hard covered book, titled, “Theory of Sexuality” by Sigmund Freud. He
glanced through the first few pages and noticed passages underlined and remarks
written in the margins. Some of the written remarks shocked him; ‘rubbish,’ ‘for
fuck sake,’ ‘bollocks’, these were just a few. He also saw drawings of an erect
penis with the caption, ‘not likely’. He put the book back and thought he’d
bring a piece of paper and pencil next morning and jot down some of the remarks
and the specific chapters they referred to.

After work that evening he
went along to the crew’s recreation room hoping to get a glimpse of Tukola. He
was invited to play a game of cribbage; thankfully he’d got some lessons from
James Eagleton. There was a game of darts going on and he was watching the four
players. One was dark - Henry presumed he was Indian. Two others were north-east
English by the sound of their accents and the other was the color of burnt
honey; he was a very handsome man with sleek black hair and perfect white teeth.
His eyes were dark amber with the deep intensity of a panther. The card game
was demanding his attention but he could glance up and observe the crewman who
had grabbed his attention. He reckoned he was about five foot ten and the high
cheek bones gave him a slightly oriental look.

The cards were pushed across
to him.

”Your deal Henry.”

He shuffled the cards,
observing the board to see the state of play when he heard one dart player call
out. “Come on Tuko, finish it, double top.”

He looked over to see who
they were calling Tuko, yes he thought, he’s Tukola.

 The dart players were going
in for their nightly supper and one of the able seamen began teasing Tuko about
the young Indian girls they were going to meet in Bombay. “They’ll be nice
young fresh talent, the way you like them Tuko.”

“Yeah, he said with a
lascivious smile on his face. Anything over seventeen is getting old and worn
like an old boot. In this part of the world they start on the game at about
thirteen.”

“You should know you’re from
around these parts, how old were you when you had your first jump?”

Tukola look embarrassed and didn’t
answer.

Chapter Nineteen

 Having identified Tukola,
Henry could now focus on his fourth suspect. Back in the cabin, he lay on his
bunk studying his atlas. He was alone in the cabin - Conrad was still sleeping
on deck. The cabin was stuffy and hot, the little air coming in the porthole
was warm, tropical and moisture laden. He turned on his bunk to get comfortable
when something caught his eye; the lower part of the chest of drawers was about
six inches high from the deck and could be a nice hiding place. He jumped from
his bunk and pulled out the lower drawer and in the half-light he could see
something stashed there. He pulled out a bag tied with a bit of lanyard rope;
he examined the knot, as he had heard that some sailors used a particular knot
so that if it was opened and not tied the same they knew that someone had
tampered with their belongings. It was called a thief knot on the old sailing
ships. He undid the knot fully knowing he could replicate the original knot. Inside
he found a pair of handcuffs, a small whip, some sex vibrators and an
assortment of pornographic books and pictures. And even more disturbing, he
found a pair of earrings and a lock of blonde hair.

Suddenly a flash of lightning
came through the porthole like a blinding torch, then the loud bang of thunder.
He stood up and looked out onto the dark ocean when the next flash nearly
blinded him, the rain came in torrents. Slightly panicked, he threw the bag and
belongings back into the hiding place and pushed the drawer closed before
jumping back into his bunk and turning out the bunk light. He’d surely have
time to put everything back in order before Conrad would look in there, he
thought - if not he was in serious trouble.

The door burst open and Conrad
rushed in, mattress in hand. He was breathing hard from the run down from the
boat deck.

“Jesus, you awake Henry? Did
you hear the thunder and see the lightning, was absolute awesome. It lit up the
whole sky and sea?”

“No, I didn’t hear a thing, I
was fast asleep.”

 Conrad was standing in a
pair of shorts and his body was spattered with rain drops, he was examining his
mattress. “I was just lucky, it’s not too wet I’ll be able to sleep on it.” He
ducked down when another flash of lightning lit up the cabin then the thunder
struck it was right overhead and it seemed to shake the whole ship. “Jesus
Henry, that was close! I’d say it struck the boat deck just where I was
sleeping. I just got out in time or I could be fried now.”

“Yeah, you were lucky to get
in out of it so quick.” If you’re my man, he thought to himself, being struck
with lightning would be a welcome way out for you.

After some time, the aerial
pyrotechnics abated and Henry settled in to a restless sleep.

 He was serving the
breakfasts next morning and as he walked past the deck apprentices table he was
chided abruptly by Oswyn, who handed back his tea cup. “Could you have that
cleaned properly; I don’t drink from stained crockery.”

Henry took the cup. “Yes sir,
I’ll have it cleaned.” What a shit, he thought, he couldn’t see any stain, only
a very light discoloration from years of use. He handed the cup to Gary who held
it up and looked at it.

“You don’t need to tell me
who’s complaining, it’s the lad whose father owns the company - a first rate
asshole. I’d like to tell him to get his father to buy new crockery.”

He put the cup in the sink
and took another from the rack and spat in it a few times, wiped it and handed
it to Henry. “If it wasn’t for the fact that I might be seen, I’d wipe it with
my cock. That would teach him!”

 Henry was astonished to see
this at first hand. He’d often heard of catering staff in hotels and
restaurants carrying on in such a disgusting manner, but never really believed
it. He resolved himself never to get on the wrong side of these lads.

“Here’s his fry up.” Gary Conrad
went to the hot press and took out a plate of bacon, sausage, egg and a fried
pancake. He then lifted the pancake and spat on it, then returned it to the
plate.

“Hope he enjoys his food.”

Henry thought he must go
along with this ‘staff versus officers’. Anyway, he hadn’t much sympathy for
young Oswyn. He took him his breakfast and ‘clean’ cup and laid them on the
table.

 “That’s better steward, but
don’t you ever let it happen again, understand?”

What a pretentious prick, he
thought, as his mind went back to Vera whom he suspected had been convinced
that Oswyn was the guilty party - she might well be right.

 Later the same morning, Henry
went to clean Sweeney’s cabin. He took a small pad of paper and pencil with
him. After he tidied up and made his bunk, he opened the drawer and pulled out
the Freud book. He was determined to have as much research done on both Sweeney
and Conrad as possible by the time the ship reached Bombay. He would
concentrate on the other two suspects later in the voyage.

He flicked through the book
to places that were marked, he wrote down the three parts the mind was divided
into, the ‘id’, the’ ego’, and the ‘super ego’. He noticed that the super ego
was underlined. He read that these three worked in harmony in normal people but
in others the parts may conflict. The super ego may oppose all sexual behavior
thus preventing fulfillment of the id’s sexual drives. If the parts of the mind
oppose one another, psychological disturbance can result. He read on about the
effect of childhood memories and if these were painful people kept them out of conscious
awareness. Freud termed this ‘defense mechanism’ which could affect a person’s
ability to lead a productive life causing neurosis. Freud also theorized that a
person’s sexual impulses began very young and many people make self-discoveries
and learn to control their sexual impulses. Freud believed that the normal
pattern of sexual development is interrupted in some individuals. These people
become fixated at an early age. The book stated that such fixation could
contribute to mental illness in adulthood. Henry continued to read through the
book and noted that the underlined passages all seemed to point in the same
direction - it made for very disturbing reading.

He would hand over his
scribbled notes to his contacts in Bombay. They could have the notes professionally
analyzed and hopefully come up with some insights into Sweeney’s state of mind.

When he left Sweeney’s cabin,
he bumped into Gary Conrad with blanket and book in hand. Gary said he was
going up onto the mast house deck for a spot of quiet reading and to top up his
tan. Good, thought Henry as he hurried back and walked into his cabin; he’ll be
up there for a while and the bag under the drawer was a priority. If it was
discovered it could jeopardize his cover.

He opened the drawer and took
out the bag. He carefully replaced the contents and after several fumbling attempts,
he managed to get the knot just right.