The Atlas Murders (17 page)

“I will leave you here now
and tonight I’ll go to The Blue Orchid at ten o’clock. I will meet you in the
back room.”

 “Thank you again Fokir, see
you tonight.”

 Henry had fifteen minutes to
spare before his meeting, so he decided he would take a short stroll. The hotel
was situated in Chowpatty where little lanes wander off the main road into the historic
quarter of the city. After walking about twenty yards, he noticed a man with a
panama hat resting on his knee, sitting reading a newspaper, his white linen
suit was immaculate in true British colonial style. Henry walked towards him
without looking directly; he knew his contact would have a good description of
him. When he was about six feet away, the man dropped the paper, put on his
panama and stood up.

”I say sir, do I know you
from somewhere?”

 “Possibly, my name’s Henry.”

 “That’s it, Henry. And would
you know the name of a wild canine?”

 “Surely a Wollf.”

 “The bar is this way Henry.”

 Wollf led the way into the
interior of the hotel and a beautiful decorated bar with a view onto the sea. It
was remarkably cool and pleasant with a scattering of titled and highly ranked,
retired British army officers conversing in stilted woody tones befitting of
their former profession.

“What will it be Henry”?

 “I’ll have a beer.”

 Wollf clicked his fingers to
get the attention of the Indian barman in his immaculate white coat and bow
tie.

“A double scotch with ice and
a pint of beer.”

 He led Henry to a table at a
window out of earshot of the rest of the clientele.

“I’ve been briefed on this
case and to say the least, it’s a most unusual and dangerous situation you find
yourself in. I heard about the episode last night and that can only point to Lord
Welland. I doubt the other three are suspicious of you. But if the killer among
them had found out about your true identity, he wouldn’t have employed some
local desperados to kill you. Unfortunately for you Henry, he’d try to kill you
himself.

“What you’ve just said is all
true and I believe the sooner we can start eliminating some of the four suspects
the easier it will be for me to protect myself.”

 “These are my own very
sentiments, but just where to start? I’ll let you decide that Henry.”

 “I have written a report
detailing all I have found out about the suspects to date. Unfortunately, so
far I’ve only had a chance to search the belongings of Conrad and Sweeney, but
the results make for interesting reading. He reached into his pocket and handed
the report to Wolff, who spent a few minutes skim reading the document.

 “Henry, I’ll study this more
thoroughly later and if there is anything of note I’ll have you informed at
your next port which I believe will be a short stop in Colombo, Ceylon. We’ve
been tailing Sean Sweeney and he seems to spend a lot of time with the young
street children. What significance there is in that, I dare not guess, but it
seems rather odd behavior for a sailor on shore leave. Oswyn Welland is out of
our jurisdiction at present, so we will concentrate on Tukola. Fokir has been
assigned to him as you know from last night, so you will be assigned to your
room mate. What I would like is a search of the two cabins; Welland’s and
Tukola’s. What are your ideas on how we should approach that?”

“I’ll need a pass key as they
lock their doors when going ashore and the only ones with these keys are the
chief steward and the chief officer.”

 “Could you get a couple of
minutes in either of those cabins? As far as I can remember the key board is
usually just above the desk in both cabins, that is, I mean usual for most
ships. I spent four years on an armed merchant ship during the war when the
Royal Navy was stretched, we did escort duty across the Indian Ocean. But
that’s enough of those nerve racking and treacherous years, I prefer to forget
them. Have you got the key to your cabin?”

 Henry rooted round in his
pocket and came up with a key. He handed it to Wollf.

 “Thanks Henry, as you will
have noticed, all the cabin keys on your ship are the same; by that I mean the
same shape.”

He took a small note pad out
of his back pocket and placed it on the table he slid out a small pencil from
the spine.

“Allow me,” he said as he
took the key and placed it on a page and drew around it and handed it back to
Henry. “There, I’ll get a copy of the key made. It won’t actually open any doors,
but it’ll look the same. So you can take the master key,
replace it with
the replica and then nip into whichever of the two cabins that present an
opportunity.”

 “Good thinking, but what if
the need arises to use the key while I have the real one?”

 “The chance of having to use
a master key so seldom arises as to be of little concern. But if it did, they’d
use the one which wasn’t changed and wonder what happened to the dud to become
a dud.”

 “I see your reasoning, and
it’s so cheeky and simple to make work.”

 Wollf clicked his fingers
and the waiter came to the table. “Same again, it’s such a hot day you’ll need
the extra liquid inside you when you leave here!”

 The waiter returned with the
drinks and Wollf wouldn’t allow Henry to pay. “I get decent expenses old boy;
this one is on Her Majesty. I’ll stay on the good old Highland Cream as I
haven’t to venture out into the afternoon heat. I’m meeting an acquaintance
here from the Pakistani Diplomatic Corps; a bit of bother brewing on the border
of Kashmir and we might be able to nip it in the bud if we can work something
out between the Indians and Pakistanis -nothing but trouble since we handed the
‘jewel in the crown’ over to them.”

 Wollf looked at his watch.
”My goodness, how time flies! I have to meet my man in ten minutes, so Henry,
if you can get any more shore leave I will arrange through Fokir to meet you
one evening before you sail.”

 “Thank you for your help
Wollf. I hope to have some news about the searches when we meet again.”

 Wollf stood up and smilingly
said to Henry, “I’m off to meet my man in the restaurant, but I wouldn’t be in
such a hurry to leave the hotel if I were you. It’s a hundred and five in the
shade out there. Wait until the furnace has cooled before you venture out. You
know about mad dogs and Englishmen?  Well believe me, it is true.”

 Henry watched him leave and
he put his hand up to the waiter, “same again please.” He stretched his legs and
felt the effects of the alcohol slowly unwinding and relaxing him. He felt in
his pocket and knew he must not forget to post the two letters. In the one to
Vera he thanked her for the advice about his safety but refrained from telling
her of his experience of the night before as he didn’t want to unduly worry
her. Vincent’s envelope included a letter to be forwarded to Denis.

He closed his eyes and his
mind wandered back and forth through his life since Shirley’s murder. In
fleeting seconds his life went by in vignette snaps and suddenly he was in the
arms of the beautiful
Nilima. Her perfect scented body carried him entwined
through an ethereal ghost like silver mist where dreams were real and happiness
prevailed. Then suddenly an ogre appeared in his mind’s eye; its hideous
features mocking and snarling. Henry sat up and was surprised to find his hand
shaking when he lifted the glass. He had no appetite for the rest of his drink
and decided to leave.

 Walking among the throngs of
brightly dressed people was a novel experience, he marveled at the colorful
clothing, especially the saris worn by the women and some more refined men wore
‘Nehru style’ long high buttoned coats and somehow seemed cool in the
sweltering heat. He found a post office and couldn’t believe his eyes when he
stamped his letters and dropped them into a British round mailbox with the
royal insignia standing out on the cast metal. I love my Britishness he
thought. He wandered aimlessly through the streets buying small trinkets and
souvenirs from street traders. He ate a hot curry in a restaurant crowded with
bustling businessmen rushing a late meal before departing for home. After
walking for over an hour through the dusty shades of a marmalade sunset
bedecked with crimson and rose-red clouds, he realized he was lost in the maze
of backstreets. He hailed a rickshaw asked to be taken to The Blue Orchid.

  Gary Conrad was drinking at
a table with the second steward and an ordinary seaman, Henry nodded in their
direction and went on to the bar counter. He ordered a pint and then looked
around to see if there were any more crew members in the bar. He knew Fokir was
tailing Tukola; he would have liked to meet him tonight, but he could be
anywhere, he mused.

“Are you joining us?”

 He turned round and Conrad was
ordering drinks.

“I might not be staying too long.
I’ve had a long day ashore.”

 “Well suit yourself; we’re
waiting for the girls. I’m going to stick with Harini tonight.”

  Henry sat sipping his pint.
He observed the customers coming and going, it was just past nine when Tukola
arrived. He was on his own and didn’t take up
Conrad’s invitation to join them. He
glanced at Henry without acknowledging him, ordered his drink and went to sit
on his own. Ten minutes went by before the girls arrived, Harini went straight
to
Conrad,
and he beamed with delight giving her a big welcoming kiss. Two more girls
joined their company, there were a lot more young girls tonight and Henry
wondered if Nilima would come out into the bar. He would have been disappointed
if she did; he thought of her as being special. He watched Tukola as a young
girl sat with him, he seemed to tolerate her with a nonchalant manner. The bar
was filling up and you could hardly see the customers at the far end with the
thick cigarette smoke. Henry went to the lavatory and when he came out he
looked around and seeing he wasn’t being observed he went through the door down
the long hallway. He heard voices in the room he had been in with Nilima. He
waited a minute before knocking. The door opened a bit and an eye peeped out at
him, then it swung open and the ‘matron’ reached out a hand.

“Henry!”

She showed him into the room
and to his delight he saw Fokir sitting drinking tea.

“Good to see you Henry. I came
to leave a message for you. I cannot stay long as my man Tukola is in the bar,
was he still there when you left”?

“Yes, he has a young girl for
company.”

 “Good, hopefully he’ll stay
a while.”

 Fokir gestured to the matron
and she excused herself and left. “Did you have a useful meeting with our
canine friend?”

“Yes, very and he gave me a
plan of how to do a cabin search. How would you be fixed to organize it if I
had the key?”

He handed Henry an envelope.
“The duplicate key, I was going to leave it with the matron. It would be no
problem when you have the key; you phone the contact number and say one word: ‘Kingdom’
and I will be on board, or another man dressed in native dress wearing a red
turban, at nine thirty. When do you think you can get the key?”

Fokir poured a cup of tea for
Henry.

“Enjoy some real tea. Your
English brands cannot compare to this. We take it with no milk or sugar.”

 Henry sipped the light green
brew and was amazed at the fragrance and delicate taste. “Yes Fokir, this is
something special. I hope to get the master key tomorrow. I should have some
opportunity when the chief officer is on deck supervising the discharge of
cargo. If I do, I can phone from the harbor office on the dock I’m sure they
will allow me use the phone.”

 “Yes, you can make an excuse
you are phoning the ship’s agents, and if all goes to plan I can get another to
tail Tukola and come in person for the search. Will you know if the cabins are
unoccupied? Especially the deck apprentices. There are three suspects now with
Oswyn away. You will have to be sure Tukola and his roommate is also ashore.”

“I’ll do a check around
before you arrive on board so we can make this as quick and smooth as
possible.”

 Fokir stood up. ”I must go,
I can’t risk losing my quarry, hope to see you tomorrow night.”

Henry sat sipping tea and he
could hear Gary’s voice out in the hallway. He was making his way to one of the
bedrooms with Harini. ‘Well at least he’s out of harm’s way for the moment,’
Henry thought.

He finished his tea and stood
up to leave when he heard the sweet melodious voice of Nilima outside. She
opened the door a little and peeped in. Her shy inquiring look turned to a huge
smile when she saw Henry

 “You come back to see me
Henry. I glad very much you do.”

With her hands outstretched
she walked into Henry’s arms. He noticed a pink tint blushing up from her neck
onto her cheeks, and like a blushing bride, she pressed her face into his
chest.

“You are more beautiful than
a flowering rose.”

He held her at arm’s length
to admire her refreshing beauty and was intoxicated by the tender love of her
innocent sensuous eyes. His heart was racing as he carried her to the soft
cushioned bed. Beneath her light flimsy robe she was naked and she lay in
silent urgency as he dropped his last garment to the floor. To Henry, the hour
that followed was akin to dying and being reborn and the secrets of human
intimacy were revealed in glorious wonder. They lay together exhausted and
entwined, her long black silky hair spread over a pink linen cushion like a
raven’s wing. Their bodies were glistening with perspiration; their senses
beguiled by the scent of incense and perfumed candles.