The Atlas Murders (22 page)

Chapter
Twenty-Three

 Henry’s relief continued when
he heard the mate shout up to the bridge from the forecastle head, “anchor
aweigh sir.” The ring of the telegraphs was music to Henry’s ears as the ship
swung round and headed out to sea. He did notice one small boat, apparently
still waiting for a girl as the ship started to make headway to open water.

 Although it was hot and
muggy he slept, albeit fitfully, he felt a great relief thinking of what could
have been, he could be ashore now on his way to an Indian prison. He cursed
that Lord Welland had an innocent girl brutally murdered to throw suspicion off
his son, and also try to send an innocent man to jail. Vera was right, he
needed to watch his back. He also wondered if Lord Welland could have anyone on
board in his pay; it seemed very unlikely, but he would have to be very careful.

There was an air of joyful
expectancy in the saloon next morning at breakfast. The thought of going to a
port like Melbourne had everyone buoyed up a little. The chief officer was
discussing some company business he’d heard about from the captain. Then the
second steward came into the saloon, he was a little breathless when he spoke
to the chief officer.

“The captain wants to see you
immediately sir.”

 “Is he in his cabin steward?”

 “Yes sir.”

 He made haste up to the
captain’s cabin. The captain was pacing the short space between his desk and
the door. “Come in, close the door, I’ve just discovered a stowaway; a young
girl, she was sleeping in the guest cabin all night.”

 “Is she one of those boat girls?
I told those deck hands to make sure they were all ashore.”

 “No, she’s not one of them;
she seems a well-bred and well-spoken girl and speaks perfect English. In a
minute or so, I’ll call her in and we can both talk to her. She seemed
perfectly at home in the cabin. I heard a noise coming from the shower as I
passed to go down for breakfast and thought some of those rascals were
entertaining the boat girls in there and left the shower on. This young girl
was drying her hair when I opened the door. Good morning sir, she said to me
when I looked in. I was flabbergasted. I didn’t know what to say. I just closed
the door. Come with me now and we’ll speak to her.”

 The chief officer smiled to
himself thinking how easy a young girl could upset the captain; this type of
thing was outside his compass. The chief officer led the way and knocked on the
cabin door. A cheerful young girl’s voice bid them to enter. She was seated in
front of the mirror combing her hair, but rose to her feet when the two men
entered.

“Excuse me but I’ve just
washed my hair.”

 She wore a loose fitting turquoise
dress and her beauty was enough to take their breath away. They stood speechless;
the captain looked at the chief officer for a lead. She walked up to them and
with outstretched hand said, “I’m Pippa Sarojini and I’m leaving Colombo to go
to Australia. I must apologize for stowing away on your ship like a little sea
rat, but I had no choice.”

 “Pippa, the captain smiled
what a lovely name.”

 “Yes,” she smiled back, “I’m
called after my father’s mother whom I never met but I know a lot about her, he
told me so much about his home in England and his family. He said his mother
loved horses and horse riding and Pippa means lover of horses. My father was a captain
with the White Star line and my mother and I traveled quite a bit with him,
generally to Australia and sometimes to New Zealand.”

The captain introduced
himself and the chief officer. “Will you accompany Pippa to the saloon for
breakfast and I’ll notify the chief steward that we have an additional person
for the trip to Melbourne.”

 The chief officer entered
the saloon and all heads turned when they saw the smiling beautiful Eurasian
girl.

“Let me introduce our
passenger for the trip, this is Pippa.”

 The hands spoke in inaudible
whispers. “Please to meet you Pippa.” They all rose as she was being seated,
she then looked up and down the table and smiled at each and every one. The
chief officer kept her in conversation while they ate breakfast; she apologized
for having such an appetite but explained she hadn’t eaten for nearly twenty
four hours. After breakfast he escorted her back to the captain’s dayroom and
she sat on the big leather couch looking around the room while the captain
attended to some paper work.

 “Now Pippa, did enjoy your
breakfast?”

 “Yes sir, very much thank
you.”

 “As you’ve probably done
before, you will have to sign the ship’s articles it’s just a formality, you
will sign on as supernumerary.”

 “Yes, that’s what my father
often called me when he was teasing.”

 “Would I be intrusive if I
asked you a bit about your family life and what made you come on board a ship
like this as a stowaway?”

 “No sir, you would not, and
if I were in your position I would surely want to know the same.

She went on to tell the
captain about her early life and how she was the love child of a handsome
captain of a cruise liner who she adored immensely. She explained how her
father who was divorced from his wife in England, was planning to settle down
and marry her mother when he retired from the cruise company. She recounted how
tragically, he died of a heart attack a few months before his retirement date,
leaving her and her mother destitute.

She said they were both
heartbroken by his death and then her mother got a letter from a solicitor in
England giving her one month to vacate the house. She said her father had one
son by his estranged wife. He lived England. She said that shortly after her
father’s death, the son arrived in Colombo to claim his property – their home.

At this point in her account,
Pippa started to sob, but she gradually regained her composure and then
continued in her own words:

“Because father had made no
will the house was legally his sons. We had to leave our home with just our
personal belongings - we had no place to go. Then we got lucky. My mother secured
a position as house keeper in Colombo with some friends of father and they also
agreed to take me in. After about six months having to forego my higher
education, I had no job and not much prospects unless I worked as a hostess in
a bar or night club and mother wouldn’t hear tell of that. I felt I was a
burden on the people mother worked for so a few days’ ago I decided I would try
and get to Australia. I had no money so stowing away like this was the only way
I could get there.”

The captain sat with a lump
in his throat and a hint of a tear in his eye, he had two grown up sons whom he
loved dearly but always longed for a daughter.

 “My dear girl, you are
welcome on board my ship. She’s not as grand as you father’s liner but she’ll
get us to Australia. If you’ll forgive me I would like to see you settled in
Melbourne with a proper family who will look after you. Now my dear, go and get
yourself settled in. There is one restriction I must impose on you. I don’t
want you to go any farther below decks than the officer’s deck. That is where
the saloon and officer’s smoke room is.”

 “I understand exactly, but
can I go onto the bridge and I promise I won’t be a nuisance to the officer of
the watch or the helmsman.”

 “Yes that is not out of
bounds, I will introduce you to the deck apprentices later, they live on the
boat deck and you may socialize with them until twenty hundred hours when you
can accompany me on a little constitutional walk around the boat deck before we
go onto the bridge to sign the night book. Then you should go to your cabin. I
have some books if you like reading.”

 Smiling radiantly, she stood
to leave.

“Thank you so very much sir.
I will always be in your debt.”

 “No my girl, you will never
be indebted to me and anything you want or anything that might be bothering you
come and tell me.”

 “Thank you sir.”

 The relief Henry felt after
leaving Colombo was compromised now with a torment of the arrival of this young
girl stowaway. He wrestled with the idea of going to the captain and confessing
his position and explaining about the dangerous psychopath on board the ship,
and what danger he could pose to this young girl. He would have to give it
serious thought.

The days after leaving
Colombo were hot but idyllic as they made good a course to the south west tip
of Australia. A slight breeze along the decks and a breath of fresh air through
the alleyways with doors open fore and aft, was helping to dispel the stale air
and smell of human beings living and sleeping in close proximity.

The more Henry saw Pippa the
more thought he gave to going to the captain and telling him all about his true
purpose for being on the ship. If anything happened to her he could never
forgive himself; it would only compound the tragedy of Shirley’s and Nilima’s
with another that could be avoided.

The stewards were instructed
not to go into Pippa’s cabin. She would look after her own bunk and go to the
chief steward for a change of linen and towels. The captain was keeping a
distance between her and his crew, her contact with the crew was limited to the
watch keeping officers on the bridge and the deck apprentices. Oswyn Welland had
easy access to her but it looked like he was not now a suspect. However,
Sweeney was in a cabin close to her. Henry would monitor Gary Conrad’s
movements. But Tukola, who was a watch keeper on the twelve to four, would not
be so easy to keep tabs on.

During some free time, Henry
walked around the after deck in the cool of the evening, standing at the stern
leaning on the gunwale looking at the ship’s wake stretching in a straight line
for miles. The white rush of water had a soothing and somewhat mesmeric effect
as he felt drawn along on some phantom chariot.

Sensing he wasn’t alone, he turned
his head to see a fireman standing alongside him.

”Excuse me mate, hope I
didn’t disturb you. I was just throwing these clinkers over the side.”

 “No, you didn’t, I was just
lost in thought. It’s a beautiful evening.”

 “Yes, but I prefer it a bit
cooler. That engine room is like bleedin hell. The chief steward is giving out
a few cold beers to the lads; you’d want to get down there.”

 “Yes, thanks for reminding
me mate.”

Then the fireman left,
carrying his empty bucket.

Bloody hell, Henry thought to
himself. If that was the killer and not a fireman, he could have had me over
the side just like that. Where he was standing was completely screened from the
rest of the ship by the poop house. He would have gone completely unnoticed. He
proceeded to chastised himself for his carelessness.

He walked back the after deck
and saw the captain up on the boat deck taking his usual evening stroll with
Pippa accompanying him. He’s really doting on this young girl – God, what am I
to do?

 It was just before noon next
day when the deck hands were ordered to strip the hatches and lift off a few
hatch covers at either end of the hatch to let more ventilation through. They
were working number four when one man looking down made a grisly discovery; a
girl’s body lay stretched out on the bales of jute.

The chief officer was on the
scene quickly and a sheet was laid over the body. The captain went to examine
the scene accompanied by the chief engineer. Photographs and notes were taken
before the body was moved to the hospital. Henry heard the commotion and went
to investigate. To his horror he saw a basket and two cartons of Lucky Strikes.
“My God, it was Dhanya the beautiful boat girl. You filthy bastard, I swear I’ll
catch you,” he muttered through gritted teeth. He noticed the red scarf was
missing. The killer must have taken it as a trophy. He hoped he might see the body;
it would be very important. Then he thought, what if they decide to return to
Colombo, I’ll surely be arrested this time?

The captain called the chief
officer, chief engineer and chief steward to his day room. He asked each one in
turn what they thought should be done if they should return to Colombo or bury
the body at sea.

 “What do the authorities in
Colombo say?” asked the chief engineer.

 The captain asked the chief
officer to call in the senior radio officer. The chief steward said that the
body was starting to decompose and if they were to go back to Colombo it would
be in an awful state by the time they arrived.

 “Yes chief,” agreed the
captain, “it will take us three days to return to Colombo and we have no way of
refrigerating the corpse.”

 The senior radio officer arrived.

 “Sit down please. You’ve
heard the shocking news?”

 “Yes sir, it’s terrible. It
looks like we have a murderer on board.”

 “We’ll come to that part of
this dreadful business after we decide what to do with the poor girl’s body. I
want you to radio our agent in Colombo and explain the situation so he can
contact the police and the girl’s family - they would have surely reported her
missing by now. Tell them that the body is in a state of decomposition and all
the senior officers on board ship have agreed that to return to Colombo would
necessitate refrigerating the body which facilities we haven’t got. A burial at
sea is the only practical thing to do. Tell them we have taken photographs and have
a written account of the murder scene as we saw it which we will hand over to
the authorities in Australia.”