A Painter in Penang: A Gripping Story of the Malayan Emergency

by Clare Flynn

  ‘Wages day tomorrow,’ added Reggie. ‘Day before is always the busiest day of the week. Have to check the rolls, get the cash from the bank and make up the wages.’ He looked at his watch. Jasmine knew he was lying as the clerk was more than capable of all these tasks.

  Ellis narrowed his eyes but didn’t respond to the unmistakeable brush-off he was receiving. He put a manilla folder on the table in front of him, pushing the sugar bowl aside to do so, managing to knock several lumps onto the tablecloth. He made no apology, but picked one up and put it in his mouth. Jasmine could barely stand to look at him.

  Removing a sheet of paper from the folder, he held it towards them. ‘Have you seen this?’

  It was the wanted poster with Bintang’s photo in the centre and Nayla’s at the top.

  ‘No,’ said Reggie. ‘Should we have done?’

  Ellis shrugged. ‘These posters are all over the peninsula. Maybe they haven’t made it up here. I’ll have to fix that. But it won’t have escaped your notice that your former syce is one of the bandits pictured here. These men and women are communist terrorists or known members of the min yuen.’ He paused while he drained his cup. ‘But I have some good news for you.’ He flashed a grin at them, revealing his discoloured rotten teeth, and stabbed his finger against the photograph of Bintang. ‘He was shot dead last Sunday on the Batu Lembah estate in Province Wellesley. He was running away like the coward he was, after he had set fire to rubber storage facilities there and caused significant damage. Fortunately, the planters contained the fire before it had a chance to spread and shot your driver dead as he was trying to flee the scene of the crime.’

  He looked up, drilling his eyes into Jasmine. She squirmed in her chair, wishing she’d stayed in her room.

  ‘We already know about Bintang’s death.’ Reggie started to get up. ‘Now if you’ll excuse me, Lieutenant–’

  ‘I haven’t finished!’ the officer barked. He swivelled in his chair and turned to address Reggie. ‘Do you honestly think a man of my seniority would take the trouble to drive all the way up here just to let you know one of your servants has been killed? Even if the man was a known communist terrorist.’

  Jasmine’s anger erupted. ‘If Bintang was a CT it’s because you made him one. You beat him up and threatened him and took his picture and put it on your nasty wanted poster. All because he stopped you trying to force yourself on me.’

  To her horror, Ellis started to laugh. ‘Spirited little thing, aren’t you? I was about to get to you. In fact, you’re the reason I’m here, Miss Barrington. I understand you were present at Batu Lembah the day of the fire. Were you there to meet this man?’ He stabbed his finger again at the photograph of Bintang. ‘Was he your lover? Is that why he rushed to your aid?’ He leaned back, tilting the chair to balance on the back legs only, before letting it bounce back under him as he leant forward towards Jasmine, pushing his face closer to hers. ‘Women like you disgust me. You’re a shame to the British empire and your race. Consorting with natives. Sleeping with the enemy. It isn’t natural. It’s against the order of things.’

  Jasmine could take no more. She jumped up.

  Reggie banged his fist on the table. ‘Enough, Ellis! How dare you come into our home and speak to Miss Barrington in this way.’

  Ellis ignored him, fixing his gaze on Jasmine. ‘Sit down!’ he barked.

  She complied, her body shaking with anger.

  ‘Much as I find your behaviour reprehensible, I’m not here to give you a lecture on your lack of morals.’ Ellis waved his hand dismissively in the direction of Reggie and Mary. ‘I’ll leave that to them as your guardians. ‘I’m here to ask you questions about your time at Batu Lembah.’

  ‘Look here, you can cut this out, Ellis. I told you. This is our home.’

  Ellis gave him a withering look. ‘And this is His Majesty’s business.’

  ‘Then damn well get to the point.’ Reggie’s face was flushed in anger.

  ‘I’ve nothing to say.’ Jasmine folded her arms. ‘As you point out, Bintang is dead. I didn’t see him. I was with my friend, Barbara Appleton in the cellar while they were fighting the fire.’

  ‘I’ve already talked to Miss Appleton. She was extremely cooperative. She happened to tell me you were not with her in the cellar. Rather upset about that actually. Says you ran off and abandoned her. Presumably to meet your native.’ He reached again for the wanted poster. ‘Are you a communist sympathiser, Miss Barrington? Or do your sympathies extend only to that particular one? Were you having a sexual relationship with him?’

  Reggie leapt to his feet. ‘Look here, Ellis. I don’t care whether you’re a bloody officer, you are not a gentleman. I will not have you speaking to Miss Barrington in that manner. You can damn well apologise or get out!’

  Ellis put his hands up in a gesture of apology. ‘I’ll try to choose my words more carefully.’

  ‘You’d better. But it isn’t going to stop me making a formal complaint to your superior officer. Something I should have done long ago when I found out what you tried on last time you were here. The reason I didn’t was that Miss Barrington asked me not to. So, you owe her a debt of gratitude, you blackguard.’

  ‘Now who’s throwing around defamatory statements? Let’s call it quits then, shall we, Underwood, and I’ll carry on with my questions.’

  ‘No. Let’s not. You can leave now. If you want to interrogate us, you can get a court order for it. And the name’s Hyde-Underwood.’

  ‘I have all the authority I need to question you now. May I remind you, under the Emergency powers I can interrogate whoever I need if I believe it’s necessary in the defence of the country.’ He pushed the poster across the table to Jasmine. ‘It’s not actually the dead man I’m interested in. It’s this woman. He stabbed his finger at the image of Nayla. ‘You must have seen her when you were at Batu Lembah last Sunday. She’s the housekeeper for the junior managers there. According to O’Keefe and Fairchild, she served lunch to you and your friends. That was the last anyone saw of her. You’re not going to deny it are you, Miss Barrington?’

  Jasmine avoided looking at Mary and Reggie. ’Why would I deny it? She served us lunch. I only saw her for a few minutes. It was before the fire. I don’t understand what you want from me. She came in, served the meal and left.’

  ‘According to your friend Miss Appleton, there was a bit of a commotion. She says the woman spoke to you directly and claimed to know you.’ Ellis got up and began pacing up and down the room as though he owned the place.

  ‘Yes, she did. But it was hardly a commotion. She mentioned that she remembered me from before the war when my father owned the estate. I didn’t remember her. I was only a child. That was all.’ She pushed the paper back.

  ‘Only no one on the Batu Lembah estate has seen or heard from the woman since Sunday. She’s vanished. Her identity card was found in the pocket of one of the dead bandits. It’s clear she was a communist and has now fled to join her comrades.’ The last word was spoken with contempt.

  Mary spoke. ‘Her disappearing doesn’t make her a communist. You know only too well that’s what the CTs are starting to do. They steal ID cards to make stupid people like you believe that anyone unable to provide them must automatically be a terrorist. We’ve read the reports in the Straits Times. Isn’t that the new tactic? Holding up buses and collecting all the cards?’

  ‘Funny that it’s only hers that was found. Funny that she’s the only one who disappeared on Sunday.’

  ‘Is it? Doesn’t seem funny to me at all.’ Reggie was getting increasingly impatient. ‘Look, this is all pointless. I think you should leave now. I told you today is not a good time for any of us. Miss Barrington has answered your questions.’

  Ellis, who had turned to glance out of the window, lunged towards the door, flung it open and rushed out of the room.

  ‘What the devil?’ Reggie spluttered.

  The three of them looked at each other as the same realisation dawned on the
m all simultaneously and they jumped to their feet.

  ‘Nayla! He must have seen Nayla! My God! Reggie, do something!’ screamed Mary.

  Too late. The sound of a gunshot rang out.

  Jasmine was the first to get there. A shell-shocked Amir was kneeling beside his mother’s inert body. Jasmine flung her arms around him and held him tight against her. Ellis was standing several feet away, his pistol still in his hand, a smile on his face. ‘Bullseye!’ he said.

  No sooner were the words out of his mouth than Reggie landed a blow, knocking Ellis backwards, sending him sprawling on the grass. ‘You miserable coward. You’ve murdered an innocent woman in cold blood. And in front of her child.’

  Ellis looked up at him, blood pouring from his nose. ‘You’ll pay for this, Underwood.’ As he staggered to his feet he added, ‘If she was innocent, why was she running away?’

  ‘Because you were pointing a gun at her,’ Jasmine screamed at him. ‘Because you’ve plastered her face on wanted posters. She’d done nothing. The communists were threatening her because she wouldn’t help them and now you’ve killed her. You’re despicable.’

  ‘Get out now!’ Reggie yelled.

  ‘All right I’m going. But I have to do one thing first.’ He went to his jeep and fetched a camera from the front seat and took a photograph of the dead woman. Where he had shot her through the chest, her purple cheongsam was drenched dark with her blood. ‘Have to have proof of the kill.’ He wiped his bloody nose against his arm. ‘It’s like the game of bingo. We have the poster on the barracks wall and cross them off as we get them.’

  ‘Unless you want me to make that nose bloodier, you’ll get in that jeep and get the hell out of here. And, Ellis, if you ever set foot on my property again I won’t answer for the consequences.’

  Mary ran back to the house, fetched one of the throws from the veranda and draped it over Nayla’s body. As she covered the woman’s face, the boy gave a low wail.

  Jasmine held Amir against her, rocking him gently until his cries of grief lessened. He looked up at her, his beautiful eyes full of tears. ‘Why man kill Ma?’

  ‘He’s a bad man.’

  ‘Will he kill me too?’

  ‘No. He’s gone now. You’re safe, Amir.’ She turned to Mary, not knowing what else to do or say.

  Mary reached for Amir’s hand. The little boy began howling again. He jerked away from her and knelt beside his mother’s inert body, trying to pull back the throw that covered her.

  Mary eased him away. ‘Ma’s gone to Heaven, Amir. She’s in paradise now. Later we will all say our prayers for her. And you can say goodbye. Come with me now. We’ll go and find baby Frances. And Jinjiang will make you something nice for your breakfast.’

  His thin body still jerking with tears and shock, he took Mary’s outstretched hand and walked towards the house with her.

  Jasmine let herself sink from her knees to a slump. Reggie held his hand out to her. He pulled her onto her feet. ‘I’ll get some of the men to dig a grave for the poor woman.’

  He looked around. ‘How about if we bury her over there, under that tall hardwood tree? We can have a little ceremony for her tonight.’

  ‘I’ll make a marker for the grave. I made one for Bintang’s sister’s grave. There was nothing to show where it was. I wanted her to have something to record her life. I’d like to do the same for Amir’s mother. Could you find me a solid piece of wood, Reggie.’

  ‘Pleased to do so.’ He looked down at her. ‘You’re a good girl, Jasmine. You have a big heart. Especially… you know… since she and your father…’

  ‘Ancient history.’ She shook her head. ‘Ellis will get away with this, won’t he?’

  Reggie punched his fist into the palm of his hand. ‘I tell you, Jasmine, I’d swing for that man. He deserves to be court-martialled.’

  ‘He won’t be, will he?’

  ‘Almost certainly not.’ Reggie’s mouth was a hard line. ‘Men like him are a disgrace to the uniform. But the army look after their own. And they’ll use the powers of the Emergency.’

  ‘But she was an unarmed woman.’

  ‘He’ll say she was running away. And that she was on the wanted list.’

  Jasmine sneered. ‘His concoction.’ She sighed. ‘It’s my fault. If I’d let you make a complaint when he attacked me…’

  ‘It would have made no difference. He’d have wriggled out of that too.’

  ‘But two innocent people are dead. He didn’t shoot Bintang, but he might as well have done.’ She looked up at Reggie and he drew her into a hug.

  ‘Don’t let Ellis fill your heart with poison. Go and find the lad. Amir needs you. You need to be strong for the poor chap.’

  ‘Thanks Reggie.’

  ‘What for?’

  ‘For understanding.’

  * * *

  Jasmine spent most of the day crafting the grave marker. Uncertain what decorations would be appropriate, she went in search of Amir and asked him to help her make the sign to honour his mother’s memory. The boy was bemused, but followed her to the studio and was soon absorbed in helping her fix some of the natural objects in her collection to the wooden post Reggie had supplied. Afterwards, she gave Amir a brush and let him apply the varnish. Doing this together seemed to comfort him and the task was a temporary distraction from his grief.

  That evening they buried Nayla under the hardwood tree. Jasmine’s eyes brimmed with tears when all the estate workers appeared and stood in line, heads bowed as the woman was laid to rest. Reggie said a few words and prayers were offered by one of the Malays. Amir clutched Jasmine’s hand tightly. He had stopped crying and seemed to be now in a state of shocked numbness.

  * * *

  That night, Mary turned to her husband as they were getting ready for bed. ‘Are we going to talk about it?’

  Reggie looked sheepish. ‘About what?’

  ‘About what happens to Amir.’

  Reggie grunted.

  ‘We can’t let him go to an orphanage. It wouldn’t be right, Reggie.’

  ‘No, I suppose not.’

  ‘After the terrible experience he’s had, he needs love and attention.’

  Another grunt.

  ‘And he’s Jasmine’s half-brother.’

  ‘You’ve made your mind up, haven’t you, Mary? You want us to take the boy in permanently. I get the feeling you’ve already set your heart on it.’

  ‘Unless you feel the same way about him, I will not be set on this.’

  ‘It’s only…’

  ‘Only what, Reggie?’

  ‘He’s a native boy. You said it yourself, he belongs with Malayans.’

  ‘We’re Malayan.’ She spoke with force.

  ‘Don’t be obtuse, Mary, you know what I mean.’

  ‘But we’re never leaving here, are we? This is our home. Our country. And anyway, he’s as much white as Malayan. Don’t forget we’re talking about Doug’s child, about Jasmine’s brother. You must have seen how like Doug he is. And surely we owe it to his mother?’

  ‘Don’t you think this could be rubbing poor Jasmine’s nose in it? In what her father did? She can’t be feeling very proud of old Doug right now.’

  ‘I’m sure she’s not. It brought back a lot of memories of Evie going through hell at the time. But Jasmine’s mature enough to acknowledge human frailty – God knows, she’s certainly experienced plenty of that in the past few days – and she also knows her mother is blissfully happy with Arthur, so there’s no point wasting time feeling bitter on Evie’s behalf.’

  ‘Let me think about it, my love. You need to as well. If we agree to take the boy in and it doesn’t work out, what on earth do we do then? Does he even speak English?’

  ‘Reggie! You haven’t even talked to him! Otherwise you’d know he does. He’s been going to the estate school at BL. He speaks as well or even better than the children I teach. He does appear to be a bright boy.’ She leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips. ‘I think
you should spend some time with him, Reggie. Just the two of you. See what you think. Unless you are one hundred percent sure, I won’t put pressure on you. It’s too important for all of us.’

  ‘Frances does seem to have taken to him.’

  ‘Utterly besotted.’

  ‘And after what the doctors said when you had Frances… We accepted it, didn’t we, old girl? That she would be the only one. We were disappointed, but we’d come to terms with it. She was the gift that brought us together. Now this.’ He looked wistful. ‘I’d always imagined Stanford would be here…but that’s never going to happen if Susan gets her way.’ He took a slow breath, mulling the idea in his mind.

  Mary looked at her husband tenderly, reminding herself that she had once been ready to throw away the possibility of happiness with Reggie because of fear of the unknown, fear of happiness itself, of opening herself up to the possibility of loss again. She waited, watching, as he thought.

  ‘He’s awfully young,’ he said eventually. ‘But lots of time to learn. Why don’t I take him with me tomorrow on my inspection rounds? It’ll give me a chance to get know the boy. And him me.’

  The following day, after lunch, Mary stood on the veranda, watching as her husband stepped out of the estate office and began to cross the padang towards the small rubber factory. Amir was walking beside him. Her heart leapt in her chest when she saw the boy say something to her husband, then put up his hand and Reggie’s large paw wrapped around Amir’s small one and the two walked together across the grassy space.

  * * *

  Over dinner, Reggie and Mary told Jasmine that they had decided, if she was in agreement, that Amir could stay on at Bella Vista.

  ‘We’re prepared to bring him up as if he were our own son.’ Mary looked at Reggie for affirmation.

  ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘It depends on the lad himself, and you too, but if things work out, maybe we can make it a formal adoption. Let’s give it time. But if you think it’s a good idea, Jasmine, we’d love to give it a go.’