Death Beyond the Limit: Fiji Islands Mysteries 3

by B. M. Allsopp

  ‘Bula, Salome. How are you?’

  An anxious frown wrinkled her brow. The midday glare lit fine lines around her eyes. She was getting older. Like everyone.

  ‘I’m fine, Joe.’

  He doubted she’d feel fine for very long, but he said, ‘Let’s get our lunch first, then we can talk.’

  The vegetarian curry café was one of his favourites, not least because it was opposite the station. The cafeteria line was short so before long they unloaded their trays of curries, rice and sambals onto a table against the wall. The smell of the mingling spices made his mouth water. They didn’t talk until half the food was gone.

  ‘What have you been shopping for this morning?’

  ‘Oh, I picked up some vegetables at the market and some specials at Hedstrom’s. That’s enough for me to carry on the bus. But the main reason I came to town was to check on Jimmy, the friend I mentioned to you. I’m worried about him now.’

  ‘What’s happened?’

  ‘His boat berthed at Suva yesterday but I didn’t hear from him and he didn’t show up at my place. His mobile seems to be switched off, according to the message I get. This morning I went down to the boat and asked one of the crew. He said Jimmy had already left the boat. That Chinese seaman brushed me off, really. He didn’t want to say any more, just disappeared below deck.’

  ‘Your friend’s name is Jimmy? Is he Fijian?’

  ‘Io, Jimmy’s just the nickname he uses because he works with foreigners so much. His real name is Semisi.’

  He hadn’t known her man worked on boats. That didn’t augur well. It was entirely possible that Jimmy had changed his mind about Salome and wanted to avoid her. That would explain his mobile being switched off. However, he could not suggest that. No way.

  ‘It’s possible his phone’s battery was flat and you’ll get a call quite soon.’ He smiled, trying to reassure her. But already he believed he had just discovered Jona’s identity.

  ‘This boat’s a big tuna longliner—it has electricity. He usually charges his phone before he makes port.’

  ‘Maybe something stopped him this time. Does he have a family? If there was some emergency, he might have gone to them as soon as the ship docked.’

  ‘It’s possible, but he would have let me know. His parents are in Lautoka, staying with his sister’s family.’

  ‘How long has he been on this boat?’

  ‘About a month. It’s been a long voyage. Sometimes he might be away for a few days, sometimes a month or more. Often a longliner transfers the catch to other boats called carriers, so they don’t waste time and diesel sailing to ports far away. Carriers bring supplies to the fishing boats at sea. Water, too. Oi lei, did you know that, Joe?’

  ‘I didn’t. Really?’ His cases hadn’t taken him into the world of large-scale fishing beyond Fiji’s territorial limit.

  ‘Io, Jimmy says it’s another world out there on the high seas. Fancy that—I know something that a detective who went to university does not!’ She raised her left hand and rubbed her forehead. Glinting on her third finger was a red Wave ring.

  His heart thudded against his ribcage. He feared for her. ‘I saw a blue ring just like that yesterday. I met the silversmith who made it, too—Bill Peterson.’

  She held her hand out, proud. ‘Io, I bought it from him at the ROC Sunday market. I couldn’t decide which colour I wanted, but this red one fitted my finger perfectly, so I took that as a sign it was the one for me. When Jimmy admired my ring I took him there and he wanted a blue one. His fingers are so big I had to order one and Bill made it specially for him. He made it wider and thicker, too. He said the proportions had to be right. That was about a year ago.’ She gazed at her ring, far away in happy reminiscence.

  He tried hard to summon his professional distance. His courage, too. He didn’t succeed. He took the victim’s ring from his pocket and showed her. ‘This is the ring we found yesterday, Salome.’

  She took it, rotating it on her little finger. ‘Io, this is just like Jimmy’s, but it’s broken. These blue rings are popular, Joe. This could belong to another man. It’s too clean and shiny to be Jimmy’s. And broken.’

  ‘Io, you’re right. It could belong to another man.’

  ‘I suppose he could have polished it up because he was going to see me. But he’s not much good at that sort of thing. How did it get broken? Did you find it in Suva? If it’s Jimmy’s, he must have lost it in the street yesterday, right after he left the boat.’ She sounded doubtful.

  ‘No, not in Suva. Some children found it on a beach near Levuka.’ He waited.

  ‘Levuka? Why have you got it in Suva, then?’ She smiled, mystified.

  Moments later the colour drained from her face, the ring dropped to the table. She looked at him, her mouth open.

  ‘You don’t mean—that hand? What I heard on the radio? Was this ring on that hand?’

  ‘Io. And the scientists told us today that the hand, and the head that was found at sea a week ago… they match. The hand wearing this ring and the head belong to the same person.’

  ‘Oi lei! No, this must be a coincidence!’

  ‘It could be. For your sake, I hope so. For Jimmy’s sake, too.’

  Salome propped her arms on the table and held her head in her hands. Her own ring gleamed through her crinkly black hair.

  He gave her time. A waiter came and cleared their plates. The proprietor followed and served them tea and home-made Indian sweets. ‘Sweets are always complimentary for you, Josefa,’ he said with an affectionate smile. Horseman nodded his thanks. The proprietor glanced at Salome and left them.

  Eventually, Salome looked at him. ‘I have to accept that Jimmy could have met with an accident while he was on deck alone. He might have fallen into the sea when there was nobody around. He always told me how dangerous his job was. But he would be missed! They would have searched for him! The captain would have reported it and asked for help!’ Her hands trembled but colour started to return to her face, her lips.

  ‘And if any of those things had happened, the police would know about it, right?’

  He nodded. ‘Io, Salome, we would know.’

  She took the dainty cup Horseman filled for her, added sugar and drank the tea. He poured her another.

  ‘That’s why I’m sure this unfortunate man is not Jimmy. But there’s only one way to tell.’ The teacup trembled in her hand. ‘I need to see this head and this hand, even though the idea is horrible. Then I can tell you.’

  She steadied now she had said the words. ‘So, you never thought I’d be helping the cops, eh.’ She managed a small smile.

  ‘Salome, I’m so sorry, but I cannot allow you to see those remains. Believe me, even this man’s mother could not recognise his head or hand. After some days in the sea, there’s a lot of damage to a human body.’

  ‘I’m no use to the cops after all.’

  ‘Salome, what you’ve told me is vital. I’m grateful. The best way you can help even more is if you have something from Jimmy, like hair from a brush or a fingernail clipping. If we could get a good sample, the scientists can check if Jimmy’s DNA is different from the DNA of the body parts. Then we can be certain, one way or the other.’

  ‘Oh, DNA. Io, I know about that. I watch CSI on television. I don’t know if I could find something. I’ll have a look, though.’

  ‘I can help you, too. The police can’t work on finding Jimmy until you file a Missing Person report. Come across to the station with me now and we can fill it in together.’

  Salome finished her tea, then looked down. ‘I don’t want to go inside the station, Joe. This is close enough for me. Can you do it for me?’

  ‘What are you worried about? I’ll be with you, Salome.’

  ‘You don’t want to be seen with me, Joe. Some of those cops may recognise me. One or two are not nice. I wouldn’t do you any good.’

  ‘Vinaka, you’re a good woman, Salome. I don’t respect any man who hasn’t been nice to you. I don
’t care what they think.’

  ‘Maybe you should. The bad will always strive to destroy the good.’

  ‘Well, it’s important we get these forms filled in. Prem won’t mind if we do it here. I can go and bring back the forms in a minute. Do you have a photo of him? I’ll need that too.’

  ‘I haven’t, I’m sorry.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘We don’t go in for things like that. We’re both a bit different, you see.’

  Horseman thought it odd that they went in for rings yet Salome didn’t have one photo.

  ‘When I get him officially logged as missing, I’ll be able to start making enquiries. Police will be able to visit the ship and ask questions, for example.’

  ‘Io, that’s the best thing. Let’s get it over with.’

  19

  Horseman had trouble following Salome’s directions through the winding streets of the owner-builders development. Schemes like this gave town workers the chance to buy their own plot of land with utilities laid on. The proud landowners built what they could afford, adding and upgrading over the years. Citizens of different races saved, built and had no time or inclination to crime. They became a community through proximity, the borrowing and lending of tools, the sharing of food, the offers and acceptance of labour. The constables who staffed their small police posts grew attached to these communities.

  After a few wrong turns he found Salome’s cousin’s house. It was a timber and corrugated iron rectangle raised on stumps, with a veranda across the front and glass louvres on opposite sides. It would be airy. Terraced food gardens took up all the space at the front. He followed a side path down the slope to the back yard.

  Salome had described her lodgings as a garden flat. Horseman thought it a grandiose classification. The small corrugated iron shed would be the family’s first dwelling, allowing space at the front for their dream house while they saved and amassed materials. Now it was almost hidden by banana clumps and orange trees. Certainly private. He knocked on the plywood door.

  Salome opened it immediately. ‘You found me at last,’ she said.

  ‘Io, it’s a nice place, but hard to find.’

  ‘It’s my retreat.’

  ‘No one visits you here?’

  ‘Only my daughter during her holidays from boarding school. Jimmy too, when he’s in Suva—not when my daughter’s here, of course. Oh, you didn’t think…did you? Oi lei, my cousin Elisa prides herself on her Christian charity, but I’d be out on my ear if I ever worked from here. No, I rent a small overpriced room in the heart of Suva. It’s much better that way. Please come in, Joe.’

  In one corner of the living room was a kitchen with a two-burner spirit stove on a lino-covered bench. It was quite dim until Salome propped open both iron shutters and lit a mosquito coil on the kitchen bench.

  ‘I keep them closed because I can’t stand the mosquitos. I once had dengue fever,’ she explained. Pushed against one wall was a decent-sized table with a sewing machine, workbox, stacks of fabric pieces and garments under construction.

  ‘Oh, you’re already a dressmaker.’

  ‘Io, I sew all my own clothes to save money. I make for my cousin and some of her friends. Neighbours and even people further afield ask me to make for them. Not just clothes—curtains and cushion covers too. I enjoy it and they’re happy with my work. That’s how I got the idea that I could make sewing my full-time business.’

  ‘You should do that Salome.’

  ‘Jimmy wants me to move with him to Vanua Levu to take up his clan rights to land there. Maybe buy a fishing boat. But now, I don’t know what will happen.’

  ‘Sit down, Salome. Can I make you some tea?’

  She looked shocked. ‘Oh no. But perhaps I will sit.’ She sank onto a plastic chair, folding her arms on the table and laying her head on them.

  ‘I’ll get you some water,’ he said. The kitchen boasted plumbing, so he filled a cup at the sink and brought it to her. She propped herself up and gulped from the cup.

  ‘Vinaka, I’m better now.’

  Horseman worried about her. ‘Jimmy’s now registered as a missing person. As I explained before, it’s possible he was the shark-attack victim last weekend. We know he was at sea then. The best way I can rule him out is by collecting a sample for DNA testing. Did Jimmy stay here between fishing trips, Salome?’

  ‘Io, sometimes. He didn’t have his own place. He had to be careful not to be seen by the neighbours—Elisa wouldn’t like gossip. But he would stay with his parents in Vanua Levu, too. Or visit his sister in Lautoka.’

  Horseman took out his notebook. ‘Can you tell me their names and addresses, please. If they have telephone numbers, even better.’

  Salome picked up a black diary from the table and supplied the information. She seemed well-organised. Perhaps she could make a go of a sewing business. He hoped so.

  ‘The best way to find the DNA tissue is for our specialist team, the SOCOs, to come in and search your flat. I promise you, they won’t damage anything or turn the place upside down. They know what they’re looking for and where to find it.’

  ‘No, Joe, absolutely not. I’d be out on the street. My cousin would be mortified by a police search, those suits, the van… no, sorry. This place isn’t much, but I like it, it’s my retreat.’

  ‘I can see that. I’ll have to find something then. Well, has Jimmy got a toothbrush here, a comb, nail clippers, any clothes?’

  She bridled. ‘I keep everything, clean, as I hope you can see, Joe. I don’t leave old toothbrushes lying around. You can go in the bedroom—there’s just a tiny shower cubicle there. Jimmy put that in for me so I didn’t have to use the outside bathroom. I like privacy. I use the kitchen sink as a handbasin. The toilet is outside. I don’t mind that.’

  He put on gloves and stepped through to the bedroom. A metal bedstead was neatly made with a bright floral bedspread. When he opened the shutter, matching curtains billowed. The small shower was lined with glossy laminate. He fished around in the drain hole. No hairs, nothing at all. No men’s clothes hanging on the rail. None on the open set of shelves either. Everything spotless. Disappointing. He knew Ash could find something.

  Salome appeared. He smiled. ‘You’re just too clean, Salome.’

  She smiled back. ‘I forgot about Jimmy’s suitcase. It’s the shock, I suppose. I keep it here for him. He doesn’t take much on the boats.’ She knelt on the floor and reached under the bed, pulled out a blue vinyl suitcase that had seen better days.

  His knee protested as he knelt beside her. Damn the joint—it was high time it worked properly again. ‘Is it okay with you if I open it now?’

  Salome sprang up. There was nothing wrong with her knees. ‘I don’t think I want to look at his things right now. I know I can trust you with it, Joe. I’d rather you take it away.’ Her voice cracked on her final words. Her hand stilled her trembling mouth.

  ‘No problem, I’ll do that and return it to you when we’ve finished with it. I think the SOCOs will find a hair or something.’

  ‘If you don’t, I’ve got this. I hope you don’t need it.’ She went back to the living-room table and opened a sewing box, lifted the top tray out and delved below. She withdrew a small envelope and handed it to him. Inside was a lock of frizzy black hair tied with a ribbon. It had been cut. There were no roots. This must be precious to her or else she surely would have revealed it before.

  ‘Is this Jimmy’s?’

  ‘Io, I know it seems silly to keep his hair.’

  ‘Not at all. I think I understand. Can I take it?’

  She looked down and nodded. ‘Io, I have to know.’

  ‘I’ll give the SOCOs the suitcase. If they can’t find anything there for DNA, I’ll offer them this. How about that?’

  Salome looked up at him, her eyes wet. She nodded.

  ‘Has Jimmy been on the crew of this fishing boat for a long time?’

  ‘The Joy-13? No, just this trip. He usually only does one trip on e
ach boat.’

  ‘Really? I’m surprised.’

  ‘Oh, I should have explained, I suppose. He’s not one of the crew. He’s independent. He’s a fishing observer.’

  Horseman was taken aback. ‘What’s a fishing observer?’

  Salome smiled at his bewilderment. ‘Oi lei, I don’t know any details, Joe. He has to write down how many fish they catch, what sort of fish, that kind of thing. When he gets back the records go to the Fisheries Department. That’s about all I know.’

  ‘So, he’s like an inspector?’

  ‘He’s called an observer. I don’t know if that’s the same or not.’

  ‘Did, I mean does, sorry…does he like his work?’

  ‘He does, especially the good pay. He always liked fishing as a boy. When he left school he worked for years on his uncle’s small boat out of Savusavu. Later on, he did technical college certificates and moved on to tuna longliners. He got to know a fishing observer on a long trip once. That man befriended him and encouraged him to apply to be an observer. The pay is much better.’

  ‘That’s very interesting. You told me he’s independent, not one of the boat’s crew. Is he employed by the Fisheries Department?’

  ‘I’m not sure. Jimmy doesn’t talk a lot. All that time at sea, I guess. He’s always gazing into the distance, as if he’s at sea, looking for land. He does say it’s lonely being an observer. But I doubt that’s a big problem for him.’

  ‘I’ll do my best to find out what’s happened to him, Salome.’ They shook hands, said their goodbyes. He put the sad envelope in his pocket, picked up Jimmy’s old suitcase, and made his way back up the path.

  20

  The lunch at the matchmaker’s house was not elaborate but it would justify her fee. Singh felt she was an exhibit for Brij’s parents. This time she had refused a sari. She and her mother had compromised on an embroidered salwar kameez pant-suit. She wore the matching shawl over one shoulder. She managed to remain demure and mostly silent while she wondered if Horseman had discovered the owner of that all-important ring, the ring she was the first to notice. She knew perfectly well that if she hadn’t gone to Levuka yesterday, Matt Young would have brought the hand back to Suva, retrieved the ring and passed it over to Horseman. She hadn’t done anything special. But still, it was a thrill to know she was the first to see it.