The White Witch of the South Seas gs-11

by Dennis Wheatley

  As they walked back towards the house, Joe Joe offered hospitality. It would, he said, have been Madame's wish. Gregory thanked him, but declined, saying that they would dine on board and, later that night, return to the mainland.

  When they sat down to dinner James looked across at Gregory uneasily. `I can't understand this at all. It is most unlikely that two parties of Colons from Tahiti would have been out there seeking to engage divers at the same time.'

  `I agree, and that Manon should have lent them her house as a headquarters is a very strange coincidence. Of course, as she had heard nothing from us for over ten weeks, she has very good reason to suppose that we are dead. I happen to know that she is extremely hard up. She is wildly extravagant by nature, and the house here cost her a small fortune. So she may have gone in with Lacost and Co. to earn a share in the gold. But there may be some other explanation.'

  `Yes. She may have let the house to them through an agent, not knowing that they were Lacost's party. Anyhow, this fatal accident means that we have one enemy less:

  `But which? That's what I want to know. When they are all asleep in the house I'm going to find out.'

  `What!' James exclaimed, with a horrified expression. `You… you can't mean that you're going to desecrate the grave?'

  `I am.' Gregory's voice was firm. `Surely you don't imagine that the dead man's spook is going to jump out and bite me? You can come with me or not, as you wish.'

  James shuddered. `No, no! Forgive me, but I'll remain on board and stay up till you return.'

  The following two hours seemed to creep by. As usual aboard such boats, the crew sat up on deck, strumming guitars and singing plaintively. James, after nervously flicking through the pages of a magazine for a while, gave up the attempt to read and sat listening to the nightly concert. Gregory, outwardly calm, but far from looking forward to the grim task he had set himself, downed four brandies and soda in succession while playing a game of six pack bezique with Bob Wyndhoik. When the game ended he stood up and said to Bob

  `Have two of your boys man the boat, will you? I feel like going ashore for a stroll before I turn in.' With a glance at James, he added, `Well, I'll be seeing you.' Then they went out on deck.

  The boat had not been hove in, so was still alongside. The concert party broke up and Gregory followed the boys down into the boat. As she headed for the shore, phosphorus gleamed brightly in the little waves churned up by the bows. Five minutes later, having told the crew to wait for him, he waded through the shallows.

  It was a wonderful night. The sky was free of cloud and a splendid moon dimmed the stars but made the scene almost as bright as in daylight. In places, contrasting with its brilliant illumination, there were patches of dense black shadow thrown by the groups of palm trees and the bures. The air was balmy and, but for the gentle lapping of the tide, it was utterly silent.

  No light showed from the big bure. Cautiously, he moved from one patch of shadow to another, until he had made his way round it. The smaller bures behind it were also in darkness. Skirting them, he went to a tin roofed shed. From his stay there early in February he knew that the gardener kept his implements there. Silently removing a spade from a stock of tools in one corner, he walked with almost noiseless footsteps through the orange grove to the small clearing in the jungle where the body had been buried.

  Carefully removing the now wilted flowers and the wooden cross, he began to shovel the loose soil away from that end of it. As he had expected, the grave was quite shallow and the corpse covered with little more than a foot of earth.

  The stillness of the night was eerie and the strong moonlight heightened the sense of tension that he felt. Sweat began to break out on his forehead but, setting his teeth, he laboured on until he had uncovered the dead man's head. Bright as the moonlight was, clots of earth still rendered the corpse's features unrecognisable. Taking a torch from his pocket, he shone its beam down on to the now mottled face. Then grasping it by the hair, he pulled it up so that he could examine the skull. At the back was a deep depression of crushed broken bone clotted with blood, from which scores of frightened ants scurried. Letting it fall, he shovelled back the earth, replaced the flowers and the cross, threw the spade away into the nearest patch of undergrowth, then walked thoughtfully back to the beach.

  On the deck of the cruiser, James was waiting anxiously for him. Bob had already gone to his cabin. As soon as the two boys. who had taken Gregory ashore were out of earshot, wide eyed, the young Ratu uttered the single word:

  `Well?'

  `It was as I expected,' Gregory replied grimly. `De Carvalho.'

  `Oh God!' James exclaimed. `And it's the full of the moon! The White Witch's curse!'

  `No. His death was not an accident brought about by occult means. He wasn't killed by a falling coconut. That would have hit him on the top of the head. The back had been bashed in. He was struck down with a club, by somebody walking behind him.'

  'But why?' stammered James. `Why? You… you said there was no point in their killing him until they had got up the gold.'

  Gregory shrugged. `I forgot one thing. To get clean away with taking the treasure, Lacost must have a licence: Otherwise the French authorities will hunt him down. If for no other reason, because they will want their ten per cent of the value. If he had murdered de Carvalho in Tujoa, after they had got the gold, it is certain that he would have been suspected. De Carvalho's having died here in Fiji, apparently from an accident, no one is going to connect his death with what happens in Tujoa. And now the holder of the licence is dead, Lacost has a free field to apply for one himself. That is the answer. Anyway, this is a stroke of luck for you. With her husband out of the way, Olinda is now all yours.'

  For a moment James was silent, then he burst out, ` Olinda! But don't you see? As de Carvalho's widow, she will inherit the licence. Before Lacost can apply for one for himself he will either have to come to terms with her or kill her. And he must be on his way to her now!'

  15

  Night Race to Suva

  Gregory raised an eyebrow. `That could be, although I doubt it. I don't know much about Lacost, but I should think he's too clever to rush his fences. As it was while with his party that de Carvalho's death occurred, he will naturally go straight to Olinda and inform her of it. To fail to do so would be a hideous blunder. If he returned to Tujoa and left her to learn by some other means that she had become a widow she would immediately suspect that he had had a hand in it and set the police on to make enquiries. That is the one thing he dare not risk. An autopsy would disclose that de Carvalho was not killed by a falling coconut. Seeing that Lacost had motive and opportunity, he would find himself in a very nasty spot. But…'

  Having listened impatiently, James broke in. `What you say makes it more obvious than ever that he is on his way to Olinda. So we must go after him at once. Otherwise he may, as I said, kill her too or at least trap her in some way. Perhaps he'll kidnap her.'

  `No. As I was about to say, he is not to know that Olinda had come to hate her husband, so he will expect her to be grief stricken by his news. It would be a most unnatural thing to force a business discussion on a woman in such a state, and a dangerous move, as it would draw attention to what Lacost hopes to gain by de Carvalho's death. As for killing or kidnapping her, he would be crazy to attempt to do either. Apart from the difficulty of getting away with it in a place like Suva, now he has collected his divers and it is ? HYPERLINK “file:///C:\Program%20Files\Book%20Designer%204.0\Temp\tmp1\2\which%2039.html0” l “http://known.in/#http://known.in/” ?known. in? Tujoa what he wants them for, the police would tumble to it in no time that he was sticking at nothing to get all the treasure for himself. And remember, he can have no idea that we know about de Carvalho's death and will soon be after him. Believe me, James, he'll take his time, do his best to comfort Olinda in her loss, then in a few days' time suggest to her that, as de Carvalho's surviving partner she should transfer the licence to him for a consideration which, of c
ourse, he would have no intention of honouring.'

  `She wouldn't do that. I'm certain she wouldn't. While Valentim was alive she had no chance to spike his guns. But she would have if she could, for my sake. Now that she is in control of the situation, I'm sure that she will refuse to have anything more to do with Lacost.'

  `No doubt you are right. But only when she has turned Lacost down will he be forced to think up some scheme to get her into his power without being suspected of having murdered her husband. That is going to take some planning and should give us still longer to ensure that she is adequately protected. Meanwhile, we have a good chance to settle with Lacost and Co. once and for all. We'll go ashore again in the morning and carry out a very thorough investigation: take statements from Joe Joe and all the other servants about the Colons and, as far as they know them, the exact circumstances of de Carvalho's death. I also intend to have his corpse disinterred, wrapped up in a lot of sacking and boxed, then take it back to Suva so that an autopsy can be carried out.'

  `No!' James shook his bushy head violently. `No! We must set off at once. Lacost is on his way to her. As I just said, I'm sure that when she learns that the licence is now legally hers her first thought will be of me. But she can have heard nothing of us for nearly ten weeks. She may believe me to be dead or that, not having found some way to communicate with her, I have ceased to love her. Fed up with this whole business, she might let Lacost have the licence for the asking, and return to Brazil. That's the least bad thing that can happen. We've got to work fast, I tell you.'

  Gregory considered for a moment. `There is something in what you say. But it would mean my abandoning the investigation I meant to carry out. If we leave that for a week or so the memories of the servants about what happened will have become faulty and de Carvalho's corpse will have become no more than a skeleton.'

  `To hell with his corpse! Valentim was no friend of mine that I should be anxious to avenge his death. Besides, we can't prove that he was clubbed to death. Remember, a coconut falling from a tree is very different from one you see for sale on the stalls. It would not have had its husk chopped open and removed, so would have weighed anything up to twelve pounds. It is quite possible that, falling from such a height, it would have smashed his skull.'

  `But it was the back of his head, not the top, that had been bashed in.'

  `Yes; yes; I know. And I don't doubt that it was the Colons who killed him. But, if accused, they are sure to say that when the coconut fell he was bending over to tie up his shoelace, or pick a flower, or something. Naturally, I'd be delighted if we could pin Valentim's murder on Lacost, but the chances are we'd fail. Anyhow, I don't give a damn about that now. It's Olinda who matters. I've got to get to her. I'm going to rouse out Bob Wyndhoik and have him start the engines at once.'

  As James turned away, Gregory shrugged resignedly. Although he did not believe that there was any immediate cause for anxiety about Olinda, he could not help sympathising with his young friend's urge to ensure that she had his protection at the earliest possible moment. Moreover, there was much to be said for the argument that it would be next to impossible to prove that when de Carvalho had, presumably, been hit by the coconut he was standing upright. There was also the factor that if the police were brought into the matter it was quite on the cards that he and James might have to kick their heels in Suva for perhaps several weeks until the trial came on, as they would be needed to give evidence about the reason why the Colons should have wanted de Carvalho out of the way.

  All things considered, it seemed just as well to let sleeping dogs lie and, now that Olinda could so much improve their own position by legalising it, concentrate on securing the treasure before Lacost could get back to Tujoa, ignore old Elboeuf and make off with it.

  The Southern Cross shuddered as her motors started and a moment later she was nosing her way out of the bay. Soon afterwards James joined Gregory in the cabin, where he was fixing himself a badly needed drink. The young Ratu smiled and rubbed his hands together

  `Bob thinks we have quite a good chance of reaching Suva right on their heels. They can't have had more than a few hours' start, and from the account we had in Tujoa of Lacost's Pigalle she is a rotten old craft. For us, round the south coast of Viti Levu should be only about sixteen hours cruising, while she may take twenty or more.'

  `Perhaps he's right,' Gregory conceded. `But dirty old boats sometimes have good engines. If I were you I'd tell Bob to about ship and make for Lautoka.'

  `Why? It's very unlikely Lacost will have gone there.' `True. But it's only twenty miles away, and we could telephone a warning to Olinda from there.'

  `You're right!' James exclaimed, and dashed away up the cabin steps.

  When he returned the launch had heeled over and was making a sharp turn. Gregory finished his drink and remarked thoughtfully, `There is one thing I don't understand. Why should de Carvalho have come to the Mamanucas in the Colon 's old tub instead of in his own fine yacht?'

  James shrugged. `Goodness knows. But it does account for one thing, and I thank heaven for it on my knees. Normally, Olinda accompanies Valentim on all his cruises. From what Joe Joe told us this afternoon it is clear that there was no woman with the visiting party, so Olinda remained in Suva. Obviously, her reason for doing so was because the accommodation in the Pigalle was too shoddy for an elegant woman to be willing to occupy it, Praises be things turned out like that, otherwise she would already be in the hands of those devils. Or perhaps Lacost would have arranged a plausible double “accident”, in which case she would be dead.'

  `Yes. It's certainly a stroke of luck that she wasn't with them. There may be another explanation, though, why she was not. Perhaps there was a death in her family, or some other urgent reason why she should return to Brazil. If so, and de Carvalho sent her off in the yacht, that would account for his having come here with the Colons in the Pigalle.'

  `I only hope you are right, although I would have thought that in such a case she would fly back. Anyhow, if she is no longer in Suva she will be out of all danger.'

  After a moment James went on, `One other thing puzzles me about this business. If Lacost had made up his mind to murder Valentim before getting the gold, why didn't they simply push him off the boat in the middle of the night, and let him drown? If they had done that, no one would ever have been able to examine the body and learn the truth.'

  Gregory slowly shook his head. `The job they've done is much more subtle. If later any question arises of their having an interest in bringing about his death, they can say, “But if we had wanted to kill him we had a week or more at any time during which we could have thrown him to the sharks. His death was an accident of the sort that happens every now and then to a native in these islands. He died within a few hundred yards of the bure. It is only by chance that one of the servants there did not actually see what happened. We made no secret of his death, but gave him proper burial, and, instead of leaving for Tujoa, which was where we wanted to go, we at once returned to Suva to report the accident to his widow and the authorities”.'

  By that time it was two o'clock in the morning. Giving a yawn, Gregory added, `We should dock at Lautoka in less than four hours, but that is time enough to get a good rest, and I need one. I'm going to my cabin. Tell Bob to give me a call ten minutes before we are due to land, will you?'

  Soon after five o'clock, the Southern Cross reached Lautoka, and Gregory paid off the cheerful, garrulous Bob Wyndhoik. As they walked the short distance to the Cathay Hotel, a wonderful dawn sky of gold and orange, streaked with narrow bars of black cloud, showed above the mountains to the east. At the hotel the servants were just starting work but the manager was away for the night, staying with friends, and was not expected back until after breakfast. However, his deputy, an Indian, proved most efficient and helpful. Having ordered coffee and fruit for them, he set about trying to put them in touch with Olinda.

  Although it seemed certain that a yacht like the Boa Via gem would, if in h
arbour for any length of time, be connected to the shore by telephone, naturally there was no number for her in the book; so the Indian got on to the Port Authority. After a wait of ten minutes it was confirmed that the yacht was still at Suva and James was put through to her. He asked for her Captain and there was another, longer, wait until the Captain, very annoyed at being roused from his sleep, came on the line.

  `Yes,' he replied, `the Senhora Maui de Carvalho is in the yacht, but I certainly will not rouse her at such an hour.' Angry and impatient, James began to shout. Realising that he was getting nowhere, Gregory pulled the instrument from him and said in a sharp voice

  `We are police officers. Do as you are told. Bring the Senhora to the telephone at once or you will find yourself in trouble.'

  That had the desired effect. Six minutes later he was speaking to Olinda. The line was far from good, but he managed to make her understand who he was and that James was with him. Then, that at any time during the morning Lacost would probably arrive. She was to receive him in the presence of her Captain, who was to be armed. Lacost would tell her that her husband was dead. Whether she believed him or not, she was to show shock and pretend to faint, so that Lacost could be got rid of as soon as possible. In no circumstances was she to go ashore, and he and James expected to be with her within a few hours.

  By leaving open the question whether de Carvalho was really dead or still alive he had prepared her for the truth. The next matter was to get to her as soon as possible, so he asked for a car to take them to Nandi airport.

  The Indian shook his head. 'I am sorry, sir, but that will not be easy so early in the morning. The garages will not be open yet. But wait; it is only ten or twelve miles to Nandi. Since your business is urgent, I will run you over in my little car. Our girl in the office here is very good. She will attend to any wishes our visitors may have during my absence.'