The Black Widow - Mark Kane Mysteries - Book Three: A Private Investigator Crime Series of Murder, Mystery, Suspense & Thriller Stories...with a dash of Romance

by John Hemmings

  It was a plausible enough story, I thought, but he’d had a while to come up with it.

  “Do you have any way of proving it? Was there an agreement in writing?”

  “There wasn’t anything in writing except the receipt. I gave him a receipt saying something like I accepted the boat in full settlement, or something like that; I can’t remember the exact words. It was for Larry’s benefit in case I came after him for the loan again sometime in the future.”

  It sounded a little too pat; a little too convenient. If Larry was dead, there was only Dale’s word to prove that there’d ever been such a transaction.

  “According to Westlake from the embassy Cary told the police that when Larry disappeared she discovered his boat was missing. I haven’t checked with the police yet, but if that’s the case it suggests that Cary didn’t know about Larry transferring the boat to you.”

  “I’m sure he must have told her. She knew all about the problems with the bar. She knew I’d lent money to Larry and that he couldn’t pay me back.”

  “So if we talk to Cary you reckon she’ll confirm it?”

  “Why wouldn’t she? It’s the truth.”

  “Well Lucy and I will go and see her tomorrow or the day after if we can get hold of her. Do you have her address or phone number?”

  “I’ve got both. If you’ve got a pen and paper, I’ll write them down for you. I really appreciate your help Mr. Kane. Once I get out of this place I’ll see you alright.”

  That was music to my ears. Things seemed to be looking up. Perhaps my reservations about traveling out east had been misplaced.

  “Where were you when Larry went missing, Dale?” I said.

  “That’s kind of hard to say.”

  I raised my eyebrows in query.

  “I mean I’m not sure exactly when it was that he went missing. It wasn’t like he’d got a nine-to-five job. Sometimes he’d come down to Manila, or go to Clark to meet friends. Or he might go as far as Puerto Galera. He may have been away from Cary for a while before she realized something was wrong. You’ll need to ask her about that.”

  “Was there any particular reason that you painted over the name of the boat after you got it?”

  “Not really. I was trying to come up with a new name.”

  “Do you have any theories about who might have killed Larry?”

  “Larry and me were in the bar thing together but I’m sure he had other deals going. Maybe he crossed somebody or got them pissed. The Philippines is a pretty lawless place. If somebody gets pissed with you they’re liable to shoot first and ask questions later. There were some local partners in the bar who lost quite a bit of money; maybe Larry’s disappearance is connected with that. Maybe it was an accident; maybe he just drowned.”

  “He was pretty far out in the bay when he was found. He didn’t have his boat any more – how would he have got out there?”

  “I don’t have any idea. To be honest I haven’t had much time to think about it. When I left for Thailand he was still missing. I didn’t even know that he was dead until I was arrested.”

  “And when did you go to Thailand?”

  “I left here on the fifth of November. I was only planning to be away for a few days, but then I met Suzie so I stayed longer. What is it now, the twenty eighth?”

  “Where do you live when you’re in the Philippines Dale?”

  “I don’t have a house or apartment. I was staying at a hotel near Subic before I left. I’ve got some stuff stashed here in Manila with a friend, in Mandaluyong. I sometimes stay there when he’s away and look after the place for him.”

  “Okay Dale, that just about wraps things up for today. We’ll go to Subic tomorrow and see if we can talk to Cary. If she’s able to confirm what you’ve told us today it will help, but she’d need to explain why she told the police the boat was missing. If she can locate the receipt you gave Larry amongst his things then we should have you out of here soon, I guess. Meanwhile, you better sit tight and enjoy the free accommodation.”

  “Thanks again Mr. Kane. I hope to see you again real soon. You too Lucy; break a leg, huh?”

  After the meeting I asked to see Santos again. He was busy for a while I was told, but if I cared to wait…

  We waited for almost an hour but were still Santos-less. Lucy wanted to go shopping.

  “We’re near the Mall of Asia. I looked it up. I haven’t had a chance to see any of the malls. I’m still officially on vacation, you know.”

  “Lucy we’ll have the rest of the afternoon. I need to talk to Santos; there are a few matters I want to clear up.”

  “You reckon Dale will be okay, Kane; provided Cary confirms his story?”

  “It looks like it at the moment, but I want to keep an open mind. We’ll go to Subic tomorrow and stay until at least Monday because I want to try and get an appointment with the medical examiner there. We may have to stay longer because I want to go to Olongapo too to find out what I can about the bar that Dale says they invested in. But the first stop will be Cary. Let’s see what she has to say for herself.”

  “What do you want to ask Santos?”

  “There are some things I want to check, but I also need his assistance. I want to see the medical examiner in Subic. I don’t like hearing things second hand. And I may want to check Sands’ bank account. I can’t do these things without co-operation from the authorities. I want to see if Santos can give me some kind of letter of introduction, or some kind of authority to make these inquiries. Santos seems to like you so I want you to stay here and flutter your eyelashes or whatever it is that ladies do to flirt.”

  “You mean you want me to flaunt my womanly wiles?”

  “Something like that,” I said.

  Santos reappeared just after four and escorted us to his office.

  “Was your meeting satisfactory?”

  “Yes thank you. I appreciate your co-operation. I wish the police where I come from were so helpful.”

  Santos beamed proudly. “If there’s anything else I can help with please let me know.”

  “There are a couple of things I’d like to ask you now if you have the time.”

  “My time is yours. Luckily when you get to my rank there’s little more to do than delegate. I’ve been at a briefing this afternoon, that’s why I had to keep you waiting I’m afraid.”

  “Can you tell me a little about the police investigation so far? I mean if Porter turns out to be unconnected with the murder I wonder if you have any other leads.”

  “Well as you may imagine I haven’t been involved in this investigation myself. If you want me to tell you what has been done I’ll have to get the file. I’m afraid you’ll need to come back later, perhaps about six to six thirty,” he looked at his watch. “No, better make it seven,” he said, “that should give me enough time.”

  We agreed to return and left the building to look for a taxi. As we climbed into the vehicle Lucy instructed the driver to take us to the Mall of Asia. The Mall of Asia was the biggest shopping mall in Manila, which was a city full of shopping malls, many interlinked so Lucy told me. The Mall of Asia was near the bay, not far from our hotel. When we were dropped outside I noticed with some trepidation that it was teeming with shoppers. We were frisked by security guards as we entered. I was patted down in a manner so superficial that I could have been concealing an armory. Lucy had to open her purse and a female security guard raked around inside it with something that looked like a chopstick.

  Inside, the mall looked pretty much the same as any other mall anywhere. There were shops with names that I’d never heard of but surprisingly many of the international chains were in evidence too. I wondered how the locals could afford to shop there. Near the entrance was a French bakery. Lucy sat me down and suggested I could have a coffee and wait for her because I’d be a grouch if I went with her. She’d just have a quick look around and she’d be back and we’d have something to eat. We’d hardly touched
the food in the canteen. Then she abandoned me.

  I knew Lucy well enough to know that I’d have a good hour to play with, probably more, and so after my coffee I went for a look around too. I found a barber’s shop and had a shampoo and a haircut. A head and neck massage was included in the price which helped to pass the time. There was clearly a fast-growing middle class in Manila. The place was thronged with shoppers and the prices were nowhere near as cheap as I’d expected; in fact they seemed to be pretty much on a par with the prices back home. There were dozens of restaurants including some familiar names and some not so familiar. They were uniformly busy even though it was still relatively early. There was an auditorium where a beauty contest was about to take place, and play areas for the kids. Music blared out at a volume verging on the uncomfortable and together with the babble of voices the noise bounced off the ceramic floors and ricocheted around the walls before unsuccessfully trying to escape through the high ceilings.

  Everywhere I went I was handed brochures for condominiums that were either built or being built or about to be built. Home ownership was a big deal now in the Philippines at prices that were easily affordable to an average middle class family. The law restricting the buying of land to locals was preventing the escalation of prices to the obscene levels in places like Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore.

  Lucy trudged back to the coffee shop about an hour and a half after she’d left me, surprisingly bereft of shopping. The prices were higher than she’d been expecting and there wasn’t much that she’d seen that she couldn’t buy at home. That was a relief. We wouldn’t have to hire a truck when we left for Subic. We found an Italian restaurant. Lucy wanted to try local food but I put my foot down.

  “You can do that later. I won’t need you to come back with me to the headquarters this evening. I’ll see you back at the hotel. You can shop or sight-see to your heart’s content this afternoon. Or poison yourself with the local cuisine if you like.”

  “You don’t need my female charms anymore to prize whatever information you need out of Santos?”

  “I’m giving you the rest of the day off. It’s official.”

  It was too early to see Santos and Lucy wanted to use the hotel Wi-fi to get some inspiration. Interesting as Manila was, there didn’t seem like a great deal for the tourist to actually do. While pondering this, my brain selected an old memory for no particular reason, as brains sometimes do. It was of a television interview with the late British actor Jack Hawkins. He’d featured in a movie called ‘The Pharaoh’ early in his career and the interviewer asked him if the dialogue had been a problem, since no-one knew how a Pharaoh would speak. “The main problem wasn’t the dialogue,” Jack said. “The real problem was that no-one knew what a Pharaoh actually did.”

  After a fairly swift meal we walked back along the bay to our hotel. Manila is a sprawling city which is hard to get about by taxi without putting your life in their hands and the traffic congestion was mind-numbing. I’d found out on my journey from the airport that there were simply no rules on the road. It was every car, truck, jeepney or bicycle-rickshaw for itself. The walk to the hotel was a lot longer than it looked and by the time we got there it was almost time for my meeting with Santos.

  Chapter Six

  The Investigation

  “I’m sorry I’m a bit late,” I said. “We went to the mall and then I had to walk Lucy back to the hotel. I hope I haven’t inconvenienced you in any way.”

  Santos sat opposite me and smiled, revealing some gold crowns which I hadn’t noticed before. “Not at all, Mister Kane,” he said. Before him was a thin manila folder which he opened to reveal a few sheets of paper. The reports were handwritten in a language I presumed was Tagalog. Santos read them, slowly turning the pages.

  “There’s not very much I’m afraid. The first entry simply relates a report by Mrs. Sands that her husband was missing. His boat was missing too. Underneath the entry it says ‘Follow up’. That entry is dated the fifteenth of September. I’m afraid it doesn’t go any further than that, so I can’t tell you whether it was followed up or not. If it was then I imagine it amounted to talking to local people in bars over a beer.” He looked up at me and smiled benignly.

  “This sort of case doesn’t justify a National investigation,” he said. “Mr. Sands is a foreigner and a grown man. Unless there was evidence that something sinister had happened I doubt anything much would have been done. There’s a file on the finding of the body in the sea which we’re fairly sure was that of Mr. Sands. The body was brought ashore by some local fishermen on the fourteenth of November. The report says that there were no means of identifying the body. It was taken to the medical examiner in Subic. A driving license was found by the medical examiner on the fifteenth of November. Mrs. Sands identified the body as that of her husband on the following day. Then there’s a report about the finding of a boat which belonged to Mr. Sands. It was berthed near Subic. It was apparently identified as Sands’ boat by a foreigner who recognized it. The foreigner’s name is Mr. Hendriks, and there’s an address in Subic SEZ. That’s Subic Special Economic Zone. The finding of the boat was reported on November nineteen, a little more than a week ago. It was in a berth leased by Mr. Porter. There’s a note that his immigration record was checked and he’d left Philippines on November fifth. An alert was issued in case he returned to the Philippines. He was arrested on the twenty fourth at the airport in Manila. And that’s it. There’s nothing more at the moment.”

  Santos closed the file and looked up at me again.

  “Since Mr. Porter was arrested has he been questioned? Is there any statement or written record of interview?”

  “Mr. Porter declined to be interviewed until he met with staff from the U.S. Embassy. A meeting was arranged and Mr. Porter met with a representative from the Embassy on Wednesday night. I know that because it was dealt with by me personally. A Mr. Westlake came to see him and I also explained the reasons for Mr. Porter’s arrest. There’s no record of an interview with Mr. Porter since then so I suppose nobody’s got around to it yet, or perhaps it will take some time for Mr. Porter to arrange for a lawyer.”

  “But Mr. Porter was told the reason for his arrest I understand?”

  “Of course; that would have been done at the airport before he was handed over for further processing.”

  “Could I have the address of Mr. Hendriks and his phone number if possible? I’d like to talk to him.”

  Santos handed me the file. Peter Hendriks’ address was written in English and there was a cell phone number. I copied both down in my own notebook.

  “Can you tell me what Mr. Sands’ immigration status was? I understand he was married here in the Philippines to Mrs. Sands.”

  “He and Mrs. Sands were married about thirteen months before he was found in the sea. He could have applied for permanent residence on the basis of that marriage but apparently he never did.”

  “What benefits would that have given him?”

  “If he was made a permanent resident then he would have been able to stay in the Philippines indefinitely. He’d also have been permitted to work. He wouldn’t have been able to purchase or own land though. That right is reserved for Filipinos by the constitution.”

  “Is there any reason why he wouldn’t have applied?”

  “I really couldn’t say, but the marriage itself wouldn’t have been enough; there are other requirements. For example, he would have had to establish that he had no criminal record either here or elsewhere. He’d also have to submit to a medical examination to establish that he was not afflicted with any dangerous, contagious or loathsome disease.” He smiled. “I’m quoting from the Immigration regulations themselves. And there’s a requirement that he has a certain amount of savings, and sufficient means to support a family so that he didn’t become a public burden. Again those are the words used in the immigration rules. I’m not sure what the figure is at the moment, but it’s not a great deal. About ten thousan
d US dollars I think.”

  “But since he hadn’t applied for residence he would have been subject to the same rules as a tourist?”

  “Yes, he would need to apply for periodic extensions of stay or to leave and re-enter the Philippines. An immigration check has been made. There’s no record of Mr. Sands doing either of these things since he was reported missing in mid-September.”

  “Has a check been made on Porter’s immigration movements prior to November fifth?”

  “He was absent from the Philippines between the first to the seventh of October. The immigration records don’t show where he went obviously. He was also away for a similar period in early September. There’s nothing unusual in that. He would need to leave every thirty days unless he got an extension from the Immigration Department. Mr. Porter is simply permitted to stay as a tourist for thirty days at a time without the need to apply for a visa.”

  “I need to ask you a favor Superintendent. I’m anxious to speak to the medical examiner at Subic and possibly to the local police. In order to assure their cooperation, I wonder if you could supply me with a letter of introduction. You know − that I’m representing the interests of Mr. Porter but I’m also keen to investigate the death itself. Given time and access to people with the relevant information I may be able to establish that Larry’s death was no more than an accident. Alternatively, if he was murdered, I may be able to discover who was responsible. I won’t be in anybody’s way and I might turn up something for the police to look into. I’m an experienced investigator and I have the time.”