Suddenly at Singapore

by Gavin Black

  At my Virginia military academy we learned about the voice that gives orders and I learned more about it during prolonged stays in England where that voice is still obeyed. I used it.

  “I’ve met with a series of accidents. And I need to get to hospital. Will you kindly take me?”

  The Chinese stared, the Malay recognised the voice.

  “Who are you … sir?” the Chinese asked.

  “I’m ill at the moment. My identity can be established later. But my name is Harris, Paul Harris.”

  I looked at them for a reaction to this. There was none. Either their cerebration was sluggish at this hour or there was no general call out for me as a criminal.

  “How did you get to this place … sir?”

  “It’s a long story. Do you mind if I see a doctor before I tell it? And I’ll be obliged if you’ll help me up. My legs don’t function very well just now.”

  The Chinese came quite close, I was sure to get the whiff of whisky. All he got was a faint reminiscence of garlic, that and the general pong from my clothes and suppurating jungle ulcers. He stepped back again.

  It was the Malay who helped me up. I adjusted my crutches and began to move towards the car, before I was invited. The Malay stayed by me, the Chinese went on ahead, half angry, but he did open the car door. I crept into the back and was grateful for the soft springing. The police anywhere do themselves well with cars. We moved off, two clipped necks in front of me. The policemen didn’t talk.

  “If you’re thinking about taking me to the station first,” I said, “I’d rather you didn’t. I’m feeling a little as though I might pass out. If you’re interested in me you can send a man to the hospital. As you can see I’m not in a position to run very far.”

  “Have you come from Malaya?” the Chinese asked.

  “Yes,” I lied.

  “And why did you not find a hospital on the mainland?”

  “I thought I’d be better dealt with here.”

  “Did you cross by ferry?”

  “As you know the ferry is not running at this hour. I came in a sampan from the coast. I’ve been in the jungle and had rather a hard time. It happens out here, you’ll agree?”

  They took me to the hospital and up the steps. The Malay helped me on those and I went very slowly indeed. My breathing was noisy. The young man’s face was anxious, the policeman who hasn’t got his statement and is troubled by that. The Chinese might even now be using his car radio and I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything except getting cleaned up and lying someplace where I didn’t have to think.

  There was a lot of thinking to be done but I could only face a minimum of it. I sat down in the cool hall with its faint smell of disinfectant and slumped forward again, leaning on those sticks. The Malay pattered off. I didn’t hear his return, only a voice that was blessedly Irish.

  “Heavens alive. And what have we here now?”

  I looked at her. She was clean and crackled. She had a face shaped for smiles as well as the brogue.

  “I was washed up by the tide, Nurse.”

  “You look it, I must say. Come along now, in here. Then I’ll get the house doctor.”

  “Can you put me by a phone while you’re doing that?”

  “Not without Matron’s permission, and she’s not on duty.”

  “Och, let me have a damn’ phone!”

  “You’ll not use language, please!”

  “I’ve got loved ones who want to know.”

  She laughed.

  “That’s not too easy to believe, I’m sure. I’d have thought they’d have lost patience.”

  “I was not found in the gutter from drink, Nurse.”

  “Indeed? I’m sure there’s many a better man than you that’s said that and fooled nobody.”

  I pulled up my trouser leg and showed her an ulcer above the knee.

  “That’s just one of them,” I said.

  The nurse showed no reaction but it convinced the Malay policeman. He turned and went down the hall, his boots clicking.

  “Please let me phone?”

  “Is it a local?”

  “No. Singapore.”

  “And can you pay?”

  “Ask the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China. The manager’s name is Wilson.”

  “I know. We took out his appendix. Oh, well …”

  I put the call through to Russell Menzies at his house number, shivering a little as I waited for the buzzing to be answered. The room I was now in carried on that emphasis on hygiene. I sat in the middle of it, a kind of contamination.

  “Menzies here.”

  “Russell? It’s Paul.”

  He made a sound a little like a snore.

  “Where in hell’s name are you?”

  “Penang. Look, Russell, will you please listen to me. I don’t think I’ve got long. I’m in hospital. I’m going to be here for a bit. I’m crocked up. I want to know a little about what the position is. The police brought me. They’ve gone, but I think they’ll be back. Have they got any reason to hang around me?”

  “Paul. I’m a bit woozy from sleep. And yours isn’t a voice I expected to hear before breakfast.”

  “I know. But you’re hearing it. I’m back, if there’s much point in that.”

  “There are a few still who might think there is.”

  “Russell! Has anything broken down in Singapore?”

  “Broken? Oh, I get you. No.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “I’m your lawyer, you clot! How much chattering do you want to do over this line?”

  “Just enough to let me go to bed and sleep.”

  “Well, you can. I’ve got de Vorwooerd here with me.”

  “You’ve … what?”

  “Kim brought him down. Thought the air was healthier down here. He’s all right. Except he thinks you’re dead.”

  “You tell him … Oh, thank heaven!”

  “Good to know you were worried.”

  “I’ve been in a kind of hell.”

  “You walk right up and knock on the door, don’t you? Don’t worry, I’ll tell him now. And Ruth.”

  “Yes, and Ruth.”

  “You’re not phoning her yourself?”

  “I don’t think I’ll get the chance. The doctor will be here in a minute. Tell Ruth that …”

  “That you’re a little overdue, but everything is fine, just fine.”

  “Russell … I’m …”

  “It’s all right, I’m coming up. I’ll catch a plane.”

  “Can you?”

  “I shouldn’t, but I’m going to. I’ll have Ruth notified when I’m on the way to the plane. Otherwise she’d be with me.”

  “No!”

  “I thought that would be your reaction. I’ve been sorry for Ruth. Very. You see someone called Kate Raine went and told her things.”

  “Kate did … what?”

  I couldn’t take it in.

  “Tell the doctor to give you a great big sedative. One of their specials. And I’ll see you when you come out of it. What’s the matter with you?”

  “Bit kicked around. About Kate …?”

  “Let it wait. And don’t talk to anyone. No one’s got a right to ask you questions. Tell them your lawyer’s coming. I’ll phone the hospital myself. You’re not to be disturbed. And have a private room. Lie down and shut up.”

  “Yes, Russell. It’s good to hear …”

  “I’m doing it all from love,” he said, and hung up.

  CHAPTER VIII

  I WOKE CLEAN, rigid in a bed, packed into it, under drawn sheets. I felt my legs tight in bandages and remembered being wheeled into the operating theatre still in the clothes I’d worn in the jungle. They must have needed all the lights in there to turn me into something human again. I was back in a nice world of soft lighting and the gentle buzz of a fan, in a room that was obviously for patients with money, equipped with its own veranda beyond an arch. It was night.

  There was a light out on the v
eranda.

  “Nurse,” I said.

  Russell Menzies came through the arch.

  “It’s Big Brother instead. What do you want?”

  “A drink.”

  “You can have your choice, water or orangeade.”

  “Water. How long have you been here?”

  “A long, long time. I’ve been catching up on contemporary fiction out there on the veranda. I brought my own whisky but you’re not getting any.”

  “You could have waited in the hotel.”

  “This is just as cosy. I booked you the suite where they put rajahs with prostate trouble. It’s your money and I’m spending it for you. How do you feel?”

  “Wonderful.”

  “That’s my brave boy. I had a talk with the doctor. He says it’s amazing you’re not dead. One of your ulcers was an inch deep.”

  “I felt that.”

  “He says he doesn’t think you’ll get blood poisoning now and that you’ll be able to move in about three weeks. No amputations so far.”

  “Thanks. I knew I hadn’t gangrene.”

  “He asked me about those ulcers. I said leech bites. Is that what you wanted me to say?”

  “Yes.”

  “What were they?”

  I told him. I went on from there to tell him just what had happened on my trip away. Russell sat down to listen, pushing a small chair back on to its two rear legs until I was sure it would collapse under him. He lit one of his cigars, which would be against regulations, and listened blowing rings up at the ceiling.

  “You think Sorumbai killed your brother?”

  “I think he gave the order,” I said.

  “And are you satisfied? You got the killer.”

  “I didn’t get him. My friends did.”

  “Your friends! Heaven help us all!”

  “Tell me about de Vorwooerd.”

  “Not much to tell. Your man Kim is smarter than you. He can smell a rat. There was something in the Kuantan situation he didn’t quite like, maybe it was you bringing a girl friend. He doesn’t look the type who would mix business with pleasure himself.”

  “He’s been to see you?”

  “Sure, sure, everything open and above board, company agent in your absence and all that. I’ve been running your business.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You’ll get my bill. Kim’s a smart boy. He had an impression there were suddenly too many people in Kuantan. So he had a look around. He didn’t actually see you driving away from the hotel, but he got wind of it. So he more or less collected old de Vorwooerd by force and did a bunk. Sailed away in his pretty junks. The stuff is cached.”

  “Oh.”

  “Johore, actually. See how much your lawyer knows now? Damn’ little he doesn’t know, as a matter of fact. I pumped de Vorwooerd. The old man thought everything was over, that you’d had it. So did your wife and so did Kate.”

  “I’ve been waiting for you to tell me about that.”

  “Business first, domestic affairs later. Am I tiring you?”

  “Cut it out, Russell.”

  “This Kate arrived back in Singapore with an escort. Man came all the way with her. Let her do the driving. Offered her cigarettes but wouldn’t let her stop for tea. Took her right to her little bungalow in the hotel grounds and left her. She didn’t know whether he was waiting outside or not. She didn’t know what to think. But as soon as she could she went straight to Ruth. One of those woman to woman things. That’s what you’ve got waiting to sort out. Don’t try to take the easy way out with blood poisoning.”

  “I can’t see why Kate went to my wife! Kate betrayed me!”

  “What? Hold on, old boy. You’re pretty sick.”

  “Look here, I’m not imagining this. All that gun point stuff, it makes a nice story. But it doesn’t tally with the facts as I know them. Don’t forget I was there, I was watching Kate. She was helping them!”

  “Phooey! Delusions. Under stress yourself. Are you suggesting that the gal was in cahoots with Sorumbai?”

  “Yes!”

  “This is one of those times when I clear my throat and speak as your lawyer. I don’t know what’s set you off on this tack, but it’s a dangerous one. It could turn out to be a very expensive one, if there was a libel suit. And you’re in the kind of economic position which makes you vulnerable to that sort of thing. Whatever you think you know about what happened up there in Kuantan I suggest you don’t talk about it.”

  There was no use going on with this to Russell. I lay there, trying not to glare at him, but the silence between us didn’t seem to disturb him at all. He waited for me to break it, and I did finally.

  “What did Ruth do when Kate went to her?”

  “Ruth came to me, very sensibly, like a shot. And she brought Kate with her. We had a council of war and decided just to wait. It wasn’t easy for me to persuade the girls, but it was the only course. It was obvious you’d been flown out of the country. I thought you might come up to trial, if that was part of what they wanted in taking you alive. And when we heard of your arrest I was to get busy and do what I could. That was all I could do. Or anyone could do. Short of coming to look for you, and I’m not that devoted a lawyer.”

  I looked at the ceiling. In a moment I said:

  “What about Kang?”

  “Oh, he came to see me once. I said you were away on business. He looked like he would enjoy using a bit of hose pipe on me in a police cell, but he went away again. Oh, and he picked up Kim, too. But Kim had arrived in Singapore with the most lovely legit, cargo. If that boy wasn’t already the commodore of your fleet I’d promote him. Does he get a share of the profits?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s the way to keep your pals. You can cut me in on Harris and Company, too. Feeling dizzy now?”

  “I’m wondering about Ruth.”

  Russell pushed the chair even farther back and bellowed with laughter.

  “Forgive the old bachelor,” he said.

  The Irish nurse came in.

  “Now, what’s all this?”

  She whipped out a thermometer and shoved it in my mouth. Russell watched.

  “You’ll find it up, Nurse. A hundred and two point seven. A fever that affects husbands when they’re thinking hard. Look at the poor man. Me heart goes out to him.”

  “I think it is time you went to the hotel for your dinner, Mr. Menzies,” Nurse said.

  Russell heaved himself up.

  “All right. I didn’t enjoy your tea. Two slices of thinly buttered bread and a cake from the bazaars. The profit they must make in these places! Or are you paid a vast salary, Nurse?”

  “I am not, indeed.”

  “It’s a vocation.” He pointed a thumb at me. “Keep him alive. There’s a commission in it for you.”

  And then he went out.

  “What a man,” Nurse said. “I shouldn’t think there’s much he holds sacred. How are you feeling now?”

  “I enjoy lying without moving,” I mumbled.

  “Well, you go on doing it. There’s no one’ll move you to-night. You’ll have a light supper. Mr. Menzies tells me you’re a rich man.”

  “Did he?”

  “But eccentric, he says. Are you?”

  “Maybe, a bit.”

  “You were an awful mess this morning. You wouldn’t like to have heard the things they were saying in the theatre. What were you doing, prospecting for something?”

  “That’s just about it.”

  “The things men’ll do to get more money. They can never content themselves. And they die, young from it.” She pulled out the thermometer. “He was right, you’re up. I’ll get the doctor.”

  “For heaven’s sake, I’ll be all right.”

  “I’ll have to tell the doctor.”

  Dr. Blane was a young man with the kind of looks which would make his women patients disregard even poor qualifications and have him anyway. With me he looked a little bored.

  “Having a long talk with yo
ur lawyer, Harris?”

  “Well … a little time.”

  “You damn’ well shouldn’t have been. About those ulcers. I noticed what seemed to be a burn.”

  “I used a cigarette to get the leeches off.”

  “And slipped?”

  “That’s right.”

  “I just mention this because the police have been asking me questions. They want to ask you some when you’re fit. I believe they’re looking for the man who ferried you over from the mainland. There’s an inspector.”

  “What name?”

  “Kang. Old friend of yours?”

  “Acquaintance.”

  “I told him you wouldn’t be fit to see anyone tonight. Was that correct?”

  “Thank you, Doctor.”

  I was glad when the doctor had gone without taking my temperature again.

  So Kang had flown up from Singapore. There could be very little doubt that he was keeping a watch on Russell. And perhaps listening on telephone wires, too. He’d known where to come. Russell had to be tipped off. I’d get the nurse to do that.

  I mayn’t have been entitled to it, but I had a good night. After the doctor’s morning visit I was told I could have visitors for fifteen minutes and Russell came in with Kang. The inspector was as unrumpled as ever, he brought freshness like a douche of cologne. Beside him Russell looked like a fat man bearing the white man’s burden, but with his continuous dampness there was no way of telling whether this occasion warranted it specially.

  Russell arranged chairs, like a lawyer settling clients. Kang smiled.

  “How are you feeling, Mr. Harris?”

  “I’ll live.”

  “Even after your terrible experiences? I had quite given you up for dead.”

  “Oh.”

  “Not, of course, that it was strictly my responsibility since you had evaded my guards and left the island.”

  “Not strictly.”

  “But I’m still looking for a murderer, Mr. Harris. The man who killed your brother.”

  “He’s dead,” I said, looking straight at Kang.

  Russell was doing things with his handkerchief and I began to get the feeling that he was very deliberately not looking at me.