A Bridge Of Magpies (16 page)

After ten minutes' waiting I'd had enough. The others were uneasy too.

'We'll
use
your dinghy,' I told Kaptein Denny. Even the splash of oars sounded unnaturally loud as
we
rowed to the jetty. So did our footsteps on the concrete path leading to the bunkhouse door.

I threw it open.

'There's no one here. You two scout around. Koch may have left a note for me. I'll take a look-see at the cottage.'

The door was half-open and Breekbout was sitting at the radio transceiver. His eyes were half shut and his mouth had the beginnings of a silly grin,
as
if lied shaken loose a laugh out of hls own death.

His head was smashed open like a pomegranate.

The radio was also wrecked and bits of its innards lay around like Breekbout's brains.

I wanted to puke. But I had enough remaining sense not to leave before I'd taken a look at the remains of the radio. 109

The transceiver switch was on 'Send'. The dial pointer stood at the Silvermine frequency. No one on Possession besides myself knew that frequency. I crashed my rifle butt into the dial's face so as to make it unreadable.

I went back to the bunkhouse.

. . he had
three
ghost lights burning,' Kaptein Denny
was
telling Jutta when I entered.

'It didn't help him,'
I
said. 'Besides, ghosts don't bash in heads with sealing clubs.'

'Oh God I' she'd seen my face.

Then hot and cold sweat chased one another across my face and body and reaction shakes set in.

Jutta grabbed me by the sleeves of my jersey. 'What. . I passed my rifle to Kaptein Denny, whose face was a mask. '

You'd better take this for the moment. I couldn't manage to fire it even
if
someone was about to kill me too.'

Struan I What happened!'

I tried to pull myself together and tell them but I made such a poor job of it that Jutta went for some brandy. She found the bottle but it was empty. Breekbout had seen to that.

'I could have grown to like that stupid sonafabitch? I managed to say it and it helped the mind-numbing shock of that hideous object at the radio, plus my wavelength discovery. Breekbout had been a clown pointing his laugh lines in the appealing idiom of the
gamat
and that seemed somehow to make his dreadful end the worse.

Kaptein Denny left Jutta to do the fussing over me. He took up guard just inside the door where he couldn't be seen, with my rifle in his hands and an ugly commando knife in his belt.

When I'd got my composure back I said to Jutta, 'Blow out those lights. They give me the creeps. They may have guided the killer.'

She did so. J turned to Kaptein Denny. 'He can't stay like that . . .
a
piece of sail or something to cover him.'

He handed me back the gun. 'There's no one around–absolutely nothing.'

I took over his observation post but it did seem rather ridiculous. There was no sign of anyone ashore and no activity aboard the black ship.

Kaptein Denny found a tarpaulin.

110

We three stick close together from now on,' I said. 'You stay outside the cottage, Jutta, while we see to him, but close enough to yell if you spot anything. But anything.'

Kaptein
Denny
and I went inside and masked the bloody cameo. I watched him closely but he paid no special attention to the transceiver.

'Look at the bloodstains,' he pointed out. 'They're old and dried.'

'he birds have been at him too.'

`That means he's been dead a couple of days.'

'That makes it as soon as you left.'

'He was fine then. One loses track of time in a storm.'

What did he mean by that sidestep? I asked myself. Could he have killed his jailer and escaped . . . no, that line of argument broke down when you thought he'd come after me and brought me back. As a bluff, though? A cover?

'No one had anything to gain by killing this poor bastard,' I said.

'No?'

'Who, then?'

'He was the only one except yourself who could work the radio.' He gestured. 'Whoever it was made it clear that he didn't want you to communicate.'

'Bastard,' I said automatically. True, I'd myself taught Breekbout to transmit. But neither he–nor anyone else–knew about my hot line to the C-in-C,

'Where
is
Koch?'

'Most likely on his way to Luderitz to report this.'

'And very considerately sent the whaleboat back empty
across
the channel and let it tie itself up at the jetty.' '

Then possibly he's over at that ship.'

'We've been back for over an hour. The cutters were in sight long before that. Koch's bad plenty of time to make his number if he's around.'

'Why shouldn't he be?'

'That ship. Not a man's visible. Either the crew's devoted to the 'tweendecks or they've been ordered to stay out of sight.'

'Why?'

'We'll soon find out. I'm going across to her –now.' '

Alone?'

'All three of us. As I said, we keep dose.

Ill

I
checked that the rifle's magazine was full and worked a shel! into the breech.
I
put the safety-catch on.

'Let's get cracking.'

We rejoined Jutta-who accepted my decision without comment. We used Kaptein Denny's dinghy instead of the heavier whaleboat, since he had to do the rowing because of my side. It was a long pull. Not much
was
said. All kinds of . random explanations and accusations wheeled through my brain. Some of them were so way-out as to be pure nonsense. It was the carry-over of shock-of course. I was prepared to suspect Kaptein Denny's silence, even. Cut it out, I told myself, the man's simply saving his breath for rowing. By the time we were half-way across I'd got control of my thoughts and dumped my overheated fears overboard. My mind was empty and cool and ready for what I'd find aboard the ship.

'They're coming up on deck!' exclaimed Jutta.

Jf they'd been
as
shy
as
the ten virgins up to now, that's where the resemblance ended. They were as tough and motley a bunch as could be raised in any waterfront bordello. A man in a peaked cap–presumably the captain – joined the population of the hitherto empty decks. He took up station on a narrow cat-walk surrounding the bridge, and watched us approach.

Kaptein Denny read out the vessel's name:
Sang A.
'

Never heard it before. Where she from?'

'J can't make out –it's some sort of Eastern writing.'

'She could be, with those lines and a name like that.'

Jt wasn't her lines, though, which caught our interest when we came closer, but some big tarpaulins concealing unknown bulky objects abaft the bridge. There was another big, mysterious hidden hump near
the
foremast. An armoured rubber hose snaked across
the
whaleback from some machinery in the bows, and ended up looped in the forward rigging.

'Those men are Chinese-' said Jutta.

They certainly looked it, but more obvious than any nationaJ

characteristic was the rough-tough unwelcoming look on their faces. They didn't offer to make us fast when we came alongside. However, it was not really necessary because about fifty feet of heavy chain cable hanging in scallops from the rail offered a natural securing point. More of the cable was lying on the deck. There was
also a
clutter of wire rope,
112

cables and powerful block-and-tackle gear. If the ship had been bigger I'd have thought she was a cable-layer. '

Attention!'

The arrogance of the Teutonic form of address made me dislike the man on the catwalk before even I knew his name. '

You the captain?'

la.
Come here.'

We had to skirt round to reach the ladder leading to him. There was clutter everywhere and more tarpaulin-masked objects. The shack aft which had puzzled me from a distance intrigued me more from close to. It didn't appear to have a deck entrance and its portholes were so high you couldn't see in. However, it
was
inhabited: a face looked out from one of them as I mounted the ladder.

'Emmermann.
Sang A:

The captain was a chunk of a man in his middle fifties; as tall
as
my own six-foot one, with a craggy face, big nose and short iron-grey hair. His lips were indrawn and his very large eyes were trenched with crow's feet at the corners. A scar ran from the corner of his left eye to his ear. His manner was one of controlled hostility.

I introduced the three of us.

Since summoning us to the cat-walk he'd been joined from inside the bridge by another man, like the rest of the crew an Oriental.

'First Officer Kenryo.'

His introduction was as unwilling as the rest of our reception had been. If it had been on Kenryo's account, I could have understood it. He had a flat-golliwog face, with a smashed nose and the emptiest black eyes I'd ever seen. He was short and stocky and wore jeans and a greasy flannel tartan shirt. And I didn't care for the way he undressed Jutta with his eyes.

'Is it all right to speak English?'

'For us, but not for the
crew.'
There was a trace of American in Kenryo's accent

'They're Chinese?'

'No-' replied Emmermann. 'Korean.
Sang A
means shark. Our home port's Pusan.'

'We're here with the Korean trawler fleet offshore,' added Kenryo.

A
couple of the crew had gathered under
the
cat-walk,
which
113

wasn't very high above their heads; and seemed to be idly listening, despite Kenryo's statement that they should not understand our conversation. He leant over the rail and said something to them. A flash passed through Kaptein Denny's eyes but it was gone again as quickly as it had come. One of the crew came back with a repartee and they all sniggered. I guessed it had something to do with Jutta.

'No fishing is permitted here. There's a strict twelve-mile offshore limit'

Maybe I pulled my authority too hard, out of reaction over the
crack
about Jutta.

'So?'

'That's the law.'

'So? And you carry out the law?'

'If necessary. I'm the island headman. These waters fall under my authority.'

'You come aboard my ship with a gun and threaten me, eh?'

'I'm not threatening: just getting the record straight. There's no problem-provided you don't fish.'

'The record is straight then. Good morning!'

'If you don't know the law, you should.'

'Now
I know it.'

'Good. Another thing. There's been a death on the island. One of my men ..

I left out the details and purposely made Breekbout's end sound more like an accident. I wanted to hear what they had to say before I started talking about murder.

Kenryo cut me short. 'None of our men has been ashore.
Sang A
isn't in a hot seat'

'J didn't say you were. I'm investigating. I was away when it happened. It could be something more than
an
accident.'

Their faces remained blank.

'J'm also looking for a colleague of mine who seems to have disappeared: Dr Koch.'

'Never heard of him. We saw no one.' Kenryo's eyes were black and beady.

'Didn't you see the whaleboat being ferried around?' 'There was the storm. You couldn't see much. If he used the boat in the gale maybe he drowned.'

'The boat's safe at the island.'

'Then he didn't drown.'

114

This sort of thing was getting me nowhere. The ball was back in my court–if I'd ever managed to get it into theirs.

'Fair enough. This becomes a police matter, of course.'

They shrugged as if they realized, as I did, just how much that meant on the Sperrgebiet! There was nothing else to do but leave. We headed back to our boat. The group of plug-uglies, who had been standing chinning between themselves, fell silent; I'd get no more change out of their sullen faces than I had out of the officers.

We pushed off. I took the oars because I wanted to test my side. It was one of Possession's rare beautiful days: birds trailed over the anchorage like a king-sized paper-chase, fishtailing down after the shoals in the water. I hadn't much inclination to admire: I was smarting inwardly at the way my show of authority had fallen flat on its face on
Sang A's
deck.

'Captain Weddell!' Kaptein Denny was straining and peering at the land. 'It's the Land-Rover!'

Before I could turn to look, Junta exclaimed. 'There's been
a fire.'

I looked. 'Not a fire. A conflagration?

The blackened skeleton of the vehicle stood out clearly against the champagne-coloured sand.

'No sign of Dr Koch,' Kaptein Denny observed.

`We'll soon check. Help me with the oars. We'll take the boat in.'

'It would be a mistake.'

'Mistake! Koch could be lying there ...'

'Keep your voice down! They'll hear you aboard
Sang A.'
'

Well, say it, for pity's sake!'

'If
Sang A
wanted to fix us by taking a crack at our cutters while we're ashore, we'd be playing right into their hands by going there now.'

I eyed him with a new respect. The more so when I noted that
Sang A's
hoodlums were still lining the rails-watching us. 'What do you suggest?'

'We'll go ashore all right but we'll use both cutters for the trip.'

'It'll look pretty silly towing each other across such
a
small stretch of water.'

'It'll be sillier still if we should lose
them.
Without boats we'd be hamstrung.'

'Right.'

115

'Jt
will also be a subtle demonstration of no confidence in our new neighbours.'

Jutte never stopped looking at the burnt-out vehicle. She was very withdrawn.

When we reached the cutters-Kaptein
Denny
took
Ichabo
in tow and made as wide a detour of
Sang A as
possible. The water was deep off the landing beach and we anchored close in. From our position a sandhill barred further view of the Land-Rover.