The Atlas Murders (29 page)

 He walked to the stairs
leading to the bridge. The junior radio officer’s cabin was also only half the
ship’s width away from Pippa’s cabin. So he’d check his watch times as well. He
went into the chartroom and opened the log for the night of Pippa’s murder.
Sure enough, Tukola was farmer and he would have come up to the bridge at
midnight to fill the kettle and wash the cups. If on his way down he passed
Pippa’s cabin and found it open, he could easily have gone and hid there.
Leaving the chartroom, he went to the radio shack and read the log. He noted
that at midnight on the same night,
Sweeney was off watch, which meant he also
could have gone into her room. And he would have known that she wasn’t locking
her door when she was out - only when she came back in would she lock it.
Whoever killed her carried her body across the alleyway and dumped her over the
side.

Henry put a few mugs on his
tray and made his way down. He went out onto the boat deck where her body was
thrown over the side. The killer would have had to pass the captain’s cabin,
the senior and junior radio officer’s cabins and open the door out onto the
boat deck. He had to be fairly strong and nimble to do that without making
noise, and also have nerves of steel. He didn’t want to make a judgment at this
stage; he better wait for confirmation of the fingerprint, he mused.

Henry went down to the pantry
and put in his tray, the chief steward came in.

“Doing a bit of overtime Tyler?”

“No sir, I thought someone
said to go and collect any mugs left around. By the way sir, have you got an
address for Panama? I want to send off my letters tomorrow.”

 “Come in when you’ve
finished rounding up the mugs and I’ll give it to you.”

 Henry showed cause by
collecting mugs in the officer’s smoke room and then went to the chief’s cabin.

“Here you are Tyler, here’s the
Panama and the Havana addresses.”

 “Thank you sir.”

The next day Henry decided
he’d ask for the afternoon off - he had a few things to do up town. Henry got
the ok from the chief steward and set off for the town early after lunch. He
avoided the three bars where the reception had been underwhelming. His first
stop was the post office and having deposited his mail. he decided to go back
to the ship.

Chapter
Twenty-Eight

Discharging finished at noon
next day and a few dozen crates for Havana were loaded. The notice board read, ‘sailing
at sixteen hundred hours’. The sun shone from a brilliant blue wintry sky as they
sailed out of Suruga Bay. Mount. Fuji was as majestic as ever with its gleaming
white cap as they passed it on their port quarter; the crewmen were transfixed
by the vista until it gradually faded into the evening dusk.

Henry felt a pang of
loneliness that he could not explain as he looked out over the great Pacific
Ocean. There were thirty days sailing ahead to reach the Panama Canal. He
thought to have visited such a lovely country and having being unable to enjoy
some decent shore leave was a little sad.

His next priority was to find
which watch Tukola and his roommate would be on, so perhaps he could at last, get
to search his cabin. The deck hands were busy battening down hatches and hosing
decks. He’d heard some A.B.s talking about the work ahead; having to take down
all the grain feeders and shifting boards to get the holds ready for their
sugar cargo. He had the saloon duty for the evening meal and when he finished
and went to the mess room for his own dinner, he found Gary exceptionally
quiet. He seemed to have lost his appetite as he pushed his steak and kidney
dinner around the plate.

“What’s wrong with your
dinner, do you not like it? You seem to be a bit out of sorts are you feeling ok?”

 “Yes, I’m feeling fine but
it’s just this ship is getting to me. We have another thirty six or seven days
before we get to Havana and then we still don’t know if we’ll get any shore
leave.”

 “I know exactly what you
mean but hopefully, something will happen soon to solve this situation.”

 Gary looked around, his eyes
darting like a frightened animal.

“There is something going on
with one of the ordinary seaman. I’m not sure, but he’s supposed to have said something
about seeing a crew member doing something to a girl in Bombay, and their
harassing him now to give them more information. He’s denying he said it, but
the boatswain and a few others won’t listen to that.”

“Did you hear which crew
member he’s on about?”

 “No, that’s the problem.
Apparently, he didn’t mention a name and that’s just re-stoking the paranoia
again.”

 Henry finished his meal and
brought the crockery back into the pantry. It was still a bit cold to go on
deck so they stayed in their cabin. Although Henry would have to go to the
recreation room around twenty hundred hours to find out who was coming and
going on the watches.

“What time will he give out
an issue? I need a few cigarettes.”

 Henry looked at his watch,
“he should be giving it out about now. Come on, and then we’ll go to the
recreation room for a game of darts.”

They stood up to go when
Henry turned round.

“I’m not going up there
without this,” he insisted, as he slipped the knife into his belt.

Gary ignored the gesture and
went to get his cigarettes before returning to the cabin.

There were a few men playing
cribbage. The galley boy was sitting on his own so Henry asked him if he wanted
a game of darts. They had played a few games when Henry looked across to see
who had come in. There was the boatswain and the ship’s carpenter surveying the
scene. They were discussing the work in the holds for the coming trip. “If the
weather holds good like now, we’ll start in the forward holds number one and
two tomorrow. You’ll have one gang in number one and I’ll do number two.”

 “Will we take down the
shifting boards as well as the feeders?”

 “I’ll check again with the
mate tomorrow. He has to consult his cargo manual; they know nothing, only what
they read out of them books.”

 “Aye” agreed the carpenter
in order not to offend his younger, tougher shipmate.

The boatswain was in his late
thirties and from Cornwall. He was connected to the sea from the time he was a
child. He could fish before he could walk; fishing was the only way of life he
knew. He was about five foot eight tall, barrel chested and as strong as an ox.
His shock of unruly, salt and pepper hair fell down his neck and over his ears.
He joined the merchant navy at age sixteen and was a hard working honest
accomplished seaman who had no time for slackers or ‘weekend sailors’ as he
referred to some of the younger deck hands. The recent events had rocked him to
the core and defiled all that was good and noble about his way of life. He took
the murders personally. To his mind, this was an insult to the code of the sea,
and the culprit no better than vermin. That would be the way he should be
treated when he was rooted out. His suspicions were mainly focused on the
younger men and he had his own very private suspects - men he disliked. Henry
fitted into this category.

The galley boy left saying he
was going to get his issue. Henry pitched a few darts and waited for what he
knew would undoubtedly come from the boatswain; he hadn’t forgotten their last
encounter. Henry saw it was coming up to seven bells and the eight to twelve
watch keepers would be coming on soon to get their mugs of tea and sandwiches.

 The boatswain walked over to
Henry.

“No one to play with you, wouldn’t
wonder.”

 Henry ignored him.

Tukola walked in carrying
some cartons of cigarettes which he threw onto a table. He had a string vest
on; his mahogany torso rippled with muscle. He had a snake tattooed on his
right arm which wound itself around his muscular forearm and ended at his upper
arm with its head showing two red beady eyes and a protruding forked tongue.

The boatswain eyed him with a
slight distain.

“You’ll be with the carpenter
in number one hold with your roommate, starting tomorrow.”

 Tukola shifted his feet in a
nervous reaction and averted his look from the stern stare of the boatswain’s
hazel eyes. Then he spoke in a slow and calculated voice.

“Will we be taking down all
the feeders and shifting boards?”

 “Yes” the carpenter replied,
“all the feeders but we’re not sure about the shifting boards. Myself and the
boatswain have never sailed with a sugar cargo before.”

 “I sailed with sugar from
Mauritius many times and we never took down the shifting boards but we did take
down the stringers.”

 “Don’t mention taking down
stringers, that’s a bloody dock yard job, we have enough to do to have her
ready as things stand.”

 The boatswain sat on a table
with one foot resting on a chair and turned to Henry who was still throwing practice
darts, waiting for someone to come along and have a game.

“No takers for a game I see. Where
are your shipmates now?”

 Henry stood facing him
threateningly and saw he had his hand with a thumb tucked into his belt alongside
his knife. He sized up the situation and realized that Tukola would go along
with the boatswain. He doubted the carpenter would join in; he was older and a more
placid individual.

Then Henry’s ire began to get
the better of him.

“My shipmates are afraid to
come in here because of your threats and bullying, but I’m not afraid of any of
you, right!”

He held the three darts like
a weapon in his left hand and fingered his knife, the handle of which was now
visible. Tukola stood beside the boatswain, his menacing dark eyes like a
serpent. He waited for a sign to pounce and his knife was half way out of its
sheath now.

The carpenter walked in front
of them and spread his hands.

 “Come on, tea’s up.”

 The cook who was playing
cribbage with two others, stood up and walked over to Henry.

“I’d like a game of darts. Come
on, you throw first.”

That seemed to defuse the situation.

 Henry handed him the darts
and they played a couple of games and then went to see how Gary was. He
wondered why Gary was so down. Was he worried that if this ordinary seaman
spoke he might be the one he was fingering? There was something bothering him.
Gary had the cabin door locked.

 “Jesus, I’ll need a password
next.”

Gary re-locked the door and
sat down on the couch.

“What was the atmosphere like
up there?”

Henry related what had
happened to him.

 “I’m glad I didn’t go up
there.”

 “Well I was expecting you. I
could have done with a bit of back up.”

 “Fuck, Henry, it’s getting
dangerous.  Did you see the ordinary seaman around?”

“No I didn’t see him. I’d
like to know who he saw and what he saw in Bombay.”

 “Nobody knows what he saw or
who because he’s afraid to say anything. He only let it slip to the galley boy
before we got into Japan.”

 Three days out to sea and
work was progressing in the forward holds. The weather was becoming remarkably
warmer. Henry tossed around in his head the idea of Tukola’s cabin search, and
now that both he and his roommate were on day work, it would be nigh impossible
to search while they were on deck. Even with the master key, it would still be
too dangerous. He pondered the consequences if he were caught. He would be hauled
before the captain and branded as a thief; a serious charge on a ship, akin to
being a leper. No, he knew he’d have only one chance and that would be
somewhere going through the Panama Canal, so he’d have to wait.

 The captain called the mate
on the bridge and asked him to call into his cabin on his way off watch.

He knocked and heard his
voice.

“Come in, take a seat there.”

The captain was at his big
leather-topped desk going over some overtime sheets.

“How is the work on the holds
progressing?”

 “Fine, I have a gang in
number one and two and they’re making good progress. I took the four
apprentices off watches and put them on day work to make sure the feeder boards
are stacked in proper order and I assigned them to that, much to the
disgruntled complaints from the boatswain.”

 “A good idea, it’s very
important for the next chief officer who’ll have the job of putting them back
up again to have them stacked in numerical order. My first trip as chief officer
was on a ship that had come from Vancouver with a timber cargo, and we were
bound for Galveston for a cargo of soya beans for Japan. My God, but the feeder
boards and shifting boards were all over the place. It took as much to sort and
find them as it did to put them up. We barely had her ready working until
midnight every day and for eighteen days.”

 The mate was shocked at the
change in the captain’s appearance. He had aged and dark circles under his eyes
made him look gaunt and worried.

“My relief won’t have that to
bother him. We’ll be all glad of a bit of leave after this trip, including
yourself sir.”

 “Yes, I’ll be glad to walk
down the gangway and I’m seriously considering retirement, although I’ve three
years to go.”

 “You could always do a bit
ashore, like the coastal duty and shore command.”

“Yes, you’re right of course,
I could do that. Tell me, has there been any trouble with our crewmen, have you
noticed any incidents since the one with the young galley boy?”

 “No, there’s nothing come to
my attention and by having the apprentices on day work, it helps to keep a bit
of normality, at least during the work day.”

 “That’s good. Could you come
with me into Pippa’s room and help me sort out her few belongings.”

“Sure.”

 They went into Pippa’s cabin
and he watched the captain as he opened the small suit case that lay on the couch.

“This is a little case I gave
her; she had so few things to take with her.”

He held up a few trinkets and
a photo of when she was a toddler sitting between her mother and father, he in
his early forties and dressed in tropical whites, a handsome man, and her
mother so radiant and beautiful like an oriental princess. He looked at a few
watercolors on top of the bureau. One was for him; the Rangoon with his cameo
in the right top corner. He looked through the drawers but there was nothing
else. He turned to the mate.

“The precious diamond ring
she wore on a chain around her neck is missing. I wonder if the monster that
killed her took it, or has it gone with her? I was hoping to take it back to
her poor mother. I will go to see her on my next leave. My good wife and I will
make the trip.” He picked up her few things and faced the chief officer.

“How could anyone do such a
thing to someone so vulnerable, beautiful and precious?”

 “It could only be logical in
the sick mind of the beast that walks the decks every day before our very
eyes.”

 “It’s an aberration of
nature and all that humanity stands for.”

He looked at the few things
in his hands.

“She had nothing yet the whole
world was hers.”