The Atlas Murders (49 page)

“Christ!” shouted Kerstin as
she looked with horror to starboard. A couple of hundred yards away it roared
like a train going through a tunnel. Henry had never seen anything so
frightening in his life, it came down from the low black clouds like a
monstrous hand twisting and turning; funnel shaped, sucking up water in a terrifying
cacophony of relentless magnitude, throwing out white spray like a grotesque
spinning waterfall.

 As the gigantic water spout
struck, Kerstin shouted above the roaring for Henry to hold on. Everything was
enveloped in surging roaring water as the stern was lifted out of the water and
her bow was pointing down at an angle of forty-five degrees. The sails were
torn off and the rigging twisted and bent; the dinghy was lifted and flung
overboard along with life belts and aerials, then the yacht shuddered as if the
life had been torn out of her and she was plunging to the bottom. Kerstin tried
to see through the swirling water as it lashed her body like a whip. “Henry,”
she cried, “Henry.” As quickly as it had come, it passed leaving Kerstin hanging
against the steering wheel. To her horror, Henry was nowhere to be seen. She
pulled herself fully upright, looked around and saw the line attached to his
harness running across the deck over the side. She climbed across the deck and
saw Henry swinging from his harness half submerged.

“Oh Christ, please help me,” she
cried.

The sky began to brighten to
a clear blue from the south; the savage wind had dropped to calm and the sea
was back to a moderate swell. She pulled on the line but could not lift him on
board, so she waited for a swell to dip the boat over and as the water came
level with the deck, she pulled him on board. “Henry! Henry!” she pleaded with
him but he was unconscious. She laid him down and went to stop the engines.

Her next task was to get help
as soon as possible. She opened the hatch and went below; there was half a
meter of water in the cabin and she saw two of the windows had been stove in.
The chart was floating with pencils and books and the GPS was swinging from its
hook, but still appeared to be working. Lifting up the dripping wet chart she
laid it back on the table, she turned the radio on but it was dead, having got
a good dousing of sea water, the aerial was also gone. She went through to the
sleeping quarters and noticed that the bunks were dry.

Back on deck, she lifted
Henry who had come round and opened his eyes.

 “Come on down to your bunk.”

He walked and staggered as
she supported him down to the bunk. As Kerstin stripped all his clothing off
and laid him on the bunk, she was worried that he hadn’t spoken to her. She
noticed a lump on the back of his head as big as a pigeon’s egg. “My God!” she
exclaimed as she noticed a trickle of blood coming from his left ear.

“Henry, will you open your
eyes please.”

Slowly he opened his heavily
lidded eyes. She looked closely and examined the size of the pupils. Thank
goodness, she thought, they are normal so he has no internal bleeding.

Kerstin got a position from
the GPS and made a mental calculation of a course to take her into Martinique’s
capital, Fort-de–France. The storm had driven them nearer the coast than she
would have wanted, but luckily, the engines sounded fine. Please God let them
keep going, she muttered. The vessel’s steering was also undamaged. Before
long, the headland opened up and she saw the entrance to the quiet harbor. She
made straight for the marina where several dock workers seeing the distressed
state of the yacht, came to her immediate assistance.

As soon as Kerstin had tied
up, they jumped on board.

 “Can we help you?”

“Yes, my friend needs to get
to hospital. Can you call an ambulance?”

 “Yes mam,” I’ll go and
phone, said the youngest of the men. The remaining three men followed her down
to where Henry lay semi-conscious. An older man, noticing that Kerstin was upset,
put a comforting arm around her. “You need not worry now, he be alright. I see
his eyes are open and they looking good to me. You got a bad beating with that
old ‘Devil Johnnie’. I see it from here but it went back out to sea again and
not come ashore; we lose fishermen every year with them Devil Johnnies,” he
said in a deep, heavily accented voice.

 The ambulance arrived with
its siren blaring. After grabbing a change of clothes and other essentials, Kerstin
went with him to the hospital. Once he had been examined and x-rayed he was put
into a private room. The doctor told her he was concussed and he’d given him an
injection for stress and trauma. He told her that Henry would most likely sleep
for eight to ten hours. He also assured her there was no bleeding on the brain and
he should make a full recovery.

 She booked herself into a nearby
hotel and lay down on the bed exhausted, but couldn’t sleep. She never realized
how much Henry meant to her. I must be getting old she admonished herself;
falling in love after all these years of free living and with an older man too.

Unable to rest, Kerstin decided
to sort out the repairs to the Amber Witch. She rang the insurance company and
arranged with the harbor master to have her lifted next day for repair. She organized
a reputable company to carry out the work and send their estimates to the
insurance company. The assessor would probably take a day or so to make out his
report and get the go ahead for the work to be carried out. This kept her busy
for a few hours. Then she went back to the yacht and had a good look around and
was relieved that the damage was not as serious as she had first thought. Kerstin
gathered their personal belongings and brought them to the harbor master who
put them into safe keeping. She kept the clothes and things they would need
while ashore. She decided not to visit Henry until next morning;
instead she
spent a quite night at the hotel.

 Henry was sitting up eating
breakfast when she arrived into his room the next day.

“What happened to me Kerstin?
I can’t remember much, and got a shock when I woke up here an hour ago.”

 She kissed him and was
overcome with tears of happiness to see he looked almost back to his old self.

 “I nearly lost you! It
turned nasty out there for a time; you were washed overboard and were hanging
by the harness. You also gave your head a great bang. Let me see,” she felt the
lump on his head, “is it sore?”

 “Yes a little.”

 “Has the doctor been in to
see you yet?”

 “Yes he’s just gone. He said
I should be ok to go this evening, if I promise to take it easy and come back
to see him in two days’ time.”

 She beamed all over with
joy.

 “That’s great news, I was
beginning to miss you,” she said as she kissed him again.

 “I’m going now and will be
back in a couple of hours. I have a few things to organize with the Amber Witch.”

 “I meant to ask, but we
still have her?”

 “Yes, we still have her but she
has some superficial damage; mostly on deck where the water spout struck and
some water damage inside. I have it organized, so you just concentrate on
getting well.”

 “So that great big monster
that hit us was a water spout?”

 “Yes, the locals call water
spouts, ‘Devil Johnnies’. They and the norther winds that create them are
fairly common here in the Caribbean.”

“Right, I have things to
attend to.”

 As she left, she blew him a
kiss.

 While Kerstin was dealing with
officialdom, she decided to conduct to usual searches and make enquiries about
Tukola. This would take the burden off Henry and give him valuable time to recuperate.
Firstly she tried the phone book with no success. Then she visited the police
station which was near to the customs and excise offices.

A very friendly detective sergeant,
who introduced himself as Henri, listened with fascinated interest to her
request. At times he stared with a blank expression as if his mind was back
tracking to some remote place in his archival memory. When she had finished he
suddenly sat up straight and looked at her. “Yes, I believe I do recall the
name now. It’s been so long it seems like a hazy memory. It was a conversation
between our then chief constable and a lady who reported that her teenage
daughter had gone missing. If I recall correctly, the girl was sixteen and had
gone on a yacht with some people she had made friends with, but had not told
her parents. As it turned out she was located at a port further down the coast
and returned seemingly none the worse for her adventure. However, during the
search I heard the name Tukola mentioned and an old file was resurrected and
gone over. Now I had nothing to do with that case so, I never had occasion to
see the file, but I will go and get it now and we can see what it contains.

He was gone five minutes and
when he returned he placed an old paper folder on the desk. “It looks like it’s
come from the dark ages.” He opened the dusty cover and disappointment showed
on his face when he saw only three pages. “Shall I read them out loud?”

 “Yes, please do.”

 “This file is dated 1968 and
had been sent to all French and Dutch islands in the Caribbean. The name of the
man in question is Hadar Tukola who is a suspect for the murder of a girl on
the island of St Maarten; the Dutch part of the island.”

Kerstin interrupted his
delivery.

 “It’s ok Henri; I have
already seen such a file in St Maarten when we were there. I was hoping there
might be something new, but seemingly not.”

 “I’m sorry mam. I hope you
will find this beast, but after all these years it seems an incredible task. I
wish you luck you are a brave couple.”

“Thank you Henri,” she said
as she left his office.

 Kerstin spoke to the young
doctor who treated Henry when she went to arrange payment for his stay. “He was
lucky that knock was not near his temple area or it could have been fatal. I
did blood tests and I rushed through the results. His general health is good
and he is fit to go, although rest for a few days would be advisable.”

 She was relieved to hear
this thanked the young doctor. “I’ll see to it he gets a few days’ rest.”

 Henry was ready to leave
when she went into his room.

“Where to now dear?”

 “I’ve a nice big bed in a
smashing hotel where you can rest and recuperate for a few days until the Amber
Witch is ready for sea again.”

 The beautiful hot day was
mellowing into a warm evening with the hint of a soft breeze as they walked
from the hospital. Henry stopped and looked in awe at the distinguished manor
houses and well-groomed gardens.

“This island is known as the
island of flowers and has some very interesting history,” explained Kerstin in
her best sexy tour guide voice.

 “I can well believe it,
these beautiful houses evoke the splendors of the past, and so do the wonderful
boulevards with their majestic palms and blooming trees.”

They came across a busy street
market and Henry held her hand and stopped to look as the scene unfolded before
them. “My darling Kerstin, you have such knowledge and a beautifully soft way
of conveying it.”

 She felt her heart fill and
her overflowing emotions brought a small tear to her eye. For a fleeting moment
she was a teenager again and the only one on the planet in love.

Henry went to a stall and
picked up a colored necklace fashioned with beautiful beads of different sizes
and shapes. He placed it round her neck. The Creole stallholder came out to
them from behind her stall, smiling and admired the choice. “These are love
beads and you must now kiss the lady for all your wishes come true.”

 Henry looked to see was she
joking, but as he turned back Kerstin put her arms around him and they kissed
long and true. A little audience had gathered and exclaimed their approval. The
Creole lady said, “You make wish and it will come true.”

 The next morning
they were both
awake very early. Overnight Henry’s mood had dipped dramatically. Sitting on
the bed with his head in his hands, he told Kerstin that he was having serious
doubts about their mission, especially because it had almost resulted in them
being killed. He said he was thinking about calling the whole thing off.

 “Henry,” she admonished him,
“there’s no forgetting the murderer and going back to live a normal life while
he’s out there somewhere. And you know he’s probably still alive from the bank
records.”

 “But look what nearly
happened; you could have been lost on the yacht, never mind me being killed,
but it shouldn’t happen to you just because you agreed to join me on this crazy
adventure.”

 “What happened out there
could have hit us at any time since we started out from the Cayman Islands; it
had nothing to do with him. It’s part of sailing in these waters. Now Henry, I
told you that I’d accept someone as a full package faults and all if I loved
them enough, and you know how I feel about you.”

 “I don’t want to lose you Kerstin,
and if it means stopping the search for him, I promise I’ll do it.”