Waves of Murder (3 page)

“Yes,” Jon said, “I had a drink with her in the English Pub bar, three days ago. She’s American and tried to pick me up, well that’s what I thought. But I told her that I was on the ship with my girl friend, she then lost interest. I saw her again later in the casino but that was only for ten minutes, I lost £20 and left. My girl friend was very tired and declined to come with me,” he explained.

“Okay, sir, thank you very much,” the Inspector said, smiling. He even doffed a non-existent hat to Lorna.

They sauntered through Gibraltar, it was like going back to the sixties. They did a little shopping, but only a small amount, Jon didn’t want to be seen flashing any big money about. No cameras, no jewellery, no electrical goods or booze which was all cheap and tax free. Back to the ship after an enjoyable day, the police were still at the quayside, but the plain clothes officers had gone, only the two police cars and four uniformed men were at the bottom of the gangway. They embarked and walked into the main reception area, the two CID men were at the main desk. “Keep walking,” Jon said, “ to the Crows Nest bar.” In the Crows Nest they met Zak and Sandra and joined them, acting happy and carefree. They ordered a bottle of red wine, “The sun’s over the yard arm isn’t it?” Jon laughed, and poured wine for Zak and Sandra.

“I understand there’s a woman missing from the ship, some American, probably in someone else’s cabin!” Zak laughed, Jon and Sandra joined in the laughter. They finished the bottle and said they would see them at dinner.

At the dinner table, the honeymooners still only had eyes and hands for each other, and didn’t join in the conversation, which was mainly about the missing woman. David, the pharmacist, said that she had probably got drunk and fallen overboard in the Bay of Biscay. “She’ll probably surface, er, excuse the pun, and wonder what all the fuss is about in the morning,” Jon said, looking at Lorna.

“Or, she found a toy boy who murdered her for her diamonds!” Sandra laughed, as did everybody. Jon, although laughing, went cold and hot at the same time. Lorna took his hand and squeezed it tightly under the table. The tannoy announced that the ship would be held over for another day as the police were still making enquiries into the disappearance of a passenger.

Lorna and Jon agreed to act normally and to take a leaf out of the honeymooners book, and show affection whenever possible. Lorna said,” I know you’re under pressure, but can we take this idea to our cabin as well?”

Jon smiled, and kissed her cheek, “Yes, I think we can!” he said. But at the back of his mind he was very worried about the extra day’s investigation. His fears were buried when, the next morning, the tannoy announced that sailing time would be at 6pm. Jon’s heart lifted and he started looking forward to the rest of the holiday. At 6pm, the Ajaxia moved away from the dock and sailed majestically into the blue Med, “Fantastic,” Jon said. But he wondered how the Detective Inspector had picked him out by name as he came off of the gangway, but there had been no follow-up. “Thank ...,” he stopped himself saying ‘Thank God’, that would have been grossly blasphemous and evil.

After all the trauma and drama, the ship settled down to normal cruising. Dinner every night, one formal night, when Lorna and Jon really put on a show of being the loving couple at the dinner table, in the bars and on the dance floor. Their table companions commented on their behaviour, “You kids are having a good time,” Zak said, “how about joining us in the Crows Nest and we’ll make a real night of it, what do you say?” he added.

“Yes,” Jon agreed, “let’s do just that.” the evening went like a dream, and they finally said good night to Zak and Sandra at 1am. Sex was on the menu, Jon and Lorna didn’t stop at any position that existed! At 3am they fell into a deep sleep.

The Med was beautiful, and very blue, next port of call was Casablanca, Morocco. What a culture shock, camels, Arabs selling trinkets, but Jon was looking for particular plaque, ‘Ricks Bar Americain’ from the Humphrey Bogart film ‘Casablanca’. He had seen it years ago, and had always wanted to go there. Walking around the town centre he suddenly saw it, ‘The Icon Bar’, ‘Rick’s Bar’. They entered, it was packed with tourists, “Let’s get a drink, and go outside with the camera and take some photographs.” They found a fellow tourist who took their photopraphs!

Back on the ship, they decided to sit on the sundeck and get some rays, they had managed to find two sunbeds due to their early arrival back to the half-empty ship. Sunbathing had lost out to touring the shops. Being badgered by local dealers to buy their wares, pots, pans, fabrics, spices, shoes etc., wasn’t to their liking and the flies were a constant pest. They could have gone on the tour bus, but it would have passed ‘Rick’s Bar’ without stopping. So they just laid there holding hands, being lovey-dovey, so that anyone could see. The sun silhouetted the voice that said,” Hello sir, can I get you something to drink?” She was a very pretty Asian girl.

“Yes,” said Jon, “two large gin and tonics with ice and lemon, please.” The drinks soon arrived, he signed the slip, no money changed hands on board except cash tips, which were gratefully received.

They spent the afternoon laying in the sun, and being together, Lorna squeezed Jon’s hand, “I’m feeling very randy, would you like to accompany me back to our cabin, so that we can have a little sexual intercourse?” she almost begged.

“Yes,” said Jon, feeling a movement in his swimming trunks! They both jumped up and walked quickly, very quickly, back to their cabin. For two hours they experienced the most amazing sexual activity! Jon woke up after an hours slumber, in a cold sweat, he’d had a bad dream, a very bad dream about Clarice. In his dream, she climbs back over the suite’s balcony, still wearing her diamonds, and beckons him to join her down in the sea.

Lorna put her hand on his brow, and kissed his cheek, “Can I get you anything?” she asked.

“No, I’ll be all right in a minute,” Jon said.

At dinner Jon was his old self again, talking about ‘Rick’s Bar’ and Casablanca. Zak and Sandra had done the bus tour, but complained about the heat and no air-conditioning, “It was like a sweat box,” Sandra said.

“I wish we had just gone walk-about,” Zak added.

“That’s what we did, the locals and the flies were getting on our nerves, so we came back to the ship to do a spot of sunbathing.”

“I wish we had done the same,” they said in unison.

“Still, at least I can say that I bought these here!” and produced two plastic models of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, everybody laughed except the two pale honeymooners, who hadn’t heard a word of the conversation. Now things had progressed to them feeding each other!

“C’mon you two, join in, you’ve got the rest of your lives to do that!” They took no notice, Zak’s protest fell on deaf ears. David and Sangita just laughed and agreed in the right places, but didn’t put much into the conversation. After dinner they all decided to go to the nightclub. Part of it was a long bar, sitting on one of the stools was a very attractive woman in her 40’s wearing a dress with a side split that showed a very shapely leg. She smiled at Jon as they walked in, he thought, oh no, here we go again, but then thought to himself, one at a time ...... one at a time.

Lorna saw the woman, and steered Jon away from the bar, whispering “Don’t even think about it,” but there were no smiles or jokes, she was serious. She, somehow, found them, and sat at a table close to the four, and she was continuing to smile at Jon, adjusting her dress to show what was available. Lorna had had enough, she went over to the woman and said, “His name is Jon, he’s quite rich, but unfortunately for you, he’s mine. So cover up your thighs and keep your sexy looks to yourself, otherwise I’ll smash your botoxed face in, okay,” she turned and walked back to Jon, who just sat with his hand on his forehead, Zak and Sandra just watched in amazement. The woman stood up and walked out of the bar. This fracas had a double effect, it put another murder out of Jon’s mind and sent the woman on her way. She possibly had had a lucky escape!

Zak and Sandra clapped their hands and Zak said, “Good on you, girl.” Jon looked up, smiled and took Lorna’s hand, pulling her down to sit beside him. They continued to be the close loving couple.

At breakfast, approaching Malaga after two days at sea, the news went around the ship that a woman’s body had been washed up near Gibraltar, and the police were renewing their enquiries. Jon’s heart sank at the revelation, but he was well away from it all, or was he?

As the ship docked at Malaga, Jon looked down and his brain started to go crazy, the police were waiting at the gangway, two plain clothes and two uniformed. He rushed back inside and told Lorna, “We’ll stay on board today and sunbathe. Seen one Spanish town, and you’ve seen them all,” he said. At 11pm the ship sailed and Jon heaved a sigh of relief, as did Lorna. The cruise continued and the couple spent most of the time on board ship, getting a good deep tan. Jon realised there was very little chance now of police investigation. It was up to the Spanish police to do any work on the murder case. Just another body washed up as far as they were concerned.

Chapter Two Southampton

J
on looked down at the quayside, good, he thought, no coppers. Disembarkation went smoothly and quickly, the Golf was waiting for them after Jon handed in the parking permit and collected the keys. He had also retrieved ‘the envelope’ from the safe deposit box. They had been the only evidence that could have nailed him, but the police had missed it. They were soon on their way back to London and to a life of luxury with a quarter of a million pounds, at least. The diamonds wouldn’t be on any stolen list as no theft could have been reported, but he decided to sell them piece by piece over a period of weeks in different parts of the country, starting in Hatton Garden, with the biggest piece.

His world fell apart when he entered a diamond dealer’s shop, the bearded man behind the thick glass picked up the necklace, put in his eyeglass and put it down again, quickly, “I’ll give you £120 for the gold weight, the stones are zircons, fake, of no value, I’m sorry.” Jon walked out of the shop in a daze, he was numb. He had murdered for a load of junk. But he still had three rings and a watch, he hoped that they were real! He walked further down Hatton Garden, and went into another dealer’s shop, he produced the watch through the security hatch.

The young bearded man put in his eyeglass and studied the piece carefully, “Very nice,” he said, and put it down, “just a minute please,” he said and went into his office, with a very obvious see-through mirror. Jon waited, but only for three or four minutes, “Okay,” the dealer said, “how much did you want for the piece?” he asked.

“I really don’t know, but I think it’s worth ten thousand, after all it’s a diamond Rolex.”

“Well, yes,” said the young man, “but first, if you don’t mind, I have to check with the insurance computer. It’ll only take a minute,” he added. “Okay, everything’s fine,” he said, from his office door. He returned with ten packets of £50 notes, each containing a thousand pounds. “I need some details from you, name, address etc., just for my records,” he said. Jon left the shop having given a false name and address. He felt better even though the necklace was worthless, and his forecast of wealth to Lorna was now much lower than the quarter of a million! He thought he would tell her over a nice dinner at her favourite bistro in Hampstead.

Over the said dinner, during the main course and after a large glass of Merlot, Jon reached into his pocket and brought out a tissue, in it was the necklace. He pushed it over to Lorna, she opened the bundle, “It’s a fake,” Jon said, “worth £120 for it’s gold content, still that’ll pay for this meal!” he added.

Lorna looked down at the necklace and mentally saw her sports car and handbags disappear, “Oh well,” she said, “what you’ve never had you can’t miss!”

“Oh, don’t worry my darling, we’ve still got a lot of cash, and the rings, bracelet and anklet, they should bring in a few thousand so we are still well in the money. Tomorrow I’ll go and cash them in and we’ll see about changing our lives a little.”

Hatton Garden was buzzing at 11 o’clock the next morning as Jon walked along the opposite side of the street to where he had sold the watch. He walked into a small shop, after pressing the entry button, “Good morning,” the young woman said, with an air of authority. Jon produced the rings and the bracelet, passing them through the security slot in the thick glass window. She put her eyeglass to her eye, firstly the bracelet, and then the rings, “Do you want an advance or do you want to sell them?” she asked.

“I’d like to sell them,” Jon said.

“I see,” said the woman, “there are one or two checks I have to make, how much do you think they are worth?” she asked.

“I thought £20,000,” he replied.

“Okay,” she said, and disappeared into the back of the shop with the jewels. She re-appeared after 4 or 5 minutes and said, “I’ll give you £18,000, that’s my best offer, even though they are very nice, but this ring has quite a large flaw, that’s a carbon piece,” she added.

Jon thought for a short while and said, “Okay, it’s a deal,” as he looked into her beautiful brown eyes. She pushed a form and a pen through the glass gap for him to fill in his name, address and signature. He did this as she produced eighteen packets of £50 notes in thousands. Right, he thought, that’s 28 grand.

He went to Lorna’s agency, and said that he would pick her up at 5.30pm. She, although tanned, looked dreadful, she hadn’t slept and her first day back at work had been hell. They discussed their position back at her small flat, “We’ve got over 40 grand,” Jon said, “not enough, but we still have the anklet. But that’s only about a grand, you may as well have that,” he said.