The Chief and I found a pub where we could sit, get our breath back and think things over. The Chief had his usual beer and I had a cup of warm milk.
“Well,” said the Chief, “we seem to be back where we started. The pearls still belong to Rose Henderson, Shetland Jack’s daughter.”
I nodded.
“In which case we have no choice,” the Chief continued. “We have to make another attempt to find her.”
His face clouded over all of a sudden.
“But first we have a score to settle,” he said. “With Mr Fillingsworth, the detective. He delivered us straight into the claws of that Moira and her gang. And he ripped us off for five pounds as an advance payment, too. He can’t be allowed to get away with that sort of behaviour!”
I agreed. Detective Fillingsworth had a lot of explaining to do. 448
It was already a quarter past five so there was a good chance the detective had shut up shop for the day. The Chief and I decided instead to take a room for the night at Mrs Grimes’s boarding house. We needed to go there anyway to collect our kitbags, always assuming Mrs Grimes still had them. Which she did.
“Oh, how lovely to see you again!” she exclaimed as we went into the boarding house. “I’ve been dreadfully worried about you both. After you’d been away for a week, I went to your room and found all your things scattered any old how on the floor. I thought something awful must have happened and I actually went to the police. But they weren’t interested at all.”
It took the Chief some time to calm Mrs Grimes down. Then he told her what had happened to us, though he missed out the most unpleasant parts as he didn’t want to upset the kind old lady unnecessarily.
The next morning the Chief and I rose early. We washed in the cracked handbasin in our room, said goodbye to Mrs Grimes and set off out into the city with our kitbags on our shoulders. After a good half hour’s walk we were standing outside the Gibson Street house in which Mr Fillingsworth had his office. But there was no longer any sign of the detective’s elegant nameplate. 449
“Aha, there you go,” the Chief said. “Our detective seems to have jumped ship. We might as well go up and ring the bell anyway. You never know…”
The doorman was asleep in his chair, so we just went ahead and trudged up the stairs. There was a notice on the office door stating that the premises were available to rent. The Chief knocked hard on the door, but there was no sound from within.
We went back down to street level and the Chief woke the doorman and asked him if he knew where Fillingsworth had gone. The doorman, his eyes still sticky with sleep, studied the Chief, but when he caught sight of me he was suddenly wide awake.
“An ape…” he said. “Yes, that was it! A sailor and an ape! Wait here and I’ll see.”
The doorman rummaged around in some drawers and produced an envelope.
“Mr Fillingsworth shut up his office very suddenly one day,” he said. “I don’t know why, but he was in a great hurry to get away from here. In fact, I thought he seemed to be afraid.”
The doorman handed the envelope to the Chief before continuing. “Mr Fillingsworth gave me this before he moved out. He said I should give it to the sailor who might come looking 450for him one fine day… a sailor with a big, tame ape. That must be you, mustn’t it?”
“Do you know where Fillingsworth is to be found now?” the Chief asked.
The doorman shrugged his shoulders.
“Edinburgh, maybe?” he said. “I think he has family there.”
After the Chief had thanked the doorman for his help, we went and found a pub where we could sit and open the envelope from Detective Fillingsworth. It contained five pounds in notes and a handwritten letter.
Dear Mr Koskela,
If you had any idea how ashamed I feel!
A few days after you and your ape visited me, three men came to my office. They had seen the notice I put in the Glasgow Herald seeking information about Rose Henderson. They wanted to know who had employed me to locate her, and why. When I tried to explain to them that such information was confidential, one of them whipped out a large stiletto and threatened to do dreadful things to me. I was forced to tell them everything. Forgive me, but I didn’t dare refuse. Then they wanted to know when you would be coming back to see me again—and I told 451them. They then ordered me to stay away from my office for the whole of that day. And they threatened to shoot me if I didn’t do what they said. And the same thing would happen if I ever tried to contact the police and report their threats.
I have no idea who these frightening men were or why they wanted you. But I pray to the Lord that you and your ape didn’t come to any harm.
If you receive this note, I hope you can forgive me. I cannot!
Yours sincerely,
Humphrey Fillingsworth
Ex-Private Detective.
P.S. If it is still of any use to you, I can tell you that I did manage to make some enquiries about Rose Henderson before I was visited by those awful men. You told me the girl was from the Shetland Isles and had been sent to a children’s home after her mother died. When I tried to find a list of children’s homes in Shetland, it turned out that there weren’t any. Children without parents or anyone else to look after them are sent instead to the Highland Orphanage, a children’s home in the town of Inverness on the Scottish mainland.
When we’d read the letter, we sat in silence for a long time. It was a silence of unspoken shame. 452
“We should not have assumed such bad things about the detective,” the Chief said. “He was given a hard time, poor fellow. Let’s hope he gets through.”
I nodded. I hoped so, too.
That afternoon we went to a post office in the city to send a telegram to Ana and Signor Fidardo. From there we went to the Chinese Seamen’s Hostel and met Li Jing’s good friend, Mr Cheng. He had packed a wooden box full of the spices and other foodstuffs Li Jing had ordered. The smells that rose from the box were familiar to me and the Chief. They wakened memories of the old days, when we had sailed on the tramp steamer Patna on the Singapore-Makassar route.
It was already evening by the time we arrived back at Li Jing’s in Gourock. She put us to work straightaway, chopping vegetables, weighing out rice and frying spices in oil on the stove. An hour or so later we laid the table for a meal of freshly cooked dumplings, braised fish and egg noodles.
After we’d eaten, the Chief took out the necklace and told Li Jing and Bernie what had happened to us in the last few days. Then we showed them the letter from Detective Fillingsworth. 453
“The story of Shetland Jack and his necklace doesn’t seem to be over yet,” Li Jing said when she had read the letter. “It looks as if the two of you will have to go to Inverness.”
The Chief and I both nodded, and he said, “It must be the best part of thirty years since Rose Henderson left the children’s home. I wonder if anyone there will still remember her?”
“Don’t be too concerned about that,” Li Jing said. “There was a lot written about Shetland Jack and his daughter in the newspapers after his ship was found abandoned. It was a real mystery, what with traces of blood on the deck and everything. There will certainly be people in Inverness who still remember.”
Li Jing was interrupted by Bernie, who rose quickly from his chair, his face suddenly pale and grey. He muttered, “Thanks for supper,” and left the table.
The stairs creaked as Bernie went down to his room on the ground floor. We heard him close the door behind him.
“He didn’t look too well,” the Chief said. “Let’s hope he’s not going down with something.”
“It was probably just the spices,” Li Jing thought. “Scots aren’t used to Asian food.”
We ended up sitting up late. But when I’d climbed into my hammock, I still couldn’t get to sleep. My head was full of thoughts. 454
I didn’t think Bernie had left the table because the spices had made him feel ill.
No, it wasn’t that. What had upset him was the talk about Shetland Jack.
I was almost sure of it.
And then I got to thinking about that awful night a couple of weeks before when Skipper Simmons threw himself into the Clyde. I remembered how Bernie had been hysterical with fear. And there was something Moira had said… something about Shetland Jack.
So both Moira and Bernie knew of Captain Jack Shaw.
How come?