20

Jubilation to Despair

 

Mortimer Flag, still standing at the desk, stared intently at Roger. Roger had the impression that the director already knew the result of the searches, and was now looking for signs of defeat; was beginning to gloat.

Roger swallowed his pride, and said, “Every ship completely clear. Is that it?”

“That’s it. Almost wish one would blow up,” Shaw said lugubriously. “Thought I’d better let you know in case the Flags know already. You’ll realise it won’t be any use trying to ride roughshod over them. Sorry I got you into this spot, Handsome.”

Roger laughed, honestly amused.

“If that’s the worst that ever happens to me, I’ll be lucky. I’ll be seeing you.”

He replaced the receiver, and smiled at Mortimer Flag.

“All your ships report clear,” he said.

Mortimer’s eyes were glowing.

“That’s wonderful!” So he hadn’t known. “I told you you were making a mares’ nest.”

He lifted a telephone, but before he spoke the door behind Roger opened and Raymond Flag appeared. Roger, looking over his shoulder, saw the Chairman’s eyes glowing, and the look of triumph on his face. Just behind him Gregory Flag was grinning with delight.

“All absolutely clear,” Raymond crowed.

“God, what a relief!” exclaimed Gregory.

Roger moved so that his back wasn’t to any of them. He had expected to find gloating; in fact, he found what seemed to be unfeigned relief, remarkable in men who had appeared so confident that there could not possibly have been trouble on any of the Blue Flag Line ships.

“Surprised, Superintendent?” asked Raymond. “I suppose that’s natural. We believed you were wrong, but when you were so insistent you really had us worried. This is a great relief.”

“Even if it disappoints Superintendent West,” Mortimer put in waspishly.

“If I’ve given you the impression that I wanted one of your ships to vanish with all hands, I did a bad job,” Roger said. “This may remove your main anxiety, but it doesn’t remove mine. I want to catch a killer. I need men with money who are behind the killer, and I need to know why the murders were committed, why Lancelot Smith warned me that any of your ships might go down, and—”

“I’ve told you, Smith was obsessed with delusions,” Raymond interrupted.

“Do you think that’s why Marcus Barring telephoned Superintendent Shaw and told him that the Kookaburra would never tie up in Sydney Harbour again?” asked Roger.

“I don’t believe . . .” Gregory began, but his voice trailed off.

“What?” gasped Mortimer.

“When was this?” demanded Raymond Flag.

All their jubilation vanished; in an instant their mood changed completely, alarm if not consternation was in their manner. They had moved so that they were lined up on one side of Mortimer’s desk and Roger was on the other, his back to the door.

“It was immediately after I made an issue of the searches,” Roger said. None of the others spoke, and into the tense silence he dropped a question he had been wanting to ask ever since he had known these men. “There are rumours that Chinese interests in Pekin would like to acquire the Blue Flag Line, and are attempting to force you to sell just as you forced the Barrings to sell. Have you been under any such pressures?”

When none of them answered, he went on, “The kind of sacrifices made by Lancelot Smith and Paul Barring square with fanatical political faith. Have you any reason to believe that Smith was a Communist?”

Gregory Flag said, “My God!”

Mortimer moved across to an easy-chair in the window, and dropped down into it.

Raymond stood at the desk, very pale, very still. It seemed a long time before he spoke, a long time before he could make up his mind what to say. When the words did come they were low-pitched and uttered in a voice empty of emotion.

“Yes,” he said.

Roger, touched by the tension, made himself speak harshly.

“Are you sure he was?”

“Yes.”

“Did you know he was involved in some conspiracy against the company?”

Raymond answered, “We feared it.”

“Why?”

“We know he wanted us to sell a majority of our holdings to Chinese nominees. We refused. When these crimes were perpetrated, we feared that an attempt was being made to force our hands.”

“When did this pressure begin?”

“Six months ago.”

“After the SS Koala sank?” asked Roger.

“Yes,” Raymond said. “In fact that—”

“Raymond, there’s no need for this,” Mortimer said. He jumped up from the chair looking pale, but as if he were ready to put up a fight. “There is no need for any further admissions or statements. There have been enough. We’ve done everything humanly possible to make sure nothing goes wrong. Let matters rest as they are.”

“You didn’t do much about warning your ships’ masters, although you must have feared danger to one or another of them,” Roger said harshly.

“We knew perfectly well that if you wanted the warnings sent out you would send them out, it was immaterial whether we liked it or not,” Mortimer said coldly. “Your way it was a police enquiry. Had it been sent out by us it would have implied our belief that there was some danger. No such admission was necessary. We are not fools, Mr West.”

“I wonder.”

“What the hell do you mean?” Gregory Flag roared.

“You must be fools if you really doubt whether I know that severe pressures made you keep silent, refusing to admit there was any danger. Obviously the pressure first made itself felt six months ago, nearly eighteen months after the loss of the Koala. They must have been very severe to affect you so badly. I’d say you were blackmailed.”

“I won’t listen to this nonsense!” cried Mortimer. He jumped up and came forward, podgy hands clenched. “You have no right to slander—”

“Oh, shut up,” Roger said angrily. “I can say what I like to the three of you, there’s no question of slander. If it ever came to a court of law you’d be three to one against me, so I couldn’t bring it to court. The Koala’s sinking was an insurance fraud, wasn’t it?”

“Don’t say a word!” cried Mortimer. “Deny it.”

Neither of the others spoke, but Raymond slowly turned away. After a moment, he asked, “Who else suspects this?”

“Never mind that,” Roger rasped. “The Kookaburra is under threat. She’s been reported all clear and yet she’s still under threat. You know it. You expected something to be found aboard, that was why you were so elated when you had the all clear. Was the Kookaburra your second insurance swindle? Was she to go down with all passengers and all hands to make some more filthy money for you?”

When no one responded he raised his voice and shouted, “Is that the truth? Answer, damn you, answer me!”

“Don’t—don’t say a word,” Mortimer almost choked.

After another long pause, Raymond Flag turned round, faced Roger squarely, and said, “There is nothing we can do to stop it, West. We don’t know what Marcus Barring plans, we have no idea how he meant to carry his plans out. There is nothing at all we can do.”

 

“We didn’t know what he planned!” Mortimer said gaspingly. “Greg – make Ray stop. He mustn’t say another word. Make him stop.”

The Flag brothers now stared at each other, as if in fear.

Roger said savagely, “I don’t know what you’ve got on your conscience. But if another man dies, if another man is injured, my God you’ll pay for it.”

“I tell you we don’t know where to find Barring!” That was Raymond.

“Was he to blow up the Kookaburra for you?”

“Don’t say a word!” screeched Mortimer.

“You must know what he planned. How was he going to do it?” Anger, half simulated, half real, made Roger’s voice hoarse. Recollection of the positive relief these men had shown when told nothing had been found on any ship made one thing obvious. They had expected a time-bomb or some such device inside the ship before it reached Sydney, but did not necessarily know anything more. If he could frighten them enough they might yet tell him what Marcus Barring planned.

A telephone bell rang, a jarring, unwanted sound from outside. Gregory Flag moved and plucked up the instrument, snatching at any release from tension. Mortimer moved towards his elder cousin, hands stretched out as if in supplication. There would be no doubt of the awful guilt of these three men, but that hardly seemed important; retribution could come later, rescue from that unknown danger was desperately needed first.

“Yes?” Gregory Flag’s voice rose high. “Who? . . . yes, hold on.”

He lowered the receiver and handed it towards Roger. “It’s Shaw, for you.”

Roger took the telephone, and said as mildly as he could, “Yes, Luke?”

“We’ve had a break,” Shaw said with suppressed excitement. “That psychiatrist made something click in Doreen Morrison’s memory. She remembers a quarrel between Perce Sheldon, the Adelaide insurance man and Paul Barring. She doesn’t know what it was about, but she remembers some of the words. Your psychiatrist thinks some are probably key words. Ready for ‘em?”

“Yes,” Roger said.

“Sheldon shouted the words: ‘Yes, all of them, damn you, all of them. You’ll never get away with it.’”

Roger had a pencil out and wrote swiftly in a kind of private shorthand.

“Next?”

“Paul Barring responded calmly: ‘Nothing you or anyone else can do will stop us. You’d better not try.’”

“Go on,” Roger said tensely. He was aware of the others drawing nearer, as if in an effort to see what he was writing.

“Sheldon replied, wildly: ‘You can’t scare me. Too many people know. Don’t open your bloody mouth, understand?’”

“Yes,” Roger said.

“That’s it.” Shaw seemed almost reluctant to finish. “Someone else came along – the Captain or first mate, Doreen thinks, and the shouting stopped. Next time Sheldon and Paul Barring met they were drinking together, and seemed on friendly terms. Doreen says she forgot everything about this until the psychiatrist questioned her about conversations she had heard between other people. Then it came back to her. See the significance, don’t you? Sheldon’s ‘all of them’ could have meant the people who afterwards died. Paul Barring’s ‘you’d better not try to stop us,’ could be the threat to kill. Sheldon or any of the people he was supposed to have informed could have become a danger to the Barrings.”

“But did Sheldon tell the girl anything?” Roger asked.

He looked up as he spoke, into the faces of the three men. Mortimer’s face blanched, he opened his lips and gasped; and he seemed to form the name ‘Sheldon.’

“She can’t remember anything. Of course Sheldon may have been lying,” went on Shaw. “He may have told Paul Barring that those other people knew, simply to scare Barring. If he did, and if Barring had to go ahead with whatever he planned – the sinking of the Kookaburra, say – he may have killed them all to make sure none of them could stop him.”

“So all the murders would be directly concerned with the plot against the Kookaburra,” Roger said. “Right, Luke, thanks. We need a full transcription of everything Sheldon said, of course.”

“What’s that?” asked Shaw, puzzled.

“I’ll be in touch,” Roger said.

He rang off, still watching the three directors closely. They looked sick with fear, but Raymond had a better grip on himself than the others. Mortimer had given up trying to stop him from speaking.

“So Sheldon was in the insurance swindle over the Koala, and knew about the plot on the Kookaburra,” Roger said coldly. “Paul and Marcus Barring decided to kill everyone he said he had told.”

“We knew nothing about such a decision,” Raymond Flag asserted. “We had reason to suspect that in his obsessive hatred for this company, Marcus Barring would try to blow up a second ship. Insurance was not involved. In spite of the Court of Inquiry findings we suspected sabotage on the Koala, as did the police. None could be proved. We had reason to fear further sabotage for the same reason on the Kookaburra, but we could do no more than we did – you were in fact ahead of us. We are not criminals. If we knew how to stop this wickedness we would have told you long ago. We believed that some time-bomb would be planted on the ship, as you did. If that isn’t the case . . .”

He broke off.

Roger caught his breath, and turned to the telephone, snatched it up and barked, “Get me Superintendent Shaw, of police headquarters.”

He held the receiver to his ear.

“If it isn’t an inside job it’s an outside one. Marcus Barring’s an expert goggle-fisher and underwater swimmer. One limpet mine on the hull of the Kookaburra would be enough to sink her. What time is she due?”

“She’s picking up the pilot outside the Heads about now,” Raymond said.