The Atlas Murders (31 page)

 In a less enthusiastic voice
Henry sighed, “I suppose you’re right there could be a curfew there. We just
have to expect the worst which can’t be a lot worse than what we’ve had, but
maybe hope for the best.”

 “Yes Henry, but I’m so
looking forward to walking down the gangway onto good old British terra firma
and I’ll put that discharge book away for a long-long time.”

 “Maybe I’ll join you in that.”

They decided to go on deck
for some fresh air and to take in the sunset.

“Look! There’s fishing boats,”
exclaimed Gary.

A few miles on their
starboard beam were four fishing boats; their silhouettes outlined against the
purple and red of a tropical sky. The seabirds were circling around them like
flaming darts in the fiery sky. The turquoise sea was now a river of dazzling
ruby.

“There’s enough beauty here
to overload the picture book of your mind. Every sunset seems to be more
beautiful than the previous.”

  “Life could be so good and wonderful
if it wasn’t for those who want to make it miserable for everyone. Seriously
Henry, you have an opinion, so who do you think the murderer on this ship is?”

Henry was taken by surprise
by the question and couldn’t gather his thoughts for a brief instant. He must
make a sensible reply now. It was paramount to keep some credibility with
Conrad. He looked around to make sure there was no one within earshot.

“We should approach this from
a cool and impartial perspective, Gary. We have thirty eight crewmen, so we’ll start
at the top and begin eliminating those who we believe are not suspects.”

 “Right said Gary, but the
captain and the officers, radio operators and engineers; I wouldn’t eliminate
all those, would you?”

 “No, not all of them. The
older ones yes, as I believe this fellow is comparatively young, so out of all
those pick the younger ones.”

 “Jesus Henry, by the time we
get to the galley boy we’ll still have twenty odd suspects if we go on ages.”

 “Yes, that’s what I think;
there doesn’t seem to be anything to pick out one or two above anyone else. All
we have is what the ordinary seaman saw, and that’s crucial. We’d come under
the suspects list just as much as the rest. How different are we to any of them?”

 “For fuck sake Henry, you
know I’m not him and I know you’re not him. The night Pippa was murdered we
were both in our bunks all night. I woke a few times, once to go for a piss and
you were snoring. Whoever killed her is surely the same person who killed the
boat girl from Colombo, would you think?”

 “Yes, I would think that and
you say you saw someone go forward with a girl down in the tween decks, and was
it the same man you saw roughing up the black girl?”

 “Will you forget I ever said
that? Look where that kind of talk has gotten the ordinary seaman?”

 “I suppose you’re right but
you can tell me, I’m not going to say it to anyone.”

“I’ll tell you when I think
it’s safe and not before. As I said, I don’t want to end up with a knife
between my ribs and being dumped over the side.”

 The Hawaii Islands were a
sight to behold as they sailed past next day. The sun shone from a cerulean sky
on a sea of glass that was streaked with every color imaginable from amethyst
to viridian. The sleek yachts with sails limp and slack, waiting for a light
breeze; their wealthy passengers, some in bikini’s, lazing beneath awnings
sipping cocktails.

Gary turned an envious glance
to Henry, “That’s the life, how could a fellow get a job on one of those
beauties?”

“You’d have to move in the
same circles as those yacht people, ever so grand you know. I’m not so sure
about the Americans, but certainly that would be the British code.”

 They gazed at the island
with its abundance of green vegetation and silver white sandy beaches, a
filigree stretching between the green and blue.

“Look Henry, a whale!”

A pair of great majestic
whales swam close together and one blew a cloud of white misty spray high into
the air and then dived; his big scaly back humping over the sea and his tail
slapping the surface as he disappeared below. His mate followed suit and left a
ship’s crew silent at the wonder as they stood around the bulwarks gazing
across to the island and Honolulu hidden in Pearl Harbor, a Pacific paradise.

The Rangoon plowed on across
the broad expanse of ocean her wake a straight line fading into ripples as
though she had never passed this way, like hundreds of ships before her.

 Henry was looking forward to
Panama and the great canal and also a chance to do his search. As day followed
day he didn’t again broach the subject of the murderer to Gary. He stayed
waiting and watching for a chance to get the information from him without
having it look too suspicious. Another altercation with the whispering groups
might be enough to loosen his tongue, he thought.

The forward holds were
finished and the deck hands were working in number four and five holds; they
worked until twenty hundred hours most nights. Henry would stand at the hatch
coaming on his off duty after dinner, looking down to see what type of work
they were doing. He also took note of the different gangs working together and
what the ordinary seaman was doing. When the grain feeders were down and the
hatch boards in the tween decks stripped off with the cross beams removed and
lashed at the ship’s side, it made working conditions very dangerous. There was
only a light rope running through the eyes of small stanchions about three feet
high, fitted around the low hatch coaming as a safety barrier to stop men falling
to the bottom of the hold. Even in relatively calm conditions this seemed
inadequate, but if the ship was rolling in a heavy sea it would be totally
dangerous.

The weather was considerably
warmer now as they got nearer to the canal and most of the men worked stripped
to the waist. Tukola was on deck hauling up buckets of old moldy grain and dust
that was being swept up in the lower hold, he then threw it over the side and
lowered the bucket down again. Henry watched but didn’t get near enough to him
to cause an altercation. He took note of the menacing looks being thrown his
way, and a show of muscle power as he hauled up the heavy buckets.

Gary came on deck and he
handed Henry a mug of tea and a sandwich.

 “Thanks, you’re a decent lad.”

 “It’ll be your turn tomorrow
night.”

They went and sat on the
bollards aft of the housing and Gary looked out over the sparkling red tinted
sea as if he could see the coast of South America.

“I just took the third mate
his smoko and I asked him what was out E.T.A. for Panama. We’ll be going
through the day after tomorrow was his reply.”

 Henry rested a leg on a
fairlead.

“So at long last we’re
getting there, how long then to Havana?”

 Gary took his gaze away from
the ocean and as if he was calculating, “about four days he reckons.”

 “Does he know how long we’ll
be there; especially with the trouble going on. Could we end up being tied up
for a few weeks?”

 “He said nothing about how
long it takes to load a cargo of sugar. And I didn’t ask him, but I will
tomorrow.”

 Henry threw the dregs of his
tea over the side. “He probably hasn’t a clue anyway.

Chapter
Twenty-Nine

 Henry was doing the ‘smoko’ on
the bridge the next afternoon. He went out into the wheelhouse and the second
mate was out on the wing of the bridge. He brought his tea to him. Henry liked
to be on the bridge, it seemed a different world from below decks. He took his
time looking around for the empty cups from the earlier smokos, he walked past
the senior A.B. on the wheel silently doing his job steering a true course.
There was a bit of commotion on the wing of the bridge; an A.B. had come
running up the ladder onto the wing of the bridge. He was talking in a loud,
panic stricken voice to the second mate. The second mate went to the voice pipe
and blew hard. A minute went by before the captain answered.

“Yes sir, an accident in
number three hold.”

He waited for a reply, “yes sir,
I’ll tell him right away.”

 He looked down onto the
foredeck and saw the chief officer and a gang of deckhands. He spoke back into
the voice pipe.

 “He knows sir, I see him on
the foredeck now.”

 Henry ran down to the pantry
and saw the place deserted, and then he went out onto the foredeck where nearly
all the crew had assembled. The crew men were taking the hatch boards off
number three hatch. Then the captain had arrived and ordered the boatswain to
get one of the derricks lifted. He told the chief steward to get a stretcher
ready and prepare the bed in the hospital. When the first boards were lifted
the captain and chief officer went down the hold. All hands were up trying to
get a look down the hold.

Gary came over to Henry.

“Who is it?”

 “I don’t know.”

One of the deck apprentices
was standing alongside and Henry asked. “Who is it down there?”

 The apprentice looked at him
as if he had never seen him before and reluctantly replied, “the ordinary
seaman.”

 They could now see down to
the bottom of the hold; the officers were standing over the prone body. The
captain was kneeling down with his hand on the man’s neck feeling for a pulse.

The chief officer shouted up,
“lower down a stretcher and a hatch board.”

The derrick was directed over
the hold and a hatch board and stretcher made fast together and lowered down.
Down in the hold they placed him on the stretcher, the captain ordering the men
not to move his back or neck. They then placed him on the hatch board and the
captain supervised how he should be secured with firm lashings to the board.
The chief officer shouted up for two slings to be lowered down; these were made
fast at both ends of the hatch board and the order was given to heave away
slowly. When he was lowered onto the deck willing hands carried him aft through
the alleyway to the hospital. The captain was up on deck and followed on to
supervise taking him off the stretcher.

“Take that mattress off the
bed and place it on the deck here. I want four men to lift him gently and place
him on the mattress, you take his head. Chief, will you go and get some
dressings for the head wound and do the best you can.” He turned to a deck
apprentice. “Sonny, you and your three mates are being assigned watch duty
here; start a twenty four hour watch and divide it up anyway you want, but just
make sure there is one of you here at all times. If not you will be answerable
directly to me.”

The captain left and told the
chief officer, chief engineer and chief steward to come to his cabin as soon as
possible.

 He was already sitting at
his desk when the three men arrived.

“Sit down gentlemen; I’m just
writing up a report on this accident which I have yet to have verified from the
deck hands and the boatswain. Did any of you hear anything I should know?”

 The chief officer pulled his
chair a little closer to the big desk. “I spoke to the boatswain and asked him
what was the ordinary seaman doing in number three hold when they were working
number four hold. He said he sent him forward to get some cluster lights as
they hadn’t enough when working late tonight.”

“Did he go forward alone?”

 “That sir, I don’t know. I
didn’t have time to question him further.”

 The chief steward spoke in a
quiet and subdued tone; it was obvious he was suffering from shock. “I have
nothing to contribute sir, I only know what I’ve seen now of the poor chap.”

 The chief engineer was also visibly
shaken. He told the captain he hadn’t witnessed the incident.

The captain spoke to all
three.

“I will want you all to read
this report and sign it with me before I send it off to London. At least we
should have the young man in hospital in Panama City by tomorrow. Now, I want
to question all the men that were in the holds today when this happened. Can
you arrange that for me for nineteen hundred hours? Tell them to assemble
outside the officer’s smoke room. I’ll need you both to assist me with this
questioning.”

Gary and Henry served the
saloon for dinner in a quiet and somber atmosphere where officers spoke in
whispers to one another.

After dinner Gary followed
Henry out onto the fore deck; they both sat smoking in silence. The second cook
joined them, grim faced and solemn. He looked at Henry with haunted eyes and
said what everyone else was thinking.

“Would you say he was pushed?”

 “It’s a possibility, but
unless he regains consciousness we will probably never know.”

 “I agree,” said Gary
forcibly, “None of those bastards are going to spill the beans on the other.”

 “Why would anyone do
something like push a man down the hold? Surely he must have tripped and fell,”
puzzled the second
cook, looking incredulous.

Then Gary chipped in.
“There’s a bad bastard on this ship and because of the talk going around about
what the ordinary seaman saw in Bombay, he’s covering his tracks. What about
the other two murders, and who’s next? I wish I could pay off in Panama
tomorrow, wouldn’t you two as well?” His fear stricken eyes looking to Henry
and the second cook for some confirmation.

Henry tried to show some calm.

“It’s a good thing we’re
arriving in Panama tomorrow. At least the young man can get some hospital
treatment - if he’s not dead by then.”

 They stood around the
foredeck looking out to sea as if they could will the sight of land and a bit
of civilization back into their lives again.

 Up in the officer’s smoke
room the captain and his assistants had questioned half of the men mustered
outside, but had not come up with anything to suggest it was anything but an
unfortunate accident.

The boatswain was visibly
nervous as the captain summoned him to come in and sit down.

 “You gave the young man the
order to go forward from number four hold where you were working at the time,
to go to number two hold to get cluster lights.”

 “Yes sir that’s correct.”

 “Did anyone go with him?”

 “No sir, he went on his own.”

 “The passage to the forward
holds was dark and the hatches were closed, did he have any kind of light?”

 “No sir, he had some light
from the open number four hatch which would be enough for him to see where he
was going and we had life lines rigged around the hold.”

 “Tell me who were working in
the tween decks at the time.”

 “Tukola was working on deck
hauling up the buckets of sweepings. The four apprentices were working in the
tween decks two with my gang, and two with the carpenter. The two with the
carpenter were getting the spaces ready to stack the feeders in number five
hold.”

 “You saw no one leave their
work and go forward with or after the ordinary seaman?”

 “No sir, as far as I know I
didn’t miss anyone from their job.”

 “But you must admit that
some of the men could have left their station, perhaps to use the lavatory and
there wouldn’t be anything untoward thought of it?”

“That’s true, someone could
have gone for a few minutes and I wouldn’t have missed them.”

“Right boatswain, if you
think of anything that might be of any help along those lines, please let me
know.”

He stood up to go - relief showing
on his face.

“By the way boatswain was
there any animosity being shown towards the ordinary seaman by certain members
of the crew. Because of the strain we all find ourselves in over the terrible
happenings on this ship, are there some crew members trying to take matters
into their own hands?”

 He looked perplexed and his
speech when it broke from his lips was rasping.

 “I haven’t seen anyone
taking matters into their own hands sir, but the sooner whoever killed those
girls is caught, the better for everyone.”

 “I couldn’t agree more and
the police in Panama will investigate this latest happening so I want as
complete a picture as possible as to what could have happened.”

 “Yes sir.”

 The next to be questioned
were the four apprentices. Their stories tallied with what the boatswain told
except for Oswyn who was taking down the numbers of the feeder boards in number
four hold and saw the ordinary seaman go forward.

He related to the captain
that he saw the ordinary seaman, and then the boatswain asked him to see what
was keeping him so long. He said he saw the lights at the edge of the hold and
then, looking down, he could just make out prone figure below.

“Right young man, that will
be all, except to say that I have arranged your watch keeping duties at the
hospital later tonight. No one is to be allowed in there apart from the
officers and the chief steward. Understood?”

 “Yes sir.”

 “Thank you.
You may go now.”

The captain gathered up the
notes that had been written by his colleagues. “Thank you gentlemen, I’ll need
these for the authorities and the police. You’re off watch now so would you
like to join me for a night cap?”

They retired to the captain’s
quarters for a well-deserved drink.

Back in his cabin, Oswyn was
relieved that the captain’s questions had not been too probing as he recalled
what really happened earlier that day:

Oswyn felt he wouldn’t be
missed as he was working on his own but he feared for the safety of the young
man. When he saw the ordinary seaman go up the starboard side he decided to
follow him on the port side - it was only half a minute walk. He saw the
ordinary seaman go to the forward end of the hold and pick up two cluster
lights. After coiling the flex he began walking aft with them. The light was
dim with just a glimmer coming up the two passageways from number four hold.
Then he saw a figure coming down the ladder from the mast house, but couldn’t
see clearly in the darkness. The ordinary seaman was on top of this man before
he saw who it was; he dropped the lights and turned to run but a hand pushed
him over the life line. He let out a shriek which could barely be heard over
the noise of the engines. Oswyn came out of the shadows and the man saw him
before he scuttled back up the ladder to the mast house and back on deck. He
could hardly make out the prone shape lying on the floor of the hold. Oswyn was
left in a state shock and fear, compounded by the dilemma of what he should do
next. He was in no doubt that the man who pushed the ordinary seaman was the
murderer. But he couldn’t tell anyone about it because he would become a prime
suspect for what he had just witnessed. Back on deck, he looked up and saw
Tukola who had a murderous glint in his eyes; he was pulling up a bucket of
sweepings. Oswyn couldn’t prove beyond doubt it was Tukola, but in his own mind
he was certain that the he was the figure on the ladder.

 Oswyn came on duty at
midnight. They expected to be in Panama at ten hundred hours the next day, so
the watch keeping would end when the sick man was taken ashore. He brought a
book to pass away the hours. He read for an hour then began to doze off as he
lay back in his chair. Minutes later he was suddenly woken by what he thought
was the noise of something metallic falling on the deck outside. He sat up and went
to look out on deck to see if there was anyone around, but he saw no one. However,
back in the room he decided that he’d be safer if he had his gun with him.
Glancing at his watch, it was nearing two hundred hours. He closed the hospital
door and as he turned to go back to his cabin, he kicked something. He bent
down in the dark to see what it was and when he picked it up he was struck with
fear. Oh hell, he thought, it’s a bloody marlin spike! That’s what I must of heard
making the noise. After re-checking that the hospital door was securely locked,
he jogged back to his cabin. His roommate was asleep so he rooted under his
mattress and brought out the small gun and tucked it into his belt under his
shirt. “That bastard,” he said in a barely stifled whisper, “I won’t hesitate
to shoot him.”

Oswyn hurried back to the
hospital where he purposely left the door unlocked.
He stationed himself behind an empty bed.
Then he turned off the light. He lost track of time as he closed his eyes and
listened for every sound above the throbbing of the engines. He wanted to give
himself every advantage over his desperate adversary, so he placed the eight
inch long metal marlin spike on the bed in case he needed a backup weapon. Oswyn
thought it slightly ironic that the marlin spike, a tool used by sailors to
splice and fix ropes, could now be used to ‘fix’ the intruder.