James Chase - A Lotus for Miss Quon

“Now look, Nhan, if you’re going to become an American citizen you’ve got to stop being superstitious, and that’s all this nonsense is: superstition Oracles are all very well for a little Vietnamese taxi-dancer, but not for an American citizen.

“I understand,” Nhan said helplessly. She wanted so much to gain Steve’s approval and to make the right impression. She was suddenly sure that she would never see Hong Kong. Hadn’t the fortune-teller told her the next two days were the most critical days of her life? “It isn’t possible to wait?”

“No. Everything is arranged,” Jaffe said. “Now don’t worry about it. It’s going to be all right.” He lay back across the bed, pulling her with him and he began to kiss her.

Nhan closed her eyes and tried to relax under his caresses, but her mind was darting with fear the way a trapped mouse will dart to escape the paw of a cat.

“Look, why not stay here with me?” Jaffe said. “Why go back to Saigon? We’ll leave here tomorrow night. Will you stay?”

He lifted himself up on his arm and leaned over her, tracing his finger gently down the side of her nose, touching her lips and moving up along her jawbone as he looked at her.

“I can’t stay,” she said, shaking her head. “I must prepare my mother for my going away. There are many things yet for me to do. I must pack. I couldn’t go without saying goodbye to my brothers.”

Families! Jaffe thought irritably. They were a ball and chain on the leg of a man who is trying to run. They were a blanket that stifled impulse.

He was glad he had no family: no mother to prepare for his going away: no brothers to say good-bye to.

His irritation showed on his face as he shrugged his shoulder.

“Well, all right. It’s your family. Blackie will come to your apartment at ten tomorrow night. He will bring you to me. It’s all arranged.”

“I will be ready,” Nhan said.

“We will meet at the ruined temple at eleven then he is driving us somewhere where the helicopter can land. Once we get to Kratie, we’ll be safe.”

Because of the growing presentiment of danger that persisted in haunting her mind, she took Jaffe’s face gently in her hands, smiling at him and she said, “Could we make a little love together, Steve? Now… It will be for the last time.” She paused, then went on, “before we reach Hong Kong.”

He looked down at her, puzzled.

“You’re still scared, aren’t you?” he said as he began to undo her tunic. “You mustn’t be scared. It’s going to work out all right. I know it is. You must trust me.”

She gave herself to him as she had never given herself to him before. It was as if she were trying desperately to express the love she felt for him so that it would make an indelible mark on his mind; something he would always remember her by in the years ahead when he would be living without her.

While Nhan was in the bus going to Thudaumot and Lieutenant Hambley was talking to Inspector Ngoc-Linh on the telephone, Blackie was driving his brother to the Saigon airport.

Charlie had been fortunate to get a scat on the Dakota going to Phnom-Penh at ten o’clock. He had already sent a telegram to Lee Watkins, the pilot on the Opium run, asking him to meet him at Phnom-Penh airport.

As the big American car drove along the main road, both brothers were silent, their minds active.

Blackie said suddenly, “Watkins should know a safe place to make his landing. It must he close to Thudaumot. I don’t want a long drive with Jaffe: it’s too risky.”

Charlie nodded.

“I’ll arrange that.” He paused as Blackie slowed down to edge past two buffalo being led along the road, then as Blackie accelerated, he went on, “It’s time we decided how we are to get the diamonds from the American when he leaves here.”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Blackie said. “I don’t think it would be safe to let him get to Hong Kong with the diamonds. The time to take them from him is when he arrives in Kratie.”

Charlie thought about this. He realized Blackie was right. It would be almost impossible to get the diamonds from Jaffe in Hong Kong, but in Kratie, it would be fairly simple “Yes. Once the diamonds are out of Vietnam, it doesn’t matter. I could hire some men to take care of him after I have talked to Watkins.”

Blackie had been brooding over this problem during the early hours of the morning. He had come to a certain conclusion. He hesitated to tell his brother, but after a long pause, he forced himself to say, “We can’t trust any outsider in this, Charlie. They might steal the diamonds. I suggest you go with Jaffe to Kratie.” Again he paused, then, “You will have to get the diamonds from him.”

Charlie flinched.

“You are younger and stronger, Blackie,” he said. “I think you should do it.”

“I have thought about that too,” Blackie said, “but there are too many complications. How would I get back? We couldn’t expect Watkins to make a return trip. I have no Cambodian visa whereas you have. I would have to go on to Hong Kong with the diamonds. No, I’m sorry, Charlie, but you will have to do it.”

“This American is dangerous,” Charlie said, shifting uneasily. “I might not be able to get the diamonds from him.”

“I have also thought of that,” Blackie said. “You mustn’t take any chances with him. The way I see it is this: you will tell the American he is to be landed just outside Kratie. There will be a car waiting to take him to the airfield for his flight to Hong Kong. You will arrange with Watkins to land at some lonely place. You will also arrange for a car to be there to meet you. You will need a gun with a silencer. When Watkins has gone, you will go with Jaffe to where the car is waiting. It should be on the road, some little distance from your landing place. You will arrange it so Jaffe walks ahead of you. On the way you will shoot him. We can’t take any chances, Charlie. There’re two million dollars involved. If you held him up and tried to get the diamonds from him, he might outsmart you. I don’t like this plan very much, but we have no alternative. When he is dead, you will take the diamonds and go to the car. You will tell the driver your passenger was unable to come.”

Charlie considered what his brother had just said. Murder was no stranger to him. Fifteen years ago he had murdered a woman who had been blackmailing him. He had had no compunction about killing her. He had gone to her apartment late one night on the pretext of paying her her monthly blackmail. He had hit her on the back of the head, stripped her and drowned her in the bath. It was thought she had slipped, hit her head on the bath taps and had drowned herself.

The idea of murdering Jaffe didn’t disturb Charlie. There was nothing he wouldn’t do to lay his hands on two million dollars, but he wasn’t the same man as he had been fifteen years ago. His nerves weren’t as steady. He flinched at the idea of walking through a dark jungle with a man as dangerous as Jaffe. If Jaffe suspected what was going to happen and got in the first shot, the chances were he wouldn’t miss. Charlie had no wish to die. He would have liked a safer plan.

“We are forgetting the girl,” he said. “She’ll be there too.”

“I hadn’t forgotten her,” Blackie said. He deliberately hadn’t mentioned Nhan. He wanted his brother to get used to the idea of one murder first. “She’ll have to go too. I’m sorry, Charlie, but I don’t think the American will leave if the girl doesn’t go with him. I did think I would fix it so she didn’t join him, but on second thoughts, it’s too risky. He might refuse to go if she wasn’t with him. She’ll have to be wiped out too.”