Десмонд Бэгли - Bahama Crisis

‘They would,’ said Hepburn. ‘They were not likely to admit it, were they?’

I said, ‘To my mind their surprise was genuine. It took them aback.’

‘But we don’t have your mind,’ said Perigord. ‘I doubt if you would consider yourself an expert on the way criminals behave when confronted.’

I saw I was getting nowhere pursuing that line; their minds were made up. ‘What do you want to know about Carrasco?’

‘Everything,’ Perigord said succinctly.

‘He kidnapped me from the Cunningham Building,’ I said. ‘And...’

Perigord held up his hand. ‘You’re sure it’s the same man?’

I hesitated. ‘Not one hundred per cent, but near enough. I don’t trust people who pay large bills in cash.’ I told them of what had happened and put a copy of the bill on Perigord’s desk.

Perigord, too, found that odd. We thrashed it out a bit, then he said, ‘Mr Mangan, can we trust your American friends?’

‘In what way?’

‘Can we trust them to stick to surveillance, but not to take action in the matter of Carrasco? Our police force is relatively small and I would welcome their help in keeping tabs on Carrasco, but not to the extent of their taking violent action. That I can’t permit.’

‘They’ll do exactly as I tell them.’

‘Very well. I have talked to Mr Walker and he has Carrasco under observation at this moment; and is to report to my man at your hotel. Why is Rodriguez coming, and what is he carrying?’ I told him and he smiled. ‘Yes, I think we can do with scientific aid.’

Hepburn said, ‘There’s something I don’t understand. If Carrasco kidnapped you in Houston isn’t he taking a risk by walking openly about your hotels? He could bump into you at any time. In fact, you did spot him — or so you think.’ He glanced at Perigord. ‘To my mind this may be a case of mistaken identification. Mr Mangan admits he only saw the man in Houston for a few seconds.’

‘What do you say to that?’ asked Perigord.

‘It’s been puzzling me, too,’ I said. ‘But I’m ninety-five per cent convinced it’s the same man.’

‘Nineteen chances out of twenty in favour of you being correct,’ he mused. ‘Those are odds I can live with. We’ll watch Dr Carrasco.’

Driving from the police station to the hotel I thought of what Hepburn had said, and came to the conclusion that it could cut both ways. If Carrasco had been the man in Houston then perhaps he was willing to take the chance of me seeing him because I had seen him for only a few seconds. In those circumstances perhaps he thought a beard and moustache were sufficient disguise. As I switched between alternatives my mind felt like a yo-yo.

A good hotel has two circulatory systems, one for the clientele which is luxuriously furnished, and the other for the staff which has a more spartan décor; and in the best hotels the two systems are mutually exclusive because one does not want maintenance traffic to erupt into the public rooms. When I got back to the hotel I stuck to the staff system because I wanted to keep out of the way of Carrasco.

Walker reported on Carrasco and related affairs. ‘He’s holed up in his room; probably unpacking. Rodriguez will be here in about two hours; I’ll have a man at the airport to meet him. Perigord has a man here in the hotel, and he assigned another to your house to guard your wife.’ He scratched the angle of his jaw, and added sourly, ‘They’re both armed.’

‘They’re entitled to be,’ I said. ‘You’re not.’ It was good of Perigord to think of Debbie. ‘You’re not to lay a finger on Carrasco. Just watch him and report on who he talks to.’

‘Can we tap his room telephone?’

‘It’s probably illegal but we’ll do it. I’ll have a word with the switchboard operator. Carrasco might speak Spanish; do we have anyone who can cope with that?’

‘One — two when Rodriguez comes.’

‘That should be enough. Any problems, let me know.’ We knocked it around a bit more, trying to find angles we had forgotten, did not find any and left it at that.

For the next three days nothing happened. Carrasco had no visitors to his room and used his telephone only for room service and for restaurant bookings. Rodriguez bugged his Car and his room, and put a tape recorder on the telephone tap so that we had a record of his conversations, but we got little joy out of that. A search of Carrasco’s possessions brought nothing; he carried with him just what you would expect of a man on holiday.

Debbie wondered audibly about the muscular young black who had been imported into the house to help Luke Bailey, who did not need it, and who was making good time with Addy Williams. She knew about Walker’s crew and I saw no reason to keep from her the knowledge that this addition to the household was one of Perigord’s cops. ‘I’d like you to keep to the house as much as possible,’ I said.

‘How long will we have to live like this?’ she said desolately. ‘Being in a state of siege isn’t exactly fun.’

I did not know the answer to that, but I said, ‘It will blow over soon, I expect.’ I told her about Carrasco. ‘If we can use him to nail Robinson I think it will be finished.’

‘And if we can’t?’

I had no answer to that, either.

I had not expected to go back to New Providence for some time. Jack Fletcher was an experienced manager and did not need his hand held, which is why I had put him into the Sea Gardens. But when he telephoned four days after I had left him in charge he was in a rare panic. ‘We’ve got big trouble, Tom,’ he said without preamble. ‘Our guests are keeling over in all directions — dropping like flies. Tony Bosworth has his hands full.’

‘What is it? Does he know?’

‘He’s closed down the big air-conditioner.’

‘He thinks it’s Legionnaires’ disease?’ I thought quickly. ‘But it doesn’t work that way — it didn’t at the Parkway. Let me talk to him.’

‘You can’t. He’s in a conference with officials from the Department of Public Health.’

‘I’ll be right over,’ I said. ‘Have a car waiting for me at the airport.’

During the flight I was fuming so much that I expect steam was blowing out of my ears. After all the trouble I had taken to ensure the hotels were clean, this had to happen. Surely Tony must be wrong; the symptoms seemed quite different to me. This would be enough to give Jack Cunningham another heart attack.

Fletcher met me at Nassau Airport himself. As we drove to the Sea Gardens I said, ‘How many people ill?’

His answer appalled me. ‘A hundred and four — and I’m not feeling too good myself.’ He coughed.

‘My God!’ I glanced at him. ‘Are you really not feeling well, Jack? Or was that just a figure of speech?’

‘I’m feeling lousy. I’m running a temperature and I have a hell of a headache.’

He was not the only one. I said, ‘You’re going to bed when we get back. I’ll have Tony look you over. How many of that figure you gave me are staff?’

‘As of this morning we had three on the sick list — four with me now.’ He coughed again convulsively.

‘Stop the car,’ I said. ‘I’ll drive.’ I found it puzzling that the number of staff casualties should be so low. As I drove off again I said, ‘How many registrations have you got?’

‘Something over three hundred; I’ll let you know when we get to my office.’

‘Never mind,’ I said. ‘I’ll ask Philips. You go to bed.’ What he had told me meant that about one-third of the clientèle had gone down sick. ‘Any deaths?’

‘Not yet,’ he said ominously.

We got to the Sea Gardens and I packed Fletcher off to his staff flat and then went to look for Philips. I found him helping out at the cashier’s desk where there was a long line of tourists anxious to leave as quickly as they could — like money bats. The buzz of conversation in the queue was low and venomous as though coming from a disturbed hive of bees. I was in no mood to placate the rats leaving the sinking ship, to mix the metaphor even further, and I hauled him out of there. ‘Someone else can do that. Jack Fletcher’s gone down sick, so you’re in charge. Where’s Bosworth?’