Десмонд Бэгли - Bahama Crisis

When he had gone I rang Perigord. He was not in his office, not entirely unnaturally considering the time of day, but neither was he at home. The telephone was answered by his daughter who told me in a piping voice that Mummy and Daddy were out. Where were they? She was vague about that. They had gone out to dinner. Could be the Stoned Crab or the Captain’s Charthouse or possibly the Japanese Steak House in the International Bazaar or the Lobster House in the Mall. Or was it the Lucayan Country Club? I sighed and thanked her, then reached for the Grand Bahama telephone directory.

I found him in none of those places but finally ran him to earth in the Mai Tai. It took me some time to convince him of my sanity and even longer to move him to action. I think I ruined his dinner.

Tony Bosworth and I walked into the lobby of the Royal Palm and I noticed immediately the two uniformed policemen, one standing by the elevators, the other at the foot of the staircase. I crossed to the desk. ‘Is Commissioner Perigord here?’

‘In the manager’s office.’

I jerked my head at Tony and we went in. Perigord, in plain clothes, was talking on the telephone, and Walker sat on a settee. Perigord said into the mouthpiece, ‘I quite agree; I’ll check it out thoroughly. I can expect you tomorrow, then.’ He looked up. ‘He’s here now; I’ll have it in more detail by then. Yes, I’ll meet you. Goodbye.’ He put down the telephone. ‘Now, Mangan, you’ll have to explain—’

I cut him short. ‘First things first. I’d like you to get those coppers out of the lobby and out of sight. I don’t want Carrasco scared off.’

He leaned forward. ‘If your story is correct then Carrasco is the most dangerous man in the Bahamas.’

‘No, he’s not,’ I contradicted. ‘Robinson is, and he’s the joker I want. He’s the boss.’ I pulled up a chair and sat down. ‘Besides, you can’t charge Carrasco with anything. You need hard proof and you’ve got none. But scare him and he’ll skip, and Robinson will send someone else in his place — someone we don’t know. Besides, I don’t like uniformed policemen cluttering up the public rooms in my hotels. It lowers the tone.’

Perigord nodded and stood up. ‘We may be guarding an empty stable,’ he said sourly. ‘Carrasco may not be back. Your men have lost him.’ He walked out.

I turned on Walker. ‘For God’s sake! Is that true?’

He said heavily, ‘He went into the john at the Buccaneer Club and didn’t come out. Rodriguez thinks he left by the window. His car is still there but no Carrasco.’

I thought for a moment. ‘Maybe he’s in Harry’s Bar; that’s not far from the Buccaneer.’

‘No — Palmer checked that out.’

I thought of the topography of Deadman Reef. ‘A boat,’ I said. ‘He’s meeting a boat. Have your men thought of that?’

Walker said nothing but reached for the telephone as Perigord came back. He glanced at Tony. ‘Who is this?’

‘Dr Bosworth. He identified the disease and has been of great help.’

Perigord nodded briefly and sat down. ‘Are you really trying to tell me that Carrasco is a maniac — the stereotyped mad doctor of the “B” movies — who is poisoning the water in hotels in these islands?’

‘I don’t believe him to be mad, but that’s what he’s doing. And Robinson is directing him.’

‘But why?’

‘I’ve had a few thoughts in that direction which I’ll come to in a minute. Let’s look at the evidence.’

‘That I’d be pleased to do,’ said Perigord sardonically.

‘I know it’s all circumstantial, but so is most evidence of murder. When I found that glass tube it all came together suddenly. One, I’d seen others like it on Kayles’s boat. Two, I remembered what Kayles must have heard me saying to Sam Ford.’

‘Which was?’

‘I was blowing my top about the chain of disasters which had hit the Bahamas. Rioting in the streets of Nassau, Legionnaires’ disease at the Parkway, the burning of the Fun Palace, even the shredding of the luggage at the airport. Now, I’d knocked Kayles cold and he was just coming to his senses. He must have been muzzy — dislocated enough in his mind to think I was actually describing Robinson’s doings to Sam. So when he escaped he reported to Robinson that I knew all.’

I frowned. ‘And what convinced Robinson was that there was at least one item on that list that Kayles wasn’t privy to. That indicated to Robinson that I did indeed know about his plans — he told me so — and he was as worried as hell because I might have told you.’

Perigord said, ‘Are you telling me that Robinson burned down the Fun Palace? And sabotaged the carousel at the airport?’

‘Yes, I think he did — but not personally. Another thing: when Robinson admitted to trying to have me killed in an air crash he made a curious remark. He said the death of the Americans was an unexpected bonus, and he went on to say that Wall Street was a bit rocky about it. The idea seemed to please him.’

‘Come to the point you are so circuitously making.’

‘It was all pulled into place by a remark made by Billy Cunningham,’ I said. ‘When we put together the Theta Corporation Billy did some research in the course of which he talked to Butler of the Ministry of Tourism. He learned that eighty per cent of the economy and two-thirds of the population are supported by tourism. Billy said to me that it was too many eggs in one basket, and it worried him a little. And that’s your answer.’

‘Spell it out,’ said Perigord.

‘Robinson is trying to sabotage the economy of the Bahamas.’ Perigord regarded me expressionlessly, and I said, ‘How many tourists have we lost since all this began? Ask Butler, and I guarantee the answer will startle you. And it’s not long since Billy Cunningham warned me that if this series of disasters continued the Cunningham Corporation would think seriously of pulling out. The company which runs the Parkway in Nassau is already nearly bankrupt.’

‘It’s all too thin,’ complained Perigord. ‘Too speculative. The only hard evidence we have is the glass tube you found, and that won’t be evidence if it’s clean. How long will it take you to make the tests, Dr Bosworth?’

‘The hospital in Nassau is doing the testing, and it will take four days.’

‘Not sooner?’

‘This bacterium is very elusive,’ said Tony. ‘The samples have to go through a guinea pig and then be cultured on an agar medium supplemented by cysteine and iron. Then— ’

Perigord flapped his hand. ‘Spare me the technical details,’ he said irritably. ‘All right — four days.’

‘I’ll tell you something, Commissioner,’ said Tony. ‘If that capsule gives a positive result it means someone has found a way of culturing Legionella pneumophila in quantity, and that implies a well-equipped biological laboratory. It’s not something you can whip up in a kitchen.’

Perigord absorbed that in silence. Walker stirred and said, ‘There’s something you ought to know. This morning one of my guys found Carrasco in a place he shouldn’t be — on one of the back stairs used by the cleaning staff. He said he’d got lost; taken a wrong turning and gone through the wrong door.’

I slapped the desk with the flat of my hand. ‘Perigord, what more do you want?’ I turned on Walker. ‘So Carrasco has given you the slip before. I hope to God he didn’t doctor the water tanks here.’

‘No way,’ said Walker, stung. ‘And he didn’t give us the slip. He dropped out of sight and my guy went looking for him. He wasn’t out of sight for more than three minutes.’

‘I could bear to know a lot about who and why,’ said Perigord. ‘There’s a proverb to the effect that fishing is best done in troubled waters,’ I said. ‘The CIA know it as destabilization. They’ve been pretty good at it in the past.’