Warren Murphy: Next Of Kin

"But it go away, too. De trouble like the tide. It don't leave for long, but it don't stay long, neither. So if the Dutchman come back one day—" She shrugged. "Dat just the tide coming in again. It be going out before long. You remember that, maybe you get to be as old as me."

She squeezed the girl in her broad arms. Fabienne dried off her face, embarrassed. "You're right," she said. "I am a fool."

"No. You just young." She took Fabienne by one hand and Chiun by the other and led them back to the house. In the taxi out front, Jacques was working himself into a lather, drumming on the steering wheel and howling Bob Marley tunes.

"You try to get back here sometime, Mr. Remo, honey," the housekeeper said, giving his cheek a pinch. "You too, Mr. Chiun."

They waved out the cab window at the two women, who were standing together clutching handkerchiefs. Without missing a beat, Jacques started the engine and shot down the dirt road at eighty miles an hour, plastering Remo and Chiun against the seat.

"He's got to be dead," Remo said.

Chiun sighed. "When will you learn? A shark is only a fish. But Sinanju is Sinanju."

"He was wounded, damn it"

"He was brave."

They rode in silence for a few minutes. "Do you think we'll see him again?"

Chiun was staring out the window. "If we do, he will try to kill us."

"I suppose so," Remo said. "The bastard."

Chiun turned away from the window. His eyes looked directly into Remo's. "My son," he began. "Last evening in the boat, you could have killed the Dutchman. Why didn't you?"

"Why didn't you? You were supposed to be fighting him."

"It is not polite to answer a question with a question. Why didn't you kill him in the boat?"

Remo looked at his hands. "I don't know," he said. "Funny. I didn't even like him. I was jealous, I guess. But it just didn't seem right."

"You know, of course, that Emperor Smith will blame you for any of the Dutchman's killings in the future."

"Yeah, I know."

"You are also aware that Smith will be angry that you neglected to kill Fabienne and Sidonie."

"Did I?" Remo snapped his fingers. "Damn, I knew I forgot something."

The taxi pulled into Juliana Airport. Inside, the place was teeming with pasty-skinned tourists sweating in winter parkas while the ineffective ceiling fans twirled lazily around the flies and mosquitoes.

Remo picked up their tickets, and they filed past the departure gate, the island air outside sweeter and warmer and more beckoning than ever. On the aluminum stairs leading into the plane, Chiun waved at the grumbling crowd waiting behind him.

"I know why you could not kill the Dutchman," he said, smiling happily.

"Why?"

"Do you remember in the Dutchman's castle, when I said I hoped I'd taught you the difference between right and wrong?"

Remo stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Did you say that?"

"Of course I did," Chiun said, his smile vanishing. "Can't you even remember the words of your wise, self-sacrificing teacher?"

Remo sniffed. "Yeah, I guess I did the right thing after all. Old Remo comes through again."

"You are an arrogant lout," Chiun sputtered.

"Just good old American know-how, I reckon." He clapped a hand on Chiun's shoulder.

"Unhand me, ungrateful wretch," Chiun shrieked, creating a buzz in the crowd behind them. "How dare you take the credit, after all my years of toil and hardship..."

"I know just how it is," a white-haired woman on the stairs said, poking her face between the two of them. "My son. A doctor. Do you think he can spare five minutes to write to his mother?" She looked at Remo in disgust and turned back to Chiun, clucking sympathetically. "They're all the same."

Chiun's face brightened. "You understand?"

"Oy, do I understand," she said, her eyes rolling heavenward. "The minute my Melvin was born, my heart started breaking."

"Hey, get in the plane," someone yelled behind them. The woman silenced the complainer with her handbag.

"Excellent form," Chiun said. The woman blushed. "Would you care to chat with me during the flight?" he asked. "I'm sure my son will be pleased to ride in the lavatory."

"It's the least he can do," she said, smiling as she elbowed them both past Remo.

the end