Hammond Innes - Solomons Seal

I asked him how long his firm had been acting for them, and he said, ‘Since January 1922. I had one of my juniors check through the files. Fortunately they were in store here when our Moorgate office was gutted in the Blitz. The first conveyance we handled was for the sale of a London office property, then shortly afterwards a house in Surrey. Of course, the partner who dealt with that is dead now.’

‘Presumably he was acting for Miss Holland’s grandfather.’

‘Yes. Lieutenant-Colonel Lawrence Douglas Holland. He sold up and went abroad shortly after the First World War.’

‘Do you know where he went?’

‘Singapore. His address was care of a bank in Singapore. We had to have his bank address, as he had arranged for us to manage his affairs. At that time all his funds were invested in this country. Later he instructed us to sell most of his investments and remit the proceeds to a bank in Sydney, Australia. In 1923 he changed his address again to a Post Office Box number at Port Moresby in Papua. After that there’s nothing on the file until his son, Captain Philip Holland, arrived in England with his family and we handled the conveyancing, first for a farm near Snape, and then, when he sold that, for the purchase of the house at Aldeburgh.’

‘I take it her grandfather was dead by then?’

He nodded. ‘Apparently Colonel Holland disappeared the same year they came to England.’

‘When was that?’

‘About six years ago.’

‘You say he disappeared.’

‘Yes. Made an end of it, that was what she said. He took a native boat and just sailed off into the blue.’

‘Did she say why?’

‘No. She wasn’t there at the time. Anyway, she had come to see me on business, and that was a private matter. I didn’t ask her.’ He was silent for a moment. ‘I don’t know whether I should tell you this, but she was badly injured, and her mother was killed, in some sort of an outbreak of native hysteria. I think perhaps this preyed on the old man’s mind. He must have been over eighty, and at that age, nearing the end of his life …’ He sighed, a solicitor’s acceptance of the vagaries of elderly people. That’s what decided Captain Holland to sell up and come to England. Wanted to get away from it all.’

‘You met him, did you?’

He nodded. ‘When he bought the farm, and again when he sold it and purchased the little place in Aldeburgh.’

‘What was he like?’

‘An odd-looking man, mixed blood, you see. Not very sure of himself. Quite out of his depth running a farm here in England.’ He leaned back, his eyes half closed. ‘Can’t recall him very clearly, only that there was something about his manner that was a little strange, and his features — the nose rather broad and without character, large eyes and a low forehead under a mop of brown hair. Thickset, but rather shrivelled. He wasn’t at all well the last time I saw him, some disease of the tropics, hepatitis probably. He had a darkish skin that had a tinge of yellow in it. He died shortly afterwards. That’s when Miss Holland came to see me.’

‘What nationality was her mother?’ I asked. ‘English?’

‘No, Australian, I think. Captain Holland had been educated in Australia and had served in the Australian forces at the end of the last war. He probably met her then. At any rate, they were married shortly after.’

‘You say he had mixed blood?’

He nodded. ‘According to the information we dug out of the files, Colonel Holland’s first wife died just after the Kaiser’s war. The flu epidemic, I imagine. She would have been quite a young woman. Probably why he sold his ship-broking business and went out to Papua New Guinea.’

‘To see if he could discover what had happened to the ship that went down with his brother?’

‘Something like that, I imagine. It would have given him a purpose.’ He hesitated, then said, ‘You’re wondering about that young woman, I suppose. Well, no reason why you shouldn’t know. Miss Holland’s grandmother was from the islands, I can’t remember which. She was the daughter of a French trader.’ He said it as though that explained everything. ‘I suppose Holland was finding it pretty lonely up there in Papua New Guinea. He’d bought some land, a place called Kuamegu according to the photocopy of the deeds we have. That was in 1923 if I remember rightly, and he married this island girl the following year.’

‘Was Captain Holland the only child?’ I asked.

‘No, there was a sister. She’s married and lives in Perth.’

‘So why did he come to England?’

‘God knows. Probably because of his son, the younger one who had just left school.’

I asked him about Timothy Holland then, but he couldn’t tell me much, only that he had failed at Sandhurst and had then gone out to Australia. ‘As you know, Australia became administrators for Papua New Guinea after the war, from I think 1952 until independence a few years ago. He was an officer in that Administration.’

‘She said he was a patrol officer. Was he on duty when he was injured?’

He shrugged. ‘I presume so.’

‘How did it happen? Was he attacked?’

‘No, it was an accident apparently. He was examining a ship while it was unloading and was hit by the cargo sling swinging on its boom. It knocked him into the hold. Just one of those things,’ he murmured, finishing his drink and glancing at his watch.

‘Can you tell me anything about the elder brother?’ I asked. ‘Have you met him?’

‘No, I’ve never met him. Why?’

‘My guess is she intends joining him. He’s something to do with ships, I believe.’

‘Yes. Runs his own vessel, a landing craft if I remember rightly. The Hollands have always been interested in island trading.’

‘He was being financed by his father, I believe.’

He looked at me sharply. ‘Did Miss Holland tell you that?’

‘Yes. She said that’s where all their money had gone.’

He nodded. ‘I advised against it, but yes, that’s true I’m afraid. And now he’s gone in with a rival shipowner, a relative of some sort.’ I asked whether he had any information about the man, but he said, ‘No, Captain Holland was very reticent on the matter. But I do know this, he wouldn’t have approved of his son’s involvement. Some sort of family feud.’ He checked himself there. ‘I can’t go into that, you understand, or into the financial details. But as far as Miss Holland’s money is concerned, I tied it up as best I could so that she now has quite a large stake in this ship of her brother’s. Something I’ll have to look into, but I fear it’ll take time and no way I can see of converting it into cash.’ He got to his feet, muttering in a very petulant tone, ‘She should have told me what she was doing so that I could advise her.’

I was standing beside him, downing the rest of my drink, when he continued, speaking slowly, almost reflectively, ‘If you’re right about Miss Holland going out to join her brother, then I am afraid it will be a difficult journey for her, a very unhappy one. I can’t help wondering … ’ He shook his head, and when I asked him what he meant, he pursed his lips and murmured something about its being no place for a young woman. ‘It means she’s going back to the very island where her mother was murdered, where she herself was injured.’

‘What island is that?’ I asked.

‘Madehas, near Buka. And it was in the Buka Passage that Timothy Holland had his accident.’ He shook his head again. ‘Her grandfather, too. It’s not been a lucky place for the Hollands.’

‘And that’s where her brother is now?’

‘I suppose so. His base anyway. The last I heard he was living on board his ship. He had just the one, and he was running it himself, trading in the islands and around Bougainville.’ He seemed to think he had said enough, for he turned to leave. But then he paused. ‘Those stamps you mentioned. Are they worth anything?’ I told him she should clear at least £2,000, and he seemed pleased. ‘That’s good. I’d like to think she had some money coming to her.’ And then with his usual caution he added, ‘I take it you have a buyer.’