police, and they were back again next morning, to recheck the premises
and to hear the whole tale yet again. The Inspector wasn’t satisfied
but neither he nor any of his colleagues could pin down what was
wrong.
Come to that – neither could I. It was a great way to start my leave.
His last word to me that morning was, “There’s been a fatality here, Mr
Trevelyan, and that’s a very serious matter. I shall expect both of
you to hold yourselves in readiness for the inquest. You are not under
arrest,” he added in such a way as to make me feel that I was.
He strode out of the flat with his minions trailing behind.
“In other words – don’t leave town,” I said. “There goes a very
unhappy policeman.” Geordie said, “He’ll be burning up the wires
looking for an expert on manganese nodules. He think there’s something
fishy there.” “By God, so do I! But he won’t find much. He’ll phone
the Institute of course, and speak to Jarvis or some other big noise
and get exactly the same story I told him.” I got up, went into the
kitchen and got a couple of bottles of beer from the refrigerator and
took them back into the living room. Geordie eye d them and said, “You
have some good ideas, sometimes. Tell me, these nodules – are they
really valueless?” “I told the coppers the plain truth,” I said.
“But
Mark seemed to have some curious ideas about nodule formation still,
the notebooks are, gone and I can’t check up on, his theories without
them.” Then suddenly I remembered something.”Wait a minute,”I said and
went into the bedroom. Sure enough, there it was the little
leather-bound diary, still lying on my dressing-table.
The police would have had no reason to think it wasn’t mine, and hadn’t
touched it.
I went back and tossed it to Geordie. “They didn’t get that. I meant
to tell you – I found it in a pocket of one of Mark’s suits.
What do you make of it? He opened the book with interest but I watched
the enthusiasm seep out of him as he scanned the pages. “What the
hell!” “That’s Mark’s patent Pitman variation,” I said.” I doubt if
old Isaac himself could make anything of it “What are all the
drawings?” “Mark was an inveterate doodler,” I said. “You’d have to
apply psychological theory to make anything of those.” I sat mulling
over the events of the previous day, trying to piece them together.
“Geordie, listen to this,” I said. “Mark dies, and Norgaard, his
colleague, disappears. Jarvis keeps his ear close to the ground and
knows all the gossip of the profession, and if he says he hasn’t heard
anything of Norgaard then it’s unlikely that anyone else has either.”
I held up a finger. “That’s one thing.” “Do you know anything about
Norgaard?” “Only that he’s one- of us oceanographers. He’s a Swede,
but he was on an American survey ship during the I.G.Y. I lost sight of
him after that; a lot of comradeship went for a bust when the operation
closed down.”
“What’s his speciality?” “Ocean currents. He’s one of those geniuses
who can dredge up a bit of water and tell you which way it was flowing
a million years ago last Wednesday. I don’t think there’s a name for
his line yet, so I’ll call it paleoaquaology – there’s a mouthful for
you.” Geordie raised his eyebrows. “Can they really do that kind of
thing?” I grinned. “They’d like you to believe so, and I’ve no reason
to doubt it. But to my mind there’s a hell of a lot of theorbalancing
uneasily on too few facts.
My fine is different – I analyse what I’m given and if anyone wants to
build any whacky theories on what I tell ’em, that’s their affair.”
“And Mark was like yourself – an analytical chemist. Why would he team
up with Norgaard? They don’t seem to have anything in common.” I said
slowly, “I don’t know; I really don’t know.” I was thinking of the
highly unlikely theory indicated in Mark’s missing notebooks.
‘all right,” Geordie said. “Norgaard’s disappeared – you think.
What else have you got?” “The next thing is Kane. The whole thing is
too damn pat.
Kane turns up and we have a burglary. He knew the stuff was coming – I
told him.” Geordie chuckled. “And how do you tie in the four Spanish
burglars with Kane? Speaking as a non-theoreticist, that is?” “I’m
damned if I know. There’s something odd about that too. I couldn’t
place the accent; it was one I’ve never heard before.” “You don’t know
them all,”said Geordie. “You’d have to be born Spanish to be that
good.” “True.” There was a long silence while I marshalled my
thoughts.
“I wish I could get hold of Kane.” “You think there’s something odd
about him, don’t you?” “I do. But I don’t know what it is. I’ve been
trying to bring it to the surface ever since I saw him.”
“Mike, I think this is all a lot of nonsense,” Geordie said
decisively.
“I think your imagination is working overtime.
You’ve had a shock about Mark’s death and another over the burglary -so
have I, come to that. But I don’t think Norgaard has mysteriously
disappeared; I think he’s probably sitting somewhere writing a thesis
on prehistoric water. As for Kane, you’ve got nothing but a blind
hunch. But I’ll tell you what I’ll do. If Kane is a seaman he’ll
probably be down somewhere in dockland, and if you want him that bad
I’ll put my boys on to nosing around a bit. It’s a pretty hopeless
chance but it’s all I can do.” “Thanks, Geordie,” I said.
“Meantime, I’d better ring Helen and tell her I’ve been burgled. She’s
not going to like hearing that Mark’ stuff is gone but there’s no hope
for it. I can only play it down, tell her it was all worthless
anyway.” “Are you going to pass on the notebook to her?” I shook my
head thoughtfully.
“What notebook? As far as she’s concerned, it was all stolen. She
could never make anything of that stuff of Mark’s but maybe I can.” I
had nightmares that night.
I dreamed of a lovely Pacific island with white beaches and waving palm
fronds where I wandered quite happily until I became aware that the sky
was darkening and a cold, icy wind had arisen. I started to run but my
feet slipped in the soft sand and I made no progress. And I knew what
I was running from.
He caught me at last with my back to a palm trunk, and came nearer and
nearer, brandishing a rusty kitchen knife. I knew it was the Dutch
doctor, although he was screaming in Spanish, “Empled cuchilo cuchillo
– cuchillo!” He was drunk and sweaty-faced and as he came nearer I
felt powerless to move and I knew he was going to stick me with the
knife. At last his face was close to mine and I could see the
individual beads of sweat on his shiny forehead and his lean dark
face.
It was the face of Kane. He drew back his arm and struck with the
knife right into my guts.
I woke with a yell I was breathing deeply, taking in great gulps of
air, and I could feel a slick film of sweat all over my body. The
knifescratch in my arm was aching. And I knew at last what was wrong
with Kane’s story.
The bedroom door opened and Geordie said in a low voice, “What the
devil’s going on?” I said, “Come in, Geordie; I’m all right – just a
nightmare.” I switched on the bedside light and Geordie said me a hell
of a fright, Mike.” “I gave myself a hell of a fright,” I said and
“But I discovered something – or remembered sc “What?” I tapped
Geordie emphatically on the chest with a finger. “Mark had his
appendix out years ago.” Geordie looked startled. “But the death
certificate “I don’t know anything about the death certificate. I
haven’t seen it yet, so I don’t know if it’s a fake. But I know that
Mr. Bloody Kane is a fake.” “Are you sure about this?” “I still know
the doctor who operated on Mark. I’ll give him a ring and check on it
– but I’m sure.”
“Perhaps this Dutch doctor made a mistake,” offered Geordie.
“He’d be a damned good doctor who could take out an appendix that
wasn’t there,”I said acidly.”Doctors can’t make mistakes like that.”
“Not unless he was covering up. Lots of doctors bury their
mistakes.”
“You mean he was incompetent?” I thought about that, then shook my
head decisively. “No, Geordie, that won’t wash, He’d see the old
operation scar the moment he made his examination, and he’d know the