appendix had already been removed. He wouldn’t stick his neck out by
signing a certificate that could be so easily disproved – no one is as
incompetent as that.” “Aye. If he wanted to cover up he’d put down
the cause of death as fever or something like that- something you
couldn’t prove one way or another. But we don’t know what he put on
the certificate.”
“We’ll soon find out. They sent it to Helen. And I want to find Kane
more than ever – I want to nail that lying bastard.”
“We’ll do our best,” said Geordie. He didn’t sound too hopeful.
Chapter Two
I had no more dreams that night, but slept heavily and late. It was
Geordie who woke me by shaking my shoulder – and incidentally hurting
my arm once again. I groaned and turned away, but he persisted until I
opened my eyes. “You’re wanted on the phone,” he said. “It’s the
Institute.” I put on my dressing gown and was still thick-headed with
sleep when I lifted the receiver. It was young Simms. “Dr, Trevelyan,
I’ve taken over your old office while you’re away and you’ve left
something behind. I don’t know if it’s valuable or if you want it at
all I mumbled, “What is it?” “A manganese nodule.” I was jolted wide
awake. “Where did you find it?” “I didn’t. One of the cleaners found
it under your desk and gave it to me. What should I do with it?”
“Stick tight to it. I’ll pick it up this morning. It’s got some
relation to work I’m engaged on. Thanks for calling.” I turned to
Geordie. “All is not lost,” I said, ‘we’ve got a nodule. You dropped
some on the floor of my office, remember, and you left one under the
desk.” “I don’t see what all the fuss is about. All along you’ve been
insisting that the damn things are worthless.
What’s so exciting about this one?” I said, “There are too many
mysteries connected with this
particular lot to suit me. I’m going to take a closer look at this
one.” As I breakfasted on a cigarette and a cup of strong coffee I
rang
Helen and asked her to read out Mark’s death certificate.
It was in French, of course, and she had some difficulties over the
hand-written parts but we got it sorted out. I put down the phone and
said to Geordie, “Now I want to talk to that doctor as well as Kane.”
I felt full of anger and frustration.
“What was the cause of death?” “Peritonitus following an
appendectomy.
And that’s impossible. The doctor’s name is Hans Schouten. It was
signed in Tanakabu, in the Tuamotus.” “He’s a hell of a long way from
here.” “But Kane isn’t. Do your damndest to find him, Geordie.”
Geordie sighed. “I’ll do my best, but this is a bloody big city, and
no one but you and Helen can identify him for sure.” I dressed and
drove down to the Institute, retrieved the nodule from Simnis and then
went down to the laboratories I was going to analyse’this lump of rock
down to the last trace elements. First I photographed it in colour
from several angles and took a casting of it in latex – that took care
of the external record. Then I cut it in half with a diamond saw. Not
entirely unexpectedly, in the centre was the white bone of a shark’s
tooth, also neatly cut in two.
One of the pieces I put in the rock mill and, while it was being ground
to the consistency of fine flour, I polished and etched the flat
surface of the other piece. Then the real work began. By early
afternoon everything was well under way and luckily I had had the place
almost to myself the whole time, but then Jarvis walked in – He was
surprised to see me.
“You’re supposed to be on leave, Mike. What’s all this?” He looked at
the set-up on the bench. I had no worries about that – I could have
been analysing anything, and the identifiable half-rock was out of
sight. I said lightly, “Oh, just some homework I promised I’d do when
I had the chance.” He looked at me out of the corner of his eye.
“What have you been up to, young feller? Saw something about you in
yesterday’s press, didn’t I? And I had a chap in from Scotland Yard
asking questions about you – and about manganese nodules. And he said
you’d killed someone?”
“I had a burglary two nights ago and knocked a chap off the fire
escape,” I said. I hadn’t seen the papers myself and it hadn’t
occurred to me that the story would be public. From Simms’ lack of
reaction, however, it seemed not to be exactly front-page news.
“MMm’, said Jarvis. “Very unfortunate. Place is getting like
Chicago.
Nasty for you. But what’s it got to do with nodules?” “A couple were
nicked from my place, with other stuff. I told him they weren’t of
much value.” “I made that plain to the Inspector,”growled Jarvis.
“And I take it he’s now convinced that your burglars were surprised and
took the first things that came to hand. I gave you a reasonable
character, by the way.” I had my doubts about the Yard’s acceptance of
the front story. The Inspector had struck me as being full “of deep
suspicions.
“Well, my boy, I’ll leave you to it. Anything interesting?, He cast an
inquisitive glance at the bench.
I smiled. “I don’t know yet.” He nodded. “That’s the way it is,”he
said rather vaguely and wandered out. I looked at the bench and
wondered if I was wasting my time. My own knowledge, backed by that of
an expert like Jarvis, told me that this was just an ordinary Pacific
nodule and nothing out of the ordinary. Still, I had gone so far, I
might as well carry on. I left the glassware to bubble on its own for
a while and went to take photomicrographs of the etched surface of the
half-nodule.
I was busy for another couple of hours and having to use my bad arm
didn’t help. Normally I would have used the services of a laboratory
technician but this was one job I wanted to do myself. And it was
fortunate that I had taken that precaution because what I finally found
astounded me – I looked incredulously at the table of figures that was
emerging, breathing heavily with excitement and with my mind full of
conflicting conjectures.
Then I became even busier, carefully dismantling the glassware and
meticulously washing every piece. I wanted no evidence left of what
I’d been up to. That done, I phoned the flat.
Geordie answered. “Where the devil have you been?” he demanded.
“We’ve had the cops, the press, the insurance people – the lot.”
“Those are the last people I want to be bothered with right now.
Is everything clear now?” “Aye.”
“Good. I don’t suppose you found Kane.”
“You suppose rightly. If you’re so suspicious of him why don’t you
take what you’ve got to the police? They can do a better job of
finding him than I can.” “I don’t want to do that right now. I’m
coming home, Geordie. I’ve got something to tell you.” “Have you
eaten, boy?” I suddenry realized that I hadn’t eaten a mouthful all
day.
I felt very hungry. “I’ve been too busy,” I said hopefully.
“I thought so. I’ll tell you what; I’ll cook up something in this
kitchen of yours -one of my slurngullions – Then we won’t have to go
out and maybe get tagged by one of the newspaper blokes.” “Thanks.
That’ll be fine.” On the way home I bought some newspapers and found
that the story had already sunk with no trace. A local shop produced
me a copy of the previous day’s press and the story was a short one,
buried in the body of the paper, lacking in detail and with no mention
of what had been stolen, which suited me very well. I didn’t want to
be questioned on anything concerning manganese nodules. I’m not
naturally a good liar.
When I entered the flat I found Geordie busy in the kitchen surrounded
by a mouth-watering aroma, and a remarkably well cleaned up living
room. I made a mental note never to have glass-fronted bookshelves
again – I didn’t much like them anyway. Geordie called out, “It’ll be
ready in about an hour, so you can get your news off your chest before
we eat.
I’ll be out in two ticks.” I went to the cabinet for the whisky bottle
and two glasses, then picked my old school atlas off the bookshelf.
Ink-blotted and politically out-of-date, as it was, it would still suit
my purpose. I put it on the table and turned to the pages which showed
the Pacific.
Geordie came out of the kitchen and I said, “Sit here. I want to tell