“Millions!” continued Ferguson, oblivious to Alex’s interruption.
“Actually millions … over the years, of course. I’ve never had any
money. Stony, most of the time. Had to borrow the cash for my camera
equipment, did you know that?”
“It wasn’t something I dwelled on. But that’s all over with. You@re
with Craft now.”
“No. Not yet. That’s the point. After the survey. I must stay with
the survey-stay with you.” Ferguson finished his rum punch and looked
around for the waiter.
Merely stay with the survey? With me? I think you’ve left out
something.”
“Yes. Actually.” The young man hunched his shoulders over the table; he
avoided McAuliff s eyes. “Craft said it was harmless, completely
harmless. They only want to know the people you deal with in the
government … which is just about everyone you deal with, because most
everyone’s in the government. I am to keep a log. That’s all; simply a
diary.” Ferguson looked up at Alex, his eyes pleading. “You do see,
don’t you? It is harmless.”
McAuliff returned the young man’s stare. “That’s why you followed me
this morning?”
” Yes. But I didn’t mean to do it this way. Craft suggested that I
could accomplish a great deal by just … tagging along with you.
Asking if I could join you when you went about survey business. He said
I was embarrassingly curious and talked a lot anyway; it would be
normal.”
:’Two points for Craft.”
“An obsolete American expression. Nevertheless, you’ll owe me.”
“I didn’t mean to. I rang your room. Several times. There was no
answer. Then I called Alison…. I’m sorry. I think she was upset.”
“What did she say?”
“That she thought she heard you leave your room only minutes ago. I ran
down to the lobby. And outside. You were seen driving away in a taxi.
Then I followed you, in another cab.”
McAuliff put his glass aside. “Why didn’t you come up to me in Victoria
Park? I saw you and you turned away.”
“I was confused … and frightened. I mean, instead of asking to tag
along, there I was, really following you.”
“Why did you pretend you were so drunk last night?”
Ferguson took a long nervous intake of breath. “Because when I got to
the hotel, I asked if your luggage had arrived.
It hadn’t. I panicked, I’m afraid…. You see, before Craft left, he
told me about your suitcases-” :’The bugs?” interrupted Alex
“The what?” Instantly, James understood, “No. No! I swear to you ,
nothing like that. Oh, God how awful.” Ferguson paused, his expression
suddenly pensive. “Yet, of course, it makes sense….
No one could have rehearsed such a reversal of reactions, thought Alex.
It was pointless to explode. “What about the suitcases?”
“What … oh, yes, Craft. At the very end of the conversation, he said
they were checking your luggage-checking, that’s all he said. He
suggested, if anyone asked, that I say I’d taken it upon myself to write
the note; that I say you were having trouble. But I wasn’t to worry,
your bags would get to the hotel. But they weren’t there, you see.”
McAuliff did not see. He sighed wearily. “So you pretended to be
smashed?”
“Naturally. I realized you’d have to know about the note; you’d ask me
about it, of course, and be terribly angry if the luggage was lost;
blame me for it…. Well, it’s a bit unsporting to be hard on a fellow
who’s squiffed and tried to do you a good turn. I mean, it is, really.”
“You’ve got a very active imagination, Jimbo-mon. I’d go so far as to
say convoluted.”
“Perhaps. But you didn’t get angry, did you? And here we are and
nothing has changed. That’s the irony: Nothing has changed.”
“Nothing changed? What do you mean?”
Ferguson nervously smiled. “Well … I’m tagging along.”
“I think something very basic has changed. You’ve told me about Craft.”
“Yes. I would have anyway; that was my purpose this morning. Craft
need never know; no way he could find out.
I’ll just tag along with you. I’ll give you a portion of the money
that’s coming to me. I promise you that. I’ll write it out, if you
like. I’ve never had any money. It simply a marvelous opportunity. You
do see that, don’t you?”
e left Ferguson at the Devon House and took a cab into Old Kingston. If
he was being followed, he H didn’t give a damn. it was a time for
sorting out thoughts again, not worrying about surveillance. He wasn’t
going anywhere.
He had conditionally agreed to cooperate with Ferguson.
The condition was that theirs was a two-way street; the botanist could
keep his log-freely supplied with controlled names-and McAuliff would be
kept informed of this Craft’s inquiries.
He looked up at the street signs; he was at the corner of Tower and
Matthew, two blocks from the harbor. There was a coin telephone on a
stanchion halfway down the sidewalk.
He hoped it was operable. It was.
“Has a Mr. Sam Tucker checked in?” he asked the clerk on the other end
of the line.
“No, Mr. McAuliff As a matter of fact, we were going over the
reservations list a few minutes go. Check-in time is three o’clock.”
“Hold the room. It’s paid for.”
“I’m afraid it isn’t, sir. Our instructions are only that you’re
responsible; we’re trying to be of service.”
“You’re very kind. Hold it, nevertheless. Are there any messages for
me?”
“Just one minute, sir. I believe there are.”
The silence that ensued gave Alex the time to wonder about Sam. Where
the hell was he? McAuliff had not been as alarmed as Robert Hanley over
Tucker’s disappearance.
Sam’s eccentricities included sudden wanderings, impulsive treks through
native areas. There had been a time’in Australia when Tucker stayed
four weeks with an outback aborigine community, traveling daily in a
Land Rover to the Kimberleys survey site twenty-six miles away. Old
Tuck was always looking for the unusual-generally associated with the
customs and lifestyles of whatever country he was in. But his deadline
was drawing near in Kingston.
“Sorry for the delay,” said the Jamaican, his lilt denying the sincerity
of the statement. “There are several messages.
I was putting them in the order of their sequence.”
“Thank you. What are-”
“They’re all marked urgent, Sir,” interrupted the clerk.
“Eleven-fifteen is the first; from the Ministry of Education.
Contact Mr. Latham as soon as possible. The next at eleventwenty is
from a Mr. Piersall at the Sheraton. Room fifty-one. Then a Mr.
Hanley called from Montego Bay at twelve-oh-six; he stressed the
importance of your reaching him. His number is-”
“Wait a minute,” said Alex, removing a pencil and a notebook from his
pocket. He wrote down the names “Latham,”
“Piersall…… Hanley.”
“Go ahead.”
“Montego exchange, eighty-two-two-seven. Until five o’clock. Mr.
Hanley said to call in Port Antonio after six-thirty.”
“Did he leave that number?”
“No, Sir. Mrs. Booth left word at one-thirty-five that she would be
back in her room at two-thirty. She asked that you ring through if you
telephoned from outside. That’s everything, Mr. McAuliff.”
“All right. Thank you. Let me go back, please.” Alex repeated the
names, the gists of the messages, and asked for the Sheraton’s telephone
number. He had no idea who Mr. Piersall was. He mentally scanned the
twelve contact names provided by Hammond; there was no Piersall.
“Will that be all, Sir?”
“Yes. Put me through to Mrs. Booth, if you please.”
Alison’s phone rang several times before she answered.
“I was taking a shower,” she said, out of breath. “Rather hoping you
were here.”
“Is there a towel around you?”
“Yes. I left it on the knob with the door open, if you must know. So I
could hear the telephone.”
“If I was there, I’d remove it. The towel, not the phone.”
“I should think it appropriate to remove both.” Alison laughed, and
McAuliff could see the lovely half smile in the haze of the afternoon
sun on Tower Street.
“You’re right, you’re parched. But your note said it was urgent. Is
anything the matter?” There was a click within the interior of the
telephone box; his time was nearly up. Alison heard it, too.
“Where are you? I’ll call you right back,” she said quickly. The
number had been deliberately, maliciously scratched off the dial’s
center. “No way to tell. How urgent? I’ve got another call to make.”
“It can wait. Just don’t speak to a man named Piersall until we talk.
“Bye now, darling.”
McAuliff was tempted to call Alison right back; who was Piersall? But
it was more important to reach Hanley in Montego. it would be necessary
to call collect; he didn’t have enough change.
it took the better part of five minutes before Hanley’s phone rang and
another three while Hanley convinced a switchboard operator at a
less-than-chic hotel that he would pay for the call.
“I’m Sorry, Robert,” said Alex. “I’m at a coin box in Kingston.”