'Would it help if we brought it up here, to the Ocho Ríosstrip?' she asked.
'Christ, the hydraulic pump's off one engine-' Then I thought about it. 'I can fly it like that, probably. But not to here. Your newsmen'll want to interview Whitmore: they might take the local flight into Ocho Ríos. No- I'll run it up to the Port Antonio strip. No reason why they should go there.'
'Get it there before lunch.'
I nodded meekly.
'And when they get on to you, don't try and dodge them: that'll just make them suspicious. Just tell 'em the story. But maybe play down the ride into Santo Bartolomeo a bit.'
I nodded again, looked at the drinks in my hands, then remembered I was going to be flying before lunch and put them down. J.B. saw the move and stood up. 'You can get a room at the Shaw Park, Carr. I'll come down with you.'
Whitmore stood up slowly and stretched himself, an enormous movement that made the broad patio seem like a bathing hut. 'See you ina coupladays, fella. We'll figure the details then.'
Luiz nodded politely as we went out.
Out in the dim quiet parking bay, with thechauffeurasleep behind the wheel, J.B. paused before opening the car door and said quietly: 'Well, seems you've got a new job, Carr.'
I nodded slowly. 'It does seem that way, doesn't it?'
'Just as a matter of interest – why did you take it?'
'You talked me into it.'
'You're still a free man, Carr,' she snapped.
'Am I? Well – I'm getting the Dove back. And maybe something to do with Diego getting killed.'
She was quiet for a while, then asked gently: 'Do you miss the war flying much?'
"The RAF didn't exactly fire me, you know: not after Korea. I'd have a squadron by now, maybe a wing.'
'So why'd you quit?'
I shrugged. 'No matter how many rings you've got on your sleeve, there's always somebody with more. Now, at least I can tell anybody to take a running bite at his own backside.'
'Like you did the Boss Man.'
I looked at her curiously. 'I thought you were helping plan this attack?'
'I was. When it was just young Diego's stunt, it seemed… ah, hell.' She sounded angry, but uncertain about what. 'Just the way when the Boss Man calls for a posse to trail the bad men, everybody jumps on a horse.'
'He's buying the horses. Now wake up the driver and tell him he's picked to lead a battalion of tanks into Santo Bar-tolomeo on Tuesday.'
She gave one fast, hard look and jerked the car door viciously.
EIGHTEEN
I got the Mitchell off the ground just before the first airliner from Miami got in, and had an interesting flight to Port Antonio – nearly fifty miles east along the coast from Ochoríos- with the loose hydraulic pipes sealed off with corks and the wheels hanging down all the way. But at least J.B. had been right about the newspapermen: they were filling the Myrtle Bank like thirsty locusts when I got back in the afternoon, queueing up on the bar stools to borrow the phone and ring home to say it was a great story and send more money.
They were right, too, although the best of it was in the diplomatic rumpus, which mostly by-passed Jamaica. Venezuela kicked off by sounding worried about the safety of its citizens, but a little embarrassed about them turning out to be Repúblicarevolutionaries. The Ingles/Jiminez family was less inhibited, and came in calling the Repúblicarégimeseveral things – all of which were probably true, but hardly rare in that part of the world. And dead on cue, the Repúblicaboosted its own tough image by carefully muddling who'd insulted them and inviting Venezuela to step outside and say that again – remembering, of course, that 'outside' was a safe 500 miles of sea.
That took the first two days, after which the Ministry of Foreign Insults in each country handed the file down to the clerks to keep the row going for the usual fortnight with the usual notes and leaks.
With all this going on, nobody even tried to tie Whitmore in with the political side of Diego's death. After all, you don't suspect Hollywood of revolutionary politics any more than you do the Catholic Church. Sure, some film stars have friends on the shady side of the street, but how about the Church in its time? In Hollywood, a rebel is still a man who drives a Porsche instead of a Jaguar and comes to cocktail parties in a dirty tee shirt.
Even I got off lightly. The newspapermen came in with a fixed idea about me: with my Korean experience, I was obviously a restless-war-hero-looking-for-trouble. But that itself made me conventional and dull – they'd spent years writing the same story about pilots who'd flown for or against Castro. With the diplomatic fuss, the family angle and Whit-more there wasn't much room for me anyway.
Nobody went near Port Antonio.
Come Sunday lunch time most of the journalists had got all the local colour, heat, and smell they could stand from Kingston and had either flown home or evacuated to the north coast to pester Whitmore. So I was quietly waterlogging my sorrows in the Myrtle Bank when J.B. came on the phone telling me to turn out and help a company car meet the five o'clock plane.
Apparently somebody from the Jiminez/Ingles family was flying in from Caracas to collect Diego's body, and since the film company was shooting that day, it was thought that I'd add tone to the proceedings by forming a guard of honour. Myself, I wasn't so sure, but she'd rung off before I could think up an excuse. So by five I was waiting outside Customs in my Sunday suit, at least seven-eighths shaven and three parts sober.
I missed her the first time. Rather, I didn't exactly miss her – I'd have to be blind to do that – but I didn't immediately think of her as somebody who'd come to collect a corpse. Although shewas dressed in black: a silk sheath dress high at the neck and nearly as high at the knees, a black silk headscarf, and a vast black crocodile handbag.
I was looking at her in the general way you look at Caneton a l'orangeeven when you know you're going to have the hamburger, when she caught my eye, came straight over and asked:'Capitán Carr?'
'Uh… just Keith Carr. You're Miss… ah…' I tried to remember just what Diego's namehad been, after all.
But she stuck out a slim brown hand and said:'Juanita Jiminez.'
I just waved my head up and down. At a distance she'd been attractive; close up, she had the punch of a thirty-millimetre cannon. I was trying to work out how this girl could be Diego's sister. Well, maybe they had the same dark hair and big dark eyes, and if you had hauled Diego's stomach up eighteen inches and split it into two… Her centre of gravity was definitely forward. It's a good thing on aeroplanes and women both.
I came awake abruptly and said: 'There's a company car outside. If you'll point out your luggage, I'll put it aboard and the driver'll take you wherever you're staying.'
'But you're taking me there, aren't you?' The dark eyes looked infinitely sad.
'Am I? Where?'
'The Shaw Park.' Spanish-style, she rolled several imaginary R's at the end of Shaw. 'It's beyond Kingston, I think.'
J.B. might at least have told me. 'It's sixty miles beyond-' Then I started thinking what else I'd rather do that evening than ride sixty miles over the hills pointing out the sights to Miss Jiminez.
I nodded. 'Of course.' I went to collect her luggage. Perhaps she had owned it already, but it looked very much as if she'd bought it especially for the trip. It was black, brand new – and crocodile skin. The two cases, with their stainless-steel fittings, must have cost a good £500.
When I got it back to base, the party had grown: the inspector and the sergeant. I still couldn't remember their names, so I just said hopefully: 'You've met, have you?'