‘Desirable from their point of view, certainly, but they wouldn’t have had the time in all the panic of the collision. It took us all our work to get her up top from the flooding deck, poor girl…’
‘It’s terrible to think of, isn’t it,’ she said. ‘To think that Fleck made out he cared for her… and then this.’
‘Yes,’ he agreed, ‘it is. Best not to think about it.’ He hesitated. ‘Patricia, d’you think she cared for him, or was she just following up a line?’
She shrugged, her shoulders moving against his. ‘I don’t know for sure,’ she said, ‘but having talked to Fleck, I’d say — now — that she was just following up a line and went all the way to make sure she got it, or anyway as much of it as she could. And that line,’ she added bitterly, ‘led her to — that place you found her.’
He put an arm around her shoulder. ‘Patricia, if that’s the case, and you’re probably right, the only way to look at it is — they’re quits! Or soon will be. I’ve a feeling we’re going to get even for her very soon.’ He found that he was holding her pretty close for the rest of that trip; she was in a very nervy state, and there was something appealing about her, something to which Shaw found himself responding almost against his own wishes.
The helicopter touched down at Shaw’s orders on the outskirts of Rio Grande. It was still only a little after midnight and no one was around to hear it or to see it. In the morning, someone was going to be mighty surprised…
To the two Germans Shaw said, ‘I’m heading for Santos’s store and a telephone. You’ll be in front of me and I’ll have my gun on you right the way through. If your pals aboard the Moehne have been on the air and prepared any kind of reception, you two get it first. Now — move!’
They went off fast and ten minutes later they had reached the little store. Ordering complete silence, Shaw advanced cautiously. He slid up to the door and tried the handle. It turned; when he put gentle pressure on the door it opened at once.
Shaw stiffened. He whispered, ‘I don’t like it, Patricia. Stand by for shooting.’ There was a chilly feeling in his spine as he kicked the door wide and waited. Nothing happened; there was no sound whatever. He moved in, Patricia behind him now and the two men in front, Shaw’s gun in the back of the nearer one. He could sense their fear, their fear of being shot down by their own comrades. But still nothing happened. Shaw felt along the wall to his left, clicked on a light.
The store was deserted.
Shaw snapped, ‘Okay, move. Into the room at the back. Keep right in front of me.’
They entered the living-room behind the store and once again Shaw clicked on a light. Then he heard the gasp from one of the Germans and he stopped dead — for he, too, had seen the grotesquely broken body.
He gave a low whistle.
Hipolito Santos was lying motionless on the floor in a pool of blood — and a harpoon was sticking out from between his shoulder-blades. It was an old-fashioned, genuine harpoon — not a toggle-iron, and the little grey man was almost split in half by that wicked, barbed weapon, his back caved in, his shattered chest pinned to the floor.
Shaw passed his gun to Patricia. ‘Keep your eyes on those two,’ he said tautly. He went forward and bent down by the little man, the man who had been so scared of precisely this kind of thing happening.… though it was doubtful if he’d ever expected to meet his death by harpooning. Santos was as dead as mutton, but he was still warm. This murder hadn’t been committed more than half an hour or so before, and almost certainly by Fleck’s pals in Rio Grande.
Shaw was getting up from the floor when he heard heavy footsteps clanking through the shop, and a moment later he saw the blank, stony official faces… and the uniforms. Police. Armed police, looking purposeful and highly suspicious.
They stared at Shaw and Shaw stared back at them. He was about to speak when a sergeant snapped, ‘What is all this, Senor?’
Shaw indicated the body. ‘Obvious, isn’t it? I’ve just found him.’
‘You have just found him, Senor?’ The policeman raised his eyebrows.
‘That’s what I said.’ Shaw, who hadn’t liked the tone or the emphasis, felt a nasty shiver of real apprehension. ‘So what? You don’t imagine—’
‘I do not imagine things, Senor.’ The voice was clipped, harsh, arrogant. ‘I am a policeman — I look for facts. I think I see a fact before me now, no?’ He stood aside and jerked his head towards the body. Two policemen came up to Shaw and took his arms; others arrested the two Germans and Patricia.
The sergeant said, ‘I am arresting you on suspicion of murder. You will be charged at headquarters. Now come.’
Shaw asked mildly, ‘What did you say the charge was?’
‘Murder.’
‘Oh, yes. In that case you’ve forgotten something, haven’t you?’
The sergeant looked blank. ‘I do not think so.’
‘Oh, but I do! You haven’t looked at the body. How d’you know he’s dead? Or are you clairvoyant?’
The look the sergeant gave him was of itself murderous as he went forward and gave the body a cursory examination. Getting to his feet again he said stiffly, ‘The man is dead, as I thought.’
Shaw grunted. ‘I thought so too, as a matter of fact. But the point is, you’ve had a tip-off about this — haven’t you? I’m being framed.’
The sergeant didn’t answer that. He said, ‘Come. You will be able to talk later.’
At police headquarters Shaw and Patricia were taken to one room, the pilot and the sailor to another. That in itself was highly suspicious, Shaw thought. They were kept waiting under the supervision of two policemen for almost an hour; after which time the sergeant came back and said ominously, ‘The other men, the pilot of the helicopter and the sailor, they have told me everything, Senor. You pirated the machine and abducted the two men from their ship. You forced them to go to the house of Senor Santos against their will, and there you committed the murder.’
Shaw snapped, ‘Tripe! They’re lying. I may add that I expected no less. You’d better hear my story now, that is if you’re not being paid to show a complete lack of interest.’
‘Your story!’ The sergeant lifted his eyes and his arms heavenward. He said beseechingly, ‘With their own eyes, they saw you! They have told me. There are two witnesses against you.’
‘Oh, yes? May I ask what you’re going to do with them?’
‘They have made statements. In the morning they will be allowed to return to the ship in the helicopter.’ There was an ironic grin on the man’s face. ‘They are returning with some spares needed for a repair to the ship. We do not wish to interrupt the weather survey—’
‘Weather survey my foot!’ Shaw exploded. ‘This lady will bear out all I have to tell you—’
‘I wish to hear nothing, Senor, but nothing—’
‘Just shut up and listen!’ Shaw shouted at him. ‘What do you think I was doing aboard the Moehne anyway — or do you know only too goddam well? Look, I demand to be put in touch with the British Ambassador in Buenos Aires — at once, d’you hear?’
‘Please calm yourself,’ the sergeant said soothingly. ‘There is plenty of time, plenty of time. You will be moved from here shortly, Senor, and will be held in Rio Grande gaol. Once there, you will perhaps be allowed to speak to the Governor, General Ario. Me — I can do nothing.’ He shrugged, held his palms upward. ‘I have my orders, you understand?’