Dangerous Inheritance (33 page)

‘Who the bloody hell are you? Get right out of here!'

‘Security Police,' replied Lalita. Turning, he pushed the Sergeant out of the room and shut the door. Then his thick lips forming into a grin that extended almost from ear to ear, he said:

‘Very surprising, this I come on. Mrs. Rajapakse make out she like Caesar's wife, even before married. Cold like icicle. Now I find in bed with big American friend.' Suddenly his expression changed and he added viciously, ‘For me how good. With what pleasure I see face of husband Rajapakse, who ruin me, when I tell him wife unfaithful.'

Only then did Fleur recognise him as the man who, two and a half years before at Olenevka, had tried to buy her kisses by offering her a jewel, and the woman behind him as Mirabelle de Mendoza. In a hoarse whisper she said to Truss, ‘This is Colonel d'Azavedo. You have heard Greyeyes and the others talking about him.'

‘I certainly have!' Truss cried. ‘So this is the dirty little crook who's been trying to cheat the Duke out of his inheritance.'

‘Have hold on your tongue!' snarled Lalita, pulling his pistol
from its holster and pointing the weapon at Truss. ‘It is he who have cheat me. I learn this yesterday. He say my claim to Olenevka is forgery. Also he have stole my jewels. To get back I come here. Your father plan to smuggle out in aeroplane; is it not? Aeroplanes private owned can have many hiding places. But he not risk sending jewels through post for one of crew to hide; that certain. No, he bring with. I come to hotel tonight; make search of whole party. One of you have them. Soon I find out which.'

‘You'll have no luck here,' Truss snapped. ‘Nor with the others. We haven't got your jewels and don't know a thing about them. You can search till you're blue in the face.'

‘You tell lies. One of you has stones. I find; then prison for all as gang of thieves. Also I make mocking stock for everyones of lawyer Rajapakse by telling his wife found in bed with big American.'

‘No!' cried Fleur. ‘No! I beg you not to. You have nothing to gain by doing that, and it would hurt him terribly.'

Lalita grinned. ‘For me pleasure to hurt. All blame he become my enemy his. If he not start trouble Olenevka still property of my father, and he alive. Also we robbed of hims lifework; fortune in stones. This most good luck opportunity to make lawyer Rajapakse eat mud before family and all peoples known to him. English wife proved bitch. No honour. Whore to white man who says lie down on back for him.'

Fleur's face, already red, went almost scarlet as though she had been smacked hard on both cheeks, and she lowered her eyes. Truss had gone white with rage at these insults to her. He was prevented from jumping out of bed and attempting to strangle Lalita only by the fact that the automatic was pointed at him, and the knowledge that the villainous little man would not hesitate to use it because he could say afterwards that his victim had resisted arrest. Striving to control his fury, Truss sought desperately to think of some way to help Fleur save both herself and her husband from this horrid scandal. After a moment he swallowed hard, and said:

‘Surely there's a way we can settle this? You say you've been
robbed of your fortune; so you must need money. How much do you want to forget that you caught us here tonight?'

The scowl faded from Lalita's face. ‘Now perhaps we talk,' he said in a quieter voice. ‘I learn yesterday that Olenevka made present to Mrs. Rajapakse. She give me back and all forgotten.'

‘You must be crazy!' Truss cried angrily. ‘The estate is said to be worth nearly two hundred thousand Ceylonese rupees.'

‘No matter. That my price.'

‘Then you can go to hell! I had in mind offering you a thousand or two to stop you wagging your tongue. But this colossal blackmail—not on your life! I'd see you damned before I'd allow Mrs. Rajapakse to agree to it.'

Fleur, now feeling terribly guilty at having exposed Douglas to what he would regard as indelible shame, and anxious to protect him at almost any cost, hesitantly said to Lalita, ‘I … I couldn't make Olenevka over to you anyway. How could I possibly explain my doing so to my husband? But I might be able to arrange for you to receive a share of the profits from the mine when it starts to pay again.'

‘How you manage to do without your husband find out, eh?' Lalita asked dubiously.

‘I … I don't quite know … but there must be some way I could do it. I have my own bank account. When the profits start coming in from Olenevka I could tell him that I've decided to save them and instead send a sum every few months to you.'

Lalita shook his head. ‘Not good enough. If Olenevka belong me I make mine pay. As long as it is run by de Zoysa no guarantee it ever pay.'

‘Very well, then,' Fleur replied desperately. ‘I've a little money of my own. I'll pay you something every month out of that.'

‘No!' Truss cut in sharply. ‘Fleur, I'll not let you commit yourself to anything like this. You'd never be free of a millstone round your neck. And a time might come when you couldn't pay. Then he'd expose you and you would have been through months of hell for nothing. This will be hard on Douglas, I
know; but that just can't be helped. Far better face up to the worst now than have the constant fear that it may blow up on you at any time in the future.'

Turning to him she began to speak in rapid French. ‘But don't you see that it's not as though we were trying to buy some incriminating letters from him? He can produce this woman any time as a witness to how he found us. And if he had taken your offer of a cash payment down we would have had nothing but his word for it that he wouldn't double-cross us, and vent his hate against Douglas as soon as he gets back to Colombo. Even if he didn't it would only be because he hoped to squeeze more money out of me later. Do you understand what I'm saying?'

Truss nodded. ‘Yes. I got the gist of it.'

‘Very well, then,' Fleur went on in French. ‘My paying him a monthly sum will keep him quiet for the present, and won't prove very costly. It's not as though I mean to remain in Colombo. By the time I join you in America I can stop paying it. What I'm anxious to do is to protect Douglas until it becomes common knowledge that he is letting me divorce him. Then it won't be half as bad for him if this comes out. He can save his face by saying that I did it to avenge myself because I'd already found out that he was having an affaire with another woman. People may not even——'

Lalita had been glaring at her and broke in angrily, ‘Speak English. I not allow you make talk I not understand, so you make plan to cheat me.'

Fleur shrugged. ‘My bank account is rather low at the moment. I was only asking Mr. Van Ryn whether he could arrange before he leaves tomorrow to have some money paid into it, so that I could do as we suggest for you until my next dividends come in.'

‘How much you pay me? How much each month?'

‘I think I could manage five hundred rupees.'

‘Not enough.'

‘I can't make it more. If I did my bills would pile up until someone sued me. Then my husband would insist on going into my affairs and everything would come out.'

‘Not so. You say Mr. Van Ryn help you, so you make it more.'

Fleur then realised that the explanation she had used to cover what she had said in French had made her vulnerable to the blackmailer's demands, and she looked unhappily at Truss.

He nodded. ‘Only fair that I should help out. Let's say a thousand a month.'

Lalita remained silent for nearly a minute, then he said, ‘Money sweet but revenge sweeter. Seventy-five pounds English once month not to be thrown away. But with Colonel's pay I not hard-up. To see lawyer Rajapakse made mocking stock for all Colombo very pleasant for me. But possible to have revenge on him quite different way. I have to think.' Staring at Fleur through his thick glasses he asked, ‘When you plan go back to Colombo?'

‘It all depends what time the aircraft leaves tomorrow,' she replied.

‘Soon I search. Find jewels with one of you and aircraft not leave. You all put in prison. If no stones here my men search aircraft very thorough. Just possible they already in it. Not likely but possible, and search take all day.'

‘Then, unless you arrest me, I should get back to Colombo on Tuesday night.'

‘O.K. I get back jewels, then revenge better than money. If not per'aps I take money. For few days I think over. By Saturday I decides. Mrs. de Mendoza, she ring you in morning to tell place for meeting. You come with first thousand rupees. Either she take, or tell you I make your husband mocking stock of Colombo. All peoples point and jeer—your wife Scarlet Woman.'

Having paused for a moment he went on, ‘Now we make search. No need I find for spare blushings of Mrs. Rajapakse. Not knowing I bring Mrs. de Mendoza. She do this room. Mr. Van Ryn, he come with me.'

If there was any blushing to be done it was now for Truss to do it, as he was naked and had to get out of bed to put his pyjamas and dressing gown on in front of Lalita and Mirabelle. She had remained a silent listener, regarding them the whole
time with mild amusement. As Truss saw her fine brown eyes now fixed on him he angrily turned his back and hurriedly pulled on his clothes. Then raising a smile to cheer Fleur he said, ‘Don't fret, honey. Be seeing you,' and left the room with Lalita.

Three of the Colonel's armed police were standing outside in the passage. The Sergeant was one of them and spoke to him in Sinhalese. He made an angry gesture, which suggested to Truss that they had already searched his father's and Simon's rooms and failed to find the jewels. Knowing that they would not find them in his room either, he hid a smile and led the way along to it.

For the next twenty minutes they ransacked it, throwing everything in his suitcases out on the floor, searching in every likely and unlikely place and making a thorough examination of the bedding, while he stood watching them indifferently, his mind still on the wretched situation in which he had unintentionally landed Fleur.

A few minutes before they had finished Mirabelle de Mendoza came in and, although she spoke in Sinhalese to Lalita, it was obvious from the spate of curses he let fly that she was reporting to him that in Fleur's room she had drawn a blank.

Rounding on Truss, Lalita exclaimed, ‘No jewels! This I not believe! I think my men careless in the rooms of your father and Mr. Aron. They search again, this time while I watch on. You to remain here. Understand. No communication with others till come morning.' He then stalked from the room followed by Mirabelle and his men.

For a time there came the occasional slamming of doors and the muffled sound of voices; then, some while afterwards, quiet fell again. Cautiously, Truss opened the door of his room with the intention of talking matters over further with Fleur. Outside in the passage the lights were full on and about twelve feet away a security guard was standing. At the sound of the door opening he turned, said something in Sinhalese and lifted his Sten gun.

Truss promptly shut the door, gave a tired sigh, slipped out of his dressing gown and got into the now much disturbed bed.

After turning restlessly for a while he dropped off to sleep, but as soon as he woke in the morning the events of the night flooded back to him. Getting up he put on his dressing-gown, meaning to go along and see his father. But the policeman was still lounging in the corridor and, rousing from a doze, waved him back.

Lalita appeared soon afterwards. He had a breakfast of tea and fruit brought up to each of them in their rooms, then ordered them to pack under the supervision of himself and his men. When they had done he had their baggage despatched ahead of them to the airport and told them that he intended to search the aircraft, which would take some hours; so they were to remain in the hotel until he sent for them. In consequence it was not until about half past nine that they at last found themselves free to get together downstairs in the lounge.

While the party discussed the raid to which they had been subjected, Truss and Fleur could do no more than exchange glances of commiseration. Rex and Simon laughed together about the blustering threats with which Lalita had opened the proceedings and his angry disappointment when he had had to call off further search as useless; but the two younger people were in no laughing mood and, as soon as Truss decently could, he said that he would like to have a private word with his father in the garden.

As soon as they were out of earshot of anyone in the hotel Rex said, ‘Well, son; you're looking pretty gloomy. What's eating you?'

‘Plenty,' replied Truss unhappily. ‘I'm sorry, Dad; but I won't be able to accompany you on this trip.'

Rex came to an abrupt halt and a frown crossed his face. ‘I don't get you. For why?'

‘I've got to stay in Ceylon on account of Fleur.'

‘So that's boiled up again, has it?' For a moment Rex was silent, then as he walked on he said not unkindly:

‘Look, son. I know you fell for her when you were a youngster, and although I've never mentioned it I was given to understand that the two of you got pretty close together some years back when you were in Corfu. You know I've never been given to
moralising, but I'm not giving you any marks for having started your affaire with her again this past week. Douglas Rajapakse is a very decent guy, and it's hard on him that you should have risked breaking up his marriage. But if you're still in the clear with him you'd best pull out while the going's good. For you to stay on here as Fleur's boy friend could lead to a fine packet of trouble for all concerned. And, anyway, it's important that you should meet our business contacts in the Far East.'

‘I know, Dad, and I'm sorry. But I'm not in the clear. That little bastard Lalita caught us in bed together last night.'

‘Hey! What's that?' Rex came to a sudden halt again. ‘Lord Almighty! And he hates Rajapakse's guts. This will properly put the cat among the pigeons.'