Blanche shook the communication again; this was not the moment for retrospection.
Anna nodded. ‘I fetch Chemor.’
Driving from Rinsey with Chemor, Blanche studied the signature again. Unless there were two Edwin Neillands, this was a man she had known very well before the war. The second son of a local landowner at Pearling, he had made the army his career.
She raised her hands in thankful acknowledgement when a man of prodigious tallness, who had become more cadaverous with the years, rose to greet her with enthusiasm. ‘Blanche, my dear girl, after all these ages! I’ve not long been here, y’know, or I’d have looked you up.’
‘I know, Edwin,’ she told him as they kissed on each cheek, ‘but now I mean you to make up for lost time.’
‘You never were one to lose minutes! Eh, Blanche?’ He tried to engage her in his good humour.
‘Eddie, I’ve no time for pleasantries even with such a dear old friend.’
‘Get on then, m’dear,’ he said briskly.
She told her story and he did not interrupt, though he made quite a few notes on a pad on his desk, spacing them around the page as if making a tactical map for a battle.
‘Hmm! Right! Got the portrait. Tell you what we’ll do. Major Sturgess is coming out at Milestone Thirteen, that’s on the main road just north of Bukit Kinta.’ He paused to consult his watch. ‘Forty-two hours from now.’
‘And they’re all safe, my daughter, her friend ... ?’
‘The whole caboodle, m’dear, all fine.’
‘You don’t know how much I need this news,’ she said quietly.
‘We’ll have the police on the roads. I’ll have an army unit melt into position round the village. Then we’ll roll our survivors — that is, particularly your old manager’s wife and her daughter — straight out of the jungle down to the old kampong and let them have a look round, see if they can see anyone they jolly well recognise. Won’t take long.’
‘Thank God for someone with some drive and some sense.’
‘Come on, old lassie, don’t you remember how I used to organise the hunts? No stragglers and no gossip when you were on picket duty alongside my spinneys!’
Blanche remembered and laughed. ‘I do! You had the youngsters scared stiff.’
‘Use the same methods! Never tinker with anything that still works.’
‘You’re a relief in all senses, dear Eddie. I was beginning to feel entitled to one bit of good luck. I believe you’re it. So by Wednesday ... ’
‘Wednesday evening should see you all home,’ he confirmed.
She left him suddenly determined that whatever happened either before or on Wednesday she was going to be at Bukit Kinta before the army, police and Liz and Lee arrived there. She had spent quite enough time waiting alone at Rinsey.
She would collect the list from George tomorrow, ring Ira in the evening, go to Bukit Kinta the next morning and stay there until it was all over. She’d use Chemor again, take him into her confidence. That would make at least two of them with their ears and eyes open on George’s behalf.
Nothing happened the way Blanche had expected, once she had arrived at Bukit Kinta.
‘I couldn’t send Li Kim to the market, he seems to have disappeared,’ Ira reported when they were both safely inside the bungalow.
This seemed ominous news to Blanche. ‘Has anyone else gone? Anything else out of the ordinary?’
He shook his head, joining her to look down over the complex of lakes, dredgers, flat sunken areas of tin tailings, workshops of bamboo,
attap
and rusty corrugated-iron sheeting, all closely edged by jungle. ‘No. The men who’ve come in recently I’ve seen this morning shovelling ore near the dredgers ... ’
‘And the girl?’
Ira drew her attention towards the neat vegetable plots to the right where the mine village lay behind the gardens. ‘She’s coming this way now,’ he said, stepping away from the window.
‘So she is.’ Blanche watched her come nearer, noting the black cotton trousers and round-necked blouse the girl had on. She wanted to be sure she could pick the little communist out in any coming affray. ‘We must be careful. Play it as if you’re on her side, as if I’m just an interfering old bat.’
There was no time for more planning. ‘Mr Cook!’ the girl’s voice came from the front door, full of knowledge that he was there and had a visitor. ‘Are you in?’
‘Come through, Li Min,’ he called back.
‘Please to come out. I wish private word.’
Ira glanced at Blanche, who acquiesced with half-lowered eyelids. He left the room and she heard them move across to George’s old office. She slipped off her shoes and walked barefoot into the hall. The door to the study was not quite closed.
Ira was quoting her verbatim. ‘No, no,’ he said, ‘she’s just an interfering old bat. Come to see what’s happening so she can report to old Harfield when she visits him.’
‘Why her car gone?’
‘She’s sent the driver shopping. He’s calling back for her.’
‘Where she take Li Kim?’
‘My cook? She’s not taken him anywhere. I want to know where he is. Have you seen him?’
‘I no see.’
‘Do you know where he might have gone? Has he a girl?’
‘No!’ The tone was scoffing, but then she went on, ‘You have girl ... if you want.’
Blanche held her breath. Ira had got it right up to now, but this might be the greatest test.
‘I want,’ the young manager said gruffly, ‘but I’ll have to wait until — ’
‘Old bat gone!’
‘Sure!’ Ira said, sounding as if he moved in on the girl. ‘Then I’ll come. As soon as she’s gone ... ’
‘Ira! Baby! I miss you.’
The girl massaged the young man with her voice. Blanche turned and walked silently back to the lounge and her shoes. Standing at the window again, she closed her eyes and imagined the pleasure of shaking Li Min until her perfect white teeth rattled.
A few moments later Ira stood silently in the doorway. ‘I feel nauseous.’
‘You did well,’ she assured him. ‘Really — I listened.’
‘My cook’s disappearance seems to be a mystery to everyone.’
‘Perhaps just some stupid coincidence. Let’s pray it doesn’t upset anything.’
‘I’m uneasy about you staying, Blanche.’ He joined her at the window. ‘It all looks so peaceful but if there’s to be a real showdown ... ’
‘There is, I assure you, and when it happens I’m going to be here. I just hope it’s not too much longer, or our mutual friend may become really suspicious about my prolonged presence or my car’s prolonged absence.’
Ira glanced at her as if he too wondered about that.
‘Chemor’s just keeping himself and my car out of the way at one of the streetside cafes until he sees the army moving in. Then he’ll follow in — I hope.’
Ira swore. ‘I wish it’d get on and happen. What’ll be the first sign, d’you reckon?’
They were speculating when Ira suddenly stopped talking, raised a stilling forefinger and listened intently. They could soon make out the sound of heavy lorries grinding up the path into the mining complex. Army lorries, three-tonners, came quickly into view with soldiers sitting along the side seats beneath the obligatory protective netting. Ira and Blanche exchanged jubilant glances and hurried outside.
From the vantage point of the bungalow, they saw the soldiers jumping down from the lorries and running to encircle groups of workers or going towards the village. Following came police vehicles and Chemor in the Hammonds’ Ford. There were already soldiers at all the gates, roads and paths around the mine, rifles at the ready. Edwin had been as good as his word; those men had certainly melted unobserved into their positions — but where were the survivors he had promised to roll into Bukit Kinta?
There was much shouting and Blanche saw that the men were being brought from the dredgers and the workplaces and the women and children from the village, and all urged into lines. She saw the unmistakeable black-trousered figure of Li Min in the gateway of the kampong, saw her turn and run back towards a hut. Two soldiers broke into a run after her but Chemor overtook them and caught the girl before she reached the hut’s verandah. The soldiers went on while Chemor, gripping the struggling girl, brought her back to where the workers and villagers were being gathered. He released her, throwing her away from himself in the manner one releases a fighting cat.
So much was happening at once. Blanche recognised John Sturgess leading two men off towards the tin-roofed mine buildings, while one lorry still seemed to have a reserve of men just sitting still.
Where
were
her survivors?
She searched the milling throng and saw Inspector Aba strutting up and down the crowd of Malays and Chinese, shouting, ‘Identity papers! Everyone have ready! Now!’
‘In line! In line! Everyone in line,’ someone else ordered.
The shouting both intimidated and created confusion, so the workers and the families shuffled and circled around raising dust, making it seem even hotter than it already was, before they were finally sorted into some kind of line order.
Li Min and several men brought at gunpoint from the village were herded to the head of one line and kept under special guard. Sturgess was there, joined by the inspector. Sturgess lifted a hand towards the soldiers still in the lorry; Blanche followed the gesture, obviously some directive.
It was at this moment that Blanche saw Liz. Her daughter emerged from the middle of the soldiers still seated in the lorry. Standing up totally exposed on the back, she looked all around. Blanche found herself shaking her head in delight and wonderment as she watched her daughter’s glance sweep sky and hills. Otherworldly like her father, taking in the view first!
Blanche waved furiously as a young red-bearded man came from the front passenger seat to help her down.
Liz became suddenly aware of a woman near George’s bungalow waving like a mad thing. She recognised her mother with a shock of combined love and guilt. ‘Mother, what
are
you doing here?’ She ran to greet her.
Blanche held her arms wide for her daughter and saw as Liz ran to her the set of Neville’s head, the way the eyes focused on her now to the total exclusion of the screaming, shouting tension that was all around them — like her father, and because of that so very precious.
‘Liz!’ She clasped her daughter to her, registering the extra thinness of her body as she held her tight. ‘Thank God! Thank God!’
‘Mother! Forgive me for going off like that! I must have put you through hell.’ Liz saw new lines about her mother’s mouth, etchings of determination, she thought, or worry she had caused.
‘Hell, yes,’ Blanche confirmed, ‘but more because I watched you go.’
It took a moment for the implication to register. ‘You watched ... when Lee and I?’
Blanche nodded.
Liz threw herself into her mother’s arms afresh. ‘You really did understand.’
‘I did,’ she said and, thinking of George, added, ‘I do.’
‘I found him!’
Blanche grasped Liz’s hand as she finally recognised Alan beneath the beard and gripped his hand too. ‘We mustn’t lose
anyone
again, I can’t afford the heartache. So where is Lee and … ?’
‘Safe, but she must stay hidden for a bit longer,’ Alan said beneath the hubbub going on so close to them. ‘The major wants to make sure there are no hidden arms and have every-thing secure before he plays his trump card. If you come nearer to the lorry but don’t look down to the floor … ’
‘I’ll take Mr Harfield’s list over to the inspector,’ Ira decided, sounding as if he wanted no part of another intrigue. He walked purposefully towards the watchful lines of men, women and wide-eyed children.
‘Mrs Guisan! Lee!’ Blanche stage-whispered as she came close to the backboard of the lorry. The eight soldiers looked at her and some smiled, but none looked down at the blankets that lay on the floor between their feet.
‘Mrs Hammond! I glad hear you after all these years.’
The small, smothered voice was husky, anxious. ‘This is Mrs Carl Guisan speaking to you.’
From another age, Blanche thought.
‘And Lee!’ a lighter voice said. ‘We have to wait to be called out. Tell us what is happening.’
‘Thank God you are both safe,’ Blanche said, standing as casually as she could, gripping the hands of her two young people and pretending she was talking to them.
‘The major’s got several men body-searching the lines of people,’ Alan told the hidden women.
‘You wouldn’t think they could hide much,’ Liz commented, looking at the women’s sarongs and the thin cotton shorts and shirts most of the men were wearing.
One of the soldiers on the lorry clicked his tongue and commented, ‘We found a bandoleer of ammunition wrapped around a baby at one village.’
‘They’re reaching the real suspects now,’ Liz said, watching closely as the searchers moved in on Li Min and the men in her group. The guards raised their rifles at the suspects’ chests, ready to fire at the least hint of trouble.
‘There’s some defiance,’ Blanche confided to Lee and her mother. ‘They want the men in the group to raise their hands higher.’
‘Up! Up! Up!’ The orders came louder and louder, men poked with their rifles to enforce the order — and then there was consternation and shouting.
‘What’s happened?’ Liz’s question was echoed all around. The lines of people craned forwards, some of the soldiers stood up and there were muffled enquiries from the floor of the lorry.
‘No, it’s all right!’ Alan said as he saw Sturgess swoop down and pick up an object, examine it, then clip it on to his belt. ‘One of the men had a hand grenade secreted under his armpit.’
There were other angry outbursts as the police found several more people in the lines without papers. One or two were taken back to their huts in the kampong to enable them to pick up identity cards left in their houses. Those unable to give a good explanation of themselves and their lack of papers were now handcuffed and circled with guards.
John Sturgess came striding towards them. Blanche noticed Liz kept tight hold of Alan’s hand as John, nodding from one women to the other, said, ‘Like mother, like daughter, neither of you do as you are told nor as expected!’ His tone was sharp and military, but then he grinned, and both women let out relieved breaths. Liz glimpsed again the man behind the military mask. If only Robbo could let him show more often!
He tapped the back of the lorry. ‘We’ll start the show with Mrs Guisan and her daughter.’
The soldiers helped the two women out from their nest of blankets in the bottom of the lorry. There was time only for the briefest of greetings. Blanche had to disguise the shock she felt when she saw the stooped old Chinese. She would never have recognised this woman as the pert young thing who had captivated the heart of their outgoing, expansive manager, Carl.
Sturgess ushered them along the lines of people who had so far shown themselves to be genuine workers and families. Curiosity showed in all their faces but not guilt; it was obvious that the two women meant nothing to them.
It was a different matter as they approached the heavily guarded group. Most of them hung their heads so low it was impossible to see their features. Li Min, without seeming noticeably to move, managed to fade behind a bulky man.
‘Heads up!’ the police sergeant ordered and when this was not obeyed he detailed two constables, who went in and pulled the men’s heads upwards and backwards by their hair, pushing a rifle barrel under their chins. Some still kept their eyes closed, while others stared insolently into the eyes of the women who had worked for them so many years in their main jungle headquarters.
Blanche went nearer, intending to stand behind Li Min where she had edged to the back of the circle. She also saw Chemor staring intensely at the girl, his black eyes reminding Blanche of those of a stoat she had watched hypnotise a full-grown rabbit before launching itself for the kill.
Lee stepped into the circle while her mother remained more remote, more intimated some yards outside. As each head was lifted, Lee not only spat ‘Yes!’ into their faces but named the terrorists. At last they came to Li Min.