A COFFIN FROM HONG KONG

“It was all arranged. That stuff I told you about Herman was true, but I lied when I told you I didn’t like him. We had always been friends. We always kept in touch. For the past two years now I’ve been struggling to keep this business of mine going. I just haven’t the knack for business. I haven’t the knack for anything come to that. I guess that’s why Herman and I were friends. He hadn’t the knack for anything either. Things got so bad here, I was desperate for money. Then Herman wrote me. He said he had got his hands on a large consignment of heroin and would I buy it off him? As an industrial chemist I have a number of safe outlets for handling heroin, but of course, I hadn’t the money. He was stupid enough to tell me he was trapped in Hong Kong and unless Jo-An could raise the money to get him a false passport and his fare home, he would be dead in a few weeks. He said the organisation he had double-crossed were hunting for him, and if they found him, they would kill him. I saw my chance of at last laying my hands on a big sum of money. If I could get the heroin, I could sell it at a very high profit. So I wrote to him and told him I’d buy the stuff. It was arranged that Jo-An should come straight to me from the airport and hand over the stuff and get the money, but Herman didn’t tell me on what plane she was coming. I didn’t dare ask in case the query was traced back to me. I knew I would have to kill her.” He stared down at his big, shaking hands. “At the time, it didn’t seem so bad planning to kill a Chinese girl, but I couldn’t think how I was to get rid of her body. It was then I finally decided to plant her body in your office. You were next door to me so it would be easy. You were a private investigator. She might be taken for a client of yours. I thought when the police investigated the murder, with you involved, the trail would get so confused, they wouldn’t think of me. I had to be sure you would be out of your office when she arrived. I had this airport recording I’d taken when I first bought the recorder. I was scared to go to the airport in case I was spotted so I used the recorder to convince you I was calling from the airport, giving me a reasonable excuse why I didn’t come to see you. When you had gone, I waited and waited. I thought she would never come. Finally, she arrived. She trusted me. She told me the heroin was in the coffin. I very nearly didn’t kill her.” He closed his eyes for a moment. “She was such a pretty little thing. I had got into your office and taken your gun. While she talked, I took the gun from the desk drawer, keeping it out of sight. Then she asked me for the money. That decided me. I lifted the gun and shot her.” He shuddered and again wiped his sweating face. “I carried her into your office . . . I left her there. Well, it’s a relief it’s over. I haven’t been able to sleep. I couldn’t even sell the stuff. It’s all there. I’ve been waiting and waiting and waiting for you to come back. When I knew you were back, I just hadn’t the nerve to face you.” He looked imploringly at me. “What are you going to do?”

I had no pity for him. He had tried to involve me in murder. He had hired a thug to kill me. He had brutally shot Herman’s wife, but to me what was unforgivable, he had been responsible without knowing it for Leila’s death. He had plotted and planned with cold, ferocious greed and he had betrayed a friend even though the friend had been as worthless as himself.

“What do you think?” I said. “You’ll have to tell your sordid tale to the police.”

I picked up the telephone receiver. As I began to dial, he slid out of his chair and started to walk unsteadily towards the door. I suppose I could have stopped him by shooting him in the leg, but I couldn’t be bothered. He wouldn’t get far. My job was to stay here and make sure the heroin remained where it was until Retnick arrived.

As I was telling the desk sergeant at police headquarters to alert Retnick and get a squad car down to me fast, I heard Wayde take the elevator to the ground floor. The squad car only just missed him, but they picked him up half an hour later. They found him in his car at the far end of Beach Drive. He had taken a cyanide capsule: one of the advantages of being an industrial chemist. He had taken the quick, easy way out.

Retnick listened to my story, a sour expression on his face.

“I was well off the beam,” I concluded. “I would have bet a dollar Jefferson’s secretary was the one. It was by the purest chance I got onto Wayde. If he hadn’t made the mistake of keeping the airport recording on his machine and if his girl hadn’t been curious, I don’t think I would have got onto him.”

Retnick offered me a cigar.

“Look, Ryan,” he said. “I’ve got to have the credit for cracking this case. I’ve got a reputation to look after: you haven’t. If you want my co-operation in the future, you’ll keep in the shade. I’ll handle all the publicity.”