The QE2 Is Missing

“About time.” Sheila stood and smoothed her dress and led the way down the corridor. “The champagne is cold by now.”

It took over half an hour to get away. Rivelles sipped the champagne and made light talk while Nino finished off all of the sandwiches that the waiter brought with the second bottle. Sheila did most of the drinking with an enthusiasm that showed years of experience. Nino finally wiped his lips and stood.

“Gotta get the film to the lab, boss. Too much of this high life is bad for a working stiff.”

“You’ll have to excuse us, Sheila.”

“Wish you were sailing with me,” she said, squeezing his hand. “So far this trip has been old-fartsville. We could have some fun.”

“We could, I’m sure, I know. My pleasure.”

He finally extricated his moist hand and fled.

“That’s a lot of good old girl there,” Nino said as they went down the corridor.

“Quite. Of slightly greater importance are the photographs. How did it go? I couldn’t see a thing.”

“I did, which is what counts, and I got the pix, which is what counts more. No broads, but five guys went into the two suites. A couple of old ones and three punks. Look like heavies. You’ll see in the pix.”

“I will indeed. That’s something I’m looking forward to.”

They went into Nino’s darkroom, which had formerly been the bathroom of his flat. This was located in a rundown building located in the seamier part of the city. Nino opened a bottle of South African brandy, very sweet and very nasty, Rivelles realized when he took a sip, then set to work. He was a professional who knew just what he was doing.

“Got to do a bit of forcing,” he said, loading the film into the developing tank. “Could have used some more light or faster film, but I wanted fine grain so we could blow up the detail. I was shooting at a thousand, so we should be OK.”

He developed and dried the rolls of film, then spread the negatives out on a light box and examined them with a magnifying glass, muttering happily to himself.

“Great, really great, if I say so myself. I’ll make you a blow-up of this one and you’ll see what I mean.”

The projected image had Rivelles and Sheila large in the foreground, which Nino ignored. He moved the print frame until they were completely out of it, and concentrated on the figures in the corridor behind them.

When the print came out of the drier he took it into the front room and thumbtacked it proudly to the well-scarred wall and focussed a spotlight on it. “Those the guys you’re looking for?” he asked.

“If they went into those suites, they are.”

“Went in and never came out.”

Rivelles looked closely at the photograph, then examined it even more closely with a magnifying glass. It meant nothing to him. All five of the men were unknown to him. Three young, two old, just as Nino had said. They did not look like Latin Americans, certainly the young ones weren’t. The mystery was still a mystery. The people in London might be able to identify them.

“They OK?” Nino asked.

“They’re just perfect. You’re an artist, Nino, just like you said. There’s a plane I can take in just three hours time. Will they be ready by then?”

“A piece of cake. You make the reservations while I finish off the prints. Help yourself to the brandy — you’re paying for it.”

6

There were three of them around the dining room table. The table was spread with old newspapers in place of a cloth, papers that were stained and marked and ragged. Diaz sipped at a cup of black coffee while the other two stared into space. The flat was large, old, shabbily furnished and drab. There was an air of impermanence about it as though the men had only stopped temporarily, were just passing through. Yet they had been here for years and might stay for many more. But their hearts, their thoughts, were far across the Atlantic in a small tropical country that most people had never heard of. Though they lived out their existence in these cold rooms, the echoing hallway and the grubby kitchen, they lived with an air of impermanence. Their home was far, far away indeed.

The tapping on the hallway door was very light, but all three men around the table heard it, turning together towards the sound. One of them started to pull a gun from his pocket but Diaz shook his head in a silent no. He stood and walked down the dank hallway and stood next to the door.

“Who is it?”

“The wanderer returned,” a voice said. “And I’ll collapse if you leave me out here an instant longer.”

Diaz quickly unlatched the door and opened it wide, looking out quizzically at the man who was standing there.

“You know, my friend,” he leaned against the wall while the door was closed and locked, “there have been times when I have felt a good deal better. I’ve spent two out of the last three days on planes. Not only haven’t I slept, but my stomach is being ruined by the fresh frozen filth they serve for food.”

“There’s some black beans and rice in the kitchen.”

“I’ll sell my soul to the man who brings me a plate of them. Here are the pictures.”