The White Ghost (14 page)

“Money or sex, isn't it always one or the other? That's what you told me back in Boston.”

“Yeah,” I said, sighing at how little I had to go on. “Daniel didn't mention Sam Chang, did he?”

“No, I wasn't aware they knew each other.”

“I'm not sure they did. Thanks, Jack. Good luck with Cluster. I'll drop by to see how you made out.”

“I can fill you in on how I make out with Deanna as well,” Jack said with a smirk. “I'm taking her to lunch in Chinatown. There's a joint on the docks that does great things with fresh fish.”

“Making up for ignoring her at Sexton's party, Jack?”

“Deanna's a good kid, don't get me wrong,” he said. “But you can't blame a guy for enjoying the few other available women in this dump. I don't mind that she was sore at me; can't blame her for that either.”

“Well, enjoy,” I said. Jack may have been a cad, but he was such an easy-going one, it was hard to stay mad at him.

“Hey, Billy,” Jack said as I rose from the table. “What are you going to do about Sam?”

“You mean about you being seen in his room?”

“Yes, that,” Jack said, his easy grin fading as he turned serious. “I really need to get another command, Billy. Give it some thought, okay?”

“Sure, Jack. See you around.”

He must have seen it in my eyes. I wasn't going to give him a free pass. Like I said, Jack could really read people. That's why he changed tack and asked me to give it some thought. Hard to say no to that.

Chapter Sixteen

I was looking
for food, Hugh Sexton, and Jacob Vouza. I struck gold on the verandah of Sexton's place, where the two of them were eating off tin plates. Rice, fish, and breadfruit, which is kind of like a potato. White and starchy, anyway. Hugh went inside to fix me a plate and returned with three cans of beer, kept moderately cool in his ancient refrigerator.

“What have you found out about Daniel?” Jacob asked around a mouthful of food.

“I'm afraid not much,” I said. “Did he know Sam Chang?”

“Poor chap's dead, we heard,” Sexton said. I gave them what details I had.

“I don't know if he knew him,” Jacob said. “Maybe did. Daniel went to Rendova after he finish school. No work there except in the plantation kilns, drying coconut. Not right for educated young man. Then he got a job on a Pavau plantation, keeping the books and overseeing the loading of copra when the Lever ship come. It's not far from Vella Lavella. He would have heard of Sam Chang for sure.”

“Right,” Sexton said. “Chang was a prominent merchant, most everyone up in those islands knew his name. Hard not to. Why, is it important?”

“It seems Daniel went looking for Sam right after he came back from Henderson Field. Did he ask either of you?” Sexton shook his head no.

“I was with marines on New Georgia when Daniel came to Tulagi,” Jacob said. “Plenty fighting there. Never saw Daniel here. I sent a message, but he was not around when I came by.”

“Any idea why he'd be looking for Chang?” I asked.

“No,” Sexton said. “We'd been in radio contact about the pickup for him and Dickie the day before. He didn't say anything then or here on Tulagi.”

“But we know he did look for him. Would he have heard Chang's name in any of the radio transmissions?” I asked.

“He could have,” Sexton said. “We used Chang's name several times when arranging the pickup for him and his people.”

“But Daniel didn't react to that at the time,” I said. “It seems that it only happened when he came to Tulagi. Odd that he never brought up the connection while you were all together.”

“Daniel a smart boy,” Vouza said. “If something was not right, he would not speak of it until he knew who his friends were.”

“Wasn't he among friends?” I asked.

“Comrades, to be sure,” Sexton said. “But some of the chaps had never met the others. Remember, these are mostly volunteers who stayed in place after the Japanese occupied the islands. I've been in touch with them all, as has the Coastwatchers HQ on Guadalcanal. But other than hearing clipped reports on the radio, lots of the fellows have no idea who's who. We use call signs for each team, so as not to tip off the Japs. If they learned the names of islanders, they might deduce their location.”

“Right,” Vouza said. “I don't think Daniel knew Silas Porter or John Kari, even though he work on Pavau. Or Fred Archer. We both met Gordie on New Georgia before the war, but Daniel did not know he was a Coastwatcher.”

“We've another group coming in tomorrow,” Sexton said. “Same thing, most will be strangers except for their teleradio call signs.”

“Jacob, what did you mean when you said Daniel worked on Pavau, but didn't know Porter and Kari?”

“Silas is from Pavau,” Vouza said. “He owns plantation on north end of island. He escape when the Japs landed. His assistant manager was not so lucky, or the workers. Japs kill them all when they caught them.”

“I think you told us someone from Pavau killed a Jap and they retaliated,” I said.

“Yeah, they kill plenty,” Vouza said. “Daniel work on the south side. Big mountain in between, no roads. But he heard the Japs were landing and got out kwiktaem. Him and a few fellows in canoe. John Kari work on a different plantation, got out on last boat before Japs come. I'm certain Daniel and John did not know each other.”

“You told me Daniel kept the accounts and managed shipments of copra. Maybe someone he worked with there could help shed light on his murder,” I said.

“Pavau full of Japs now,” Vouza said. “Two plantations on south side of island where Daniel worked. Both owned by Lever Brothers. Their managers ran off before Japs got close. Left workers behind.”

“Most native workers are brought in from the bigger islands,” Sexton said. “They contract for a certain number of months and then go home.”

“What about Rendova then?” I asked. “That's under our control, isn't it?”

“It's pretty well cleared out,” Sexton said. “But there's intense fighting on New Georgia, a few miles across Blanche Channel. We've taken the airfield at Munda Point, but there are still strong Jap forces on the island.”

“You go to Rendova easy enough,” Vouza said. “PT boat base there. Ask for the Coburn plantation. Old Scottish fella run it, grow coffee beans. That's where Daniel worked.”

“He moved on, though. Why?” I asked.

“Hard work in the fields,” Vouza said. “Daniel was a smart boy, knew he didn't want to be a common laborer. He wanted to use his head, not his hands.” That fit with everything I'd learned about Daniel.

“Josh Coburn returned not long ago, after Rendova was retaken, much to our surprise,” Sexton said. “We thought he was dead. The Japs almost caught him on Bougainville, but somehow he got away to Choiseul. From there he went straightaway to French New Caledonia. Word is he's now looking for his old crew of workers, most of them from Malaita. You might find someone there who knew Daniel.”

“So Coburn didn't abandon his people?”

“No. There's a big difference between a man who manages for Lever and a man who owns his own place,” Sexton said.

“Coburn is tough one,” Vouza said, nodding his agreement. “Story was Japs got him on Bougainville, where he had another coffee plantation. We only find out a few weeks ago that he took a canoe and paddled himself all the way to Choiseul. Pretty good for a seventy-year-old fella.”

I agreed that few in their right mind would fight for a big business like Lever, and that Josh Coburn sounded like an extraordinary character. But that didn't have much to do with Daniel, so I decided to dig a little deeper into his last day alive.

“I've been trying to figure out why Daniel went looking for Sam Chang when he did,” I said. “Can either of you tell me more about Daniel's movements the day he came to Tulagi? In detail, I mean.”

“Well, he arrived about mid-morning,” Sexton said.

“Go back further,” I said. “What route did he take to Guadalcanal?”

“We sent a PT boat to pick them up at Kuku, a small coastal village on Choiseul,” Sexton said. “It was a dangerous spot, but Dickie was so ill we didn't think he could travel far.”

“Why dangerous?” I asked.

“It is an obvious landing area,” Vouza said. “Small cove, no rocks. Easy. Means Japs watch it.”

“But we had good luck that night,” Sexton said. “They made it back to the PT base on Rendova and then via PBY to Guadalcanal. As I said, Daniel stayed with Dickie at Henderson Field until he got on a C-47 transport bound for Australia.”

“Who was with him?” I asked.

“None of us,” Sexton said. “I'm not sure exactly how Daniel got here from Guadalcanal, but there's always vessels going back and forth; easy enough to hitch a ride.”

“Turns out it was the same boat that brought us to Tulagi,” Archer said, joining our group. “Me, Porter, Kari, and Brockman. Left Rendova, stopped at Guadalcanal, then docked here. Daniel and I figured it out later when we were chatting. Didn't know it at the time.”

“How come you all didn't fly in with Daniel and Dickie?” I asked.

“The others came out sooner,” Sexton explained. “The tender had already left Rendova before we got poor Dickie there. He was sick enough to get priority air transport. Nearly all Coastwatchers come out of the jungle with some sort of illness, but the rest of the bunch only had minor complaints. They were treated onboard the tender. It's a pretty big ship, with a crew of a hundred or more.”

“So Daniel joined the group when he boarded the tender and sailed for Tulagi?” I asked.

“Sounds like it,” Sexton said, shrugging. “It's a short trip on a large, crowded vessel. Daniel wouldn't have known who was on board. They could have run into each other or missed meeting completely.”

“Okay,” I said. “The PT tender docks at Sesapi, here on Tulagi. That's the harbor out past Chinatown where we landed. So how does he get to your place?”

“Good question. We had a truck waiting to pick up the other four men, since we knew when to expect them,” Sexton said. “I recall Daniel showed up about an hour after they did. It didn't seem important to ask how he'd gotten here; we were just glad to see him. Besides, there's always military vehicles traveling to and from Sesapi. He could have hitched a ride easily enough.”

“Jack Kennedy told me he dropped by that day,” I said.

“Right,” Sexton replied. “He was looking for Reg Evans, the Coastwatcher who sent the two native scouts to find him. Reg is still on station, I'm afraid. Tough spot out on Kolombangara.”

“If I recall, Jack said Archer and Gordie were here, Daniel, Deanna, and John Kari. What about Silas Porter?”

“Silas was late, now that I think about it. John said he'd met a mate of his on the tender, another planter who'd been out to Rendova to check on his holdings. They went off for a drink, then Silas showed up here sometime in the afternoon,” Sexton said.

“After Daniel left?” I asked.

“Yes, about a half hour or so, I think. Daniel had asked permission to leave, said that he'd heard an aunt of his was sick,” Sexton said. “I told him to be back in the morning, and that was that.”

“No aunt sick from Malaita,” Vouza said. “Daniel made up story so he could look for Sam Chang without raising suspicion.”

“But suspicion of what?” I asked. “Why keep that a secret?”

“Because Daniel and Sam Chang both knew something,” Vouza said. “You find out what, you find out who killed them.”

“Is Kennedy really a suspect?” Sexton asked.

I glanced at Vouza, whose steady gaze betrayed nothing.

“No one is ruled out,” I said. “It could have been anyone who knew Daniel, who could get him to meet on a deserted stretch of beach. What was his frame of mind? Did he seem distracted?”

“Not that I noticed,” Sexton said. “Although we had a lot of information to go over. Daniel was very professional. His briefing about the situation on Choiseul was concise but in depth. He did seem in a hurry to leave when he finished, but I attributed that to a desire to see his aunt before the situation worsened.”

“But in reality, he wanted to find Sam Chang,” I said. “I need to find out who he talked to in Chinatown, assuming that's where he went to look for Chang. He may have said something important.”

“Everything a man says on the day he goes to the ancestors is important,” Vouza said. Hard to disagree with that. “What will you do after Chinatown?”

“Looks like I'm going to Rendova,” I said. “I'll talk to this Coburn fellow and see what he remembers about Daniel. Then snoop around the PT base and see if anyone remembers Daniel and Dickie coming through.”

“If you want, hitch a ride with Porter and Kari,” Sexton said. “They're leaving later this afternoon for Rendova. The two of them are getting their teleradio gear and supplies sorted right now.”

“On that crate we took to Malaita?” I asked.

“No, your navy is sending them up on a PT boat from Sesapi harbor,” Sexton said with a chuckle. “You'll make better time. It's about a hundred and fifty miles, which should take four or five hours, the last few after dark. Or you could go with Archer and Gordie tomorrow, same route.”

“Watch out for the Kawanishi,” Vouza said. “They see you in the daytime and they see your wake at night. Watch when light, listen when dark.”

“If you're looking up and the stars suddenly disappear, say your prayers,” Sexton said.

“And get ready to greet your ancestors,” Vouza said, and drained his beer.

“I might as well go today,” I said. “That way I can be back when Kaz returns from Australia.”

“You think Dickie will be of any help?” Sexton asked.

“To tell you the truth, I have no idea who can help. I can't find any sort of motive, except the possibility that Daniel and perhaps Sam Chang knew some secret that endangered the killer.”

“Enough to murder twice?” Vouza said. “That is plenty danger.”

“Yeah, the stakes would have to be significant,” I said. “If the killings are connected, then someone has a great deal to lose. Otherwise, why risk it? But I wonder what would be so valuable out here, with half the Solomons occupied by the Japanese? What's worth killing your own people for when the Japs are ready to oblige?”