Bahama Crisis

Ten

The week after Debbie left we lost Bill Pinder.

He was taking four American fishermen to Stella Maris on Long Island which they were going to use as a base for hunting marlin and sailfish off Columbus Point and on the Tartar Bank in Exuma Sound. I was going with them, not because I am particularly charmed by American fishermen, but because Bill was flying me on to Crooked Island, 100 miles further south, where I was to look at some property on behalf of the Theta Corporation.

As it chanced I did not go because the previous evening I slipped in the bathroom and broke a toe which proved to be rather painful. To look at property and to walk a few miles on Crooked Island in that condition was not a viable proposition, so I cancelled.

Bill Pinder took off in a Navajo early next morning with the Americans. He was flying over Exuma Sound and was filing his intentions with Nassau radio when suddenly he went off the air in mid-sentence, so we know exactly when it happened. What happened I know now but did not know then. The Bahamas may be the Shallow Sea but there are bits like the Tongue of the Ocean and Exuma Sound which are very deep; the Tartar Bank rises to within seven fathoms of the surface in Exuma Sound but the rest is deep water.

The Navajo was never found, nor any wreckage, and Bill Pinder disappeared. So did the four Americans, and two of them were so influential on Wall Street that the event caused quite a stir, more than I and the Bahamas needed. After a couple of weeks some bits and pieces of clothing were washed up on one of the Exuma cays and identified as belonging to one of the Americans.

The death of Bill Pinder hit me hard. He was a good man, and the only better light plane pilot I know is Bobby Bowen. It is hard for blacks like Bill and Bobby to achieve a commercial pilot’s ticket, or at least it was when they pulled off the trick. I suppose it is easier now.

There was a memorial service which I attended and to which many of the Corporation employees came, as many as could be spared without actually closing down the hotels. A lot of BASRA pilots were there, too. After the service I had a word with Bobby Bowen; I had not had a chance to talk to him much because, being an aircraft short, he was an overworked man. I said, ‘What happened, Bobby?’

He shrugged. ‘Who knows? There’ll be no evidence coming out of Exuma Sound.’ He thought for a moment. ‘He was filing with Nassau at the time so he’d be flying pretty high, about I0,000 feet, to get radio range. But why he fell out of the sky...?’ He spread his hands. ‘That was a good plane, Tom. It had just had its 300-hour check, and I flew it myself three days earlier.’ He grimaced a little. ‘You’ll hear talk of the Bermuda Triangle; pay no heed — it’s just the chatter of a lot of screwy nuts who don’t know one end of an airplane from the other.’

I said, ‘We’ll need another plane and another pilot.’

‘You won’t get one like Bill,’ said Bobby. ‘He knew these Islands right well. About another plane — something bigger?’ he said hopefully.

‘Perhaps. I’ll have to talk it over with the board. I’ll let you know.’

We watched the Pinder family walking away from the church. Bobby said, ‘It’s bad for Meg Pinder. Bill was a good husband to her.’

‘She’ll be looked after,’ I said. ‘The pension fund isn’t broke yet.’

‘Money won’t cure what’s wrong with her,’ said Bobby, unconsciously echoing what Perigord had said about Bayliss’s wife, and I felt a stab of shame.

But how could I know that someone was trying to kill me?

Billy Cunningham paid a flying visit. He came without warning at a weekend and found me at the house where I was packing a few things to take to my suite at the Royal Palm. We talked about Bill Pinder and he said the usual conventional things about what a tragedy it was, and we talked about getting another aircraft. He appeared to be a little nervous so I said, ‘Stop pussy-footing, Billy. Sit down, have a drink, and get it off your chest. Are you an emissary?’

He laughed self-consciously. ‘I guess so. I’ve had obligations laid on me.’

‘Cunningham obligations?’

‘Score one for you — I never did think you were stupid. You had that subtle look in your eye when you were inspecting us back home when you married Debbie. I suppose you didn’t miss much.’

‘A tight-knit bunch,’ I observed.

‘Yeah. The advantages are many — one for all and all for one — that stuff. A guy always has someone guarding his back. But there are disadvantages, like now. Old Jack’s not been feeling too well lately so he couldn’t come himself.’

‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ I said sincerely.

Billy waved his hand. ‘Nothing serious. Frank had a business meeting in California — important. So I was elected.’

I said, ‘Tell me one thing. Does Debbie know about this? Does she know you’re here?’

He shook his head. ‘No. It’s just that Jack wants to know what the hell is going on. Personally, I think it’s none of our business, but...’

‘But the Cunninghams look after their own.’

‘That’s about it. Hell, Tom, I told Jack that interfering between man and wife is pure poison, but you think he’d listen? You know the old man.’

‘Not too well,’ I said coolly. ‘What do you want to know?’

‘It’s not what I want to know — it’s what Jack wants to know. Jack and Frank both. They’re both mad at you.’ Billy paused, then said meditatively, ‘If Frank had come on this mission he might have taken a poke at you. Very protective is Frank.’

‘Why should he do that?’ I demanded. ‘I don’t beat up his little sister every Friday night as a regular routine.’

He grinned crookedly. ‘It might have been better if you had. The Cunningham women...’ He stopped short. ‘Anyway, Jack wants to know why his little girl has come running home looking as blue as a cold flounder.’

‘Didn’t he ask her?’

‘She clammed up on him — and on Frank. Me — I didn’t bother to ask. What is it, Tom?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘It appears that she wants me to stay home and hold her hand. Says I’m neglecting her. But, God, you know what’s been happening here. If it hasn’t been one bloody thing it’s been another. Did she tell you about Kayles?’

‘No. What about him?’

I told Billy in some detail, and said, ‘I know I made a damn fool of myself and I’m sorry a man was killed — but Debbie didn’t even ask if I’d been hurt.’

‘Self-centred,’ observed Billy. ‘She always was, and I’ve told her so to her face, many times. So where do you go from here?’

I took out my wallet and showed Billy the note Debbie had left and he made a sour face. ‘If she wasn’t family I’d call her a bitch,’ he said. ‘What are you doing about Karen?’

‘She’s staying with me at the hotel for the moment. I doubt if it’s good for her but it’s the best I can do right now.’

‘Do you want me to talk with Debbie?’

‘No,’ I said. ‘Keep out of it. She must work this thing through herself. And tell Jack and Frank to keep out of it, too.’

He shrugged. ‘I’ve already told them, but I’ll pass on the message from you.’

‘Do that.’

And so we left it there and began to discuss our problems in the Bahamas. Billy said, ‘The way things are going you’d better start another division — staffed by morticians. It should show a profit.’

‘Not if the bodies aren’t found,’ I said. ‘Anyway, the Theta Corporation was only directly involved in one of these incidents, the air crash.’

‘We don’t want another like that,’ warned Billy. ‘The waves are still rocking the New York Stock Exchange. Those guys who were killed weren’t ready to die; their financial affairs weren’t exactly in order. I hear the Securities and Exchange Commission might start an investigation and that’ll cause grief all round. Tom, the name of the Bahamas is coming up too often in headlines and it’s beginning to stink. And don’t give me that crap about any publicity being good publicity as long as they get the name right.’

‘It’s just a streak of bad luck. It’ll come right.’ I told him of the deal made between the Hoteliers’ Association and the Ministry of Tourism ending with, ‘So we’re doing something about it.’

‘You’d better do something about it. Jack’s getting worried; he’s talking about pulling out.’

‘Is he chicken-livered? We’ve had a run of three bad incidents and Jack runs scared?’

‘Three incidents and 128 dead,’ said Billy. ‘Jack’s been counting; he’s keeping score.’ He sighed. ‘Trouble is he never really wanted to come into the Bahamas anyway. It was my idea and Billy One backed me. Jack went along but his heart was never really in it.’

‘On top of which he’s never cottoned on to me,’ I said a little bitterly.

‘He thinks you run a loose ship,’ said Billy frankly. ‘That you give too much away. According to Jack at best you’re a do-gooder; at worst, when his bile really starts to rise, you’re an agent of the Kremlin.’

I gave Billy a level look. ‘What do you think?’

‘I think Jack is a fossilized dinosaur. Times are changing but he isn’t. As for me I’m willing to play along with your plans of operation as long as they show a profit — a reasonable return on a fifty million buck investment, a return comparable to what we’d get anywhere else. I know you’re a Bahamian and you want to help your own people; all I ask is that you don’t do it too much at corporate expense.’

‘Fair enough. But, Billy, all those things which Jack thinks are giveaways — the pension fund, the hotel doctor, the hotels’ school, and so on — all those are investments for the Corporation. They’ll pay off in staff service and corporate loyalty, and that’s hard to buy.’

‘You’re probably right,’ acknowledged Billy. ‘But Jack’s an old-time Texan. He even accused Nixon of being a commie when he pulled out of Vietnam. Sometimes I think he’s a nut. But look at you from his side of the fence. You’re a foreigner who first subverted his daughter into mixing with black kids, then took her away, and now she’s back home looking goddamn unhappy. Add all that together and you’ll see he’s just looking for an excuse to pull out of here. It won’t take much.’

‘How much of the Theta Corporation does he control?’

‘As an individual, nothing; our eighty per cent of Theta is owned by the Cunningham Corporation. But he has some clout in there. With some fast talking he could line up enough proxies to vote for a pull-out from the Bahamas.’

‘That would be a personal disaster for me,’ I said slowly. ‘I’m too deeply committed now.’

‘I know. That’s why you’d better pray there isn’t an earthquake here next week, or an outbreak of infectious dandruff. No more headlines, Tom.’

As though I did not have enough to worry about I now had Jack Cunningham gunning for me. And, as Billy had said, all I could do was pray.