Bahama Crisis

Six

Perigord put Sam Ford and Joe Cartwright through the wringer, but did not get much more out of them than I had, then he took the negative and photographs and departed. But he did not take all of them; I had retained some, locked in the office safe. I spoke to Sam and Joe. ‘If you see or hear of this man I want to know, but don’t alarm him — just contact me.’

Sam said, ‘What’s all this about, Tom?’

I hesitated, half inclined to tell him, but said briefly, ‘You don’t have to know. It’s a police matter.’ I changed the subject. ‘We’re organizing the marinas into a division, Joe; and Sam will be boss. Spread the word that we’re expanding. There’ll be no firings and a lot of hirings. Sam will tell you all about it. All right, that’s it.’

And that was that.

Jack Kayles did not come to the surface, not then, but Billy Cunningham arrived a couple of weeks later with a platoon of lawyers and accountants and they started to go through the books of West End Securities, finding not much wrong and a lot that was right. After a few days Billy came to me and said with a crooked smile, ‘You under-estimated your value by about a quarter-million — but you’re still not going to get more than a fifth of Theta stock.’

‘Suits me.’

‘The Corporation will be set up by the end of the week; I’ve had the Nassau lawyers working on it. Then we can sign papers.’

‘You’d have done better to have consulted me on that,’ I said.

‘Perhaps, but I thought that maybe you weren’t in any condition to think straight.’

‘You could have been right,’ I admitted.

He stood up and stretched. ‘Gee, it’s been a hard week. I could do with a drink. Where do you keep your office bottle?’

I opened the cabinet, poured drinks, and handed him a glass. ‘Here’s to the Theta Corporation.’

We drank the toast, and Billy said, ‘You sure put a burr under Debbie’s saddle. What the hell did you do?’

‘Just a bit of fatherly advice.’

Billy’s lips quirked. ‘Fatherly!’ He sat down. ‘My revered uncle, Jack Cunningham, Chairman of the Cunningham Corporation and something of a prime bastard, thinks you’re some kind of subversive nut. He says you’ve been putting leftist ideas into his daughter’s head.’

‘What do you think?’

‘I think it’s the best thing that ever happened to her,’ he said frankly. ‘She’s been spoiled silly all her life and it’s time she thought of something other than herself. Maybe this will do it.’

‘I hope so.’

He hesitated. ‘She told me about Sue, and the funeral. Why didn’t you let me know?’

‘Not your problem.’ I tasted the whisky. ‘Did she tell you about the photograph?’

‘What photograph?’

So Debbie was keeping her promise to Perigord; she had not even told her family. I was not as honourable. ‘I’ll tell you about it, but keep it under your hat.’

So I told him and it was long in the telling, and when I had finished he said, ‘Jesus, I’ve never heard of anything like that!’ He picked up the photograph I had taken from the safe. ‘You mean this son of a bitch killed your family?’

‘That’s the general theory. If he’s still alive he did, and if he’s dead who took his boat from the marina here?’

‘This is a crummy picture,’ said Billy. ‘I think we can do better than this?’

‘How?’

‘You know we have the Space Center in Houston. I know a lot of the guys there because we do business with NASA. When they shoot pictures back from space they’re pretty blurred so they put them through a computer which sharpens them up; makes a computer-enhanced image, as they call it.’ He tapped the photograph. ‘I think they could do the same with this, and if they can’t you’re no worse off. Mind if I take this back to Houston?’

I thought it was a good idea. ‘Take it.’

Three days later we signed papers and I was President of a $50 million corporation.

Time passed.

I had a heavy workload as I buckled down to making the Theta Corporation work. I began by activating some of the suggestions I had outlined to Billy, beginning with the construction division. Jack Foster was a childless widower who ran a construction company based in Nassau. He was past sixty and wanted to get out, not seeing the point of working himself into the grave when he had no one to leave the company to, so I flew to Nassau and we did a deal, and I got the company for a quarter-million less than I expected to pay. Since this was the company that was building the hotel on Eleuthera things started to move faster there because I saw to it that the Theta Corporation got first choice of materials and manpower. The sooner the hotel was completed the sooner the cash flow would turn from negative to positive.

The quarter-million I saved I put into a geographical and economic survey of the Bahamas, hiring an American outfit to do it. I did not expect them to come up with anything that would surprise me, but what they found would buttress my ideas with the Cunninghams.

I flew to Abaco at least once a week to see Karen, even if only to stay an hour. She seemed to have settled down completely and seemed none the worse for her bereavement. I wished I had her resilience; I stopped myself from brooding only by hard work and keeping occupied. But there were times in the small hours...

I discussed the question of taking Karen home but Peggy counselled against it. ‘Tom, you’re working all the hours God sends. How do you expect to look after a little girl? Let her stay here until things ease off for you. She’s no trouble.’

Peggy and Bob were over the moon because I was funding them to a golf course to compete with the one at Treasure Cay. I also told them I was having joint meetings with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Tourism and the Department of Public Works to see if anything could be done about the God-awful road between Marsh Harbour and Treasure Cay. I told them I had produced the Pilot’s Bahamas Aviation Guide — the bit where it says that if anyone wants to get from Treasure Cay to Marsh Harbour they’d better fly. ‘I asked them, “What sort of tourist advertising is that?” I think we’ll get our improved road.’

‘It would help our lunch trade a lot,’ said Bob. ‘People coming on day tours from Treasure Cay.’

‘The hell with lunch. You’ll be running a car hire service.’

So I was keeping busy and the time passed a little less painfully.

I made a point of dropping in to see Perigord from time to time. The computer-enhanced pictures of Kayles came back from NASA and I gave them to him. He took one look at them and blinked. ‘How did you do this?’ he demanded.

‘Ask no questions,’ I said. ‘Remember discretion.’

There was no sign of Kayles. ‘If he’s still alive he could be anywhere,’ said Perigord. ‘Yachtsmen are mobile and there’s no control over them at all. For all I know he’s in Cape Town right now.’

‘And he’ll have changed the name of his boat again.’

‘And perhaps his own,’ said Perigord.

‘He’d surely have passport difficulties there.’

Perigord looked at me a little sorrowfully. ‘It may come as a surprise to you to know that the skipper of a boat, no matter how small the boat, doesn’t need a passport; all he needs are ship’s papers and those are easily forged. In any case, getting a passport is easy enough if you know where to look.’

Perigord was stymied.

Three months passed and Debbie came back bringing with her two black American girls of about her own age. She blew into my office like a refreshing breeze and introduced them. ‘This is Cora Brown and Addy Williams; they’re both teachers, and Addy has nursing qualifications. We’re an advance scouting party.’

‘Then I’d better fix you up with rooms.’ I stretched for the telephone.

‘No need,’ she said airily. ‘I made reservations.’

I made a mental note to tell Jack Fletcher to inform me any time Debbie Cunningham made a reservation. ‘So you’re going ahead.’

They told me about it, extensively and in detail. They were going to bring twenty children each month for a two-week stay. ‘I had a bit of trouble with the school boards about that,’ said Debbie. ‘But I pointed out that both Cora and Addy are teachers and the whole thing is one big geography lesson, anyway — with sport thrown in. They went for it.’

Cora and Addy were to give the kids lessons in basic arithmetic and English, and they were to learn the history of the Bahamas in relationship to the United States. That took care of the education bit. Debbie said tentatively, ‘You said something about the Family Islands. I thought a week here and a week on one of those...’

‘Sure,’ I said. ‘That’s easy. While they’re here those kids who can swim can go along to the Underwater Exploration Society and learn scuba-diving. They’ll give you a low rate. Those who can’t swim can have lessons here in the hotel pool. We have an instructor.’

‘That’s great,’ said Cora. ‘I can’t swim — maybe I’ll take lessons, too.’

And so it went with much enthusiasm. I took time off to introduce them to people I thought they ought to know and then let them loose in Freeport. Before they went back to the States I took Debbie to dinner at the Xanadu Princess. I had engineered that tête-à-tête by sending Cora and Addy to Abaco with an introduction to Peggy.

As we got out of the car Debbie looked up at the hotel. ‘Does this belong to the Theta Corporation?’

I laughed. ‘No, I just like to keep tabs on what the opposition is up to.’

Over cocktails I said, ‘I like Cora and Addy. Where did you find them?’

‘Oh, I just asked around and came up with the jackpot.’ She smiled. ‘Neither of them is married. From what I’ve observed in the last few days they could very well marry Bahamian boys. Your menfolk sure move in fast.’ The smile left her face and she said soberly, ‘How are you doing, Tom?’

‘All right. The Theta Corporation is keeping me busy. So much so that I’m thinking of selling the house. I don’t spend much time there now; usually I sleep at the hotel.’

‘Oh, you mustn’t sell that beautiful house,’ she said impulsively.

‘I rattle around in it. And there are too many memories.’

She put her hand on mine. ‘I hope it’s not too bad.’ We were quiet for a while, then she said, ‘Billy talked to me. He said you’d told him about Kayles. Any more news?’

‘Nothing. Kayles seems to have vanished completely. If it weren’t for all the inconsistencies I’d be inclined to believe he went down with Lucayan Girl — that it was a genuine accident.’

I changed the subject deliberately and we talked of other and lighter matters, and it was pretty late when I took her back to the Royal Palm. As we walked towards the parking lot, something flashed out of the darkness and Debbie ducked, and gasped, ‘What was that!’

‘Don’t worry, it’s harmless — it won’t hurt you. It was just a bat. We call them money bats.’

Debbie looked up doubtfully and I could see she did not altogether believe my claim that the bats were harmless. ‘That’s an odd name? Why money bats?’

I chuckled. ‘Because the only time you see them is when they’re flying away from you.’

That night, lying sleepless in bed, I had a curious thought. Could the mind play tricks on one? Had I given Debbie Cunningham the idea of bringing American kids to the Bahamas just so I could see more of her? It had not been a conscious decision, of that I was sure. With Julie and Sue just dead a week I would not, could not, have made such a decision. But the mind is strange and complex, and perhaps it had put those words in my mouth, the idea into Debbie’s mind, for reasons of its own.

All the same I felt happier than I had felt for a long time, knowing that I would be seeing Debbie Cunningham monthly for the foreseeable future.

The months went by. Seven months after I became President of the Theta Corporation we had the Grand Opening of the Rainbow Bay Hotel on Eleuthera. I invited a crowd of notables: Government ministers, a couple of film stars, a golf champion and so on. I also invited Deputy-Commissioner Howard Perigord and his wife, Amy. And the Cunninghams came; Billy and his father, Billy One; Jack Cunningham, who looked upon me with some mistrust, and, of course, daughter Debbie.

To make sure that everything went like clockwork I pulled the best of the staff from the other three hotels. The service in those hotels might have suffered a little at that time, but not much because, in general, the quality of our staff was high. In the event all went well.

Before we flew to Eleuthera the Cunninghams and I had an informal board meeting. I handed out copies of the survey made by the American company, and added my report with its detailed recommendations. ‘You’re not expected to read all this now, but I’ll give you a brief summary.’

I ticked off the points on my fingers. ‘We go into the Family Islands...’ I paused, and said in parentheses, ‘They used to be known as the Out Islands but the Minister of Tourism thinks that the Family Islands sounds more cosy.’

‘He’s right,’ said Billy. ‘And Shakespeare was wrong. There’s a lot to names.’

‘Anyway, the future lies in the Family Islands. We go into real estate in a big way on Crooked Island, Acklins Island, Mayaguana and Great Inagua. And we buy a couple of cays in the Ragged Island Range. All this is undeveloped and we get in there first, especially before the Swiss moneymen move in and send the prices up.’

I tapped another finger. ‘We put together our own package deals and farm them out to travel agents in the States and in Europe. In order to do that we either make deals with a couple of airlines or charter planes ourselves to fly our customers into Grand Bahama or New Providence. From there we’ll either have to do a deal with Bahamasair or set up our own islands airline.’

Another finger went up. ‘Next I want one really top-class luxury hotel; not for the package tourist but for the people with money.’ I grinned. ‘Simple folks like yourselves. Ten per cent of the visitors to the Islands come in their own aircraft and I want to capture that market.’

‘Sounds good,’ said Billy.

Billy One said, ‘Yeah, it seems to make sense.’

Jack Cunningham had been flipping through the pages of my report. ‘What’s this about you wanting to start a school?’

I said, ‘If we’re building hotels we’ll need staff to run them. I want to train them my way.’

‘The hell with that!’ said Jack roundly. ‘We pay for training, then they leave and go to some other goddamn hotel like a Holiday Inn. No way are we doing that.’

‘The Ministry of Tourism is putting up half the cost,’ I said.

‘Oh, well,’ said Jack grudgingly. ‘That may be different.’

Billy said, ‘Jack, I’m Chairman of this corporation and as far as I’m concerned you’re the seventeenth Vice-President in Charge of Answering Stupid Questions. Don’t stick your oar in here.’

‘Don’t talk to your uncle like that,’ said Billy One. But his voice was mild.

‘I’ve gotten my money in here,’ snapped Jack. ‘And I don’t want this guy throwing it away. He’s already filled Debbie’s head with a lot of communistic nonsense.’

Billy grinned. ‘Show me another commie with over ten million bucks.’

‘Two million of which we gave him,’ snapped Jack. He tossed the report aside. ‘Billy, you damn near swore a Bible oath that the Government of the Bahamas was stable.’ He pointed at me. ‘You believed him. He gives us a report which makes nice reading, but I’ve been reading other words — in newspapers, for instance. There was a goddamn riot in Nassau three days ago. What’s so stable about that?’

I knew about the riot and was at a loss to account for it. It had flashed into being from nowhere and the police had had a hard time in containing the disturbance. I said, ‘An American outfit pulled out and closed down a factory. They did it too damned fast and without consultation. People don’t like being fired, especially when it’s done without so much as a by-your-leave. I think that started the trouble. It’s just a local difficulty, Jack.’

He grunted. ‘It had better be. Some American tourists got hurt, and that’s not doing the industry any good; an industry, I might point out, which we’re into for fifty million dollars.’

I could see that any relationship I had with Jack would be uneasy and I determined to steer clear of him as far as I could. As for the riot, I had given a glib enough explanation, but I was not sure it was the right one.

Billy One said, ‘Let’s cool it, shall we?’ He looked at me. ‘Would you happen to have any sour mash around?’

So it was smoothed over and next day we flew to Eleuthera. Eleuthera is 120 miles long but at the place where I had built the hotel it was less than two miles wide, so that from the hotel one could see the sea on both sides. Billy One looked at this in wonder. ‘I’ll be goddamned!’

I said, ‘We get two beaches for the price of one. That’s why I built here.’

Even Jack was impressed.

During the course of the day I had a few words with Perigord and asked him about the riot in Nassau. ‘What caused it?’ I asked.

He shrugged. ‘I don’t really know. It’s not in my jurisdiction. It’s in Commissioner Deane’s lap — and he’s welcome to it.’

‘Any chance of a similar occurrence on Grand Bahama?’

He smiled grimly. ‘Not if I have anything to do with it.’

‘Was it political?’

He went opaque on me and deliberately changed the subject. ‘I must congratulate you on this very fine hotel. I wish you every success.’

That reaction worried me more than anything else.

But the Grand Opening was a tremendous success and I danced with Debbie all night.

And so it went. The Theta Corporation was a success after its first year although more money was going out than coming in. After all, that was the point — we were still in the stage of expansion. Billy was satisfied with the way I was handling things and so, largely, was Billy One. How Jack felt I did not know; he kept his nose out of things and I did not care to ask. Everything was going fine in my business life, and my private life was perking up, too, to the point where I asked Debbie to marry me.

She sighed. ‘I thought you’d never ask.’

So I took her to bed and we were married three weeks later over the protests of Jack, whose open objection concerned the disparity in our ages, but he did not like me, something I knew already. Billy and, I think, Billy One were for it, but Debbie’s brother, Frank, followed Jack’s line. Various members of the family took sides and the clan was split to some extent on this issue. But none of them could say that I was a fortune-hunter marrying her for her money — I had enough of my own. As for my own feelings about it, I was marrying Debbie, not Jack.

We married in Houston in a somewhat tense atmosphere and then went back to the Bahamas to honeymoon briefly at the new Rainbow Bay Hotel. Then we went back to Grand Bahama via Abaco where we picked up Karen who seemed dubious about having a new mother. Debbie and Karen moved into the house at Lucaya and I went back to running the Corporation. Two months later she told me she was pregnant which made both of us very happy.

But then things began to go wrong again because people who were coming to the Bahamas on vacation were going home to die.