Passenger 13

CHAPTER TWENTY

Palm Tree Lodge was one of a row of little white wooden houses scattered along a deserted stretch of beach. As Raoul’s taxi disappeared into the distance, Ben climbed out of the Toyota and trudged across the soft white sand. Palms rustled overhead, shading him from the late afternoon sun as he walked up to the house. He climbed the three sandy steps to the veranda, knocked on the front door and waited for a response. There was none. After a couple more knocks, he crossed the shady veranda to the nearest window, and peered through.

The place looked empty. Chairs had been stacked up in a corner, as if cleaners had gone through the place. Ben headed back down the steps to the sand.

The next house along the beach was just about visible through the trees. As Ben approached he saw a dusty Renault Scenic parked outside, and a couple of kids’ bicycles propped against the rail of the veranda. He could smell charcoal smoke and grilling sausages. Rounding the side of the property he caught sight of a twenty-something guy in colourful shorts, flip-flops and a Whitesnake T-shirt, tending to a spitting, flaming barbeque. In the background, two young children were diligently helping their mother set the picnic table.

The couple smiled amicably as Ben approached. He apologised for interrupting them, and asked if they knew whether the place next door was vacant — if it was, he told them, he’d be interested in renting it.

‘Can’t help you there,’ the guy said, flipping a sausage away from the flames. ‘We only got here this morning. But we got the number of the agency that rents them out. Babe, can you get the card from inside?’

Armed with the number, Ben thanked them and continued up the beach. He took out his phone as he walked. It was after six, but he hoped there might still be someone in the property agency office. Just as the answer-phone was about to kick in, someone picked up. ‘Is that Sunshine Villas?’ Ben said. ‘I was interested in renting one of your properties. Palm Tree Lodge. Can you tell me if it’s vacant?’

‘Sorry, sir,’ came the reply. ‘That isn’t one of ours. I believe it’s let privately.’

‘Would you know who I could contact about the place?’

‘Afraid not, sir. But if it’s a beach property you’re interested in, we do have a whole selection of—’

Ben cut them off and put the phone back in his pocket. He walked on, following the curve of the beach. From beyond a thick stand of palms up ahead he could hear the offbeat sound of Afro-Cuban jazz drifting towards him on the breeze. As he passed by the palms he caught sight of a little open-air beach bar at the foot of a wooden jetty, shaded under a stripy awning. He headed across the white sand towards it.

Feeling thirsty and maybe influenced by the catchy Cuban rhythms, Ben ordered a daiquiri at the bar. The owner-manager, a cheerful black guy in a Fedora hat, was a pretty useful cocktail maker. White rum, lime juice, not too heavy on the sugar. Ben took his time over his drink, deep in thought. The breeze from the sea was freshening as later afternoon turned into early evening.

‘Nice little place you have here,’ he said when he went to get a refill.

‘Pays my bills, you know?’

Ben pointed at the white wooden house in the distance. ‘You wouldn’t happen to know the guy who lives in Palm Tree Lodge over there, would you? Mr Moss?’

‘Oh, you must mean Larry,’ the barman laughed over the rattle of the cocktail shaker.

‘Yeah, Larry,’ Ben said, like he’d already known.

‘You know him?’

‘Sure, we grew up together in Ireland,’ Ben said.

‘Shit, I never would’ve taken Larry for an Irish guy. Sounded real English to me. You here on vacation, mister?’

Ben nodded. ‘Thought I’d drop in on my old friend. But he’s not at home.’

‘That figures. Haven’t seen him for a week or so. Must have gone, I reckon. Shame. He was one of my best customers the coupla months he was here. Always running out of booze, always needed ol’ Cuban George to sell him a bottle. He was here just ’bout every day.’

‘Did Larry mention anything about a trip to London?’

‘Don’t think he said nuthin’ about that. We talked about sport mostly. Sometimes he didn’t talk at all. But I sure do miss him.’

‘Pity when you lose a good customer.’

‘Oh, there’ll be another,’ Cuban George said, waving in the direction of Palm Tree Lodge. ‘They come and go, you know? Sometimes one guy on his own. Sometimes two at a time. Mostly they keep themselves to themselves.’ He raised an eyebrow meaningfully. ‘Me, I don’t ask. I got an open mind. Questions get a guy into a whole lot of trouble.’

‘You got that right,’ Ben said. ‘So the place is empty right now?’

‘I ain’t seen nobody there for a couple of days. After Larry left, there was a few guys hanging around there. Coupla cars. Then nothing since.’

The place must have been totally cleaned out, Ben thought. ‘Do you remember what day Larry left?’ he asked.

‘Wouldn’t normally, but it was the day that plane went down, man. That’s a day nobody round here’s gonna forget in a hurry.’ Cuban George shook his head mournfully, then suddenly frowned as a thought came to him. ‘Say, you don’t s’pose Larry was on that plane, do you?’

‘I’m sure Larry’s just fine,’ Ben said. ‘Do you know who owns the place? I’m looking to rent something myself. It’d suit me down to the ground.’

‘No idea, man. Like I say, I never ask questions.’

As the sun went down, Ben sipped down his second daiquiri and went over what he knew so far. There couldn’t be much doubt that Larry Moss had been the enigmatic thirteenth passenger on board the fatal CIC flight that day. It seemed that he’d been on his way to London: possibly intending to take a direct flight there from Owen Roberts on Grand Cayman, maybe via Havana, Mexico City or Miami. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that someone hadn’t wanted him to get there. And didn’t want anyone else to know he’d ever boarded the plane.

That was where the facts ran out and the questions resumed: the whos and whys that, right now, were pretty unanswerable. Ben didn’t like dead ends.

‘Say hi to Larry for me if you see him,’ Cuban George called as Ben walked away across the sand.

‘I’ll be sure to do that,’ Ben muttered in reply. As he retraced his steps back down the beach, the glorious reds and golds of the sunset dipped over the sea and silhouetted the palm trees against the sky like something out of a picture postcard. The empty lodge was half-hidden in shadows by the time he got back there. Ben climbed the steps onto the porch, glanced left, glanced right, then kicked the door in with a crump of splintering wood.

The inside was pretty basic, almost Spartan: the walls bare, white-tiled floors throughout. The kitchen had a tiny table and a couple of plain wooden chairs. Microwave, two-ring stove, empty fridge, empty cupboards, bare worktops. The two basic bedrooms were the same, showing no sign of recent habitation. There was fresh linen in the storage drawers under the beds, waiting for the next visitor to arrive — maybe weeks in the future, maybe longer. In the small living room, dust covers had been stretched over the single armchair and the sofa. The TV was unplugged from the wall. The bookshelf was empty, like the coffee table. No books, no magazines, no papers, no sign of Larry Moss to be seen anywhere.

First he’d never been on the plane. Now he’d never been here either.

Ben had the distinct feeling that Little Cayman’s stock of potential leads had just dried up on him. Where to next?

If Moss had had a boat or access to one, he’d have used it to get off the island instead of jumping on a CIC Trislander. Which meant that in order to get here in the first place, he must have travelled via Grand Cayman: where lay Ben’s only chance of picking up the trail again.

How exactly he intended to do that, and what he was even looking for, were things he could figure out on the seventy-five-mile journey back across the sea.