Suddenly at Singapore by Gavin Black Page A

as you might say. He doesn’t go in for murder. I wish I’d brought my secretary along to take notes. Or we could use yours? She’d be interested.”
    “Russell, what is all this?”
    “You’re bloody careless. With Jeff to watch it was all right. Now it isn’t. You’ll blow everything to hell. And then expect me to sit and hold your hand through one of the prettiest rumpuses the sewer has seen for half a decade. Oh, I don’t know what I’m talking about … officially. But I still think that you’d make a lovely target. And a lot of highly respected European business men think so, too. In fact every time they wake up in the night and think about Harris and Company they have to reach for another sedative tablet. You’re giving honest men ulcers. The situation is explosive. The pure Goddess of Commerce trembles on her pedestal.”
    “I’m getting a swelled head.”
    “God gave it to you, dear chap.”
    He stared at his highly polished shoes.
    “By the way, what’s this about a divorce? Jeff gave me a sort of tip.”
    “He had no right to!”
    “Jeff never gave me a wrong tip yet. Did he want it?”
    “I don’t.”
    “Well, of course it’s your marriage. You’ve been of age a long time. But Jeff was right.”
    “We’ll drop this.”
    “All right, all right. So long as I’m in the picture. As you know well I like to creep around things, not rush them. Rather like that boy Kang. Bright boy, I think. Might make me a judge if I endorsed his diploma. Chief Justice Menzies, late of Singapore, Retired. Go down well in Inverness. Get me on to all the best stretches of river. Coming to have lunch with me?”
    “No, I’m staying in. I’ve got a lot of work to get through. I’ll have a sandwich.”
    “You’ve never been a boy for sandwiches. What’s up?”
    “Nothing’s up. I’ve taken over Jeff’s work, that’s all.”
    “I wish I thought it would anchor you. Not thinking of moving anywhere, are you?”
    “How could I, with three coppers on my tail all the time?”
    “Hm. You didn’t tell me. Kang’s worried. The last thing he wants is you dead. It’s hard to work up a good-going rumpus over a corpse. No, he’s most anxious to keep you alive. And in Singapore.”
    “Kang has no right to stop me going anywhere I like.”
    “I wouldn’t count on that, boyo. He’s probably got something to slap on you, too. An absolutely fool-proof case that you pinched your wife’s gold wrist-watch and hocked it.”
    “You’re a big comic, Russell.”
    “It’s not what I feel.”
    He lowered his feet, slowly. Then he heaved himself up.
    “If there’s anything a lawyer hates it’s to have the feeling that he lacks his client’s confidence. Long experience has taught us that the worst is quite unspeakable, but we like to know it. It hurts, deep down inside, to feel shut out.”
    “What you don’t know about me you can guess.”
    “That’s the trouble, I can.”
    “I suggest you go away and eat yourself into your siesta.”
    “I may be gross,” Russell said with dignity, “but I don’t nap in the middle of the day. I’d hate to see you on a slab, Paul. More than Kang would. I wouldn’t go and see Jeff on his.”
    “For God’s sake cut it out!”
    He looked at me.
    “Other people quite like you, you know. Even though you don’t stop to give them a chance to do anything. You bloody fool!”
    He lumbered across the room without looking at me and slammed the door behind him. I found I was sweating. Beads of it were on my hands and I could feel them on my face. I pushed down a button and said:
    “Miss Flores, you go to lunch.”
    “Very good, Mr. Harris.”
    The harbour seemed oddly silent, as though the torpor of heat had caught all the ships out there. The Misuni Maru had gone. I sat down and checked my wallet, the money in it, the things I would need. Then I waited, with the electric clock on the wall moving slowly.
    Soon the outer office would be empty. Miss Flores would expect me to