The Scottish Banker of Surabaya - By Ian Hamilton Page 0,95

tell her that Mr. Cameron might have to leave on a business trip to Singapore that evening, and he asked you to ask her to pack a suitcase for him with just enough things for an overnight stay. He will want his passport put into the case. Tell her that if he is going, he’ll go to the airport directly from dinner and he’ll call her and update her on his schedule.”

“Do you have the housekeeper’s name?”

“Yannie.”

“Good. And this gift, do I need to know what it is?”

“It’s small and it will be wrapped. Bring it back to me. I want it.”

“Okay.”

“And when you get back, we’ll settle things with Cameron,” she said. “The boys are onside?”

“No problem.”

“Would Waru be okay with our burying Cameron in one of his back fields?”

“Shouldn’t be an issue,” Perkasa said without hesitation.

“Then could you ask the brothers to dig a hole — a deep hole — while you’re off getting Cameron’s things?”

“Sure.”

“Thanks.”

“I have to say, Ava, you’ve made quite an impression on them.”

“That wasn’t the intention,” she said.

Prayogo came back into the house carrying the mobile in his hand.

Ava looked at her watch. “Let’s get started.”

( 35 )

Cameron was slumped in the chair, his chin resting on his chest. Ava shook him. “I need water,” he said, twitching as he woke.

“After you make the phone call to Yannie, you can have all the water you want,” she said. “Now what’s the number?”

She punched it in as he recited it. She held off hitting the last digit and she said, “Andy, remember what I told you — no funny stuff. You’re sending someone from the golf course to get the gift. Just tell her where it is and tell her to get it ready for pickup. Nothing more. Not one word extra.”

“I know,” he said.

Ava hit the last number and held the phone loosely to his ear so she could hear it ring. On the third ring a woman picked up. “Hello, Pak Andy.”

He spoke quickly. “Yannie, I’m at the golf course and I have to go back to play in a minute, so listen carefully. I left a pair of green jade cufflinks on my dresser. They’re a gift for a friend’s birthday. He’s here with me and I want to give them to him later this afternoon. I’ve asked one of the men from the golf club to come by and pick them up. Could you wrap them, please?”

Ava heard Yannie’s voice and knew she was asking a question.

“No, I don’t need a card. Just the gift,” Cameron said.

The housekeeper spoke again. Cameron looked up at Ava. “She’s asking the name of the person going to the house,” he said.

Ava glanced at Perkasa.

“Tell her Tedjo is coming,” he said.

“He’s called Tedjo,” Cameron said.

Say goodbye, Ava mouthed.

“I have to go now. I’ll talk to you later,” said Cameron.

Ava hung up the phone and put the tape back on Cameron’s mouth. “Well done.” She motioned for Perkasa to follow her into the kitchen. “Who is Tedjo?” she asked.

“A guy in Jakarta I don’t like.”

She smiled. “How long do you think it will take you to get back and forth from Cameron’s house?”

“About an hour, give or take.”

“Call me as soon as you leave there, as soon as you have the gift and the suitcase.”

“I will.”

“And talk to the boys about digging that hole.”

“Right now.”

Perkasa called to Waru and Prayogo to come into the house and Ava replaced them on the porch. Cameron was slumped over again, unconscious or close to it. Ava wondered if he was playing possum and nudged his naked knee with the toe of her shoe. He didn’t budge.

She looked at him and wondered what Fay would think of him now. Without the gel in his hair, the fashionable spikes were gone, exposing balding temples. The wet shirt pressed against his torso, and the fact that he was sitting made his belly look twice as big as it probably was. His legs were thin, white, the knees knobby. Then there were his genitals, shrunken now, as if retreating inside his body to avoid any more pain.

He’s pathetic, Ava thought. The cocky, sneaky little Scotsman reduced to a whimpering mess with two flicks of the picana. It shouldn’t have been so easy. If he had any guts he would have resisted for longer. But then, if he had any guts he wouldn’t have drugged her.

Waru and Prayogo came out of the house, nodded at Ava, and then went around the side. When they