The Scottish Banker of Surabaya - By Ian Hamilton Page 0,97

her enormously, but in the months since she had found ways to rationalize her actions. Now she was going to do it again.

The gun lay on the table beside her right hand. Ava watched her fingers tremble. “I’m not sure I can do this,” she whispered.

She heard a shout from the porch. She stood up, the gun in her hand. It became quiet outside and she sat down again. Procrastinating isn’t going to make this any easier, she told herself. There was no choice, she knew. Leaving him alive would put everyone at risk: the brothers, Perkasa, John and Fay Masterson, her, maybe even Uncle. Still she waited, gathering herself.

Then Waru was at the door, shouting at her in Indonesian, pointing back towards the porch. She ran out to him, the gun in her hand.

Waru was standing next to Cameron. The Scotsman’s head was slumped onto his chest and he wasn’t moving. She walked over to Cameron and held her hand against his mouth and nose. She couldn’t feel his breath. She lifted his chin, reached for his neck and searched for a pulse. Then she grabbed his wrist and pressed her fingers into the artery there. Nothing.

“He’s dead,” she said to Waru.

He ran his hand across his throat in a slicing motion.

Ava nodded.

“What’s going on?” Perkasa said.

She turned and saw him emerging from the kitchen. Either the trip from Cameron’s house had been very fast or Ava had lost all sense of time while she was thinking about what she needed to do.

“He’s dead,” she said. “He seems to have had a heart attack or a stroke.”

“Fat, out of shape, stressed, cooked by the sun — I’m not surprised,” Perkasa said, and then looked at the gun in her hand. “It was nice of him to save us the trouble.”

“We need to bury him,” Ava said.

“Is the hole dug?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll tell the boys to get him into the ground.”

( 36 )

Ava and Perkasa sat in the Nissan with the air conditioning running. Neither of them had said much since the brothers left the porch with Cameron. Waru had taken him by the ankles, Prayogo by his wrists, and they had carried him back to the palm trees, where they tossed him into the ground. It took longer than Ava would have imagined to return the dirt to its rightful place.

Perkasa gave her the small wrapped box he had picked up at Cameron’s house. She put it into her bag, ignoring the questions in his eyes. He showed her the luggage the housekeeper had packed: a blue nylon suitcase. She checked the nametag. Cameron had been a member of Star Alliance.

When the brothers finally emerged from the house, Ava waved them over to the Nissan. She gave each of them two U.S. hundred-dollar bills. She knew that was probably equivalent to a month’s salary. Whatever it was, and whatever else they were being paid by Perkasa, they had been worth every dollar. They smiled at her and then spoke to Perkasa.

“They say thank you very much, and now they want to know what the next plan is.”

“You, me, and Waru will drive to the airport in the Nissan. He’d better come inside with us and make sure you have no problems at check-in. Prayogo can drive the Porsche; tell him to put it in long-term parking. Then he can join us inside the terminal. You will get on the plane to Singapore and I’ll catch mine to Hong Kong, and we’ll try to forget any of this happened today.”

It took them an hour to drive back into the city and then south to the airport. Ava had moved to the back seat, her thoughts now on Hong Kong. Perkasa sat in the front with Waru, the two men chatting and laughing as if they were the ones who had just finished a game of golf. Behind the Nissan, Prayogo trailed in the Porsche.

They were ten minutes from the airport when Perkasa turned to Ava. “Do you have a confirmation number for me?”

“Oh, yes, I almost forgot,” she said, reaching into her bag.

She passed him the slip of paper she’d written it on. “What are you going to do when you get to Singapore? Get on the first plane back to Jakarta?”

“Maybe, but maybe I’ll stay there for a few days.”

“Do you need any more money?”

“No, I’ve told you, Uncle sent more than enough.”

Ava looked out the window as Surabaya slid by. She would never come back to the city, she