I tapped out a cigarette, then offered him the packet. Smoke?
He hesitated, then said, Thanks, man, and took a cigarette. The other man, older and with a seamed, lived-in face, ducked his head as he took one with gnarled fingers.
I took out my lighter and we lit up. This is a very nice island.
The younger man stabbed his mattock into the ground with a sudden violence that made the muscles writhe in his brawny arm. Some think so.
But not you?
Would you like it if you were me, mister? he asked.
I looked around at the arid field and shook my head. Probably not.
He blew out a plume of smoke. You going to El Cerco? The Salton place?
Thats right.
If you see Mrs Salton, you tell her McKittrick said hello.
Are you McKittrick?
He nodded. Tell her I was sorry about Mr Salton.
Ill tell her, I said. Do you know her well?
He laughed. She probably wont remember me. He took the cigarette and delicately nipped away the coal before dropping the stub into his shirt pocket. People forget. He tugged the mattock out of the dust. This isnt getting the corn planted.
Ill pass on your message, I said.
McKittrick made no answer but turned his back and bent to draw a furrow in the ground. I hesitated for a moment and then went back to the car.
I knew immediately what Jackson had meant about invitations when I arrived at El Cerco. I looked at the strong, meshed cyclone fence set on steel posts and at the two men at the gate. They wore what might or might not have been a uniform and, although they didnt seem to carry guns, they looked as though they should have done. One stayed by the gate; the other came up to the car and bent to look at me.
My name is Kemp, I said. Mrs Salton is expecting me.
He straightened up, consulted a sheet of paper which he took from his pocket, and nodded. Youre expected at the beach, Mr Kemp. The boat is waiting for you. He waved at the other man, who opened the gate.
What boat?
I found out about two hundred yards down the road the other side of the gate, where the asphalt curved into a bend giving a view over the sea. El Cerco was breathtaking. The natural coral formation was a perfect circle about three-quarters of a mile in diameter. Outside, the steady trade wind heaped up waves which crashed on to the coral, sending up spouts of foam, but inside that magic circle the water was smooth and calm.
Right in the centre was a small island, not more than a hundred yards across, and on it was a building, a many-planed structure that curved and nestled close to the ground on which it was built. It seemed as though David Salton had created his own Shangri-la. It was a pity he wasnt around to enjoy it.
I drove on down the road, which descended steeply in a series of hairpin bends until it came to the edge of the lagoon. There was another house here and a row of garages with a big boathouse at the waters edge. A man was waiting for me. He waved the car into a garage and when I came out he said, This way, Mr Kemp, and led me to a jetty where a fast-looking motor launch was moored. Less than five minutes later I stepped ashore on the island in the middle of El Cerco.
An elderly servant stood in attendance. He had grey hair and wore a white coat a typical Caribbean waiter. When he spoke I thought I recognised the voice I had heard on the telephone when I called the previous day. He said, This way, Mr Kemp sir. There was just the right pause to make the insolence detectable but not enough to complain about. I grinned at the thought that the staff didnt like being ticked off by strangers.
The house had been designed by a master architect, so arranged that at times it was difficult to tell whether one was inside or outside. Lush tropical plants were everywhere and there were streams and fountains and the constant glint of light on pools. Most noticeably, the house was pleasantly cool in the steadily increasing heat.
We came into a quiet room and the old servant said softly, Mr Kemp, maam.
She rose from a chair. Thank you, John.
There was a man standing behind her but I ignored him because she was enough to fill the view. She was less than thirty, long of limb and with flaming red hair, green eyes and the kind of perfect complexion that goes with that combination. She was not at all what I had imagined as the widow of David Salton, fifty-two-year-old building tycoon.
A lot of thoughts chased through my mind very quickly but, out of the helter-skelter, two stayed with me. The first was that a woman like Jill Salton would be a handful for any man. Physical beauty is like a magnet and any husband married to this one could expect to be fighting off the competition with a club.
The second thought was that under no circumstance in law can a murderer benefit by inheritance from the person murdered.
Now why should I have thought that?