Lay Her Among The Lilies

liquor and harrels of beer, and empty silence. At the far end of the cellar was a door. I went to

it, slid it hack a couple of inches and peered out into a narrow, well-lighted corridor.

I held the Sten gun by my side. I didn’t want to be bothered with it, but Kerman had

insisted. He said with a Sten gun I could argue with half the crew. I doubted it, and took it

along more for his peace of mind than mine.

I began to edge along the corridor to a perpendicular steel ladder I could see at the far end,

and which. I guessed, led to the upper deck. Halfway down the corridor I came to an abrupt

halt. A pair of feet, then legs in white drill trousers appeared on the ladder. A second later a

sailor stood gaping at me.

He was a big guy: nearly as big as I was, and tough-looking. I pushed the Sten gun at him

and showed him my teeth. His hands went up so fast he took the skin off his knuckles against

the low ceiling.

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“Open your trap and I’ll rip you in half,” I snarled at him.

He stood motionless, staring at the Sten gun, his jaw hanging loose.

“Turn around,” I said.

He turned and I hit him with the butt of the gun on the back of his head.

As he fell I grabbed hold of his shirt and lowered him gently to the floor.

I was sweating and worried. I had to get him out of sight before anyone else showed up.

Right by me was a door. I took a chance, turned the handle and looked into an empty cabin.

Probably it was his cabin, and he had been going to it.

I caught him up under his arm-pits and dragged him into the cabin, shut and bolted the

door.

Working fast, I stripped him, took off my clothes and put on his.

His peaked yachting-cap was a little big for me, but it hid my face.

I gagged him, rolled him in a sheet and tied the sheet with his belt and a length of cord I

found in a cabin. Then I hauled him on to the bunk, left the Sten gun beside him, shoved my

.38 down the front of my pants and went to the door.

I listened, heard nothing, opened the door a crack and peered out. The corridor was as

empty as a dead man’s mind, and as quiet. I turned off the light, slid out of the cabin and

locked the door after me.

I looked at my watch. It was twenty-five minutes past eight. I had only thirty-five minutes

before Kerman showed up.

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James Hadley Chase – Lay Her Among The Lilies – Chapter VI

Chapter VI

I

I stood in the shadow of a ventilator and looked along the boat-deck. Overhead a cream and

red awning flapped in the stiff breeze. The whole length of the deck was covered with a

heavy red pile carpet, and green and red lights make a string of glittering beads along the rail.

Beyond the bridge-deck I could see two immaculately dressed sailors standing under arc

lights at the head of the gangway. A girl in evening-dress and two men in tuxedos had just

come aboard. The sailors saluted them as they crossed the deck to disappear into the

brilliantly-lit restaurant, built between the bridge and the f’cle-decks. Through the big,

oblong-shaped windows I could see couples dancing to the strains of muted saxophones and

the throb of drums.

Above me on the bridge-deck three white-clad figures hung over the rail, watching the

steady flow of arrivals. It was dark up there, but I saw one of them was smoking.

No one paid me any attention, and after a quick look to right and left I slid from the shadow

of the ventilator across the pile of the carpet to a lifeboat; paused, listened, looked to right and

left again, and then made a silent dart to the shadows immediately beneath the bridge-deck.

“They keep coming,” a voice drawled above me. “Going to be another good night.”

“Yeah,” said another voice. “Look at that dame in the red dress. Look at the shape she’s

wearing. I bet she …”

But I didn’t wait to hear what he bet. I was scared they might look down and see me. Right

by me was a door. I slid it back a couple of inches and looked down a ladder to the lower

deck. Not far off a girl laughed: a loud, harsh sound that made me glance over my shoulder.

“Tight as a tick,” one of the men on the bridge-deck said. “That’s how I like my women.”

Three girls and three men had just come aboard. One of the girls was so drunk she could

scarcely walk. As they crossed to the restaurant I slid down the ladder to the lower deck.

It was dark and silent down there. I moved away from the ladder. The moonlight, coming

from behind a thin haze of cloud, was just bright enough for me to see the deck was deserted.

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LAY HER AMONG THE LILIES

One solitary light came from a distant porthole as conspicuous as a soup stain on a bridal

gown.

I made my way towards it, moving cautiously and making no sound. Halfway along the

deck, I paused. Ahead of me appeared a white figure, coming towards me. There was

nowhere to hide. The deck was as bare of cover as the back of my hand. My fingers closed

over the butt of my gun as I moved over to the deck-rail and leaned against it.

A tall, broad-shouldered man in a singlet and white ducks came into the light from the porthole,