Medusa

He ignored my question. ‘I imagine the main point of that meeting was to use your wife as a lever to get Lloyd Jones to take his frigate out of Mahon. I’m not asking you for the details of that meeting,’ he added quickly. ‘That will be a matter for Captain Wheatcroft. What I want to know is, did Evans at any time during that meeting, or when you were on the island together, give any indication of what his plans were?’

‘Of course not,’ I said. ‘Until the frigate went aground he was fully committed to the new government of Ismail Fuxá and to ensuring that the powerful aid it had asked for would not be hindered from entering the port.’

‘Yes, but afterwards — after Medusa had gone aground?’

‘The grounding and Miss Callis’s arrival were almost simultaneous. You know about what happened after that, do you?’ I asked him.

‘Yes. But I’m not interested in that, only in whether he gave you any indication of what he might do next, where he would go?’

‘There wasn’t time.’

‘All right, but earlier, when you and he were with Lloyd Jones in his cabin on Medusa.’

Again I told him there was no reason for Evans to even think about where he might go next. ‘The discussion was about my wife and getting Lloyd Jones to take his frigate out of Mahon. He’d no reason then to think beyond the next few hours.’

‘I see.’ He was silent then, and the silence lasted so long I began to think we had been disconnected. Suddenly he said, ‘You don’t think he’s still on Menorca then?’

‘It hadn’t occurred to me,’ I said. ‘Why?’

‘That fishing boat you let him have — did you know it was sighted abandoned and on fire just outside Spanish territorial waters?’ Another silence, and then he said, ‘Oh well, doubtless he’s pushed off with the rest of them.’ And he added, ‘Now if you’d been able to tell me he was hiding up somewhere on the island …’ I could almost hear his shrug over the line as he went on, ‘Pity! Looks as though somebody will have to start picking up the trail all over again.’ And without another word he rang off.

Captain Wheatcroft, the officer sent out to head the Board of Enquiry, arrived that afternoon. With him on the same plane were his two Board members, a Commander Lovelock from Naval Plans, a marine engineering commander, and a smart little snub-nosed Wren Writer with black hair and rather bulging eyes. All four stayed at the Port Mahon Hotel, which had rooms to spare, some of their American guests having decided to get out. Also on the plane was a Commander Firth. Gareth had apparently served under him and having recently relinquished command of another frigate, he had been flown out to help and advise Gareth during the Enquiry — a sort of prisoner’s friend. The Board began their sittings the following day, Monday, on board Medusa.

The morning was taken up with questions arising from her Captain’s report of the grounding and the reasons for it, the afternoon with the evidence of one or two of the other officers, Lieutenant Commander Mault in particular. He was questioned by the Board for well over an hour.

I only heard about this, of course, later, after it was all over. I knew nothing about it at the time, but after Wade’s phone call I was not altogether surprised when a midshipman, not Masterton, delivered a note from the Chairman of the Board calling me as a witness and requesting that I attend on board HMS Medusa at 10.00 hours the next morning. There would be a launch sent for me at 09.30.

Soo’s immediate reaction when I told her was, ‘Do they know about me?’ and she added quickly, ‘About my being held as a hostage?’

‘Of course.’ My own desperate enquiries had made that inevitable, and Miguel’s body being found where she had been left to die had ensured maximum publicity.

‘I know what they’ll try and do. They’ll try and prove he grounded his ship because of me. That’s why you’re being called.’ Her large, dark eyes had a wild look. ‘Can’t you say he barely knew me, that when you were on board with Gareth and that wretched half-brother of his, he was making use of me just as he would any other hostage? I mean, so long as they don’t know he was seeing me, then they’ll have to accept that he put his ship aground because it was the only way he could be sure he wouldn’t be towed out …’ The words had been pouring out of her she was so tensed up, but I was shaking my head and slowly her voice died.

In the end I told her quite bluntly that what had happened was common knowledge. ‘Things happen. That’s life. And once they’ve happened they can’t be undone.’