The house was on the crest of a low rise looking south towards the sea - a low ranch-style building done in white coral tone. Vine clustered thick on the pillars of the verandah. Bright yellow flowers peeped between the leaves. Gardens followed the contours of the ground east and south of the house. A tennis court was west of the house and an orchard was on the other side. A border of soft green grass separated the landscaped gardens from the bougainvillea hedge. The top of the hedge was covered with small red flowers.

  Edge pressed the doorbell and waited. The door opened. She had been in the bath. One hand held the robe close at her throat. The other brushed back her wet hair. She smelled fresh and clean like the earth after a late morning shower of rain.

  She had red hair and grey eyes and there was a sprinkling of freckles under the tan of her cheeks.

  “My name is Shannon Edge,” he said. “I want to talk to Charles.”

  “Come in,” she said. The voice was low and cool. “I’m his sister, Shelley. Perhaps I can help you.”

  She moved aside and Edge stepped past her.

  “Give me a minute,” she said. “This is the servants’ day off and things are a bit unsettled. Make yourself comfortable while I get into some clothes.” She indicated a chair and left him.

  The chair was softer and deeper than it looked and he made a grab at the table near him before he finally came to rest less than six inches from the floor.

  He took up an old photograph from the table. It showed a middle-aged couple with two small children. There were a number of photographs of a man Edge guessed was Charles, mostly on yachts and gazing at the sea. There were a few of Shelley riding horses, playing tennis and lying on the beach.

  Special Branch had given him some background on the Hardcastles. They owned a plantation somewhere in the country. Charles Hardcastle sailed yachts and played polo. Shelley had been to school in England, had married an Englishman, divorced him and returned home. Both parents were dead.

  He heard Shelly come into the room. She wore a loose fitting blouse and a pair of pants. She had brushed her hair and tied it with a green band. She wasn’t wearing a bra. She sat down opposite him and crossed her legs. She took a cigarette from the box at her elbow. Edge leaned across and snapped the lighter under her cigarette and put the lighter back beside the lacquered coconut shell ashtray with the calypso dancers on it.

  Shelley settled back into her chair. “You said you wanted to see my brother,” she began.

  She leaned her head back and looked at him from behind lowered lids. She swung her left arm across her body just below her breasts and gripped the elbow of the hand holding the cigarette.

  “I don’t think you can help me, Miss Hardcastle,” Edge said.

  “Try me,” she answered. “And call me Shelley.”

  “I’m from the Currency Control Division,” Edge said.

  “Got anything that says so?”

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  Edge took a card from his wallet and handed it to her. She looked at it and handed it back to him.

  “Charles has gone on a fishing trip,” she said. “It’ll be at least a couple of days before he gets back.”

  “Ever heard of the Columbus Club?” He asked the question casually and he saw her start. She dragged hard on the cigarette and blew a cloud of smoke at the open window.

  “No,” she said. “Never.”

  “Charles used to be secretary,” Edge said.

  “I never heard him say anything about it,” she said. She sat up suddenly. “Damn,” she said. “I forgot to turn off the heater.”

  Edge watched her leave the room. She had very nice legs. He closed his eyes and waited. He heard her come back. He opened his eyes. She had a gun.

  “Get out of this house,” she said. “Now, before this thing goes off and punches little holes in you.”

  Edge stood up. “Guns never solve anything,” he said quietly.

  He started towards her. The gun remained pointing at his navel. He kept his eyes in hers. He reached out and took the gun from her.

  “It was empty anyway,” she said, and sat down. “Okay, you called my bluff, but I also called yours. Currency Control Division? Hardly. You’ve faced guns before.”

  “I’m not a policeman, if that’s what you mean,” he said.

  “I need something to drink. What’s yours?” she asked as she walked towards the liquor cabinet.

  Edge told her. She came back pushing a portable bar.

  “You’re lucky,” she said. “I got some coconuts cut only yesterday.”

  She put ice in the glass, then added rum and coconut water. She took scotch and soda.

  “Cheers,” she said. They raised glasses.

  “Charles is in trouble isn’t he? Something to do with this...this...” She searched for the name, found it. “This Columbus Club.”

  “He’s not in any trouble,” Edge said. “I just want him to tell me what he knows.”

  “Let me freshen yours,” she said.

  He held the glass out to her. Their fingers touched. She put both glasses down on the bar. Edge got up and she came back and gave him his drink. Their fingers touched again and she smiled.

  “Charles got a call early yesterday morning,” she said. “I answered the phone but didn’t recognize the voice. Charles left immediately on the fishing trip.”

  Edge finished his drink and walked out onto the verandah. He thanked her and gave her the number to the Bureau’s answering service.

  “If he calls you, get in touch with me at this number.”

  He got into his car and drove away from the house as Shelley stood in the verandah.

  Mabel Hiller was doing the crossword when he walked in.

  “Ah, you can help me here,” she said. “’Song heard in the procession of the sad and perceptive’. Four letters.”

  “Watch it with the four letter words Mabel,” he said.

  “Okay, so you don’t know.”

  “Try ‘keen’,” he said.

  “Miss Hillier, I thought I told you to let me know as soon as Shannon came in.” It was Hervey. Edge hadn’t heard him come into the outer office.

  Mabel folded the paper and put it away. “Mr. Edge, Mr. Hervey wants to see you right away.”

  Hervey sat behind his desk facing Edge. “Cooper says there was someone waiting for you at the Columbus Club.”

  “It was nothing much,” Edge said. “He wanted to scare me. He got away and I didn’t get a good look at his face.”

  “You didn’t think it important enough to tell me about it?” Hervey said.

  Edge let the question pass. “Did Special Branch get a lead on him?” he asked.

  Hervey said no, that there were no fingerprints. Edge shrugged.

  “Cooper had old man White checked out,” Hervey said. “He hasn’t left that village for as long as anybody can remember.”

  Edge told him about Charles Hardcastle and the early morning call. Hervey nodded. Edge knew that he had already decided to put Shelley under surveillance.

  “Oh, another thing,” Hervey said almost as an after thought. “Special Branch came up with a few more names.”

  He took a sheet of paper from his desk and handed it to Edge. “All locals it seems. I’ve sent you the file.”

  Edge glanced through the names on the printout. He gave the sheet back to Hervey.

  “The Minister phoned,” Hervey said. “Wanted to know what progress we had made.”

  “Did he have any suggestions?” Edge asked.

  “He spoke words of encouragement,” Hervey said.

  Edge stood up. He told Hervey he was going home. He was tired. The names on the list could wait until the next day.