Murder, London - Australia by John Creasey

Author:John Creasey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Crime
Publisher: House Of Stratus
Published: 2014-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Blue Flag Line is today a fleet of 27 modern cargo vessels, each of which carries passengers. Each ship sails from Australian ports carrying Australian goods to all parts of the world. From the Kangaroo, the commodore ship of the line, twenty-two thousand tons gross with first-class accommodation for over 200 passengers to the Kookaburra, of seven thousand tons gross weight carrying 12 first-class passengers, the 27 ships have the best possible facilities for both passengers and cargo.

There followed a list of the ships. Kangaroo, Blue Gem, Merino, Alice, Barbarossa . . . each one had some kind of Australian association although he was not aware of the full significance of it.

Somewhere on the Seven Seas ships of the Blue Flag Line were carrying precious cargoes .

If this was a campaign of hate against the Blue Flag Line, why stop at the Kookaburra? Why stop at any one vessel? There were twenty-seven ships of the line.

His telephone bell rang. It seemed to rasp at him from some other world, jarring through the quiet of the office and the shocked stillness of his own mind. It rang again and again. When he lifted it there was asperity in the operator’s voice. “Oh, you are there. Your call from Australia.”

“I’ll take it.”

“It’s Superintendent Shaw.”

“Thanks.”

“Handsome,” Shaw said. This time he seemed rather farther away, but his voice and his words were clear enough. “I’ve some news for you. Marcus Barring is here in New South Wales. It’s positive now – he’s been seen by two uniformed men, but they weren’t able to pick him up. It looks as if he’ll be waiting here – for the Parrishes and for the Morrison girl and Limm.”

“Could be,” Roger said. “Watch them closely, Luke.”

“It’s a hell of a problem,” Shaw said. “We can’t be sure there’s any danger to anyone on the Kookaburra, and we can’t be sure the Kookaburra ’s in danger.”

“We can’t be sure which ship in the Blue Flag Line is in danger, can we?” asked Roger. “We’ve got to get Barring, we’ve got to get his missing brother Solomon. Luke, how about a man six feet tall, thirty-five or so, between colours, grey eyes, slightly curly hair, full of vitality, very direct way of talking. Could that be Solomon Barring?”

“It could,” answered Shaw, shortly. “Yes, it could.”

“Check on Benjamin Limm, of Cowra—” began Roger.

“I’m checking,” said Shaw. “It’s just conceivable . ”

He broke off.

“One thing’s certain.”

“What’s that?”

“The centre of the case has moved into this hemisphere.”

“Don’t I know it.”

“Coming on the same plane as Limm and the girl?” enquired Shaw.

“I’ll let you know,” said Roger. “I very much doubt it.”

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