Bubbles

 

Chapter 23

BUBBLES

 

The morning after the scandal at the ‘Pink Paradise’ Camette went with Irving to his room, and entered with great care. The smell of fish still hung in the air just as strongly. Camette opened the window to let a fresh breeze into the room. Irving searched in the wardrobe, the dressing-table, under the bed, and inside it. Camette went to look in the bathroom and screamed, “Irving, come here.”

He ran to her side and looked to where she was pointing with one hand, the other covering her nose and mouth.

The interior of the bath resembled a rubbish container that belonged to a sea food restaurant. There were all kinds of fish, and all rotting. Irving closed the door and rang the manager telling him that it would be in his interest to see what was in his bath. When the manager arrived Irving said, “I don’t know what kind of establishment you’re running here, whether this is some sort of island joke.”

“How has this rubbish got here?” the manager asked on seeing the contents of the bath. “Please shut the door. It’s incredible, I can’t believe my eyes. It has to be those from the hotel opposite, they’re jealous, you know. I’ll think of a good revenge. What time did you notice the smell?”

“On arriving back at the hotel at four this morning,.” replied Irving.

The manager rang downstairs to reception, “ Hello, it’s me. Send up the cleaning unit to room 346 at once, and tell them to bring air fresheners and plenty of bleach.” He turned to Irving, “Don’t worry. We’ll clear up this mess in no time at all.” The manager disappeared, leaving the two alone in the room.

“Let’s go down to the garden while they are cleaning up here,” suggested Camette.

 

Gus and Sonila were having breakfast in their room. “Why do we have to have breakfast so early?” Gus asked holding a bag of ice against one eye.

“It isn’t early, it’s the same time as every day. Oh! Now I remember. For you it must still be night.”

“Don’t shout,” said Gus, pushing the plate of fried eggs and tomatoes to the other side of the table.

“Look at him! The macho tourist. Tell me once more how that girl gave you the black eye.” Sonila was roaring with laughter. Gus’s aspect on getting back from the ‘Pink Paradise’ was, to put it mildly, dishevelled. He had been paid in kind, and then in his eye. “Do you know what you looked like last night? An alley cat! Drink your coffee and we’ll go down and sit in the sun.”

“I don’t want to go out with my face like this.”

“What are you going to do? Stay up here till the end of the holiday?”

“Sonila, haven’t I suffered enough?”

“You haven’t suffered at all. You asked for it. Besides everyone knows what happened last night, it’s not exactly what you would call a secret.”

Gus covered his face with a scarf as best he could and put on his sunglasses before going down to the garden.

 

Don had had it worse. Mavis was fed up with Don’s excessive interest in her and so on seeing him with a bleeding ear and his trousers in disarray and his buttonless shirt she had a very good idea of what he had been up to.

“I’ve got the best prescription for your pains. Come and lie down, darling,” Mavis said with a too honeyed tone.

“I’m exhausted, I can’t.”

“What can’t you?” Mavis asked, laughing to herself.

“Nothing.”

“We’ll see about that.”

 

Mavis didn’t insist on Don having breakfast nor to go down to the garden. She went down alone.

When Gus and Sonila found Mavis she explained, “Don’s very tired. I think he was served a Mickey Finn last night, from the way he’s still asleep.”

Sonila glanced at Gus and said, “ Why don’t you tell Mavis about your night life?”

 

Camette and Irving were taking a walk round the swimming pool, when she said to him, “Take a look in the water.”

Irving followed her instructions and gazed at the pool which a few hours ago had had a turbulent surface. Floating on top was what appeared to be a fish but in fact turned out to be a man. Camette ran off to inform the poor manager.

Bad news always travels fast and in a short time Mavis and the married couple joined Irving at the side of the swimming pool. The dead body was dressed up as a fish and there were some scales floating on the surface of the pool. They were the same as the ones that had been found on the flower bed. The police came and took him out and placed him face up on the ground.

Though most of them were already there, watching proceedings,  the police asked the manager to call the rest of the guests who had been in the ‘Pink Paradise’ to see if they could help in any way.

 “Anybody recognise him?” asked a policeman.

Of course, everybody had recognized him.

“Yes, he was in the ‘Pink Paradise’ last night,” Irving said. Gus and the doctor confirmed it.

The police then asked the guests in turn at what time they had got back to the hotel. They all declared that they had returned between three and four o’clock. No one had seen anything and no one had passed by the swimming pool.

Doctor Doom took Irving and Camette to one side, “Now they are beginning to eliminate their own partners in crime.”

“Who?” asked Irving.

“The people that are behind everything that has been happening here,” Camette said. Irving looked at her with something like respect in his eyes.

“We’ll have to go back,” said Doom.

“To the temple, of course, we’ll have to return to see what the hieroglyphics can tell us,” added Camette. “The doctor knows something that he hasn’t told us.”

Irving was totally absorbed by Camette’s face, she seemed very sure of herself  expressing her own ideas and in her own words.

The doctor was as impenetrable as always.

“It’s logical, as it’s all that’s left of the most ancient building on the island,” Camette said to Irving.

“Come on. Let’s go. There’s no time to lose,” the doctor said.

 

The enclosure of the temple was empty of tourists, not even Filo and Curro were there. The doctor carried in one hand some drawings of the hieroglyphics together with the information received from Irving’s friend. The large stele seemed to rise up out of the jungle itself.

“We are going to study it very closely, we have to find out who built it. This stele, apart from being dedicated to the fish, is the grave stone of a priest.

“And?” Irving asked.

“If we can find the name of the priest, then we’ll have the date of the stele, even the temple itself,” answered the doctor. The three of them studied the stele meticulously. The last time Irving, the doctor and Filo had gone there, nothing of any benefit had been found. Now they were obsessed with the idea of solving everything in a moment.

There was a noise just like the changing of gears in a car. The doctor took Irving and Camette with him into the darkness of the trees behind the stele.

The central stone of the engraved floor was turning. From below, it was put to one side, and from down below three figures dressed in diving suits came up and out. They returned the stone with the fish against the flames to its rightful place, removed their flippers and masks, and left. A vehicle was heard starting up and soon the wild sounds of the jungle could be heard again. Irving, Camette and the doctor emerged from their hiding place so as to take a look at the central stone of the floor.

“It looks the same as when I saw it with water that day I came here. There it is, they can’t come out of the stone without dripping water,” Irving said.

“So the fabulous central stone is nothing more than a manhole cover,” said Camette bitterly.

The doctor was writing in a notebook.

“Are we going to go down later to have a look?” Irving asked.

“Here, no, but in another place. It’ll soon be lunch time, we’ll talk later, there’s no time to go diving today. After the dreadful night we had, a quiet one would do us good.”

“OK, Doctor,” Irving said.

 

The hotel garden was deserted the whole day. No one had wanted to make use of the swimming pool, in spite of its having been more than thoroughly cleaned after the corpse had been removed. The dining-room curtains were shut against the view of the garden. The guests limited themselves to eating and drinking. Mavis hardly touched her lunch and disappeared up to her room. Gus and Sonila were not in the mood either to stay at the table for as long as they would have done on other occasions. Irving and Camette ate together, the doctor having made his apologies saying he had a headache, went up to his room where he asked room service to take up his lunch.

When the sun was at its hottest and everyone was resting in their rooms, the doctor, panther-like in his movements, went down the service staircase. He walked to a bar where there was only the waiter cleaning glasses, and two elderly men watching television. At the end of the bar in a discreet corner was a telephone and from this he rang Irving’s friend, informing him of everything, finishing with the words, “They think they are very clever.”

“And they are,” replied Irving’s friend.