35
I reckon that getting out from under Ian Maynard
I call Clifton and say to him let’s go get a drink over the Blue Lagoon. And I ring George Morrison and tell him the same thing.
When we meet up I say to Morrison that I glad to hear John finish him training to be a doctor now and that he and Margaret coming home after this long while. And I congratulate Clifton on him big promotion. ‘You almost at the top of the tree now, Clifton, eh? Chief of police going be your next stop.’ And we clink our glass and drink, and then I tell the two of them what I want them to do.
‘Charles Meacham! We nuh finish with him yet?’
‘I reckon him still owe us one.’ But George and Clifton not so sure, so I say, ‘Come on, George, you know all ’bout England. And, Clifton, you know all ’bout policing. I reckon between the two of you we can find Meacham. I even give you a head start because Helena Meacham a barrister with chambers in Lincoln’s Inn in London.’
The two of them just sit there and look at me. Then George start waving him arm at the bartender to bring him another Appleton, and Clifton say, ‘Yu joking? Yu can’t be serious. A barrister? For real?’
‘For real.’
Him think on it a little while and then him say, ‘Well, they say hide in plain view. So maybe that what she doing. No safer place than right there in the lion’s den. But yu know this a serious business. You playing with fire if yu going take these two on.’
‘Trust me.’
When Clifton ring me a few days later him say him got news and when I go meet him over the Blue Lagoon him tell me.
‘Charles Meacham rise up the ranks to become a major in the British army but now him retired and living in Winchester. The daughter, Helena, go study law at Oxford University and then she go to the Inns of Court School of Law. She called to the Bar in 1968 and now, like yu say, she have her own chambers in Lincoln’s Inn specialising in family and criminal law for women.’
When Clifton finish reading from him little notebook I tell him to give me the address of Helena Meacham chambers in London, and when I get back to Matthews Lane I get on the telephone and order up a big bouquet from one of them international flower people and I send them to her with a note.
Helena,
So good to have caught up with you after all these years.
Warm regards,
Winston Morgan and Aubrey Williams (Club Havana)
When Meacham telephone me the next day I just say to him, ‘Charles, how you doing?’
‘My daughter received your flowers. What silly little game are you playing now, Yang?’
‘Game, Charles? I not playing no game. Is this a game to you? Is that why you just decide to ignore me and hope I wouldn’t notice?’
‘That was years ago. I decided that enough was enough.’
‘True. But I just need one more favour from you. I have a little problem down here that I think you can help me with.’
Meacham quiet at the other end of the telephone so I tell him what I want, and I tell him the name of the culprit and him two henchmen.
‘I couldn’t possibly do something like that! What do you think I am?’
‘Well before you hang up the telephone let me just say, which I sure you know anyway, there not no statute of limitations for murder. Plus, with everything I hear tell ’bout the new-fangled things they doing with this here DNA, I sure pretty soon they will be able to do something with this knife I still got from the last time I meet your daughter. But anyway, Helena doing so well with her lawyer work and everything I reckon she must know ’bout all of that as well.’
Meacham still quiet so I say, ‘And then when that is done you can rest easy and just ignore me because you right, fair is fair and enough is enough. You won’t hear nothing from me after that.’ I catch my breath, and then I say, ‘Tell Helena to give my daughter a rest as well. She will know what I mean.’
Meacham just hang up the telephone. But two weeks later Finley come tell me that Sam Fitzgerald and the two constables disappear. It seem the three of them up in Miami having themself a good time and they just disappear. Just like that, not a trace, and the authorities think it probably drug related.
I think to myself yes sir, the British army is good. I think they must be as good as the CIA, maybe even better, they get their business done so fast.
A couple days later Mui ring me and she seem happier. She say everybody alright with her again. She getting work like she used to. People talking to her just like nothing ever happen. She like her job again. She going stay in England but I mustn’t forget, she still want to come home when the time right in Jamaica, and I just say, ‘Yah, man.’
36
But the whole thing unsettle me, and I start think ’bout what would happen if I should end up marking off the days on the wall of some Kingston jail cell and mopping the floor in the penitentiary. I think well the boys alright, they been making good money all these years, but Merleen only got her little job at the vacation company and Margy nothing more than an employee at Yang Cosmetics.
I tell Merleen to come have lunch with me up in a hotel in New Kingston. The restaurant quiet so I choose a table in the far corner behind some tall potted bamboo.
‘I was very young, and he seemed so mature.’ And then she laugh. ‘Well, I suppose he would seem that way, being old enough to be my father.’
I just smile. Merleen turn into a fine woman. She gracious, and composed.
‘I thought he knew everything there was to know. I thought I was going to be cared for, protected, educated, groomed if you like. I thought he would make something of me.’ She stop while the waitress put down the teriyaki chicken and rice in front of us.
‘I felt sort of honoured. Foolish, wasn’t it?’ And then she laugh again.
‘That wasn’t foolish. Yu was a child. And he was a grown man.’
‘A grown man who came here and captured something young and innocent, something in its infancy, and he took what he wanted from it and when he was done he left us to fend for ourselves, John and me. Independent if you like.’ And she smile. ‘Rather like an English Pinkerton and Chinese Butterfly.’
