It took a moment for the implication to register. ‘You watched ... when Lee and I?’
Blanche nodded.
Liz threw herself into her mother’s arms afresh. ‘You really did understand.’
‘I did,’ she said and, thinking of George, added, ‘I do.’
‘I found him!’
Blanche grasped Liz’s hand as she finally recognised Alan beneath the beard and gripped his hand too. ‘We mustn’t lose anyone again, I can’t afford the heartache. So where is Lee and … ?’
‘Safe, but she must stay hidden for a bit longer,’ Alan said beneath the hubbub going on so close to them. ‘The major wants to make sure there are no hidden arms and have every-thing secure before he plays his trump card. If you come nearer to the lorry but don’t look down to the floor … ’
‘I’ll take Mr Harfield’s list over to the inspector,’ Ira decided, sounding as if he wanted no part of another intrigue. He walked purposefully towards the watchful lines of men, women and wide-eyed children.
‘Mrs Guisan! Lee!’ Blanche stage-whispered as she came close to the backboard of the lorry. The eight soldiers looked at her and some smiled, but none looked down at the blankets that lay on the floor between their feet.
‘Mrs Hammond! I glad hear you after all these years.’
The small, smothered voice was husky, anxious. ‘This is Mrs Carl Guisan speaking to you.’
From another age, Blanche thought.
‘And Lee!’ a lighter voice said. ‘We have to wait to be called out. Tell us what is happening.’
‘Thank God you are both safe,’ Blanche said, standing as casually as she could, gripping the hands of her two young people and pretending she was talking to them.
‘The major’s got several men body-searching the lines of people,’ Alan told the hidden women.
‘You wouldn’t think they could hide much,’ Liz commented, looking at the women’s sarongs and the thin cotton shorts and shirts most of the men were wearing.
One of the soldiers on the lorry clicked his tongue and commented, ‘We found a bandoleer of ammunition wrapped around a baby at one village.’
‘They’re reaching the real suspects now,’ Liz said, watching closely as the searchers moved in on Li Min and the men in her group. The guards raised their rifles at the suspects’ chests, ready to fire at the least hint of trouble.
‘There’s some defiance,’ Blanche confided to Lee and her mother. ‘They want the men in the group to raise their hands higher.’
‘Up! Up! Up!’ The orders came louder and louder, men poked with their rifles to enforce the order — and then there was consternation and shouting.
‘What’s happened?’ Liz’s question was echoed all around. The lines of people craned forwards, some of the soldiers stood up and there were muffled enquiries from the floor of the lorry.
‘No, it’s all right!’ Alan said as he saw Sturgess swoop down and pick up an object, examine it, then clip it on to his belt. ‘One of the men had a hand grenade secreted under his armpit.’
There were other angry outbursts as the police found several more people in the lines without papers. One or two were taken back to their huts in the kampong to enable them to pick up identity cards left in their houses. Those unable to give a good explanation of themselves and their lack of papers were now handcuffed and circled with guards.
John Sturgess came striding towards them. Blanche noticed Liz kept tight hold of Alan’s hand as John, nodding from one women to the other, said, ‘Like mother, like daughter, neither of you do as you are told nor as expected!’ His tone was sharp and military, but then he grinned, and both women let out relieved breaths. Liz glimpsed again the man behind the military mask. If only Robbo could let him show more often!
He tapped the back of the lorry. ‘We’ll start the show with Mrs Guisan and her daughter.’
The soldiers helped the two women out from their nest of blankets in the bottom of the lorry. There was time only for the briefest of greetings. Blanche had to disguise the shock she felt when she saw the stooped old Chinese. She would never have recognised this woman as the pert young thing who had captivated the heart of their outgoing, expansive manager, Carl.
Sturgess ushered them along the lines of people who had so far shown themselves to be genuine workers and families. Curiosity showed in all their faces but not guilt; it was obvious that the two women meant nothing to them.
It was a different matter as they approached the heavily guarded group. Most of them hung their heads so low it was impossible to see their features. Li Min, without seeming noticeably to move, managed to fade behind a bulky man.
‘Heads up!’ the police sergeant ordered and when this was not obeyed he detailed two constables, who went in and pulled the men’s heads upwards and backwards by their hair, pushing a rifle barrel under their chins. Some still kept their eyes closed, while others stared insolently into the eyes of the women who had worked for them so many years in their main jungle headquarters.
Blanche went nearer, intending to stand behind Li Min where she had edged to the back of the circle. She also saw Chemor staring intensely at the girl, his black eyes reminding Blanche of those of a stoat she had watched hypnotise a full-grown rabbit before launching itself for the kill.
Lee stepped into the circle while her mother remained more remote, more intimated some yards outside. As each head was lifted, Lee not only spat ‘Yes!’ into their faces but named the terrorists. At last they came to Li Min.
Blanche held her breath as Lee looked at her long and hard. It looked like the meeting of arch-enemies. ‘Oh! Yes!’ Lee said at last as if savouring the moment. ‘She came many times, she brought information about army and police raids. Fancied herself as partner to Heng Hou!’
Li Min seemed caught mid-reprisal as she leaned forwards to vent her spite on Lee, but Chemor shouted in the same split second, ‘Heng Hou, he told all about Li Min — he give away!’
The Chinese girl looked like a venomous black spider as she sprang round on Chemor and launched a tirade of abuse in her own language. One or two of her companions, in spite of their own peril, gave verbal approval of the sentiments she expressed and became more arrogant in their manner.
Blanche hated to see any initiative taken by the prisoners, futile though it might be, but she had reckoned without the deviousness and planning of a devoted employee and friend, for at that moment four soldiers went to the back of a police vehicle and hauled out another prisoner, whom they marched up to the group of suspects.
‘See your leader, Li Min! He spoke out about you! He told!’ Chemor pointed and danced about as if in ecstasy. Blanche watched in some amazement. He had seemed such a level-headed chap — devoted to George, but she had not expected this.
Heng Hou was pushed forwards until he stood before Li Min. At a nod from Sturgess he was pushed the final yard so the girl had to jump back to avoid contact with him. It seemed the final act that broke her control. With her hands tied behind her back, her avoidance had a writhing, sensual quality, as if she was squirming away from a sexual advance instead of from a man securely bound.
‘Heng Hou! You said you never be caught,’ she accused. Chemor still capered like a mad monkey. ‘He caught! He talk!’
Blanche glanced at John, expecting him to have George’s old tracker removed, but he seemed to pay no regard.
‘And I talk! I talk now!’ Li Min came forward, facing Heng Hou again but at a safe distance as he growled and shouted at her. Her voice rose higher and he was silenced by the nudge of a rifle butt.
‘He liar! He say he make me woman leader of communist republic, like wife of Mao Tse-tung. I say all right. Beat me and we trap “thorn in communists’ sides” George Harfield. He beat!’ She nodded and Blanche felt a pang of sympathy for the girl as she saw the horror of the experience reflected in her eyes.