جزیره‌ی ونکوور

CHAPTER FIVE

Vancouver Island

Tsawwassen was about twenty-three miles south of Vancouver. Nick drove there in his car the next morning for the one o’clock ferry to Vancouver Island.

Every five minutes, he looked behind him. The road was busy - black cars, white cars, red cars, green cars. Maybe Vickers was in one of them.

At Tsawwassen Nick drove his car on to the ferry. There were a lot of cars and crowds of people. Nick got out of his car and walked up and down the ship. He looked for a man with white hair but he didn’t see one.

Soon the ferry began to move and Nick felt better. He found the ferry restaurant and got something to eat. More people came in. Nick looked at the faces of all the older men. Some had hats on, so he looked for somebody tall and thin, but there was nobody.

‘Maybe he’s not on the ferry,’ Nick thought. ‘Maybe he’s back in Vancouver.’

Later, Nick walked around the ship again. Once, he thought he saw the man with white hair in the crowds, but he could not be sure.

Ninety minutes after leaving Tsawwassen, the ferry arrived at Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island, and Nick went back down to his car.

Swartz Bay was twenty miles north of Victoria. Nick drove quickly, and again, looked behind him every four or five minutes. Once, he saw a red car about two hundred yards behind him.

‘Did I see that car on the road from Vancouver to Tsawwassen?’ he thought.

He drove more slowly, but the red car still stayed two hundred yards behind him, and Nick couldn’t see the driver’s face or hair.

Soon he was in the busy streets of Victoria, and Nick didn’t see the red car behind him again.

Victoria was a city of gardens and beautiful old buildings. Nick liked Victoria very much, but today he wasn’t interested in gardens or buildings.

He found the Empress Hotel, went inside and walked across to the desk.

‘Can I help you?’ a young man asked Nick.

‘I’m meeting a friend here this afternoon,’ said Nick. ‘Miss Hutson.’

‘Hutson?’ said the young man. ‘Wait a minute.’ He went away and came back. ‘Sorry, but there’s no Miss Hutson staying here.’

Nick took something from his pocket. It was the photograph of Meg and her father, from the magazine. ‘This is her,’ he said.

The young man looked at the picture. ‘Oh, right. You mean Howard Hutson’s daughter,’ he said. ‘She’s not staying here, but I saw her ten or fifteen minutes ago. She was with somebody - a man. He asked me about the tea room.’

‘The tea room?’ said Nick. ‘Where’s that?’

The man with short white hair was tired. He couldn’t sleep and he couldn’t eat. He thought about only one thing, all the time. He drove and he watched, and he waited and he followed.

When he drove into Victoria, the streets were busy, and suddenly he lost the blue car in front of him. Angrily, he drove around the city, past all the big hotels. ‘I must find him,’ he said. ‘I must do it. Today.’

Then he saw the Empress Hotel, and in the street outside it, a blue car.

He drove past the hotel, left his car, and ran back down the street. He went across the road and walked past the downstairs windows. There was a big room with tables and chairs, and a lot of people. He looked carefully at all the faces.

‘There she is!’ he said suddenly.

There were two men with the girl. He couldn’t see their faces, only the backs of their heads, but one of the men was in a green shirt.

‘Mr Hollywood,’ the man said, and smiled. ‘Goodbye, Mr Hollywood.’ People in the street turned to look at him, but the man did not see them.

He walked up to the doors of the hotel and put a hand into his pocket. Inside, the gun was cold and hard.