Tiger, Tiger Read online

  “Christ,” he murmured. The dream had really shaken him. His body was bathed in a thick sticky sweat and he could not seem to shake the horrible image of the tiger-man’s face out of his mind. The bedroom door opened, and Lim peered in at him.

  “Bob Tuan alright?” she whispered. “I see light under door.…”

  “Fine. I’m fine. What time is it?”

  “’Bout six o’clock.”

  “Strewth, have I slept for that long?” He frowned, took another big drag on his cigarette. “I’d better get up,” he announced. “Run the shower for me, will you?”

  “Alright.” Lim smiled happily at the prospect of having a little company and she hurried off to the bathroom, closing the door after her. Bob lay staring up at the ceiling, watching the thin trail of smoke from his cigarette, which rose vertically for a short distance and then went crazy as it was caught by the wind from the fan.

  “Just a daft nightmare,” murmured Bob to himself. “Doesn’t mean anything.” But he felt edgy, unable to relax. After a few moments, he stubbed out the cigarette in an ashtray and went to the bathroom. The cold water of the shower brought him fully awake and set all his nerve endings jangling ferociously. He washed his hair, noting a line of itchy red bumps around his scalp where mosquitos had feasted on him the night before.

  “Little bastards,” he murmured ruefully.

  He dried himself, sprinkled his body with a liberal helping of talc, and went back to his bedroom, where he dressed in clean clothes. He began to feel happier and he strolled into the sitting room. Lim was watching television, a Chinese film with English subtitles. She was clearly not too interested in it, though, because she reached out and switched it off as soon as she noticed Bob’s presence.

  “Bob Tuan like drink?” she asked.

  “Yeah, please. A straight whisky with a little ice.” She virtually ran to the kitchen to fetch it. “Have something yourself,” yelled Bob after her, though he knew quite well that she never drank alcohol.

  “Thank you, Bob Tuan, I have Coke,” she called back.

  Bob grinned. He put his hands in his pockets and began to pace silently around the room, unable to settle. When Lim returned with the drinks, he took his and drank half of it in one gulp. Lim stared at him thoughtfully for a moment and then she sat down.

  “What happen to you last night?” she asked cautiously. “You promise to tell me about it later.…”

  “Did I?” Bob frowned. He had a strong suspicion that he’d said nothing of the kind, but he didn’t see any reason why he shouldn’t tell her. “Well, the tiger came after me, that’s all. The bastard jumped into the tree where I was sitting … he … snatched the gun right out of my hand.…” Recalling the events now, they seemed unreal, ridiculously farfetched. “Then he came up the tree after me. I had to climb for my life— He just seemed to go berserk all of a sudden and then, after a few moments, he lost interest and went away.…”

  Lim was staring at him open-mouthed.

  “Oh, Bob Tuan!” she exclaimed. “What would I do if anything had happened to you? You must leave this tiger alone now. That was a warning!”

  “Nah … I don’t believe all that stuff. He went after me, it’s as simple as that. Anyway, I was too quick for ’im and I don’t intend to give the bugger another chance to get so close, I can tell you.” Bob strolled slowly towards the open front door. Out in the calm evening, the crickets had begun to sing and the occasional dark silhouettes of bats flitted across the dark blue backdrop of the sky. “No, the next time I get my rifle between me and that tiger, I’ll make sure that—”

  Bob broke off in surprise and his half-finished glass of whisky slipped from his hand and smashed loudly on the tiled floor. From the darkness of the verandah, a pair of glowing eyes had fixed Bob with a stare that almost caused him to jump out of his skin.

  “What the—?” For a moment, Bob was literally rooted to the spot with fear; then his instincts reasserted themselves and, with an oath, he reached out and snapped on the switch that controlled the verandah lights. He was both relieved and surprised, to see the bomoh’s assistant standing in exactly the same place where Bob had left him several hours earlier. The man’s arms were crossed, his legs were set well apart and he seemed not to have moved so much as a muscle in the time he had been waiting there.

  “Tuan ready to come along now?” enquired the man hopefully.

  Bob stared at the man in disbelief.

  “You don’t give up easily, do you?” he snapped. He turned and glanced accusingly at Lim.

  “I told him to go three times,” she protested defensively. “He take no notice!”

  “You could have told me he was still out there. Damned near scared me to death.” Bob turned back to the man and gazed at him thoughtfully for a few moments. “Why’s it so important that the bomoh see me?” he demanded.

  “I tol’ you, Tuan, he very worried what kampong people are saying. He want help you catch real man-eater, so people know the truth.”

  “And how does he intend to help me?”

  “You must talk wid him. I cannot say.…”

  Bob stared down at the fragments of ice and broken glass on the floor. He probed them with the toe of his shoe as if trying to divine some meaning from them. Then he broke the spell by saying, “Lim, get a brush and clean this mess up, will you? I’m going along with Doctor Caligari here.…” He strode back into the hallway to get a jacket. Lim hurried after him.

  “Bob Tuan,” she gasped. “I think you should not go along with that man!”

  “Oh … why?”

  “The bomoh is supposed to be a very wicked man, very powerful. Many people in the kampongs are afraid to go anywhere near his hut.…”

  Bob chuckled.

  “I thought you were the one who didn’t go in for all this superstitious claptrap,” he taunted her. “I thought you prided yourself on being a modern girl.”

  Lim frowned.

  “Just the same,” she murmured. “You do not know what these people want of you. Perhaps they plan to kill you and steal your money.…”

  “Don’t talk nonsense, Lim! They just want to spout a bit of mumbo jumbo at me, that’s all. It’s all harmless nonsense.”

  “If you believe that, then why are you going?”

  Bob shrugged.

  “Well … just out of interest really— Besides, let’s face it, the way things are going with this bloody tiger, I need all the help I can get!” He went into his bedrooom, took a clean khaki jacket out of the wardrobe, and slipped into it.

  “You are always leaving me alone in the house,” complained Lim bitterly.

  “I won’t be long,” he assured her and then gave her a reproachful glare. “Seems t’me that somebody around here is forgetting their place. I could always get another amah you know.…”

  “I clean up the mess now,” Lim assured him, and she hurried off to search for a broom.

  Laughing to himself, Bob went back through the sitting room to the front door, where the bomoh’s assistant was still waiting.

  “Come on then, Gunga Din, let’s see what your boss has got to say for himself. How did you get here, by the way?”

  “I walk.”

  “Strewth, all the way from Kampong Machis? Bugger that for a lark, we’ll take the Land Rover.” He motioned the man to follow him down the driveway, and the two of them clambered into the front seats. As Bob started up the engine, he glanced back at the doorway. Lim was standing in the oblong of light, gazing out at him with a worried expression on her face. She was holding a broom in her hands, but was clearly too distracted to do anything with it. Bob felt a wave of fondness pass through him. Lim was a good kid, she gave him everything she had and got precious little in return. He would have to make an effort to be nicer to her, one of these days. He waved briefly and accelerated away down the road, but turning the bend at the far end of the street, he noticed that she was still standing there, gazing out into the darkness that lay all around her.

&n
bsp; CHAPTER 21

  THE TELEVISION SCREEN faded gradually up from greyness and then flickered into life. Melissa stared at it for several moments. It was a Chinese melodrama with English subtitles, the kind of programme she detested. With a groan, she reached out and hit the off button. The screen went blank.

  “I’m bored,” announced Melissa, dramatically.

  Kate glanced up from the novel she was reading and gave her daughter a sympathetic smile. “I sometimes wonder why we have a television set,” she murmured. “There’s never anything worth watching. Why don’t you read? I could lend you a good book.…”

  “I hate reading,” retorted Melissa wearily. This was not altogether true, but when she was in this kind of mood, there was very little that would serve to distract her.

  “Oh dear, oh dear. You’re not happy at all, are you?” Kate closed the novel and put it aside, realizing that when her daughter was unhappy she tended to prevent everybody else from having a good time. “Perhaps we could go out later, when your father gets home. The Mess or something…”

  “No thank you! Anyway, I don’t know what you’re talking about. You loathe the place more than I do.…”

  “True,” admitted Kate wearily. “But if it would help to lift you into better spirits— Who knows, you might bump into Mr. Beresford there.” This was intended as a casual tease, but it quickly became apparent from the expression of Melissa’s face that something was wrong. “Well don’t tell me you’re even fed up with him!” cried Kate imploringly.

  “It’s not so much that I’m fed up with him, pouted Melissa. “More the other way around really. Since that incident with the dead tiger, he’s just had no time for me.…”

  “Oh, I’m sorry about that, darling.”

  “You’re not!” Melissa fixed her mother with a glare of accusation. “You don’t like him anyway.”

  “Why, Melissa, I’ve never said a word against him.…”

  “Not to me perhaps, but I’m willing to bet that you’ve bent Daddy’s ear on the subject from time to time— There, you see, there’s no need to answer! You look as guilty as anything!”

  Kate flushed a little. She glanced at the floor.

  “Well, darling, I won’t pretend that I don’t find him a little … brash … but you see, my opinion of him has nothing to do with it. So long as a man interests you, you know neither I nor Daddy would try to stand in the way of a romance … well, unless he was married, or something of that kind. I’m sure Mr. Beresford is…”

  “Yes, well it’s purely academic at the moment, isn’t it! Like I said, he’s been avoiding me for months, so there’s an end to it.”

  Kate sighed.

  “Well, dear, perhaps it’s just as well. After all, you’ll be going back to England soon and the last thing you’d want is some kind of romantic entanglement that would make it difficult for you to leave with a clear mind.…”

  “Ah, good old Mummy! Always so practical…” Melissa felt an uncharacteristic surge of fondness run through her, and getting out of her seat she went to give her mother a fierce hug.

  “Goodness!” exclaimed Kate in mock surprise, but she responded by stroking her daughter’s hair, something she hadn’t done since Melissa started school. She abruptly felt rather sad as she visualized her only child leaving home, something that would surely happen before many more months had elapsed. There had only ever been the one child. There were serious complications with the first birth and doctors had warned Kate that it might be dangerous to try for another baby.

  “Tell me something,” murmured Melissa. “I’ve often wondered. How did you manage to ensnare Daddy?”

  Kate smiled.

  “Well, I think ‘ensnare’ is perhaps an unfortunate word…”

  “Nonsense! Don’t all women go out to trap their men? Don’t we use perfume and makeup as our bait and don’t we attempt to entice them all down that one-way tunnel that ends in matrimony?”

  “Well dear, it’s a rather cynical way of looking at it, don’t you think? I prefer to think that we just make the men aware of a simple fact that they’ve for some time overlooked: the fact that they can’t do without us!”

  Melissa giggled.

  “I see and how did you make Daddy aware of that?”

  “Well … as I remember, I’d been on the scene for a very long time. Of course, we were in civvy street then, it was before the war … your father had just finished university and had come home to his parents’ house. I lived with my parents quite close by. Of course, the two of us had known each other for years, but I think he’d always regarded me as nothing more than a ‘pal’ really. I’m sure he wasn’t even aware that I was female, for all the interest he showed. We went out together a great deal at that time, but just as friends you know, there was no … well, you know. Then, Sandra Buckingham came on the scene!”

  “Who was she?”

  “You may well ask! She was this simply ghastly girl who I’d been at school with and for some inexplicable reason, your father met her at a dance and became totally besotted with her. My dear, if only you could have seen her! She was a frightful creature with a pronounced lisp and a mop of blonde curls that would not have looked out of place on Shirley Temple. Added to this was the most appalling dress sense I have ever witnessed; and there was your father going all goo-goo-eyed over her. It was a nauseating spectacle, I can tell you.”

  “She sounds horrific. Whatever did you do?”

  “Well, my first impression was to wash my hands of him completely and look into other possibilities. There was no shortage of interest from other young men … and yet, deep down inside, I knew that I was the right one for him and that this awful … gorgon that he was mooning over would prove to be the end of him. Anyway, that was when I discovered the secret weapon.”

  Melissa was intrigued.

  “What was that?” she enquired.

  “A simple enough ploy, my dear, but one that has aided womankind since time immemorial. I refer, of course, to the ancient art of playing hard to get!

  “Ahah!”

  “You see, while I was just … available, your father took me for granted. So, quite suddenly, without any warning, I deserted him and went about my other interests. When he called, I wasn’t in. When he wrote, I didn’t reply. When I saw him on the street, I crossed to the other side. Of course, with Sandra Buckingham still on the scene, it was a calculated gamble, but the change in your father, when presented with such indifference was astonishing to behold. Inside a couple of months, the hideous Sandra was forgotten and your father and I were engaged to be married.”

  “Marvellous!” Melissa applauded the story heartily. “And here am I, living proof that the technique works— Golly, I must look up this Sandra Buckingham when we get to England. I want to see if she’s as repulsive as you say!”

  “You will do no such thing,” shrieked Kate, holding up her hands in mock-horror. “There are some spectres from the past that are best left buried. Besides, there’s an interesting little postscript to the story, which I will tell you if you promise not to breathe a word to anybody else.”

  “Yes, I promise! What is it?”

  Kate sighed.

  “After her romantic letdown, Sandra sought to console herself by taking on a career in acting. She went to a drama school and shortly after leaving it, she changed her name to Sandra Bennet.…”

  Melissa stared at her mother.

  “What? Not … the Sandra Bennet? Not the film star, Sandra Bennet?”

  Kate nodded silently.

  “But, Mother, she’s absolutely gorgeous!

  “Yes … well, I suppose it goes to show what a little voice training and beauty consultation can do; she was an absolute baboon when I knew her. The irony is that Dennis still doesn’t know about the transformation. In fact, he’s seen her in films on two different occasions and never made the connection. Somehow, I’ve never been able to bring myself to tell him about it. I’d hate to think that he felt cheated in some way.”


  Melissa threw back her head and laughed merrily, her boredom for the time being at least, quite forgotten.

  “Oh, Mummy, how could he ever feel cheated? Sandra Bennet is just a boring old film star but you, you’re absolutely unique!”

  “Well, thank you for that dear.” Headlights played across the slatted panes of the sitting room window, as a car pulled in through the open gates of the garden. “There’s your father now … remember, Melissa, not a word about this to him, or anyone else for that matter.”

  “Don’t worry, my lips are sealed; gosh though, it’s funny to think of Daddy married to her! With all her money, he’d be a kept man.…”

  “Yes, well, I can’t see him enjoying that much, can you? Ssh now, here he comes! Melissa, do stop giggling, you’ll give the game away.…”

  The front door opened, Dennis hurried into the room and the bleak expression on his face quickly dampened Melissa’s amusement. It was quite apparent to the two women that something was wrong.

  “Harry Sullivan’s had another heart attack,” announced Dennis gravely. “Worse this time though. He was admitted to the hospital at Kuala Hitam but discharged himself this morning.”

  “Discharged himself?” echoed Kate. “Was that wise?”

  “Not at all, dear, but you know Harry. I just got the story from Trimani before I came home. Apparently, Harry had been drinking heavily and he was horsing around in the Mess, pretending to be shooting tigers or some such nonsense. Honestly, sometimes you’d be forgiven for thinking he was a six-year-old instead of sixty-five.…”

  “Sixty-seven,” corrected Melissa, knowing that this was exactly what Harry would have done if he were present.

  “We’d better go up and visit him after dinner,” suggested Kate. She and Dennis both directed their gazes in Melissa’s direction.

  “You’ve not been up to see Harry since the two of you had that last run-in,” observed Dennis admonishingly. “You haven’t even apologized to him about it. He was right about Beresford’s tiger, after all.…”