I ordered coffee for both of us. She looked fresh and decidedly less tense this morning, and had obviously decided that I was an ally – as I had concluded about her.

'Hadley and people like him are on my mind. You're sure you don't remember a man called Kane?'

She shook her head firmly.

'Or Ramirez – ever hear of him?'

That drew a blank too. I said, 'Look, how well do you know Tahiti – especially Papeete?'

'Pretty well. I was there a long time, Mike.'

I rubbed my chin. 'I don't know it well at all. And I certainly don't know Hadley. I could pass him on the street without a second glance. What I need is a pair of eyes.'

She said in a small voice, 'You want me to go back to Papeete?'

I nodded. 'But not without an escort or a backup. Scared of Hadley?'

'I'll say I am. I don't mind admitting it.'

I said, 'Paula, I'm here on a small ship crewed by the toughest mob outside of the Mafia – but straight. Most of them are ex-Commandoes and anyone of them could take Hadley with one arm tied behind his back. We're leaving tomorrow, most likely, to sail to Tahiti. If you come with us I'll assign two of them as your permanent bodyguard when we get there. If Hadley tried anything he'll learn something he never knew about dirty fighting, and probably end up with a broken back, or in gaol.'

I thought that having her on board would be tricky with Kane around, but she said they had never. met and it was worth the risk. If I left her behind I might never have another chance to use her.

'You'll have company, by the way – female company, if you're thinking about that. The girl we were with last night -she's coming too.'

She bit her lip. 'Oh Mike, I'd be scared. Besides, I'm on contract here, though it's up in a couple of weeks. I don't want to run out on a contract. Things like that get about in my business.'

I said, 'If it's money you're worried about, we'll pay all your expenses and you'll get a bonus too. Hell, we can buy out your contract.'

'I'm not thinking of money. You're really going to find out what happened to Mark, aren't you?'

'I am,' I said definitely.

She thought for a moment, then sat back and looked determined.

'Then I'll come. Mark was the only man I've ever loved -and I think he loved me, a little. If he was killed I'd like to see his killer caught.'

'Good girl! Look, why not come over on a cruise ship – do they go from here to Tahiti? Can you find out?'

'Wait a minute – I'll see if I can find out anything.'

It was five minutes.

'There's a smallish cruise ship, the Eastern Sun, coming through here but not for a few weeks. It'll stop at Papeete. I can get a cabin – and I might even get a job for the trip, which would save you cash. But it's a long time off yet.'

That would suit me. I thought we would be a few days before we could really be sure of leaving, and then might be dredging or searching for several weeks around Minerva Reef, wherever that was. I got the date of the Eastern Sun's arrival in Papeete and promised Paula that we would be there before her, so that she would not be alone. 'I don't want to see you out of pocket, 'I went on. 'I'll pay your fare and expenses. If you get a paid job you can let me have it back. Do you have a bank?'

She told me and I said, 'I'll transfer enough to your account. I'm grateful, Paula. I'm glad to have you on our team; and you don't have to break your contract.'

There's more to this than just Mark's death, isn't there?' she said shrewdly.

'A lot more. I'll tell you about it in Papeete, perhaps after we've found out more still.' A girl like Clare Campbell would have demanded a much greater share of knowledge before committing herself, but Paula seemed accustomed to playing subsidiary roles. As we said goodbye I wondered how in hell Mark could have attracted such widely disparate women, though they had one thing more than their sex in common. Both seemed determined and courageous, and they were both worthy of a better man than Mark in their lives.

I went back to the hotel slowly, looking at shops and enjoying the exotic street scenes around me. I lunched alone, not finding any of the others in, but presently I saw Clare and her father arriving, and soon after we were joined by Geordie carrying a book. Over cold drinks we got down to business once more.

The book Geordie had brought from the ship was a copy of Bill Robinson's To The Great Southern Sea. 'Here's the bit. I've looked up the Pilot too, but I left that on board for later. I've been rereading Robinson, knowing that we'd be sailing down this way. He sailed from the Galapagos to Mangareva in his schooner, and here is what he has to say about Minerva. This was published in 1957, not long ago, by the way.'

He passed the book to Clare, indicating a paragraph. She started to read silently but her father said, 'For God's sake read it aloud so we'll all know what's going on.'

So Clare read to us:

'Approaching Mangareva we passed close to Minerva, one of those shoals of doubtful position and uncertain existence known as "vigias". Vigias are the bane of navigators, for one is never sure where they are, or if they are there at all. According to the Sailing Directions, which neglect to state how she got her name, there seems to be no doubt about Minerva's authenticity. A ship named the Sir George Grey was assumed lost there in 1865, although the British Navy failed to locate a reef there a few years later. In 1 the German bark Erato saw the shoal. It was again seen breaking heavily in 1920 ten miles from the position reported by the Erato. To my great disappointment, the maraamu spoiled our chances of looking for Minerva. For although the wind had gone down to a fresh breeze and we arrived at the vicinity at midday, there was still a big sea running, which broke in an unruly fashion. It was impossible to distinguish breakers caused by a shoal from those left in the wake of the maraamu. We steered a course that took us ten miles to the north of the northernmost reported position of the errant shoal, kept a vigilant look-out, but saw nothing.'

Clare stopped reading and Campbell said, 'Well, I'm damned. Do you mean to tell me that while spacemen are whirling round in orbit and we're on the verge of going to other planets that there's a piddling little shoal like this that hasn't been located?'

'That's right,' said Geordie. 'There are lots of them.'

'It's disgusting,' said Campbell, more accustomed to precise locations on land. 'But if Mark found it we can find it.'

'If he did. I doubt it,' I said. 'If an IGY survey ship had found Minerva they'd have reported it, and they didn't. But it doesn't mean they didn't dredge around there,' I added hastily into three disappointed faces. 'You heard what Robinson said about it. You'd probably only be able to see it in a flat calm, with the tides right.'

'Robinson took damn good care to steer well clear of it,' snorted Campbell. 'Ten miles north of its reported position, indeed.'

'He was a wise man and a good seaman,' said Geordie. 'He didn't want to lose his ship. It might be a shifting shoal and if you can't see where it is it's a good idea to keep clear of it. I'll do the same, believe me.'

Once again they all looked at me – the reluctant expert.

'The conditions I'm thinking of are possible,' I said. 'We have to make a start somewhere, and it would be fun to find it, if we can. Why not?'

One more thing happened before we left Panama. Kane came to see me.

We had ostensibly treated him as just one of the crew, and he'd done his work well and was not a bad seaman. But Geordie had only agreed to take him as far as Panama and now we were waiting to see what his next step would be.

He came down to my cabin one morning and said, 'Mr Trevelyan, could I have a word?'

'Come in. Hie looked fit again. Without trying to show it, I had kept clear of him on the voyage, finding it intolerably creepy to have the possible murderer of Mark underfoot, but I couldn't avoid some contacts and this was one I had almost been hoping for.