Free Bill for the Use of a Body by Dennis Wheatley Page B

pool. Merri had brought a pale blue bikini that concealed very little of her lovely lithe body and, as she swam for minutes at a time under water, she looked like a magnificent golden fish. At the sight of her Julian felt his heart turn over.
    After they had lunched on the sun terrace she suggested taking him to the Tiger Balm garden, but he shook his head. ‘No, thanks; I looked in there on my first day here and it’s more like a stonemason’s yard than a garden.’
    â€˜I know,’ Merri agreed. ‘All real gardeners, like my mother, think it awful. She is a great gardener and, as she rarely goes out except to her office, she spends a lot of time looking after her flowers.’
    Seizing on this possible opening to meet her mother, Julian said, ‘Perhaps, then, you’d be kind enough some time to take me to see your mother’s garden.’
    Merri shrugged. ‘Perhaps. We’ll see. Unfortunately mother is something of a recluse, and does not encourage visitors. What would you like to do this afternoon?’
    â€˜Sleep,’ he replied with a smile. ‘I usually do in the afternoon.’
    She nodded. ‘Lots of older people seem to find that necessary. Then you won’t be wanting me any more today.’
    Her reference to older people gave him a nasty jar; but he said at once, ‘Oh, yes, I shall. I thought we might go somewhere to dine and dance this evening.’
    â€˜That’s not in my contract,’ she demurred. ‘Except when I’m on special trips, I’m supposed to finish at five o’clock.’
    â€˜Then count this as a special trip. Please, I’ll willingly pay you overtime.’
    â€˜Oh, I don’t want that. It’s … well, I don’t often accept such invitations from men I scarcely know.’
    Leaning forward, he held her gaze and said, ‘But surely, Merri, you’ve seen enough of me now to know that I’m not the sort of chap who would try to pull a fast one on you on the way home. Be a darling and rescue me from another lonely evening.’
    â€˜All right, then. But I must be home by half past eleven. Mother insists on that.’
    That night they dined at the Marco Polo and for the first time Julian saw Merri in a dress called by the Chinese a
cheongsam
. It is a one-piece dress, skin tight, buttoned up to the neck and slit up the side to well above the knee. Its bronze flowered satin formed a perfect mould for Merri’s sylph-like figure and it set off her dark beauty to perfection.
    In his youth Julian had been a good dancer, but it was a long time since he had danced except occasionally; so, to his annoyance, he found that he could do no more than move round the floor rather sedately. Merri, who danced beautifully, was disappointed in him but had thegood manners not to show it; and, by and large, they both enjoyed their evening.
    On the Friday they went across in the car ferry to Kowloon and she drove him out along the beautiful Pearl River to see the New Territories. They visited the old walled village of Kam Tin—the last outpost of resistance when the British had had to enforce their rule on the inhabitants of the mainland—then went to the carpet factory at Tai Po. The factory had been in existence for only a few years but it had already made for the Queen one of the largest carpets at Windsor Castle, and now employed nearly a thousand hands. The industry was one of the many started by the Kadoorie brothers in their wonderful campaign to make the refugees from Red China self-supporting. They had devoted a great part of their fabulous wealth to buying land, stocking it with cattle, pigs and poultry, and giving it to the refugees free of rent, so that they could start small farms, many thousands of which were now flourishing; and they had initiated many other enterprises. Later Merri drove Julian to the Kadoorie Experimental Station, where they were growing pineapples, apricots, sweet