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“Well, well, look who we have here?” Sidney Fletcher turned the light on in the dark hold. “If it isn’t my fiancé’s ex-husband and his new squeeze.”
Jack Robinson and Phyrne Fisher were tied back to back on the floor. Fletcher and his henchmen had captured them as they tried to board the Pandarus looking for young girls who were being sold into prostitution.
“What do you want with us, Fletcher?” Phryne challenged their captor.
“I need to know how much you know and who you’ve told before I dump you over the side.”
“We won’t talk,” Jack said with more confidence than he felt. He had heard stories of people being tortured for information during the war and while he assumed Phyrne would probably manage, he wasn’t too sure about himself.
“I have been threatened with torture before, Fletcher, and it won’t work,” Phyrne spat back.
“I don’t plan to torture anyone. So unseemly and messy. My friend ‘scopolamine’ here will do the talking for you.”
“Barbiturates,” Phyrne said, her breathy voice giving away her alarm.
“They worked on those prisoners in Texas,” Sydney Fletcher said, “and they will work on you.” Fletcher crowed as he turned to the other man in the room. “Dr. Smith here will administer the drugs and I will be back in half an hour to find out what I need to know. Ta.” They heard Fletcher’s heavy steps as went back up the steps to the deck of the ship.
“Rosie deserves better than a monster like you,” Jack called after him.
Both Jack and Phyrne struggled against the ropes that were holding them, but they were too tight. The man identified as Dr. Smith was easily able to inject both of them with the scopolamine and follow Fletcher out, turning the light off as he went.
As the room was plunged into darkness, both captives started struggling against the ropes again.
“Phyrne,” Jack said, using her first name which was a sure sign of the seriousness of the situation, “do you have your knife?”
“Yes,” she replied, but it is on my calf and I can’t reach it. I don’t know how we are going to get out of these ropes.” Phyrne’s usual calm voice was rising in pitch as she began to realize the desperateness of their situation.
“Do you think Hugh is still out there somewhere?” she asked Jack.
“I hope so. He wasn’t with us when Fletcher managed to get behind us and capture us. Hopefully he is able to call for reinforcements.”
“And hopefully Sanderson isn’t able to countermand him.”
“I just can’t believe that George is involved in all this. I always knew him to be an honourable man.” Jack sounded wistful as the barbiturates started to work and his emotions became more evident.
“Jack, you are starting to sound a bit dopey,” Phyrne observed.
“I don’t feel dopey, Miss Fisher, just kind of blissful and relaxed,” he replied lazily.
“Me too, I’m afraid, and that is not the kind of feeling we should be having at this moment,” she said trying to be stern while her tone was also starting to sound more relaxed.
“Tell me, Miss Fisher,” Jack said, “when did you know you were in love with me?”
Phyrne started laughing. “Is that what you want to talk about trapped in the bottom of a ship and bound for Davy Jones’ locker?”
“I realize the seriousness of the situation, but if I am going to drown tonight, I would like to know when you first fell in love with me.”
“Oh god, Jack. I don’t know. When you told me how badly you felt when you thought I had died in a car crash, I guess.” As she said the words, she realized that she actually might be in love with him. She had occasionally considered seducing him but she hadn’t thought of it as love.
“Really, as late as that?”
“Why,” she replied, “when did you fall in love with me?”
“Now, Miss Fisher, didn’t you just say we should take this more seriously?”
“Jack, you are getting on my nerves now. Either figure out how to get us out of here or answer the question.”
“When you drove away from the Ballarat Train with all my suspects.”
“Why then?”
“Because I thought, ‘I have never ever met anyone like this before, and I want to be around her all the time.’”
“Well, I kind of knew that you were special, when you recited Shakespeare for me at the theatre.”
“Were you in love with me? Because I was in love with you. I decided to finalize my divorce after the day at the municipal hall I found you teaching judo to the flower girls.”
“Did you now?” Phryne was feeling sassy now. The barbiturates were taking effect and she didn’t feel like fighting the ropes anymore.
She continued, “well, you are a far, far better man than Sidney Fletcher, even if he wasn’t a murderous white slaver.”
“Well, thank you, Miss Fisher. Now tell me, how do I compare to your previous lovers?”
“You aren’t seriously asking that, are you Jack?”
“I don’t mind if I am not the best, I am just hoping I am not the worst. Since we have been given ‘truth serum’ we might as well take advantage of it.”
“How am I supposed to answer a question like that?” she said.
“With the truth,” Jack was now laughing nervously.
“You asked for it,” she put on her best seductress voice. “Since I haven’t actually had you in my bed yet, I can’t properly compare you to any of them. But if I were to imagine, my guess is you would not be the most adventurous or the most acrobatic, but that can be learned. I would suspect you are probably the most erudite.”
“Erudite?”
“I can’t remember any of my lovers quoting romantic poetry while they had my toes in their mouths. But I can imagine you doing it.” There was a long pause and then they both started laughing hysterically as the drugs took complete hold of any remaining prohibitions.
“Jack, we are going to die tonight.”
“Well, what better way than to die laughing.”
They heard noises outside the hold and the door burst open followed by Constable Collins and three other members of the Victoria Police.
“Thank god you’re okay,” Collins shouted as he rushed over to the two detectives.
Phryne and Jack looked at each other over their shoulders and started laughing even harder.
Collins, looking surprised and a bit hurt, asked “are you alright?”
“Collins …. Collins ….” Jack struggled to regain some composure, “cut off these ropes and let us up.”
“It’s barbiturates, Hugh, we were drugged by Sidney Fletcher.”
Collins visibly relaxed as he began to understand the situation. “We have Fletcher and Commissioner Sanderson in custody, sir. I saw them capture you and bring you down here. I was able to get away and call in some other police that I knew I could trust.”
“Good work, Collins,” Jack said as he stood up and massaged his wrists. He still wanted to giggle but was trying to get some control over his head.
“Did you find the girls?”
“Yes, Miss Fisher and we found Dot, Bert and Cec. Everyone is safe.”
“Take Fletcher and Sanderson to City South, Collins. I am going to see if I can find some strong black coffee before I try to question anyone.”
“Good thinking, Sir. Miss Fisher, are you all right?” Phryne was still a bit woozy.
“Nothing a bit of that same coffee won’t cure. We can get Bert to drive us back to the station. I’m not sure either of us should drive.”
As they two detectives walked arm in arm from the ship to Bert’s cab, the effects of the scopolamine started to wear off and Jack found himself wincing internally at the conversation they had had in the dark hold.
“Miss Fisher, I mean Phryne, ….” he hesitated.
“Jack,” she replied soothingly, “don’t be embarrassed about what happened. We were drugged, we didn’t know what we were saying.”
“Right, we didn’t,” he agreed, though he recalled every word he had said and would swear to the truth of them all.
“Unless,” she continued, “you meant what you said, about being in love with me.”
“Did you mean what you said?” he countered.
“Every word.”
“You are in love with me?”
“Against my better judgement, yes, Jack, I am. So perhaps it is time we formalized things with a proper dinner. Will you come to supper?”