The following morning, he woke with a splitting headache. He stumbled into the bathroom and washed down four aspirin tablets, then he forced himself under a cold shower. Later, when the ache in his head had subsided and he had drunk three cups of strong coffee, he considered what best to do.
Juana had lied to him. That was an indisputable fact. He had to make her admit her lie and explain why she had lied. To hell with the Museum job! What was three hundred lousy dollars compared to his peace of mind? He would go back and have it out with her.
He packed, paid his check and drove to the airport.
During the flight he wondered a little uneasily what Sam Wand would say about all this. He remembered suddenly that he would now have to pay for the two days stay at the Uxmal hotel and his air fare. That was so much money wasted, he thought bitterly, just when he needed his money.
He found Juana, white faced, with dark smudges under her eyes, waiting for him. She was sitting in the garden. She didn’t get up as he strode across the patio.
“Let’s get at it,” he said curtly, standing over her. “I heard a man speak to you last night. I heard him distinctly over the telephone. You said you were listening to a play on the radio. I checked the programmes. There was no play last night so that makes you a liar!”
She regarded him, her eyes expressionless.
“Then if you think I am a liar, why have you come back?” she asked in a cold, flat voice.
Cade felt a clutch of fear at his heart.
“Come back? What do you mean? I’m your husband! I want an explanation!”
Her direct stare made him lose confidence and his anger became uncertain.
“There is no explanation. Why should there be? I was listening to a play so what have I to explain?”
“There was no play! Now look, Juana, it is no use...”
She got to her feet and faced him. Her eyes now were dark and angry.
“The play was You Can’t Take It With You. It was broadcast on the short wave from New Orleans. Ask Creel to check for you. I think you have been very stupid, very suspicious and very unkind. I don’t love a man like that!”
She walked quickly into the house and he heard a door slam.
Sick with fear that he had gone too far and had lost her, Cade ran after her, frantically calling her name.
Four
It took Cade until late evening to win Juana back to him. He spent more than an hour outside the locked bedroom door, trying to persuade her to let him in. When she finally did unlock the door, she refused at first to listen to his abject apologies.
“I am a liar. You don’t trust me. Therefore you can’t love me,” she said, her back turned to him.
“Please try to understand,” he pleaded. “You are the first woman I have ever loved. I can’t help it if I am jealous of you. You said yourself it is a proof of love. Now, didn’t you?”
“That doesn’t mean you can call me a liar.”
And so it went on, until finally, he began to wear down her resistance.
“You hurt me very much,” she said, close to tears. “I didn’t sleep all night. You were drunk. You shouted at me. You were horrid.”
“Yes, I was all that, and I am sorry. I promise it won’t happen again.” Tentatively he put his arm around her, and after hesitating, she relaxed against him.
“You made me so unhappy,” she said, clinging to him. “I have never been so unhappy.”
In a few more minutes, she began to smile and Cade, relieved and delighted, insisted that they should go out to dinner to celebrate. They went to the Negrui Restaurant where Cade ordered champagne, unmindful of the cost since he had a Diner’s Club card and he hadn’t to pay for the meal for some time to come.
On their return, they went to bed and made love. But Cade was quick to find she wasn’t so ardent, and he guessed she was still resenting his treatment of her.
He decided before he fell asleep that he would get her a present the following day. An Omega self-winding watch was certain to put things right, he told himself. Never mind the cost. He still had some stock left, and in another twelve weeks, the royalty money would be in.
So when Juana, still a little cool, went off to the market, Cade called up Adolfo Creel and instructed him to find him a watch, explaining just what he wanted. Creel said he would have a selection ready for him by the afternoon. Then, slightly uneasy, Cade called Sam Wand. He said that he had changed his mind about going to Yucatan and was returning the photographs supplied by the Museum.
“It’s not worth the journey, Sam. What else have you got?”
“I hope you know what you are doing,” Wand said, obviously annoyed. “They’ll be pretty sore. I told them it was all fixed.”
“Then tell them it is unfixed,” Cade said impatiently. “Have you dug up anything else?”
“There’s nothing your way for the moment, but I was talking to Harry Jackson and he is raving about those bull fight shots of yours. He’s trying to set up a deal with Life to do an article on the Dixie Bands in New Orleans. If he pulls it off, he’ll want you to take care of the photographs. This could be a nice slice of money, Val. I’ll know tomorrow for certain and I’ll call you.”
“Fine. Oh, another thing. Sell some more stock for me, will you? I’ll need around five thousand.”
“For God’s sake! Didn’t I...”
“Sam! This is my money, remember? Keep your remarks to yourself!”
“I know it’s your money, but do you imagine you’ll have all that amount? Right now, you are worth only twenty-one thousand dollars: that’s all! If I sell stock at the present market price, you won’t be worth fifteen thousand.”
“I have those royalties coming to me, so what?”
“Now look, Val...”
“I want five thousand dollars, so get it,” Cade said and hung up.
The watch, when it arrived, was perfect and set with diamonds. Cade couldn’t resist it. Creel assured him it was a bargain. Cade was sure this would please Juana as nothing else could, and he was right. He was immediately out of the dog house and their love-making that night was as abandoned and explosive as it had ever been.
The following morning Sam Wand telephoned to say that the New Orleans deal was on and he had sold stock at a forty per cent loss to give Cade the five thousand dollars he had asked for.
Cade felt a moment of uneasiness, but he had told Wand to do it, so this wasn’t the time to squeal.
“Jackson will be at the Fontainbleau Motor Hotel, New Orleans on Friday,” Wand went on. “He’s expecting you. This will be a syndicate job. Could be worth nine thousand dollars to you in the long run. Okay?”
Cade grinned happily.
“More than okay. I’ll be there,” and he hung up.
He rushed to tell Juana they were leaving for New Orleans on Friday. She was as excited as he. He then called Creel, asking him to fix the plane reservations and to call the hotel for a double room.
After dinner, Cade said it would be nice to take a drive. How would Juana like to visit the Pyramid of the Moon again? Always delighted for an excuse to drive the Thunderbird, Juana agreed.
Together, they left the house and walked around to the garage. They walked arm in arm, and they were completely off their guards. Three shadowy figures rose out of the bushes near the garage and converged on them.
Juana was the first to realise the threatening danger.
“Look out!” she cried, jerking her arm free. She swung her heavy handbag at the face of one of the running men, and then she began to scream.
Two small Mexicans were on Cade before he could get his balance. They all crashed down in a struggling heap on the concrete path. Cade kicked out, feeling his shoe sink into something soft and some of the pressure went away. He received a stunning blow in the face, cursed, hit out blindly and connected with a jaw bone.