Paula came in behind him. “Yes, Mr. Felix Frost phoned about twenty minutes ago. That would be ten minutes after Mejia got his call from the cafe. She talked to him in English, but kept dropping the phone. The servants put her to bed.”
“Get some help.”
He found a last split of champagne in the kitchen refrigerator, brought it back to the bedroom and drank while Paula and a maid attempted to get some clothes on the woman. She moaned and pushed, without seeming to understand what was happening. Her pajama tops came off, then the bottoms. Realizing suddenly that a man was across the room, she screamed and tried to hide behind her hands.
“Perhaps you should wait outside, Mike?” Paula suggested.
“If she’s embarrassed about being naked, all she has to do is get dressed.”
Her eyes on Shayne, the Senora made the women work for each small success.
“Go away,” she said in English. “I don’t want you in the house. I was sleeping.”
She hit at the maid and knocked her over. The struggle continued. The black dress was so tight that Shayne had to be called on to help. He pulled her off the bed and forced her to stand. In a swift change of tactics, she flung her arms around his neck.
“I hunt and I hunt. For a man with strong muscles.”
Together they wrestled her into some kind of shape. Shayne put her over his shoulder and started out of the room. The old man was in the gallery outside, glowering at the cop, whose hand rested on the butt of his holstered gun. Senora Alvares waved an arm and gave a drunken shriek.
“They are about to rape me.”
“I’m not promising anything,” Shayne said. “We’ll see.”
Paula opened the rear door of the police car and they manhandled her in. She fell off the seat and Shayne put her back.
“Where are we going?” she said when the car started.
“We’re picking up your friend Lenore Dante.”
“Friend, not at all a friend! She robbed me.”
“You had a phone call from Frost. What did he tell you?”
“A disgusting person.” She toppled against Shayne. “I’m so lonely.”
When they stopped at the apartment building where he had left Lenore, the widow was asleep again with her head against Shayne’s shoulder. He freed himself gently and backed out.
He had to use his lock picks to get into the inner lobby. Upstairs, he tapped on the door of 9-C. The little peephole clicked. Then the door was thrown open and Lenore propelled herself into his arms.
“Mike, Mike.” She pulled him against her. “You were so long! I thought they’d killed you.”
Shayne eased out of her embrace and moved her into the bare, unlighted apartment. There was just enough light coming through the uncurtained front windows so he could see the outline of her face.
“I’ll explain later. I’m just coming off a long session with your niece and a few friends, and they’ve agreed to cooperate. I think I can get you included. But they’re going to want money, and like everybody else they have an exaggerated idea about how much is available. If I do the talking I think I can get you a better price. You’ve had the afternoon to think about it. A little honesty from you about your friend’s retirement fund would make things easier.”
She was standing close, looking up into his face. She shook her head.
“Mike, I don’t know anything about that. Won’t you believe me? Of course I’m willing to pay to get out of this mess. I can sell the gallery. Would seventy-five thousand-”
“They’re thinking about more than that and we don’t have time to haggle. Everybody’s in a rush to get to Palm Beach. The first person to make it is going to win the jackpot.”
She grasped his arms. “Everybody?”
“Well, not Rubino. Rubino’s dead. Say half-a-dozen in all, starting with Mejia and working down.”
Her grasp tightened. “What are the MIR offering, exactly?”
“I have a plane waiting, but I can’t just walk up and get on. One of the things I’ve done since I saw you was take a grease-gun away from a couple of cops and steal their car. I’ve also been shot at a couple of times, and that puts you and me in the same bag. Serrano has assigned a couple of men to cover me. If you want to buy in, I’ll see if I can work it.”
She drew a long breath. “How much do you think I should give them?”
“Baby, you know you’ve got a damn good reason for getting back to Palm Beach before anybody else. Stop trying to con me. Mejia won’t charter a plane. That’s too conspicuous. He’ll be taking the nine-thirty flight to Miami. We can beat him by going straight to Palm Beach.”
She pushed back her hair. “That’s one. How about the others? The widow.”
“She’s coming with us. I want to keep a personal eye on her.”
She breathed in and out slowly twice. Then she clenched her fist and struck Shayne in the chest.
“You bastard. You’re taking me anyway, aren’t you?”
Shayne laughed. “I thought I’d give you a chance to persuade me.”
“What a four-flusher. For a minute you had me convinced. But you’re damn right! I’d pay anything to get out of here, to a top of seventy-five thousand, which is all I have. So Rubino’s dead, is he? I don’t suppose he died of emphysema from all those cigarettes.”
“He was shot twice, in the head and the chest.”
“I’ve never seen any sense in being solvent but dead. Yes, I’ve been thinking. I’ve been sitting here on the floor with my back to the wall getting rapidly older. I knew you’d come back for me, and I knew you’d put together some kind of arrangement with somebody, because it’s too confining for you here. But Mejia-I didn’t even know he was a factor! And now he’s taking the nine-thirty plane to Miami. You’re transporting the widow personally. Who else?”
“We’ll call the roll after we get there. How about that diary of Alvares’?”
“You’ve been talking to Paula, of course. I tore out one page and she used it to motivate your friend, Tim. He seemed to think it was salable. I mailed it to myself at the gallery, airmail special. It’s probably on my desk right now with the rest of the backed-up mail.”
“I’ll take that in lieu of a fee.”
She peered at him, trying to read his expression. “No money? Don’t tell me you’ve finally begun to realize I’m not sitting on a trunkful of gold.”
“If the diary is hot enough I can trade it for Rourke. I don’t think I can buy him out with money.”
“All right, you can have it,” she said decisively. “I had a lot to do with getting him put where he is.”
He heard the blare of a horn from below and reached the window in time to see a police cruiser pull to a stop before the building.
“Mike,” Lenore said beside him, “are they looking for us?”
“I doubt it. I think they’ve found Rubino and they’re going up to check his apartment. Give them a minute to get to the elevator.”
Two policemen got out of the cruiser, and the casual way they were moving confirmed Shayne’s guess that they were homicide men assigned to Rubino’s killing, here on a routine check. He and Lenore left the apartment carefully and took the elevator to the basement. After leaving by a side door, she stayed in the shadows while Shayne walked past the police car. On the outside it was a standard sedan, but it had been rebuilt to carry prisoners. There were no inside handles on the rear doors, and a grill of woven wire separated the front seats from the back.
He signaled, and the other police car pulled out of the lot and drew up beside him. Senora Alvares was still asleep in the back seat.
“We’re changing cars,” he told Paula. “We’ve got too many prisoners for two cops.”
Lenore greeted her niece with a cool nod. “I thought Mike would want to include you. Your parents are worrying about you, by the way.”
“Nothing bad has happened to me yet.”
Shayne started the other cruiser with his ignition loop and climbed into the back seat with the three women. The Senora had been jolted awake as she moved from one car to the other. She looked miserable and sick.