“Taxes—”
“Something like that. Anyway, I heard him telling somebody that he never has less than a hundred thousand dollars in that safe. So you wouldn’t have to wait until the banks open, and you wouldn’t have to settle for seventy-five thousand either. You could ask for an even hundred thousand and get it easy.”
The two kidnappers looked at her, at each other, then at her again.
“I mean,” she said, “I’m only trying to be helpful.”
“You must hate him something awful, kid.”
“Now you’re catching on.”
“Doesn’t he treat you right?”
“All his money,” she said, “and I don’t even get my own car. I had to take the bus tonight; otherwise you wouldn’t have got me the way you did, so it’s his fault I was kidnapped. Why shouldn’t he pay a bundle?”
“This is some kid, Howie,” the younger man said.
Howie nodded. “You sure about the hundred thousand?”
“He’ll probably try to stall, tell us he needs time to raise the dough.”
“So tell him you know about the safe.”
“Maybe he—”
“And that way he won’t call the police,” she went on. “Because of not paying taxes on the money and all that. He won’t want that to come out into the open, so he’ll pay.”
“It’s like you planned this job yourself, baby,” Ray said.
“I almost did.”
“Huh?”
“I used to think what a gas it would be if I got kidnapped. What a fit the old man would throw and everything.” She giggled. “But I never really thought it would happen. It’s too perfect.”
“I think I’ll make that call now,” Howie said. “I’ll be back in maybe half an hour. Ray here’ll take good care of you, kitten.” He nodded and was gone.
She had expected that Howie would make the call and was glad it had turned out that way. Ray seemed to be the easier of the two to get along with. It wasn’t just that he was younger and better-looking. He was also, as far as she could tell, more good-natured and a whole lot less intelligent.
“Who would have figured it?” he said now. “I mean, you go and pull a snatch, you don’t expect anybody to be so cooperative.”
“Have you ever done this before, Ray?”
“No.”
“It must be scary.”
“Aw, I guess it’s easy enough. More money than a bank job and a whole lot less risk. The only hard part is when the mark — your old man, that is — delivers the money. You have to get the dough without being spotted. Outside of that, it’s no sweat at all.”
“And afterward?”
“Huh?”
The palms of her hands were moist with sweat. She said, “What happens afterward? Will you let me go, Ray?”
“Oh, sure.”
“You won’t kill me?”
“Oh, don’t be silly,” he said.
She knew exactly what he meant. He meant, Let’s not talk about it, doll, but of course we’ll kill you. What else?
“I’m more fun when I’m alive,” she said.
“I’ll bet you are.”
“You better believe it.”
He came closer to her. She straightened her shoulders to emphasize her youthful curves and watched his eyes move over her body.
“That’s a pretty sweater,” he said. “You look real good in a sweater. I’ll bet a guy could have a whole lot of fun with you, baby.”
“I’m more fun,” she said, “when I’m not tied up. Howie won’t be back for a half hour. But I don’t guess that would worry you.”
“Not a bit.”
She sat perfectly still while he untied her. Then she got slowly to her feet. Her legs were cramped and her fingers tingled a little from the limited circulation. Ray took her in his arms and kissed her, then took a black automatic from his pocket and placed it on the table.
“Now don’t get any idea about making a grab for the gun,” he said. “You’d only get hurt, you know.”
Later he insisted on tying her up again.
“But I won’t try anything,” she protested. “Honest, Ray. You know I wouldn’t try anything. I want everything to go off just right.”
“Howie wouldn’t like it,” he said doggedly, and that was all there was to it.
“But don’t make it too tight,” she begged. “It hurts.”
He didn’t make it too tight.
When Howie came back he was smiling broadly. He closed the door and locked it and lit a cigarette. “Like a charm,” he said through a cloud of smoke. “Went like a charm. You’re okay, honey girl.”
“What did he say?”
“Got hysterical first of all. Kept telling me not to hurt you, that he’d pay if only we’d release you. He kept saying how much he loved you and all.”
She started to laugh. “Oh, beautiful!”
“And you were right about the safe. He started to blubber that he couldn’t possibly raise a hundred thousand on short notice. Then I hit him with the safe, said I knew he kept plenty of dough right there in his own basement, and that really got to him. He went all to pieces. I think you could have knocked him over with a lettuce leaf when he heard that.”
“And he’ll pay up?”
“No trouble at all, and if it’s all cash he’s been salting away that’s the best news yet: no serial numbers copied down, no big bills, no runs of new bills in sequence. That means we don’t have to wholesale the kidnap dough to one of the Eastern mobs for forty cents on the dollar. We wind up with a hundred thousand, and we wind up clean.”
“And he’ll be scared to go to the police afterward,” Carole put in. “Did you set up the delivery of the money?”
“No. I said I’d call in an hour. I may cut it to a half hour though. I think we’ve got him where we want him. This is going so smooth it scares me. I want it over and done with, nice and easy.”
She was silent for a moment. Howie wanted it over and done with, undoubtedly wanted no loose ends. Inevitably he was going to think of her, Carole Butler, as an obvious loose end, which meant that he would probably want to tie her off, and the black automatic on the table was just the thing to do the job. She stared at the gun, imagined the sound of it, the impact of the bullet in her flesh. She was terrified, but she made sure none of this showed in her face or in her voice.
Casually she asked, “About the money — how are you going to pick it up?”
“That’s the only part that worries me.”
“I don’t think he’ll call the police. Not my old man. Frankly, I don’t think he’d have the guts. But if he did, that would be the time when they’d try to catch you, wouldn’t it?”
“That’s the general idea.”
She thought for a moment. “If we were anywhere near the south end of town, I know a perfect spot — but I suppose we’re miles from there.”
“What’s the spot?”
She told him about it — the overpass on Route 130 at the approach to the turnpike. They could have her father drive onto the pike, toss the money over the side of the overpass when he reached it, and they could be waiting down below to pick it up. Any cops who were with him would be stuck up there on the turnpike and they could get away clean.
“It’s not bad,” Ray said.
“It’s perfect,” Howie added. “You thought that up all by yourself?”
“Well, I got the idea from a really super-duper movie—”
“I think it’s worth doing it that way.” Howie sighed. “I was going to get fancy, have him walk to a garbage can, stick it inside, then cut out. Then we go in and get it out of the can. But suppose the cops had the whole place staked out?” He smiled. “You’ve got a good head on your shoulders, kitten. It’s a shame—”
“What’s a shame?”
“That you’re not part of the gang, the way your mind works. You’d be real good at it.”