Len rolled the brandy snifter between his hands. “If you pay him,” he said slowly, “it won’t be the last time. If he knows you’re worried, worried enough to come up with the money once, he’ll be back. Again and again.”
“Yes. I was thinking the same thing.”
“I’d like to say Reilly and Pordenza have something further,” Len said. “Or that somebody on that list you gave me checks out as possible.”
“But there’s nothing, is there?”
“Nothing at all.”
“Then I’ve got to pay him,” Agenrood said. “Either that, or—” He left it there, moistening his lips.
Len walked across to the wine-colored drapes covering a large picture window. He stood with his back to Agenrood. After a time he said, “That would be very dangerous, Jim.”
“I know.”
“You’re established now, both here and with the National Office. And you’re important to us, Jim. Very important. I think you realize what I mean. If something went wrong...”
“I know that, too,” Agenrood said.
Len turned and met Agenrood’s eyes. “I don’t advise that alternative,” he said.
“Do you think I like the idea of it any better? But it doesn’t look like I have much choice, does it?”
Len did not say anything.
“Will you help me, Len?” Agenrood asked.
“I don’t know.”
“I’ve never asked you for a favor before.”
“No, you haven’t.”
“I want two men, that’s all.”
The distinguished man worried his lower lip. “How do you know he’ll leave himself open? He’s done the rest of it very shrewdly.”
“If he doesn’t, I can arrange it.”
“Are you sure?”
“No,” Agenrood said. “I’m not sure.”
“When is he supposed to contact you again?”
“He didn’t say. I don’t think it will be too long, though.”
“I see.”
The two men stood quietly for several minutes. Agenrood said then, “More brandy, Len?”
“Yes.”
Agenrood poured more brandy for each of them. They stood drinking in silence. Finally, Len said, “All right, Jim. If you can arrange a quiet place, out of the way. If you can do that.”
Agenrood inclined his head and, wordlessly, they continued to stand drinking their brandy in the dark study.
The telephone booth in the lobby of the San Francisco Hilton Hotel smelled of lime-scented after-shave lotion. Cain did not like the smell, but he kept the door shut nonetheless. He said into the receiver, “What’s your decision, Agenrood?”
“All right,” Agenrood said. “I don’t have any other alternative, do I?”
“You’re a wise man,” Cain told him. “When can you have the money?”
“By Tuesday.”
“Fine.”
“How do you want to pick it up?”
“You bring it to me. Personally.”
“There’s no need for that.”
“There’s a need for it,” Cain said.
There was a long silence, and then Agenrood said, “Whatever you say.”
“If you don’t come yourself, I’ll know it.”
“I’ll come myself.”
Cain nodded in the booth.
Agenrood said, “Where do I go?”
“Are you familiar with the Coast Highway, just south of Rockaway Beach?”
“Yes.”
“There’s a Standard station on the highway there that has gone out of business,” Cain said. “Loy Brophy’s is the name of it. Park in there, by the pumps, at midnight Tuesday. When you see headlights swing in off the highway, and they blink off and then back on again, follow the car. Have you got all that, Agenrood?”
“Yes. Is that all?”
“Just one more thing.”
“Yes?”
“Make sure you’re alone.”
Cain left the Hilton Hotel. A block away, he hailed a taxicab and told the driver where he wanted to go. The driver looked at him curiously for a moment, and then shrugged and edged out into the light Sunday afternoon traffic. Cain settled back against the rear seat, lit a cigarette, and thought out carefully what he was going to say when he arrived at his destination.
James Agenrood said, “That’s all of it, Len. Just as he told it to me on the telephone.”
The distinguished man shifted in his chair. He took the briar pipe from his suit pocket and looked at it for a moment. “It sounds like he’s covering himself from all angles.”
“Not quite.”
“No,” Len agreed. “Not quite.”
“He won’t be able to see inside my car unless he pulls right up next to me at the pumps. And even if he does that, it will be dark enough in the back seat to hide anybody down on the floorboards. He’d have to get out and walk right up to the car, and he’s not going to do that, not there on the highway. He’s got some other place in mind.”
“Suppose that other place is one that’s well-lighted, with a lot of people around?”
“I don’t think so, Len,” Agenrood said. “If that was his idea, he wouldn’t have set it up for Rockaway Beach; that’s a pretty dark and sparsely populated area. And he wouldn’t go through all that business about blinking his headlights off an on, and then leaving with me following him.”
Len nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe you’re right.”
“I think I am.”
“Why do you suppose he wants you to bring the money personally? You’ll see his face that way.”
“I don’t know,” Agenrood admitted. “He has to be a little crazy to try something like this in the first place, and there’s no way of telling what could be going through his mind. Maybe it’s just a precaution against a trap and he’s covering himself the way you said.”
“Maybe,” Len said. “And maybe he intends, once he has the money, to finish what he started Wednesday night.”
“Yes,” Agenrood said, taking a breath. “But it doesn’t really matter, does it? If that’s what he plans to do, he won’t have the chance.”
“I don’t like it. It’s damned risky.”
“No riskier than turning him down, and then having to look over my shoulder every time I go out for a package of cigarettes until you locate him. If you locate him.”
Len filled his pipe. When he had gotten it lighted, he said, “Reilly and Pordenza?”
“I know Pordenza. He’s very capable.”
“So is Reilly.”
“All right, then.”
“He told you he’d know if you didn’t come yourself?”
“That’s what he said.”
“He might plan on watching your house, then.”
“I thought of that.”
“But we can’t do anything there.”
“No.”
“How do we get Reilly and Pordenza into your car?”
“They can come across the rear of my property and slip in through the back entrance to the garage. I’ll have the garage door closed, and if he’s out on the street somewhere he won’t be able to see inside. They can get in and out of sight before I come out.”
“That sounds okay.”
“I guess that’s it, then.”
“Yes, that’s it. But listen, Jim, I don’t want to lose you, and neither does the National Office. Go easy Tuesday night.”
“I plan on doing just that,” Agenrood said. “Everything is going to turn out just fine.”
“I hope so. Because if there’s any trouble, I can’t help you, Jim. As much as the National Office likes you, they won’t go to bat for you if there’s a foul-up.”
“I’m aware of that.”
“Good luck, then.”
Agenrood smiled faintly. “And good hunting?”
“Yes,” Len said. “And good hunting.”
At twenty minutes past nine on Tuesday night, Cain left the Graceling Hotel and walked to the corner of Taylor and Eddy streets. There, he entered a gray stone building; over the building’s entrance was a yellow-and-black sign that read: RIGHT-WAY RENT-A-CAR — $25 PER DAY, 5¢ PER MILE.