“I’m glad to hear that.”
“Yes, sir. You think there won’t be no liberty at all, sir? None at all?”
‘“We’ll see,” Masters said. He paused. “Did the others send you, Caldroni?”
“The others? What others, sir?”
“The men in the radar gang.”
“Oh, no, sir. Send me where, sir?”
“Send you here. To find out if there’d be liberty in Atlantic City or not.”
“Oh, no, sir. Nosir, sir. Why, whatever put that idea into your head, Mr. Masters?”
“Just an idle thought, Caldroni. Well there may be liberty, we’ll see.”
“That’s very good, sir.”
“And now I suppose you’ll be leaving my company?”
“Well, sir, if you don’t mind — that is, I rather like this seat, you know?” Caldroni looked at the redhead again and wet his lips.
“I see,” Masters paused. “Liberty is a funny word, isn’t it? It implies imprisonment.”
“Sir?”
Masters shrugged. “Another idle thought,” he said. “Forget it.” He paused again. “What do you do on liberty, Caldroni?”
“Prowl,” Caldroni said, smiling.
“Do all the men prowl?”
“Most of ’em, I guess. Unless they’re dead. Or married.”
Daniels, Masters thought. Perry Daniels. Married.
“Not many married men in our crew, are there Caldroni?”
“No, not many,” Caldroni agreed. “A few, though.”
“Do you know Perry Daniels?”
“Oh, yes, sir.”
“Well?”
“Very well, sir. I had a personal interest in Daniels at one time. A sort of a professional interest, so to speak. What about him, sir?”
“Is he married?”
“Daniels?” Caldroni chuckled. “Hell, no, sir, you’ll pardon me.”
Masters turned his head, forsaking the comfort he’d attained. “How do you know, Caldroni?”
“Well, it’s just a fact, that’s all. Daniels ain’t married. I mean, you’ll forgive me, sir, I think he’s a regular ladies’ man, you know what I mean?”
“No. What do you mean?”
“Well, sir, when you get aboard a ship, you don’t know nobody from a hole in the wall, you know what I mean? A hole in the bulkhead, of course.” Caldroni seemed embarrassed by his nonnautical slip.
“Yes, go on.”
“So you start putting out feelers, you know? First you find out which of the officers is O.K., and which of them stinks. Present company excluded, naturally.”
“Naturally.”
“A chicken officer can make things tough for you, Mr. Masters, and I ain’t casting no aspersions, but the Sykes sure got its quota of chicken officers. Present company excluded, naturally.”
“Naturally. Go on.”
“So you learn which officers you can live with, and which officers you wished was dead, and you avoid the ones you can’t get along with. You see them strolling down the deck, you cut into a passageway, you follow? In a ship’s politics, you got to know which politicians can do the most for you. It’s like making a choice — you belong to either the Republican Club or the Democratic Club. O.K., so it’s the officers first, because they’re most important in making your life comfortable. Then you start looking around and figuring which of the enlisted men you want to buddy with.”
“I see.”
“We’re lucky ’cause the radar gang is a nice bunch of guys. But like I said, that’s lucky. They could’ve been a bunch of lemons, and then I’d have been up the creek without a paddle. I didn’t take no chances, anyway. When I come aboard, I started making my own private inquiries.”
“What’s all this got to do with Perry Daniels?”
“Well, sir, you got to choose who you want on liberty, you follow? You don’t want a slob, and you don’t want a guy’s too eager, and at the same time you don’t want some jerk doesn’t know how to part his hair right, you see? If you’re going to prowl, you got to choose a good prowling mate. Now, Singer is just about the best prowling mate a buddy could have. Now, he really knows how to approach a girl. You can put Singer ashore in any town in the world, and I can guarantee—”
“But what about Daniels?”
“Daniels? He’s got a rep. He makes out. So naturally, I wanted to latch onto him. But he operates solo.”
“How’d you find that out?”
“By circulating, how you think? You drop a query here and a query there, you know how it works. You see the way the guy dresses, whether he’s got tailor-mades or the reg blues, whether he makes the most of his uniform in a good sailor town, or whether he wears civvies, things like that. I got to admit Daniels threw me at first. That crew cut, you know? I figured him for a boot. But he’s a smart cookie. That haircut gives him a nice boyish look, makes the broads want to clutch him to their bosoms, you’ll pardon me. He arouses — what would you call it — sympathy, I guess.”
“And he’s not married? You’re sure of that?”
“If he is, sir, he’s sure kept it a big secret.”
“Yes, he certainly has.”
“Now, maybe you’re confusing his liberty maneuvers with marriage, sir.”
“How do you mean, Caldroni?”
“Well, like I told you, this Daniels is good. He’s nothing like Singer, you understand, because Singer never misses, never, sir, and that’s the God’s truth. But Daniels ain’t bad, so maybe you’re confusing... Well, sir, it’s almost like being married, when you get right down to it, I guess.”
“What is, Caldroni?”
“You keep this under your hat, sir?”
“Certainty.”
“Daniels, he don’t confine his activities to the Norfolk theatre of operations, sir.”
“He doesn’t?”
“No, sir.”
“Newport News?”
“Oh, without saying, sir. But Daniels got more far-reaching operations in hand, sir.”
“How far-reaching?”
“Pretty far-reaching, sir. Leastwise, that’s what Schaefer, Lord rest his soul, told me.”
Masters sat rigidly at attention now. “Schaefer told you something about Perry Daniels?”
“Oh, yes, sir. ’Course, Schaefer turned out to be a killer and all, so maybe his word ain’t so good, Lord rest his soul. But he told me this long before he bumped off that nurse, so maybe it’s the truth. In fact, sir, I know part of it’s the truth, ’cause I done some checking on my own.” Caldroni paused. “Like I said, this is when I first come aboard, when I was still casting around for a prowlmate. Now, I got Singer, so I—”
“Never mind Singer, damnit! What’d Schaefer tell you? What’d you find out about Daniels?”
Caldroni’s eyes opened wide. “Well, sir, I got to talkin’ to Schaefer coupla times when I first come aboard. It don’t hurt to know somebody in the Ship’s Office. Never know when you’re going to need a new I.D. card or a liberty—”
“What’d Schaefer tell you?”
“He was the one first tipped me off Daniels was a big man with the broads.”
“What’d he say?”
“Said Daniels had a big network of steady shack-ups all over the country. Now, I don’t know about all over the country, but I know Daniels was operating outside Norfolk. I checked.”
“How?”
“Well, I figured this Daniels was a man to know, you know? So I begun watching the way he operated. Not in Norfolk, that boy. Oh, no. I followed him all the way to the train station once, just trying to find out where this boy had his deal. Asked the ticket guy after Daniels bought his ticket, Mr. Masters.”
“Where did he go?”
“Shrewd cookie, this boy. This was when I was interested in becoming partners, so to speak. When I found out he was a lone wolf, well, hell, there wasn’t no sense studyin’ his operation no more. That’s about when I run across Singer, right in the radar gang, right in my own backyard.”