So what was to be done?
I put the photographs back in the envelope and the envelope in my breast pocket. I lit a cigarette while I tried to find a way out. My first thought was to trap Pam and Aulestria somehow and kill them, but that too was a pipe dream. Aulestria was no fool. He would have taken precautions, lodging another set of photographs with an attorney with instructions: in the event of my death. Had Pam been handling this on her own, I was sure I could trap and kill her, but not Aulestria.
Again I thought of Vicky. I was wasting time, trying to find a way out. I had to discuss it with her and I cringed at the thought of her explosion. You involve me in this and you’ll be sorry you’re alive! Now, because she had had hot pants for me, she was involved. Because she couldn’t give me up, she had lied about the crash not only to Essex but also to the insurance people.
I looked at my watch. The time was 14.45.
Bracing myself, I left the apartment and drove back to the cabin. It was a drive I was to remember for the rest of my days. The nearer I got to the cabin the more scared I became. I had already seen her in a rage and I flinched at the thought of how she would react once she knew how involved she was.
I also thought of the years I could spend behind bars. I couldn’t hope to get out under fifteen years. I would be middle aged by then and fit for nothing. Very late in the day I thought of my old man. This would kill him: I was sure of that.
I pulled up outside the cabin and Sam beaming, opened the door.
I went into the cabin, leaving him to put the Caddy out of sight, in one of the garages.
Vicky was lying on the settee, a copy of Vogue in her hand. I stood in the doorway, looking at her. She put down the magazine and smiled at me.
‘Hi Jack!’ She laughed. ‘You’re nice and early.’ She patted the settee. ‘Come and kiss me.’
I moved into the room and shut the door. I didn’t approach her, but stood still, my shoulders against the door.
She lifted her eyebrows.
‘Come on Jack! You mustn’t take me seriously. I was mad. I get mad. Have you fixed it?’
‘Start getting mad again.’ I said. I took the envelope from my pocket and tossed it onto her lap.
Her violet eyes turned hard. The sexy, hungry smile went away like a fist when it becomes a hand.
‘What is this?’
‘Take a look.’
She stared at the envelope but didn’t touch it.
‘What is it?’
I came to the settee, picked up the envelope, took out the five photos and spread them out on her lap.
She looked at them, then slowly picked each one up and examined it carefully. She finally came to the one of me and Sam. She stared at it for a longer moment, then she put the photos together and offered them to me.
‘How much?’
Apart from the fact her face was stone hard and had lost colour and her eyes were glittering, she was fantastically calm. I could tell by the way her breasts moved under the sweat shirt that her breathing was even and that must mean her heart beat and her pulse were normal.
‘How much?’ she repeated.
This was a remarkable woman. She didn’t have to have it spelt out and the explosion I had expected didn’t materialise.
‘Five hundred thousand... half a million.’
She stared up at me. ‘You’re an expensive lover.’
I didn’t say anything.
‘Well, don’t look as if the end of the world has come. Sit there.’ She pointed to a chair nearby. ‘Tell me about it.’
I sat down.
She lay motionless, staring down at her hands as I told her about Pam and Aulestria.
‘They won’t stop at half a million of course,’ she said as if speaking to herself. ‘I pay them off and later they will come back: blackmailers always do.’ She looked up and regarded me. ‘You killed Erskine. Could you kill them?’
‘Yes, but that won’t solve this problem. Aulestria will have protected himself.’
She nodded.
‘The alternative is I go to my husband and tell him I’ve been foolish and hope he will be kind to me.’ Again it sounded as if she were talking to herself.
‘You could do that,’ I said nervously.
She stared at me.
‘You’re a little man aren’t you Jack? You’re now wondering what is going to happen to you.’
‘I want to get you out of this mess.’
‘Do you?’ She smiled. ‘Well, that’s something I have — a half million. What do you suggest? Shall I pay these two? It would be no problem until they come back for more. What do you think?’
It was my turn to stare at her.
‘You mean you can find five hundred thousand?’ My voice was husky.
‘Of course. That’s no problem. The problem is should we do it?’
My mind raced.
If she could raise the money and if those two were satisfied with the pay-off, this could let me out. I might even be able to keep my new job with Essex Enterprises. Why shouldn’t they be satisfied with half a million?
‘It’s a solution,’ I said, trying not to sound eager.
‘So it is. Yes... as you so rightly say. it’s a solution.’ She stubbed out her cigarette. ‘Well, so let’s pay them.’ She paused to look me over. ‘You’ve met them: I haven’t. Do you think we can trust them?’
I didn’t know, but I wasn’t going to say so. I was too anxious to get off the hook.
‘For that money, they must play,’ I said. ‘For God’s sake! A half a million!’
‘They’re at the Hilton, didn’t you say? See if you can reach them Jack. Let’s get it settled.’
‘You really mean it. Vicky? You’re going to pay then?’
‘Yes. I can’t land dear Lane with a ten million dollar bill for his stupid plane, plus the knowledge that I’ve been behaving like a hooker, can I?’ She shrugged. ‘After all what is half a million?’
Giving her no chance to change her mind, I called the Hilton and asked for Mr. Aulestria. There was a delay, then a man’s voice said. ‘This is Aulestria.’
‘Crane. The deal’s on,’ I said. ‘How do we fix it?’
‘Here at eleven o’clock tomorrow.’ Aulestna said and hung up.
‘At the Hilton at eleven o’clock.’ I told Vicky.
‘It will take me two days to raise the money. Find out how it is to be paid.’ Her violet eyes were very impersonal. ‘Now run away. I must talk to my broker.’ She flicked her fingers at me. ‘Go home.’
I had always had a presentiment that sooner or later there would come a time when she would flick her fingers at me the way she flicked them at her other men slaves, but it didn’t bother me. I was too thankful that there hadn’t been a scene and that she was going to pay and my future wasn’t in jeopardy to let a little thing like that cause me grief.
‘I’ll report back to you,’ I said as I moved to the door.
She was reaching for the telephone and didn’t even look at me so I went out into the fading sunshine, got the Caddy from the garage and drove back to my apartment.
I knew there was every chance that Aulestria would squeeze her again, but I told myself that she was so goddamn rich, she could afford to be squeezed.
Yes... my future looked bright again.
The following morning. I arrived at the Hilton hotel a few minutes to eleven. As I was asking at the desk for Mr. Aulestria a man came up and lurched against me. He immediately apologised and I thought he was just another clumsy jerk, who banged into people and I forgot about him but later, I was to remember him.
Aulestria was waiting for me in a large room with a double bed and the usual Hilton fitments. Pam was sitting by the window. She didn’t look around when Aulestria opened the door.
‘Ah, Mr. Crane,’ he said, smiling his. snake’s smile. ‘Good to see you again.’ He closed the door. ‘So she is going to pay?’