“Just in time, I guess,” I panted.
He looked me over, hesitated, then gave a resigned grin.
“Where to, mister?”
“Got a label?”
He found one.
I printed my name on it.
178
John Farrar,
Sea board Air-Line Railway, Grt. Miami,
To be called for.
He wrote out a receipt.
“Sorry to hold you up,” I said, and gave him ten bucks. “Keep the change.” He nearly fell
off the truck.
“I’ll take care of this for you, sir. It’ll be right there waiting for you.”
I hoped it would.
I stood back and watched the truck drive away. It made me sweat to think of all that money
going on that journey without me to guard every yard of it.
But she was right. It was the smart thing to do. If those two guards spotted the suitcase they
would want to know what was inside it: especially the green-eyed guard. He had it in for me.
I folded the receipt the trucker had given me into a narrow ribbon. Right now that scrap of
paper was worth a quarter of a million dollars. I took off my slouch hat and tucked the ribbon
of paper behind the sweat band.
Things were working out better than I had imagined. I had got the money out, now I had to
get myself out.
I remembered the .45 Colt automatic I had left in my desk drawer. I might need that gun, I
decided to get it.
It took me a couple of minutes to reach the office. I stopped short just inside the doorway.
Della and Ricca were sitting near my desk. Ricca had the Colt in his hand, and it was
pointing at me.
VIII
“Come in, Johnny,” Della said.
I closed the door and walked across the expanse of fawn carpet, somehow keeping my face
expressionless, and cursing myself for coming back.
As I made for the desk, Della said, “Don’t sit there. That’s no longer your place, I want you
to meet my new partner,” and she waved to Ricca.
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“So that’s how it is,” I said. “Did he talk you into it or did you talk him into it, and what’s
the idea of the gun?”
“Neither,” Della said. “Miss Harris Brown talked you out of it.”
I took out a packet of cigarettes together with the keys of the suitcase. Without letting them
see the keys I let them slide into the side of the chair. I lit a cigarette and blew smoke at her. I
could tell by the way she was breathing that there was going to be an explosion before long.
She was only keeping control of herself because she wanted to prolong what she imagined
was my agony. She was pale, and her eyes were deadly, and her breasts were rising and
falling under the thin stuff of her dress as if she were suffocating.
“I told you at the time,” I said, “that little mare was drunk.”
“I know what you told me, Johnny,” she said her voice going shrill. “But I haven’t been
wasting my time this afternoon. I have been making enquiries. You may not know it, but the
guards log all cars that come to the gates. It didn’t take long to find the number of the Lincoln
that brought you back the night you killed Reisner. It didn’t take long for Hame to find out
the owner of the car is Virginia Laverick who has a beach cabin not far from here. Nor did it
take long for me to find out she works at Keston’s in Miami, and Raul under a little pressure
told me you and she often go there for dinner.”
I wasn’t surprised. I knew she might dig out all this information as soon as she had left me
after the scene on the terrace.
“Do we have to go into this with Ricca here?” I said. “It can’t be much fun for him.”
Ricca’s smile widened.
“I thought it might be safer for you if I stuck around,” he said. “Della’s temper is a little
uncertain. She wanted to shoot you as you walked in. I had trouble persuading her to change
her mind.”
“Maybe you’d better stay, then,” I said.
“Do you deny you have an apartment on Franklin Boulevard, and this girl visits you there?”
Della cried, leaning forward and glaring at me.
“No, I don’t deny it,” I said. “What are you going to do about it?”
She sat back, and there was a long moment of silence.
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Ricca said, “Let’s skip the next piece and go right into the last act. We’re wasting time with
this guy.”
I was glad he was there. She looked ready to blow her top, but his cold flat voice kept her
under control.
“Yes,” she said. “We’ll skip the next piece. Well, Johnny, you’ve been warned. I told you
to lay off other women.”
“I know what you told me.”
“Then you’ll rave to take the consequences,” she said. “I’m going to throw you out of here
the way I picked you up: a third-rate fighter without a dollar to your name. How do you like
that?”
The least I expected was she would have me beaten up. I took a casual stare at the safe. It
was shut. She couldn’t know I had tampered with it!
“Now wait a minute,” I said, sitting forward, “you can’t get away with that. We made a
bargain. I want my dough!”
If I didn’t make out she was scoring off me, she might still decide to put a bullet in me. The
rage and dismay I got into my voice even surprised me.
“We made another bargain,” she said, “you’re forgetting that, Johnny.” Her eyes were
bright with spite. “I said no other women - remember? You’ve gypped yourself out of a
quarter of a million. How do you like that? Was Miss Laverick worth all that money,
Johnny?”
I twisted my face into what I hoped was a mask of infuriated rage and started up.
“Sit down!” Ricca said, and the gun covered me.
I sat down.
“Throw me out if you like, but I’m going to have that money!” I snarled at her.
“You’ll leave here without a dime and on your feet!” she said. “The guards have been told
to let you out only if you are walking and you’re not carrying a bag. You’ll have a nice long
walk ahead of you, and I hope you’ll enjoy it!”
“Don’t imagine you’ll get away with this!” I shouted. “If you think you can gyp me …”
181
She was revelling in it now. I made out I was going to spring at her. Ricca stood up,
threatening me with the gun.
“Empty your pockets on the desk,” Della said.
“Make me!” I said. “I’d like to see either of you get close enough to make me!”
“That won’t be necessary,” Ricca said. “Do what she says or I’ll shoot you in the leg and
you’ll damn well have to crawl out of here!”
I thought of those three one-hundred-dollar bills I had hidden in my shoe, and I had trouble
in keeping a straight face.
“I’ll fix you too!” I snarled at him, and began emptying my pockets on the desk.
When I was through she made me pull out the linings of my pockets to make sure I’d kept
nothing back. I was glad I had stashed the keys in the chair. If she had seen those she might
have looked in the safe. All the time I had been in the room I had kept my hat on. The receipt
for the suitcase was burning a hole in my head, but neither of them thought to look inside my
hat.
“Okay, Johnny,” Della said, “now you’re all set to go. I hope you’ll be hungry tonight. I
hope no one gives you a ride. I hope you rot in hell!”
“I’ll fix you for this!” I yelled at her, and moved to the door.
“Better get going fast, Johnny,” she said, and a cruel little smile lit up her face. “I said I’d
throw you out as I found you, didn’t I? Pepi and Benno are on their way over. They should
arrive any moment now. They seemed very interested to hear you were here. So this is where
you came in, darling. You’re on the run again, and I hope they catch you!”