I started to say something when the door opened and Louis walked in. Ricca hid the gun
behind his back.
“What do you want?” Della demanded. “Can’t you knock?”
Louis’s fat face looked startled. “I thought Mr. Ricca was alone.”
“Well, he isn’t. What do you want?”
I went cold. I knew what he wanted. He had come to ask if I had managed to get the safe
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open.
“You talk to them,” I said to him. “I’m clearing out. That fat boy’s your new boss.”
I shoved past him, jerked open the door as Della cried, “Wait!”
But I didn’t wait. In three or four seconds she would know I’d beaten her to the punch. I
had to get out and get out fast.
I jumped into the elevator and rode to the ground floor. Moving fast, I crossed the lobby,
pelted down the steps and vaulted into the waiting Buick.
I shot away from the casino steps and down the carriageway like a bat out of hell. Half-way
down I lowered the windshield until it was lying flat. I crouched down in the seat. By the
time I saw the gates ahead of me I was driving at sixty miles a hour.
The two guards were there. The green-eyed one had his gun in his hand. They had heard me
coming, and probably she had phoned I was to be stopped, but I wasn’t stopping.
Those gates looked big and impressive, but they had two weaknesses. They opened
outwards and they were held shut only by a single bolt. Moving at this speed I didn’t reckon
they would hold me, and they didn’t.
The guards jumped clear as I swept down on them. I held the steering-wheel as tightly as I
could and lowered my head. The solid steel bumpers smashed into the gates, and they flew
open. The car rocked and swerved, but I straightened it, shoving my foot down hard on the
accelerator. I heard the bang of a gun, but I didn’t care. I was through those gates and on to
the highway. I went on feeding petrol into the cylinders: the speedometer needle flickered up
to eighty. They would have to move to catch me!
A couple of miles down the road I came to the bends: the climbing switchback that led
across the dunes to the Miami Highway. I had to cut speed, but that didn’t worry me. They
would take a few minutes to get after me, and they couldn’t go faster on this road than I
could.
Well, I had beaten her! I wanted to sing and yell. I had outsmarted her in spite of her
smartness. I’d got the money and I was out, and before she could get things moving I’d be
safely hidden in Cuba. I was riding higher than a kite!
After driving for fifty miles or so, I turned off the highway and got on to the secondary
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road. The Buick was an obvious car to spot, and I was less likely to be noticed on the
secondary road than on the highway. Before long I would have to get petrol.
I was running low.
As I drove I remembered Ginny was staying with a girl friend in Miami, and I knew her
telephone number. I decided I’d stop at the next filling-station and call her. I’d get her to
charter a plane this night, and if I could persuade her to go with me to Cuba, and I thought I
could. I’d be sitting on top of the world!
About a couple of miles farther on I spotted a filling-station and I pulled in.
An old guy with a goatee beard came waddling out of the shabby little office.
“Fill her up,” I said. “Have you a phone here?”
“Right in there, mister.”
I suddenly remembered I had only three one-hundred-dollar bills on me. I bent down and
flicked them out of my shoe.
“I got nothing smaller than a C. Can you give me change?”
“Sure. You go right ahead and phone. I’ll get you change.”
The phone was on a battered desk by an open window. I called Ginny’s number. The light
was fading now. It was getting on for nine. I could see the old guy pumping petrol into the
Buick. On the desk was a packet of Camel’s. I took one and lit up.
“Hello,” a girl said over the line. It wasn’t Ginny.
“Miss Laverick there?”
“No, she’s out, but I’m expecting her any minute now.”
I cursed silently.
“Okay. I’ll call back in five minutes.”
I hung up and went outside to see how the old guy was getting on. He was screwing on the
cap. “She’s full, mister.”
“Get me the change will you? I want to phone again in five minutes.”
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He got me the change and sold me a packet of cigarettes. I hung around and wasted eleven
minutes before I finally got Ginny. By then I was getting a little uneasy. A fast car can cover
a lot of miles in eleven minutes. I wasn’t kidding myself they wouldn’t be after me by now.
“Why, Johnny, darling!”
“Now, listen, kid. I’ve a surprise for you. I’ve got that job. Yep. I heard only just now. And
I’ve another surprise for you. I’m on my way to you now.”
“Why, Johnny, does that mean … ?”
“Yeah, it means just that, but hold everything and listen. I’m to start work in Havana
tomorrow. I want you to call the airport and charter a plane to Havana to be ready to take off
in four hours. I want to know if you’ll come with me.”
“Charter a plane? It’ll cost a fortune.”
“Never mind the money. I’ve got all the money in the world. Will you come with me,
Ginny?”
“Tonight?” Her voice rose. “But I should have to pack and …”
“It’s tough, but if you can’t make it I’ll have to go alone …”
“Not another word, Johnny. I’ll make it I”
That’s the kind of girl she was.
“As soon as we arrive, we’ll be married, Ginny. Hold everything. I’m on my way!”
I slammed down the receiver and ran out.
The old guy was standing with his back to the petrol pump, his hands in the air and his
goatee trembling. I pulled up short and spun around, my heart skipping a beat.
Della was standing in the shadows, by the window, a gun in her hand, the awful little smile
flickering around her lips.
“Hello, Johnny” she said.
I knew if I made the slightest move she’d drill me. There was a look in her eyes that turned
me cold.
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“Get in the car, Johnny; you and I are going for a ride.”
And I knew if I even hesitated she’d shoot. I walked over to the Buick and got in under the
driving-wheel. She opened the rear door and got in behind me.
“Miami, Johnny,” she said, “and snap it up!”
I trod on the starter, shifted into second and pulled away from the row of petrol pumps. The
old guy still stood as stiff as a statue, his hands in the air. She had scared the guts out of him.
We drove for about a mile in silence, then she said, “Where’s the money?”
I could see her in the driving mirror, the gun was pointing at the back of my head. Her face
in the moonlight was as white as a fresh fall of snow, and her eyes scared me.
“Where you’ll never find it,” I said.
“We’ll find it. Benno and Pepi are waiting for you in Miami. They’ll make you talk,
Johnny, and then they’ll kill you, and you’ll be glad to die.”
I kept driving. There wasn’t anything I could do about it yet, but I was working on it.
“So you thought you’d marry her,” she went on, the words spilling out of her mouth in a
vicious rush. “That’s a laugh! She’s in this, too. We’ll pick up Pepi and Benno, and then we’ll
all go down to the airport and pick her up. You’ll talk fast enough when you see those two
working on her. I’ll make her suffer! Don’t think she’ll escape. She’s in this as much as you!”
That settled it. Only she had heard my conversation over the phone. Only she knew I had
arranged to meet Ginny at the airport. It was as simple as that. Ginny wasn’t going to fall into