"Damn you, Paul-"
"Shut up," I said. "Listen closely. You'll tell Braithwaite that I'm going out to the island. Tell him that Kroch has the Vail kid and Dr. Mooney and is using them for bait, that tired old gag. I'm to turn right beyond the bridge, leave the car at the entrance to the park, and proceed on foot. Kroch will be waiting. He thinks he's Jim Bowie or something. He's in effect challenged me to single combat out on the sands. Maybe he really is nuts. Anyway, tell Jack Braithwaite, if he doesn't hear from me in an hour, he's to call in the team-he'll know what I mean-and come after me. When somebody says an hour, Doc, you look at your watch."
She started to speak angrily, checked herself, and glanced down. "Eleven thirty-three. Paul-"
"At twelve thirty-three the relief expedition gets under way. I don't want them to jump the gun. I want plenty of time out there. But when they come, tell them to beat the bushes hard, because their man will be there. If I'm in trouble, tell them, I'll use the needle on him. Injection C. It'll keep him anchored till they get there. If they're in a hurry to ask their questions, there's an antidote they can use. They'll know."
Some of her anger seemed to have evaporated. She asked rather uncertainly, "And where will you be, Paul?"
"Who knows?" I shrugged. "As they say in what used to be my part of the country, qumen sabe? Taking an armed man alive is always tricky. But I have everything working for me. He seems to be under the illusion he's Superman or Captain Blood or somebody. He also seems to have something on his mind, and five will get you twenty that he'll want to tell me all about it. A man who wants to talk has two strikes against him in a game like this. Furthermore, unless he's changed his style of armament, he's very lightly gunned. I should be able to reach him and immobilize him, one way or another. Your job is to see that Braithwaite sends out the wrecking crew to pick him up if I don't bring him in within the hour."
"You mean," she said, "if you're dead."
"Dead, wounded, or just plain tired. Why borrow trouble?"
"It sounds… it sounds absolutely suicidal to me! At least you should take a gun."
"He's got to talk," I said. "I can't risk using a gun, I might kill him. Here." I took the little knife from my pocket and held it out. "Keep this for me, too. I don't want any temptation around. It's going to be hard enough to keep from finishing him with my bare hands."
She looked at the knife and shivered slightly. "I didn't know you carried that, Paul. What a wicked, beautiful thing!"
"A present from a woman," I said. "You don't have to be jealous. She's dead." After a moment, I said, "I'm sorry I talked rough. I wasn't mad at you, not really. You know how it is."
"I know," she said. She looked up. "I'll deliver your message, of course, but I'd rather… Can't I go home afterward? I could take a taxi. I have your revolver. I'm sure I'd be perfectly safe at home."
I shook my head and led her into the building. The hallway was lined with pink marble and brass mailboxes. I checked the tenants' names, found the one I wanted, and turned to face Olivia.
"What makes you so sure you'd be safe?" I asked. "Suppose when I get out there Mr. Kroch isn't waiting on that lonely island beach like he promised. Suppose it's just a trick to get me away. Suppose the big bell is tolling, the great gong has been struck; suppose Emil Taussig has pressed the go-button and everywhere across the nation the shadowers are closing in on the people they've been trailing for weeks and months, waiting for this moment. Suppose Kroch has got the word. He knows I'm staying as close to you as your best girdle. I could create a problem-unless he can send me off to hunt lizards and frogs on Santa Rosa Island while he takes care of his business with you. Maybe he's been building up this screwy, aggressive, melodramatic character for just this moment, so I'd fall for the trick when the time came."
"But if you think that-"
"I don't think that," I said. "It's merely one of several possibilities."
Anger was back in her voice as she said sharply, "If you think it's even a possibility, why are you leaving me with an untrained boy and a blonde while you go chasing off to rescue-" She stopped abruptly. "I'm sorry. I suppose you do have to go after them. I suppose I even want you to."
I said, "You're a nice girl, Doc, but you're still very innocent, even after all the work I've done to bring you up right. You still believe everything you see on TV."
She frowned quickly. "What do you mean?"
"Nobody's going to rescue nobody," I said. The stone walls and metal mailboxes threw my voice back at me flat and hard. "Nobody's going to rescue Toni, Doc. Nobody's going to rescue Harold. Nobody's going to rescue them for the simple reason that they're dead."
There was a little silence. Somewhere in the building somebody had a radio going. It probably wasn't Braithwaite and the nurse. They'd be entertaining themselves in other ways. Olivia was staring at me, aghast.
"But-"
"They've been dead since Kroch hung up the phone," I said flatly, "unless it took him a few minutes to find a secluded spot to do the job. This isn't Hollywood, Doc. This is for real. Kroch had a use for them. Well, for one of them. He may have thought there was more between me and Toni than just a dinner at Antoine's, or he may just have hoped I was sentimental about young girls in general. In any case he wanted me to hear her voice so I'd know he wasn't bluffing."
"But… but that doesn't necessarily mean he killed them! Once he'd used the girl-"
"Once he'd used her, what could he do with her? Or with Mooney? Turn them loose to call the police?" I shook my head. "He wanted to be sure I'd come, whether or not he's going to be there himself. If he is, he wanted to be sure I'd come angry. An angry man is easier to deal with in most cases. There are exceptions, there are times when an angry man can be hard to stop, but he's not thinking of those. And when he no longer needed Toni when he no longer needed them, he shot them. I know that and he knows I know it. It's one of the things he's counting on to make me come."
She licked her lips. "You're just guessing, Paul!"
I said, keeping my voice even, "They're lying out in the sand right now, or in the bushes, or in their car if he isn't expecting to use it. Or they're drifting out into the Gulf of Mexico on the tide, if there is a tide around here and it happens to be going out."
She said angrily, "You don't know. You can't know!" She wasn't even thinking of Mooney yet, and what his death might or might not mean to her. She simply didn't want to believe it could happen-that a couple of people could die casually because a man with a gun didn't want to be bothered, or wanted to bother somebody else.
"Of course I know," I said. "I know because it's what I would do-what any pro would do-with a couple of hostages that weren't needed any more. It's what I'd do if I were operating alone in enemy territory and had important work coming up, as Kroch is and has. Why bother to tie them and gag them and take a chance of their working loose and making trouble? That only happens in the movies, Doc. In real life, everybody knows that nobody makes trouble with a bullet through the head. Besides, as I said, Kroch wants to annoy me."
"Annoy," she breathed. Annoy!"
I jerked by hand toward the mailboxes. "There it is. The name is Darden, as you know. The number is 205." I looked at her for a moment longer. "In case I run into trouble, or something, that chess book you once lent me is in my suitcase."
Then I was out of there and driving away, hoping I hadn't sounded too much like an ancient Greek promising to come back with his shield or on it. I hadn't the slightest intention of committing suicide if I could help it; and if you can't help it, it isn't suicide. It was going to be tricky, of course. An old pro like Kroch is always tricky, even with a screw loose; and bringing them back alive isn't as easy as shooting them, whether you're talking about elephants or enemy agents. Under the circumstances I'd much rather have brought him back dead, but that was a luxury duty said I must forego.