A Touch of Danger

by James Jones

  That strange look went off her face, and the young girl’s look came back on it. “Do you think I’m a whore?”

  “If I thought you were a whore, it would work.”

  “Well, I am a whore.”

  “And I’m old enough to be your father. Now cut it out.”

  “I told you I thought I’d try some incest.” She laughed, a girlish tinkle, from that lovely lush nude body that made my teeth ache. Her crotch was lean and sturdy and built for wear and beautifully hairy. “I’ve tried everything else.”

  “It wouldn’t work,” I said. “You’d have a bad feeling afterward. Little girls shouldn’t do things that leave a bad feeling afterward. Neither should little boys,” I said.

  “Did you know I had an affair with Jane Duval?” she said. She half turned. “Hand me those pants,” she said.

  I stepped and got a dry pair of jeans and a shirt lying with them and tossed them to her.

  “No,” I said. “I didn’t. But I don’t see why not. And it doesn’t surprise me. Everybody else has.”

  “Except you.” She turned sideways and stepped into the jeans demurely and pulled them up.

  “Except me,” I said.

  Turning her back, she put the shirt on. Then she turned and sat down on the bed.

  “Don’t ever do that to me again,” I said, and grinned. “I haven’t got that strong a heart. And I’m no iron man.” The grin felt pretty cracked.

  She just looked at me, with that open girlish look, and didn’t say anything. She picked up her hairbrush.

  “I suppose I should be ashamed of myself,” she said. “But I’m not. It’s a shame, really.”

  “You’ll feel better about it this way,” I said.

  “But you wanted me. Didn’t you want me? Terribly?”

  “Terribly. As much as I’ve ever wanted any woman in my life. More.”

  “Then why didn’t you just take me?”

  “Because if I’m going to be your substitute father around here,” I said, “I didn’t think it would look good.”

  “I’m really glad that you didn’t do it, really.”

  “Good. Fine. That’s great. And I’m just beginning to feel sorry. Look,” I said. “You said you wanted to talk to me about Girgis?”

  Chapter 32

  “I WANTED TO ASK YOUR ADVICE about something. It wasn’t really about Girgis. It was about Jim Kirk.”

  “So what about Kirk?”

  But first she had to get me a drink. She rummaged around, found a bottle of Scotch, and a split of soda. I sat down with it on the one chair. Outside, the rain drummed audibly. My ears had stopped hearing it there for a while.

  “I’m sorry there’s no ice.”

  “I don’t need any ice,” I said. “What about Kirk?”

  She had made herself a stiff drink, too. She put down half of it on the first try, then sat on the bed.

  “This whole thing has upset me terribly. I’ve had nightmares about it.” Suddenly, she shuddered. She smiled, but her mouth had that sudden quiver. “Cutting off his head like that. Anyway, I’m thinking of leaving Tsatsos.”

  “I think that’s a good idea, personally,” I said crisply.

  “Kirk wants me to stay,” she said. “You said I’d be out of a job running hash for a long time. Kirk says it’ll only be for a couple of weeks. Then he will start operating again. And he wants me to do the same thing for him that I did for Girgis.”

  “I couldn’t advise you about that,” I said coldly. “Two weeks? That sounds like Kirk’s got some kind of special pull around here, that I don’t know about.”

  “But you’re smarter. But maybe he does have pull, as you say. Because he’s been bringing some heroin on the island, you know. Did you know that?”

  “Has he!” I said. “You wouldn’t know what his source is, would you?”

  “I guess, Athens. There’re some addicts up at the Construction. Slow John’s one of them. Kirk runs in just enough for them. He charges double what it costs in Athens, John says. Jim says it’s for the risk he takes.”

  “Was Girgis involved in this H deal?” I asked.

  “No. Girgis wouldn’t touch H. That old Ambassador Pierson is an addict, too.”

  “How does Kirk get the H to these people?”

  “I carried it for him up at the Construction.”

  I shook my head. Then I set my glass on the floor and got up. I was angry, and I had to hold myself down. “That’s pretty damn dumb. You can get busted, and busted bad, anywhere for that. Don’t you know that?”

  “I only did it as a favor. He slipped me a few bucks.”

  “Legally, it makes no damn difference. And H is dynamite right now. That’s why they’re all so secretive about it.” I was thinking about Chantal, at that exact moment.

  Marie just looked at me, then suddenly smiled that hurt smile of hers that always got to me. “I know. Oh, to hell with it.” She didn’t say anything for a moment.

  I was wondering if old Ambassador Pierson and his H supply could be Chantal’s further secret? That I never could get hold of? But why would she hide that from me?

  “It’s all so dirty, isn’t it?” Marie said.

  “Oh. No more than any other line of endeavor.” I gave her one of my better smiles. “In my business, you’re in danger of getting to believe it’s all dirty. And everybody along with it. And that’s bad. Don’t get like that.”

  “It couldn’t be all dirty if you were in it,” Marie said.

  I gave her a hard look. “Don’t be too sure of that, either, sweetie.”

  “I’m sure of it about you. Anyway, it’s because the price of H is so high here, that John wants to leave Tsatsos. And he wants me to go with him.”

  Outside, the rain seemed to have stopped.

  “John? It’s him you’re leaving with?” I said.

  “If I go. I figured you’d love that.”

  “Where would you go?” I said.

  “To Capri. He wants to take a house in Capri for a month or two. He’s been there before. And he wants to take me with him.”

  “What if he takes off and leaves you in Capri?”

  “I suppose I could always do something. I guess I could spearfish there as well as here.”

  “Capri’s a lot different from here. I hear it’s a pretty wild, wide-open place. It’s supposed to be crawling with fags and rich swingers.”

  “Fags would never bother John. Or me, either.”

  “No,” I said. “But where there are fags there’re also lesbians. They follow each other.”

  There was a pause from Marie. “Oh. Yes,” she said. “Yes, there’s that. I guess.”

  I turned on her from the door. “Look, you’re no lez. If you were, what the hell? Who cares? But you’re not. I’m not thinking of you so much. But if John’s propensity for extra girls is as strong as you say it is? He could get you involved with some pretty bad types, like that. They’re all lezes, those extra-girl types. And then go off and leave you there. I’m not sure you’re strong enough to handle those types. A lot of lezes work the racket. Rich swingers pay high. And one of the biggest payoffs is for fresh meat. New young meat. Like you. Do you think you could tell the straight ones from the bent ones?” I said harshly.

  “I don’t know,” Marie said from the bed. She wouldn’t look at me. “Probably not.”

  “Well?” I said. “Look, have you thought about what I said yesterday? About going back home?”

  She pushed her hand through her hair in a sort of distraught gesture. “It’s all such a mess, isn’t it?

  “Yes, I’ve thought about it. But it’s so hard. It’s not only just the money. Where would I go? I wouldn’t know anybody? I’d be starting all over, cold turkey, in a cold new town? It’s too much.”

  “All right, damn it, I’ll help you get out of it,” I said grimly. “I’ll give you my address in New York. If you can get the money together, you come back to New York. You look me up. You won’t be alone that way. You ought to be ab
le to hold down some kind of job. I’ll help you get one. Hell, I’ll even spring for the money.”

  “Would you really do that? I can get the money. I’ll make John give it to me.”

  “It would seem he owed you at least that much,” I said. “But I wouldn’t bet on getting it.”

  “You’d really do that?”

  “Sure.”

  “Can we talk about it later? I’m all confused right now. But I think I’ll do it, if you really mean it.” I mean it.

  “Not about the money. That other part, I mean.” I mean it.

  “That’s the most important part, is having some friend.”

  I opened the door behind me, and gave her a grin. “There must be some decent husbands still left around somewhere. We’ll find you one.”

  “Look, I’m going spearfishing tomorrow. Do you want to go out? And talk about it then? We could take the boat.”

  “I can’t. I’ve got things I’ve got to do,” I said. “Another day, though.”

  From the bed she smiled her wounded smile at me. It looked better than it usually looked. “All right. All right, Big Daddy. You really are Big Daddy, you know that?”

  “Oh, nuts,” I snarled, and stepped back outside and shut the door.

  Chapter 33

  THE SQUALL WAS SWIFTLY blowing itself away behind the hills. I folded my trenchcoat into a roll under my arm and carried the hat. It was so dry the rain seemed hardly to have dampened the bare dirt along the edges of the cobbled street. The air had a fresh smell.

  I guessed I looked pretty ridiculous. With Marie, either way I went I had to look silly. Nobody in his right mind would turn down a girl that lovely. Instead, me, I had to go and acquire myself another responsibility.

  I could afford her plane fare, and a little living money. We’d let Mr. Kronitis pay that. I had several younger friends, girls, in New York. Where she could bunk up for a while. It wasn’t the first time I had done something like this for some kid. It was just the first time any of them had ever had a body like that.

  But that wasn’t the whole problem, and I knew it. The whole problem had to do with something else. That was the part I hadn’t wanted to think about, and still didn’t. The whole problem had to do with age. My age. I was having serious difficulty avoiding it. I supposed it was a problem everybody had to face, if he lived long enough. That didn’t help me. I still didn’t like it. And I still didn’t want to think about it.

  The rough cobbles under my feet were already bone dry of rain. With the storm past I felt I ought to get back to doing something. But what? Nothing Marie had told me about Kirk had made me feel any different about the murder. I decided to go up and have a look at the Cloud 79 night club tonight.

  I walked on home and called Chantal. She was home. She had another one of those dinners of hers on for the evening. I certainly didn’t want to go to that. I told her I might be up to see her late, but that also I might not.

  “Is she as good as I am?” she said.

  I didn’t answer her.

  “I’ll bet there are a couple of things she can’t do as well as I do,” Chantal said.

  I expected she was right. There were a couple of things I could think of. Marie certainly couldn’t do them any better.

  “I don’t like your social dinners, sweetie,” I said. “And I don’t have to go to them. I’ve made some friends of my own, on my own level, down here in the Port.”

  “All of them with long long legs, no doubt.” Her voice sounded sharper.

  “I’ll try and get up there late,” I said. “But if I shouldn’t, don’t fret over it. There’s nobody down here who’s looking for an aging private dick as a lover.”

  “Well, if I’m not there when you get there,” Chantal said in a lofty Countess voice, “and I may not be, just go right on in and make yourself at home. I’ll get there eventually.” She hung up.

  I hung up myself, and walked out on my porch. I’d gone as far as I could with her. I supposed I could have told her I was working for Kronitis. But I had promised Pekouris I wouldn’t tell anybody.

  Actually, I intended to get up there if I possibly could. If Chantal was carrying even small bits of H for Kirk among the high-born, the way Marie was among the low-born, it was something I wanted to talk to her about.

  On the porch I leaned my hands on the thick stone railing. At the taverna across the vacant lot Pete Gruner and his beard, in another expensive coat, were sitting at a table.

  I thought a minute, then went out and down the walk and over to the taverna to join them. I waved at Georgina as I went past her little outdoor living room.

  Gruner had clearly seen me coming. I took a table off by myself. He came over and slipped into a chair.

  “Okay, what did you want to see me about?”

  “What makes you think I wanted to see you?” I said. “I thought you wanted to see me.”

  “Because I happened to be sitting at your private taverna here? Sure.”

  Strangely enough I was beginning to kind of like him, in a masochistic way. “Well, you don’t generally hang out down here. It’s more your style to hang around up at the Construction with your buddies.”

  He grinned. “Well, actually I did want to see you.”

  “Let’s take mine first,” I said. “It seems you’ve been going around throwing eggs on me telling people you suspected I was some kind of a Government man.”

  “I don’t think I said that.”

  “It seems that you did,” I said. “I haven’t thrown any eggs back yet. But I’m all ready to. I’m eager to. Can you tell me anything that might deter me?”

  He gave me a snide grin. “I did say something to one person. Jim Kirk. But it wasn’t Government. I said I thought you were down here working for some very big outfit.”

  “Big enough to be the U. S. Government,” I said. “He told it that way to at least one other person. One more little piece of gamesmanship like that from you, and I’ll ruin your image good, friend. I haven’t done it yet.”

  He grinned. “I knew you were a good guy. Underneath that phony heart-of-gold routine of yours. I’m sorry about that other. I had to do it. If I could tell you why, you’d understand.”

  “No, I wouldn’t. And you may find out I’m not the sweet-tempered boy you think I am. Now, what’s your bad news?”

  His face took on the flush of a crowing rooster. “I wanted to tell you I’ve got that job I was telling you about. I’m going to work as Mate on the Polaris, I talked to the big man.”

  That slowed me. “You saw Kronitis?”

  “I talked to him on the phone. I’m to see him in a couple of days. If it works out, I’ll be promoted to run the boat.”

  “Where are you meeting him? At his villa?”

  “No, in Glauros. At that big hotel. It was easy enough to get hold of him. I just called him up, like this kid Steve did, about his bar.”

  I made no comment on any of that. “Why are you coming here telling me all this?”

  He grinned. “I just wanted you to know. If anything should ever happen to me, you’ll know where to look. Start looking for what’s left of me on that Polaris boat.”

  “I’m not going to go looking for you anywhere, bud,” I said grimly. “I’m not getting paid to. Do you want to tell me why you’re doing it?”

  “I’m going into the hashish business. With Kirk. That was why I had to lay a little heavy on you with Kirk. Kirk carries a lot of weight with Kronitis, and I’ll need Kirk to bring in the stuff. Kronitis doesn’t know, of course. I had to promise him I wouldn’t indulge in any hashish smuggling. Kirk and I will split fifty-fifty. Kirk is satisfied, Kronitis is satisfied, and I’m satisfied.”

  “That’s not the why,” I said. “That’s the how.”

  “It’s the why. Hell, in a year it’ll net me enough to buy me my own boat. And I’ll be all set to live in the Greek islands forever.”

  “And I’ll be able to fly over here from New York and charter your boat for years to come
,” I said. “Go ahead, con me some more.”

  He just grinned. “Maybe someday I’ll be able to tell you a little more, Lobo. About my plans.”

  “Sure,” I said. “You can tell me the next time I’m in Washington.”

  He shook his head. “Just remember what I told you about the Polaris,” he said, and got up. He threw some bills on the table. He was about the only one who ever paid a tab around there, except for me. That alone made him rare.

  “See you,” he said, and winked. He went walking away with that long-waisted athlete’s walk of his, his well-kept long hair swinging.

  I just sat and looked after him. I’d sort of hate to see him dead. It was beginning to get a little dark. I moved from my bare table over to one of the tables laid with a cloth for the dinner trade and motioned the waiter.

  Chapter 34

  I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT kind of trouble to expect up there at Steve’s Cloud 79, so I didn’t eat a big dinner. I put away a few extra Scotches, instead. I expected some kind of a jolly reception. I figured I could handle five of them. But I couldn’t handle ten. It would take a Ray Nietschke or a Mean Joe Green to handle ten. I carried a flathead sap in my briefcase, but I didn’t take it. It was a precision instrument. I didn’t want it against these kids. In a wild melee you could accidentally kill somebody with it, very easily.

  The horsecab from Dmitri’s parked me at the foot of the path up to the club. The path led up through some trees and rocky outcrop to a little plateau below the Construction. I took it. Down below the horses’ hoofs and cab wheels had beaten down a parking space for half a dozen cabs to wait. You could hear the blare of folk rock at least as far away as the Xenia hotel.

  It was a pretty place for an outdoor club. On the little plateau, above the screen of trees, you could look out to sea and the nearby islands, and to Glauros on the mainland.

  But they hadn’t done much with it. Steve was saving Kronitis’s money for himself, I guessed. Three plywood and tarpaper shacks had been thrown up, and a rickety fence strung between them, to get inside of which you had to pay. I paid. When I handed in my 60 drachs, the long-haired boy on the gate gave me a startled, hard look. I grinned at him, and winked.