Murder Money

by Jay Bennett

  He got up slowly and stared through the darkness at her. He could see the whiteness of her arms and legs, her face.

  “I’m tired, Eddie. The swim knocked me out.”

  His hand fumbled along the bureau top till he found the cigarettes. Then he went over to the bed and stood by her. He could see her lips smiling up at him.

  “You’re a doll, Eddie. Thanks.”

  He dropped the pack and matches onto the bed and then went back to his chair.

  “I thought you’d sit here a little while and talk.”

  “What are you trying, Laura?”

  “Nothing. Do I look like I’m trying something?”

  He didn’t answer. Soon the flare of a match broke the darkness, and he saw her face light up, the eyes gleaming.

  “What’s with you two guys?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “There’s something about the way you’re acting that just doesn’t add up.”

  “You think too much, Laura.”

  “What is it, Eddie? Why did you register under different names?”

  “Al’s trying to get me a fight. Nobody’d use me under my real name.”

  “What did you go downtown this morning for?”

  “To count marbles.”

  She laughed softly and he heard the rustle of the suit as she shifted her body on the bed.

  “Watch out you don’t set fire to the bed.”

  “I’m careful. I’m always careful, Eddie.”

  His jaw muscles twitched. He heard the slow, soft rustle again and the sound of the suit straps as she slipped them over her shoulders and down.

  “Eddie?”

  “What?”

  “Why don’t you like me?”

  “What are you doing there, Laura?”

  “Taking my suit off.”

  Then he heard the suit drop to the floor.

  “What’s with you fellows, Eddie?”

  “Get out of here, Laura.”

  “Something’s up, isn’t it, Eddie?”

  He stood tautly in the darkness, looking away from her naked body. Ahead of him the surf began to pound.

  “Al’s a funny guy, Eddie. You never know when he’ll pick up and run. You’re not that way, Eddie. You’re the loyal kind. Once you like a person you stick with them. Isn’t that so, Eddie?”

  He heard again the shifting of her lithe body. He heard the sound of her fingers tapping out the cigarette.

  “What is it, Eddier?”

  “I told you it was nothing, Laura.”

  “What’s he looking for in the papers? What’s with the brief case you took this morning?”

  He heard the sound of her feet softly touching the floor.

  “Laura, get out of here.”

  Then her soft approach.

  “It’s something, isn’t it, Eddie? There’s dough in it somewhere. It must be a lot or you two wouldn’t be acting this way. Like a couple of hoods that just pulled a job.”

  “Damn you, Laura, it’s nothing.”

  He heard the soft laugh again. It was close to him. Almost upon him.

  “It’s everything, Eddie.”

  She suddenly pressed her body to his; the touch of her breasts flared through him. He began to kiss her.

  And as he did, he knew it was wrong, desperately wrong, that he was losing something, something he would never regain.

  “Hold me tighter, Eddie. Tighter!”

  He kissed her again. His hands moved fiercely over her thighs, his lungs gasped.

  “Eddie, Eddie, you’re better than him. Better!” “Laura.”

  “Bett . . . er,” she panted. “Bett . . . er.”

  Her teeth bit into his shoulder, and she began to moan.

  Over and over again.

  Till her body began to move with a spasmodic rhythm.

  “Soon, Eddie. Soon!”

  His passion rose to a white searing pitch.

  But deep in its core was a cry, silent and fearful

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “All right, Laura. You’d better go now.”

  “Eddie.”

  “Come on. Al will be back soon.”

  “We still have time. Don’t you want to try it again, Eddie?”

  She leaned over upon him, her breasts rubbing softly against his bare chest. Her hand stroked his leg.

  “Just once more, Eddie?”

  He pushed her away from him and sat up in the bed. “You’ve just got time to get back to your room. So get going.”

  “Can’t we talk a little then, Eddie?”

  “Laura, for crissake, will you stop it?”

  “You’re getting angry at me, Eddie. After you’ve been so nice. Didn’t you love it, Eddie? You acted like you did, Eddie.”

  “Laura.”

  She laughed low, let her hand pass over his flat, hard stomach, laughed again as he quivered, and then got off the bed.

  “You never liked me before, did you, Eddie?”

  “Get the suit on fast, will you?”

  “Will you help me?”

  “No.”

  The moon was up. Its rays filtered into the room and onto her gleaming body. He thought how beautiful she looked then, like a silvery animal. How beautiful and how deadly.

  And he understood then why he had never liked her. Because he feared her.

  “We’ll do it again, Eddie. The next time will be more thrilling. The more we get to know each other, the more we’ll love it. It always works out that way, doesn’t it?”

  He watched her slip one shining leg and then the other into the glistening suit, slowly draw it up, till she came to her white shapely breasts. Her hands cupped them from underneath, lifting them high and firm.

  “Would you like to kiss them once more, Eddie?”

  “Get out, Laura.”

  “Don’t you like to be taunted, Eddie? Most men do.”

  She came closer to him and then suddenly stopped and began to laugh. Her hands dropped away and the breasts rippled as her sharp laughter filled the room.

  “You’re like a kid, Eddie. You want the apples and yet you’re afraid to reach for them.”

  “And you’re like a whore, Laura,” he said quietly.

  Her laughter stopped dead. Her face became cold and hard. She stared at him, the green eyes flashing. Then she silently drew the rest of the suit up and over her breasts.

  “Maybe I am,” she said. “But you shouldn’t have said it.”

  Then she went swiftly out of the room.

  He was sitting at the window, staring out at the night, when he heard the door open; he thought it was Laura again. But when he turned he saw the solid figure of the manager.

  “Eddie?”

  “When did you get back, Al?”

  “A few minutes ago.”

  “Oh.”

  “What the hell you sitting in the dark for?”

  “Just sitting.”

  “Let’s put a little light on the subject, pal?”

  “Go ahead.”

  Al snapped on one of the lamps and a glow spread through the room. “That better?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Draw the curtain. Let’s have a little privacy.”

  Eddie rose and pulled the curtains. He sat down on the bed and reached to the little night table for his pack of cigarettes. He noticed a butt with a ring of lipstick on it. His hand closed swiftly over the ashtray. His eyes darted over to Al. Al sat absorbed, thumbing through one of the newspapers he had carried in with him.

  Eddie dropped the butt onto the floor and kicked it under Al’s foot. And as he did that, he felt like a thief.

  It was not a good feeling to him.

  “Want to show you something, kid. Ah, here it is.”

  Al came over and sat down on the bed beside him. Eddie lit a cigarette and then took the newspaper from Al.

  Al spoke. “Been in my mind like a nail, ever since you made that bastard call in the airport. Read the notice there, boy. It’s good reading.”

 
“Over here?”

  “That’s right.”

  “It’s the New York Times. Today’s paper.”

  “You still can read,” Al said drily.

  “Two words at a time.”

  He read the notice aloud. “Regarding the brief case. We will come to terms. Contact us. You know the number.”

  Eddie slowly put the newspaper down.

  “That means they found nothing, kid. They still think we’re in New York.”

  “Yeah.”

  Al slapped him on the shoulder. “That all you can say? Those jokers are running around in circles. If they’re raising the ante that means they know they’re on the losing end.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Right? That all I hear from you? We’re sitting here in the sun and they’re looking their eyes blind up there in the snow. Did Uncle Al make a good move or not?”

  Eddie kept thinking of Al sitting on the same spot where Laura had sat. “It was a great move, Al. A really great one.”

  “Eddie, wake up, will you? You know, after you made that jerkoff call you had me going. That was one of the reasons I decided to run the money into a vault box. I started seeing Spanish hoods all over the place. I started thinking maybe they’d trace the call. Maybe hear the noises of the airport through the phone. Maybe recognize your voice. Crazy things like that. You had me going, Eddie.”

  “I sometimes think crazy things too, Al.”

  “Then stop. And stop making stupid moves again. You got to keep a clear head.”

  Al grabbed the paper out of Eddie’s hand and flung it to the floor. “Clear head, Eddie. There’s your proof. They wouldn’t be putting ads in papers up in New York. And a real desperate one like this. ‘Come to terms.’ They’re hanging with their tongues out. They see that money flying away, like smoke.”

  Eddie breathed out sharply, then turned to Al and said, “Why don’t we come to a deal with them, Al?”

  Al stared at him, his mouth dropping open.

  “Maybe we’ll be able to get forty grand from them. Isn’t that enough for us?”

  “You out of your mind?”

  “Isn’t it, Al?”

  Al swung off the bed and stood up. The lamp light caught his black hair and gave it a hard sheen. The scar on his cheek reddened.

  “What’s with you, Eddie?”

  “Nothing.”

  “It’s something.”

  “Just that I feel we should come to a deal.”

  “You said that.”

  Eddie shrugged and was silent. He wanted to rush from the room and into the shower and wash Laura off from him. Al’s brown eyes studied the big, troubled face. He suddenly began to shout.

  “What the hell is it, Eddie? What?”

  “Who knows?”

  “I know. Even if it isn’t a trap, I know we’re not giving up a hundred for forty. Not as long as I live.” “A trap?”

  “You poor dumb pug. They’re not going to give up forty thousand easy. I know these guys. This is their move to set a trap. Just trust me and forget it.”

  “Okay,” Eddie suddenly burst out. “You won your point. Forget it.”

  “Okay. It’s forgotten. You never said it.”

  “I never said it,” Eddie snapped out.

  Al sighed heavily and sat down on the chair. His face was pale and moist, his breath short and hard. Eddie lit a cigarette and smoked sullenly.

  After a while, Al said, “I dropped the brief case into Indian Creek.”

  Eddie didn’t speak.

  “Put some rocks in it and dropped it down. It’s on the bottom now.”

  “It was only a brief case,” Eddie said. “What did you go to such trouble for?”

  “Just felt it was best to get rid of it. That little gold head on it got me going. Could be a tip-off. Had a feeling about it.”

  “You swing high, you swing low,” Eddie said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “What about the feeling that the money was in a grave? The dead bodies?”

  “That was before the ad, Eddie.”

  “It could be a sucker ad.”

  “I tell you we’re in the clear.”

  “You swing high, you swing low.”

  Eddie crushed out his cigarette and got up. “I think I’ll take a shower.” Then he added, “I got a feeling there will be dead bodies before we’re done. Our own.”

  Al got up.

  “Our own,” Eddie said.

  “All right. All right. This used to be an easy state for guns. I don’t know how it is now. May take a little while but I’ll pick up two for us. Will it make you sleep better?”

  “No. I don’t like guns, Al. I don’t like what they mean.”

  “Just for bluff, kid. You listen to your old manager. Okay?”

  Eddie shrugged and went into the bathroom. He stood in the darkness a long time before he finally turned on the light.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  He was lying alone on the sand under the shade of a Solitary palm tree, when he felt that someone was standing near him. The shadow fell sharply across him, covering him with a strange, unreasoned terror.

  “Hello, Eddie.”

  He stared at the slender figure in white, at the dark, luminous eyes. And the terror slowly crept away, like a mangy cat. And all the time she was with him, it remained in the dim, tangled background, ever there.

  Strange and unfathomable.

  “Surprised? You look it.”

  “Mia.”

  He watched her sit down beside him. Her scent, different from Laura’s, from that of any woman he had ever known, hovered delicately about him.

  It was plain, it was exotic, it was sophisticated; it was coarsely passionate.

  “It’s three days, Eddie. I’ve been waiting for you to come to the library.”

  “I . . . I just didn’t get around to it.”

  “Oh?”

  She leaned her back gracefully against the scored trunk of the tree, then took off her wide-brimmed straw hat and set it down beside her. The breeze strayed wisps of her dark, shining hair.

  “Maybe you never intended to.”

  “No, Mia. It’s not that at all.”

  “Then what?”

  “Just worked out that way, that’s all.”

  “But you would have come?”

  “Yes. I’ve been thinking of you an awful lot.”

  She touched his muscular arm with one of her tapering fingers and he felt his body thrill.

  “Do you expect me to believe that?”

  “Yes.”

  “You lie beautifully, Eddie.”

  “Mia.”

  “Don’t plead with me, because it’s of no use. I just won’t believe a word you say.”

  “Okay, so you won’t believe me,” he grinned.

  She laughed, her white teeth flashing against the olive skin, the dark eyes dancing. He watched her and felt a dull ache begin within him. He looked away from her to the sparkling ocean.

  The sky was massed high with towers of shimmering clouds. Then he heard her soft voice again.

  “Aren’t you wondering how I found you?”

  He turned slowly back to her. “I was.”

  “But you didn’t say anything.”

  “Just wondering, that’s all.”

  “You’re a strange person, Eddie.”

  He waited silently while she lit a cigarette, noting that her nose was just a little too long and straight. He saw the slieen of her dark, smooth hair. The small, narrow brow. The smoke curling up from lips that were a bit too wide for the face, and yet seemed right. So right.

  “I’m a very systematic person, Eddie. Most librarians are, or didn’t you know that?”

  “I told you I don’t go into libraries much.”

  “Yes, you did.”

  Her eyes were gentle as she said, “I knew that you were in Miami Beach. I knew that you’d be staying at one of the motels.”

  “Why not one of the hotels? There are a lot of them he
re.”

  She smoked lazily and gazed out at the quiet, green ocean. “I thought about that a long time. I decided you would prefer the more informal life of a motel.”

  She turned her eyes gently, appraisingly upon him. “Was I right?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Then it was a matter of driving from motel to motel until I found the right one.”

  “I’m registered here under a different name, Mia.”

  “I told you I’m systematic. I’m also persistent.”

  Her laughter suddenly rippled out. She leaned over and took his hand in hers. “Eddie, if you could see yourself now. Your face is so serious. Why?”

  He felt her warmth throb through him. He slowly let go of her hand and smiled. “I guess it’s the big dumb look I always carry around with me. It’s from being hit too much up here.” He tapped his head and grinned at her.

  Mia shook her head. “Don’t ever speak like that again, Eddie. You have a good face. A handsome one.”

  “Yeah.”

  “You have, Eddie.”

  His big hand lifted up some sand and let it sift through the thick fingers. “When I was a kid,” he said, “I had a pretty straight-looking face. But that was more than a hundred and twenty fights ago.”

  “Eddie,” she said and her voice quivered.

  “Sure, I don’t look like some of the other guys do. I’m not carrying around two tin ears and I can still see through my two eyes. I don’t shuffle along like a stumble-bum, but I know how I look.”

  She bent over to him, kissed him on his cheek and then drew quickly back.

  “Don’t ever speak like that again, Eddie.”

  “Why did you do that, Mia?”

  “I’ve been wanting to do it for a long time.”

  “A long time?”

  “Ever since you came to us with the money.”

  He felt the ache begin again inside him, and this time there was bitter disappointment mingled with it. He groped for the feel of the dry sand.

  A pink flush had come to her smooth cheeks. “You’re like a child,” she sighed. “A big child.”

  “Why, Mia?”

  “Someday you’ll understand why.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  “I know you don’t.”

  She lifted her hat from the sand, and he thought with a sudden stab of fear that she was leaving him. Then she brushed the brim with an almost delicate motion, her eyes twinkling at him, and set the hat down again.

  He looked away to sea again. The sun lay hot and flat upon the water, shimmering along its surface. The sky was steel blue behind the white cloud. The air hung still about the two lone figures. Behind them, in the distance, the white, low building of the motel stood motionless.