As a matter of fact, the island of lepers was clearly visible across the water to the north as we drove on. To my landlubber eyes, it looked like a long and risky small-boat voyage, and it was a pretty obvious gambit anyway, but I might as well play at it until something better turned up. I could at least go through the motions of making the arrangements. That would give the golden boy and his hawk-faced friend something interesting to report—and the more interest I aroused here, the less would be left over for Jill, wherever she was.
Then we were passing a group of elaborate resort hotels and a beautifully manicured golf course where athletic characters, male and female, were getting lots of healthful exercise in little electric carts. The shoreline got more rugged as we continued north until we spotted a hill overlooking a lovely, sandy cove. Spilling down the sides of the hill was a rambling hostelry that somebody had obviously used a lot of expense and ingenuity in designing; a little less might have been more in keeping with the spirit of the Islands.
But this was a high-class joint that didn’t intend to be mistaken for anything else. As we drove up, I saw Isobel break out the repair kit and attend to her hair and lipstick. She lit a cigarette in her quick, nervous way and dropped the lighter back into her purse.
“I’m about ready for a drink,” she said. “I’d like a drink before I change for dinner.”
“I get the message,” I said. “No further repetition is necessary. We’ll get you a drink. We might even get me one, too. I’m going to need it if you’re planning to have a headache all evening.”
She said, “It’s not my fault if I got hit on the head by a mysterious prowler…”
We carried this bickering act into the hotel bar, and then to the rooms, which did not adjoin but were several doors apart: the best I’d been able to do on such short notice. I made a perfunctory gesture toward seeing that she was settled in hers, and started to leave. She called me back.
“Matt.”
“Yes?”
She walked past me and closed the door and turned to face me. “I really do have a dreadful headache, darling,” she said. “You might sympathize a little instead of acting as if I were just trying to be difficult.” She seemed very sincere; she was really a pretty good actress.
I hesitated, figuring what would sound best to the eavesdroppers, if any. Finally I said, “I’m sorry. I’m a selfish louse, baby. Kick me.”
She laughed and came up to me, took my face in her hands, and kissed me on the mouth—but what had started out as a friendly peck of reconciliation quickly grew, under her deliberate and expert guidance, into something considerably more passionate and breathless. This was obviously not part of the plan I’d laid out for her. I was sure of it when her arms went around my neck, and various other things happened, all quite disturbing to a man who’d been celibate for weeks.
“You bitch!” I whispered fondly, freeing myself enough to speak.
Both malice and mischief showed in her face. She pressed her cheek against mine and spoke in my ear: “What’s the matter, can’t you keep your mind on your work, Mr. Secret Agent? You’re going to be busy tonight, remember? And I’ve got such a terrible headache. Simply awful. You said so yourself.”
There was no real reason for me to put up with this nonsense. I mean, I’d been noble in Honolulu, but a young girl trying to impersonate Mata Hari was one thing. A grown woman playing sex games was something else. I’d generously offered her an excuse to stay reasonably clear of the action. If she didn’t want to use it, that was her business.
I said harshly, reaching for her, “Sabotage is what it is. I told you not to get irresistible, damn you!”
Her voice mocked me. “Remember the microphones, darling.”
“To hell with the mikes.”
I took hold of her and pulled her hard against me, doing some minor violence to the integrity of her costume as I kissed her again. This brought a quick protest.
“Matt, don’t! You’ll ruin my—”
“And to hell with that, too,” I snapped. “You should have thought of it before you started this. I warned you to go easy, doll, but you had to prove how sexy you are. Now just come over to the bed and get raped like a good girl.”
She said angrily, resisting me, “I loathe masterful men! I can’t stand them! I told you. I want to be asked.”
“Will you please step over to the bed and get raped, Mrs. Marner, ma’am?”
“That’s better,” she breathed. “That’s much better. Yes, Mr. Helm, sir, if you’ll give me a moment to slip out of a few clothes, I’ll be delighted to step over to the bed and get raped.”
15
Later, we had another drink out on the hotel terrace—well, on one of the several terraces jutting from the seaward hillside like random bookshelves from a wall. It was getting dark and the bathers had deserted the beach below. An attendant in swim trunks was putting half a dozen small boats to bed. That is, he was taking down the colorfully striped, triangular little sails and hauling the tiny vessels out on the sand. They looked like the same kind of sailing planks, twelve or fourteen feet long, that I’d seen used by kids in the surf off Waikiki.
Where we were, on the western shore of the island, the trade winds couldn’t hit us directly, but far out beyond the lee of the land the ocean looked rough and choppy in the growing dusk. There was a low island out there in line with the sunset: that would be Lanai. To the north was the brooding, cloud-wrapped mass of Molokai. Between here and there, according to the chart I’d studied, was something called the Pailolo Channel, ten miles wide and some hundred and thirty fathoms deep.
I’d once, long ago, been exposed to a bit of rudimentary seamanship in the line of duty. A course in basic boat-handling had been required at the time, since we were operating along the coasts of Europe, and reliable nautical help wasn’t always to be had. I still remembered that one fathom was equal to six feet. Not that it mattered. You can drown in six inches of water if you put your mind to it.
“Is it permitted to disturb the Master at his meditations?” Isobel asked respectfully.
I looked up. “Only for matters of the utmost importance.”
“I just wanted to say that I’m sorry.”
I grinned. “Now there’s a way to make a man feel he’s given real satisfaction. The dame regrets, yet.”
“I didn’t mean that.” Isobel didn’t smile. “I was merely apologizing for being a perverse bitch. I know you were being nice and trying to protect me as much as possible, and I do appreciate it.”
“Sure,” I said. “Well, let’s figure how much damage has been done. We’ll have to assume that they overheard what we said, but even if they didn’t, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that a wench who’s in bed with the guy before the bellboy’s even made it back to the desk obviously isn’t a wench who’s reluctantly keeping her part of a distasteful bargain. So that story’s out. What’s the matter?”
“Nothing,” she said. “I didn’t say anything.” There was a certain coolness in her voice.
I laughed at her. “I know, you’d rather I put it in a more dignified way, Duchess. Well, I’m sorry, but I’m trying to look at it through the eyes of the opposition. You’ll never make them believe you’re an unwilling patsy now, not after our little high-temperature interlude. Whether or not they heard you say it, they’ll assume that you know what I am, as you do. They’ll probably think you know what I’m doing, even though you don’t. They may even think you’re an agent yourself, sent out to help me, maybe somebody I’ve worked with before.”
“Worked?” Isobel smiled. “One day you’ll have to tell me all about your work, Mr. Helm. Some of the details sound fascinating.”
I said, “Tell you, hell. The way you’ve fixed it, Mrs. Marner, you stand a good chance of learning all about it firsthand. I think we can safely say that you are now involved in it up to your pretty neck.”
She was silent for a moment. Then she reached out and covered my hand with hers. “Maybe that’s wha
t I really wanted, Matt. Maybe I like being involved. It’s certainly a lot more amusing than sitting in Honolulu watching fat Mainland tourists dress up like fat Hawaiian natives.”
I moved my shoulders slightly. “As I’ve said before, how you get your kicks is your business. I just hope your sense of humor bears up under the strain.”
Isobel laughed and patted my hand lightly and took her hand away. I leaned back, regarding her across the table. Our mild argument had no real significance, because for the moment we had that kind of special understanding that comes between two people who have just learned certain things about each other in the only way those things can be learned. I don’t mean that we now liked each other better or trusted each other more than we had before; this had nothing to do with the emotions or the intellect. It was strictly a physical thing and probably quite temporary, but it was kind of comfortable while it lasted.
She looked, however, remarkably unlike a lady who’d just been making passionate physical discoveries in bed. Her dark hair was quite smooth again, and her subdued lipstick was beautifully applied. There was no unbecoming shine to her nose or betraying flush to her cheeks. The inevitable California sunglasses gave her a remote and mysterious look.
She was wearing a slim, short, sleeveless cocktail dress in a silk print of large stylized flowers, predominantly red, on a white background. Somehow, despite the bold design, it managed to look neither gaudy nor native, just summery and elegant. The dress made no great point of baring a lot of back and shoulder; in fact, it was quite discreet in those areas, but it was draped quite low in front. In this modern age of athletic, sunbaked babes, I discovered, an old-fashioned snow-white bosom has a kind of tender appeal.
Isobel smiled faintly when she saw where I was looking, but she made no phony-modest gesture of rearranging her bodice; the view was there to be admired. She was quite a girl. Her green glasses reflected the architectural patterns of the hotel behind me, in a distorted way. I reached out, on a hunch, and drew them off gently and looked through them, and laughed.
“What’s so funny?” she asked, rather defensively.
“You wouldn’t understand,” I said. “It’s a kind of reverse twist. I once met a girl who was pretending to be somebody else, somebody who wore glasses. Only this girl’s eyesight was perfectly good, so she just had windowpanes in her goggles. Now you come along with what look like ordinary sunglasses, and they turn out to have prescription lenses.”
“Of course,” Isobel said. She laughed. “Isn’t a woman allowed a little vanity? I can’t wear contact lenses, my eyes get all bloodshot and bulgy-looking. And ordinary, clear spectacles make any girl look like a frumpy schoolmarm. But dark glasses make her look like a movie star in disguise. I hope.”
“Well, stick with them,” I said. “They may come in handy; you never know. There are times when a bit of broken glass can be very useful.”
She made a face. “Don’t go getting any melodramatic ideas about my fifty-dollar specs,” she said. “Besides, I’m half-blind without them. What happened to the girl?”
“What girl?”
“The one who was pretending to be somebody else.”
“She died,” I said.
“Oh.” After a moment, Isobel said quietly, “I won’t ask how it happened. I don’t think I want to know. Besides, you wouldn’t tell me.”
“You don’t and I wouldn’t,” I agreed. “If you’re finished with that drink, we might try eating for a change… Wait a minute. Let’s get things settled first.” I studied her thoughtfully. “How seasick do you get in small boats at night?”
Her gray eyes widened a bit at the abrupt question. “I’ve never been seasick in my life, Matt.”
“Well, there’s always a first time,” I said. “There’s a supposedly deserted coastline I want to take a look at without anybody knowing. Way over there on Molokai… No, don’t turn your head.”
“I’m sorry. That was silly of me. Are we being watched?”
I didn’t answer her question. I said, “It’ll be a long, wet boat ride against the wind, even if I manage to promote some kind of reasonably reliable craft back in Lahaina. That’s where I was going this evening to make the arrangements, while you were nursing your headache in bed. I was more or less planning to take off immediately if things looked right. However, now that you’ve revealed yourself as my willing accomplice, I don’t dare leave you behind. Once I disappear, they’ll want to know exactly what I’m up to, and if you’re still around, they’ll most likely come to you for the answer. That could get pretty rough. So you’re probably safer out there with the wind and the spray in your hair.”
She said calmly, “When it comes to boats, I’m not exactly Lady Columbus, but I have done a bit of sailing from time to time. When do we leave?”
“Easy, easy,” I said, grinning. “You’re such an impulsive dame. We’re going in to dinner now, but halfway through I’ll have to pay a visit to the men’s room. I won’t come back. You’ll tap your foot impatiently, finish your dessert, smoke an indignant cigarette, and come back out here. You’ll sit here, drowning your sorrows in a ladylike way. That’ll keep our hatchet-faced friend busy here, watching you. He’s up on that side terrace now with his little binoculars. Don’t look. Let him think he’s invisible.”
“I wasn’t looking.”
“That’ll give me only one guy to cope with, I hope. Kamehameha Junior, who’s probably hanging around the car. I’ll get him out of the way somehow, between here and Lahaina, and make arrangements for the boat. By the time I get back to you here, you’ll have worked up a real good mad at me. We’ll go off into the dark to quarrel privately—and see if we can’t suck in our snooping friend up there and put him out of action, too. Temporarily, of course. Fortunately, I’ve got lots of sleepy-juice for my little hypo. Then we’ll grab some seaworthy clothing from our rooms and take off. Okay?”
“It’s… very clever,” she said, watching me steadily. “Do you know what it sounds like, Matt?”
“What?”
She spoke without expression. “It sounds just like the kind of story a man would tell a girl he was planning to ditch, to keep her quiet until he was safely on his way. How do I know you’ll be back?”
I laughed, and picked up the dark glasses, and reached across the table to set them carefully on her nose. “You don’t,” I said. “But while you’re waiting to find out, don’t drink too much. There’s nothing worse than a hangover at sea.”
Three quarters of an hour later, with most of a good steak inside me, I made my excuses and left the table. The dark-faced man had come in while we ate; he was having his dinner alone at a table for two near the door. I walked past him without looking at him. Outside the dining room, I turned toward the john, but I didn’t go in. Instead I made a circle around the fancy fountain in the center of the lobby. There was a lot of tropical greenery spotted around in pots and planters. I stopped behind something exotic with big shiny leaves. From there I could see straight through the wide dining room doors to where Isobel was sitting.
She didn’t keep me waiting very long. She didn’t do any of the stalling I’d suggested; she didn’t even have dessert and coffee. She just finished what was on her plate, got the waiter, signed the check, and came toward me, opening her purse. She took out a cigarette, hesitated, and stopped at the hatchet-faced man’s table.
He looked up and rose politely to supply a match. I saw her lips move, whispering, as she bent toward the flame. Then she thanked him with a reserved little smile, came out, and crossed the lobby and went out of sight, a slender, lovely, smartly dressed woman with, you’d have thought, nothing on her mind except possibly the impression she was making on the other fashionable tourists in this classy place.
I sighed. It was too bad. She’d put on a great act. Her sister-in-law story had been a stroke of genius, and I still didn’t know just how much of it, if any, had been the truth. But she’d overplayed her part in the end. They very often do, the women in our li
ne of work. They have this oddball theory that sex has got something to do with business, and that the way to make sure of a man and allay his suspicions is to seduce him at the earliest possible moment.
Unfortunately, I’ve never quite managed to convince myself that I’m so fascinating that every girl in the world just naturally wants to drag me into bed. When it does happen, as today, I automatically ask myself what the lady could be after besides love. Well, it looked as if I was on the way to finding out…
16
I confirmed, of course. A lighted cigarette and a few whispered words could hint of treachery, but they weren’t proof. You might be able to think up an innocent explanation if you thought hard enough, and jumping to unfavorable conclusions about people is an occupational hazard in a trade like ours, full of disillusioned characters with a low opinion of human nature. I’d had some embarrassing experiences along those lines myself. So I confirmed.
I tailed the man cautiously when he came out of the dining room some ten minutes later, having checked his watch several times in the interim, as if he were anxious not to be late for an important engagement. He led me around the hotel a bit as a matter of routine and pulled one or two of the standard see-behind-you tricks, but he didn’t really expect to catch anybody following him, so he didn’t. She must have convinced him I was safely on my way to Lahaina. Quite soon he gave up being careful and headed down a path toward the beach. She was waiting for him in the shadows.
They talked for quite a while down there. I didn’t risk trying to sneak in close enough to overhear the conversation. The fact that it was taking place was enough. It was beginning to look very much as if my first hunch in Honolulu had been correct, despite Monk’s denials, and the woman had been planted on me very cleverly with a most convincing cover story. In any case, whoever she was she could hardly have a motive for conferring secretly with one of Monk’s men that meant anything but trouble for me.
The Betrayers Page 11