1978 - Consider Yourself Dead

by James Hadley Chase

  Frost thought about it, then nodded.

  ‘Yeah. Then we go ahead on schedule?’

  Umney came out of the bathroom and began to dress.

  He kept moaning to himself, but neither Silk nor Frost paid any attention to him.

  ‘What’s the chance of finding her?’ Frost asked.

  ‘I have contacts. Mitch will have alerted them. If she’s still around, we’ll find her.’

  ‘Now, wait a moment. Do we want to find her? Isn’t it better to let her lose herself?’

  Silk thought, then grinned.

  ‘Yeah, but we should know if she’s around here If she’s taken off to Miami or someplace we have no problem.’

  ‘If we don’t deliver her back to Grandi, he’ll turn on the heat,’ Frost said uneasily.

  ‘How can he, unless he wants to go to jail for fifteen years? We’ll play it as we wrote it. It’ll stand up.’

  Umney said, ‘She’s crazy in the head and she’s got a gun.’

  ‘Who the hell cares?’ Silk snarled. ‘So long as she keeps out of sight.’

  But Frost’s police trained mind saw trouble ahead.

  ‘She’s unpredictable. Umney’s right. There’s something about her . . . she knows the three of us. If Grandi catches up with her, she could talk.’

  ‘So Grandi doesn’t catch up with her,’ Silk said. ‘We go ahead. It’ll work out.’

  ‘Let’s get this thing on the rails,’ Frost said. ‘Why wait until tomorrow? Give me the ransom demand now. The longer we wait, the chances of Gina being picked up either by your people or Grandi makes for trouble.’ He thought for a moment, then went on. ‘I’ll tell Grandi I wanted a change of scene while waiting for the ransom note to be delivered tomorrow morning. I took a car and drove down to the beach. After a swim, I found the ransom demand in the car. What do you think?’

  Goble came in.

  ‘The word’s gone out. If the car’s around here, it’ll be found.’

  ‘Mike wants to hurry this up,’ Silk said. ‘He’s got something.’ Looking at Frost, he went on, ‘Tell him.’

  Frost repeated what he had said to Silk. After thought, Goble nodded.

  ‘Yeah. Why not? The longer we wait, the bigger the risk.’

  Twenty minutes later, Frost was driving to the Spanish Bay hotel with the ransom demand. The time was now 18.15. He pulled up outside the hotel. Seeing the Lamborghini, the top-hatted negro hurried down the steps and opened the door of the car.

  ‘Park it,’ Frost said, and entering the hotel lobby, he crossed to the reception desk. ‘Mr. Grandi,’ he said to the suave clerk who regarded him with slightly raised eyebrows.

  ‘Your name, sir?’

  ‘Mike Frost.’

  The reception clerk went into an inner office. There was a delay, then he came out and nodded to Frost.

  ‘Suite 67, Mr. Frost. Take the elevator to the eighth floor and turn left as you leave. Suite 67 will be facing you.’

  As Frost rode up in the elevator, he wondered how Grandi would react to the ransom demand. He was distinctly uneasy, but he reminded himself that, with luck, in a month’s time, he would be worth five million dollars. The elevator doors swished open and he moved into a heavily carpeted, broad corridor. A door with silver numerals ‘67’ faced him. Crossing the corridor, he rapped on the door and waited.

  There was a moment’s delay, then the door jerked open and Grandi regarded him.

  ‘What do you want?’ Grandi barked. ‘Something happened?’

  ‘Yes, sir. I think I have the ransom note.’

  Grandi’s eyes narrowed. He stepped back, motioning Frost in, then he walked across the large living room and sat down behind a paper-strewn desk. He waved Frost to a chair.

  ‘Tell me.’

  ‘As nothing was to happen until tomorrow morning, sir,’ Frost said, ‘I went down to the beach. I spent an hour down there. On returning to the car, I found this envelope, addressed to you, on the driving seat.’

  He leaned forward and dropped the envelope Silk had given him on the desk.

  Grandi stared at it, then at Frost.

  ‘Go down to the bar and wait,’ Grandi said. ‘I will call you when I want you.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  Frost got to his feet and walked to the door. As he was leaving the suite, Grandi picked up the envelope. He was slitting open the envelope with a paper knife as Frost closed the door.

  In the bar, Frost ordered a whisky on the rocks and sat at an isolated table. There were only a few people in the bar, and no one did more than give him a cursory glance.

  He waited, and while he waited, he thought of Gina, wondering where she was. He was sure she would keep herself hidden. So what did it matter where she was?

  Grandi would sign the document transferring thirty million dollars to Silk’s Swiss account, then the four of them would take off together, and Grandi could whistle for Gina.

  He was still thinking of what he would do once he got his hands on all that money when the barman came over to him.

  ‘Mr. Grandi is asking for you, sir.’

  Frost got to his feet, squared his shoulders and walked to the elevator. This was it! he told himself. It was unlikely Grandi would tell him about the ransom demand, but he would indicate that he was paying, and that was all Frost wanted to know.

  He rapped on the door of suite 67 and heard Grandi call, ‘Come on in.’

  He found Grandi at his desk, a big cigar between his fat fingers, his face a hard expressionless mask.

  ‘We have some talking to do, Frost,’ Grandi said. ‘Sit down.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  Uneasy, Frost sat in the chair opposite Grandi’s desk.

  Grandi opened a drawer in his desk and took from it a tape cassette. He held it up so Frost could see it.

  ‘Do you know what this is, Frost?’

  Frost felt his heart give a lurch. So Suka had somehow got to Grandi. Keeping his face expressionless, reminding himself that there was nothing Grandi could do unless he opted to go to jail for tax fraud, he said, ‘Yes, sir. I know what it is.’

  ‘Suka met me at the Miami airport,’ Grandi said and smiled. He looked like a vicious hungry wolf. ‘How much did they pay you, Frost, to be the inside man?’

  ‘Don’t let’s waste time, Grandi,’ Frost said in his cop voice. ‘Sign that transfer and give it to me. That’s all you have to do unless you don’t want your daughter back and you fancy a fifteen year stretch in an Italian jail.’

  Grandi picked up the document which was lying on his desk and studied it.

  ‘Not even a good try,’ he said. ‘I don’t imagine you worked out this kidnapping yourself. I am not interested in your associates. I intend to deal with you. With the ransom demand, as you know, are specimens of transfers to a Swiss bank. These are illegal transfers as the currency regulations in Italy forbid money leaving the country, but what your associates haven’t appreciated is the fact that transfer of money from Italy is illegal only to the vast majority.’ Grandi regarded Frost. ‘I am not the vast majority. To have obtained these photocopies, your associates must have corrupted my chief accountant, Guiseppe Vessi, who handled the transfers. You may have wondered why you have been kept waiting for an hour before I talk with you. Let me tell you: I was arranging that Vessi ceases to exist. No one ever betrays me and remains alive!’

  Frost, staring at the ruthless, vicious face, knew Grandi wasn’t bluffing.

  ‘Even with Vessi out of the way,’ he said, ‘that still doesn’t keep you out of jail.’

  ‘Little man!’ Grandi laughed. ‘There is only one man in Italy who could make trouble for me, and he is my close friend: the Minister of Finance. Suppose your associates are stupid enough to send copies of these Swiss transactions to the tax authorities. They would pass them to the Minister of Finance who would sweep them under the carpet. He is as much involved as I am. In fact, little man, I will tell you for the past three years I have allowed him to syphon off some of his money
to my account. Your associates are so ill-informed of the Italian scene that they don’t realise that any deal can be arranged in Italy as long as you have enough power.’ He leaned forward, stabbing his finger at Frost. ‘And I have all the power in the world!’

  ‘If you want your daughter back, you’ll sign that document!’ Frost snapped. ‘I’m not interested in your machinations. Just sign it!’

  Grandi studied him, then drew the document to him and signed with a flourish.

  ‘If that’s all you want. When do I get my daughter back?’

  ‘As soon as the money has been transferred to Zurich,’ Frost said. This was a moment of triumph. He snatched up the document.

  Grandi shook his head.

  ‘That won’t do. She will be dead of old age by then.’

  With a feeling that he was being tricked, Frost glared at Grandi.

  ‘What the hell do you mean?’

  ‘Your associates didn’t do their homework,’ Grandi said. ‘The Lugano numbered account belongs to myself and three friends, and one of them is the Minister of Finance who I have just mentioned. None of us can draw out money without the the other three adding their signatures. I can tell you their names, but I can assure you they wouldn’t sign.’ He lifted his heavy shoulders in an Italian shrug. ‘Unfortunately, they have no interest in my daughter.’

  Frost flung the document back on the desk.

  ‘If you want Gina back alive, you’d better persuade your friends to sign!’

  ‘That would be a waste of time to try. They certainly don’t value my daughter at twenty million dollars.’ Grandi leaned forward and gave his wolf smile. ‘Let us approach this business from another angle.’

  ‘How much will you pay to get your daughter back?’ Frost demanded, aware now his hands had turned moist.

  ‘Ah! That is a good question.’ Grandi drew on his cigar and released a rich-smelling smoke. ‘So we are agreed the ransom isn’t to be twenty million dollars?’

  Frost hesitated.

  ‘This is something I must discuss with my associates, he said. ‘Give me a proposal, and then we will consider it.’

  ‘Now you are growing up, little man,’ Grandi said.

  ‘Here is my proposal. You will return Gina here within four hours. In return, I will take no legal proceedings against you or your associates. That is my proposal.’

  ‘How much money?’ Frost demanded.

  Grandi shook his head.

  ‘No money. Send her back unharmed, and I’ll forget you and your stupid associates exist.’

  Frost forced a laugh. Even to him it sounded hollow.

  ‘No way. We’re in this for money. Suppose we say five million? She’s worth five million to you. How about it?’

  ‘No money and I will tell you why.’ He opened a drawer in his desk and took out two reels of tape. ‘Take these. I have the originals, but I want you to have them so that you and your stupid associates can understand how badly you have planned this operation.’ Grandi pulled on his cigar, then went on, ‘When I rented Orchid Villa, I took precautions. Now I will tell you about Suka. He was a security and an electronic expert working for the Tokyo police. I bought him. I gave him the problem of making the villa safe. Apart from all the security gimmicks, he also installed a telephone tap with a continuous tape recording.

  Every call in and out of the villa has been recorded. The copies of these tapes which I am giving you tell a story. I know about Marcia Goolden, a whore, who lives at this hotel. I know you have been in contact with her and Amando visits her. Obviously, she drugged Amando when he was with her as you drugged Marvin. I know you told your associates to murder Suka. A voice print will identify you, and if I give the tapes to the police, they will have no problem indicting you. I know too you have been screwing my daughter. Her room has always been bugged. My daughter is mentally sick, but she is still my daughter and I’m going to have her back! Return her to me in four hours and I won’t take proceedings.’ Grandi stubbed out his cigar. ‘Take the tapes, talk to your associates, but remember . . . if she isn’t here by ten o’clock tonight, you will spend twenty years in jail.’

  Frost tried to say something but the words wouldn’t come. He got unsteadily to his feet.

  ‘One more thing, little man,’ Grandi said. ‘It might occur to you that the way out for you would be to kill me.’

  He smiled wolfishly. ‘Don’t try it. I am very well protected.’ He leaned forward, his face a snarling mask of rage, and he screamed at Frost, ‘Get out of my sight!’

  * * *

  The four men sat around the table, a tape player before them and they listened to Frost saying: ‘Did you get Suka?’

  Silk’s voice.

  ‘No sign of the sonofabitch. No sign of Grandi either.’

  Frost snapped off the player.

  ‘We’ve got to find her and return her, Silk!’

  Silk rubbed the side of his jaw, thought for a moment, then shrugged.

  ‘It looked good.’ He stared with his one glittering eye at Umney who looked pale and he kept his hand to his aching head. ‘You sure fell down on this one, Ross. You should have dug deeper.’

  ‘You shouldn’t have touched it at all,’ Umney snarled. ‘We told you no way, but you wouldn’t listen!’

  ‘Wrap up!’ Frost exclaimed. ‘How do we find her?’

  ‘She left my car at the waterfront,’ Goble said. ‘I’ve got men down there.’ He got up, went to the telephone and put a call through. He talked quietly for two or three minutes, then hung up.

  The others looked at him expectantly.

  ‘She hasn’t taken a boat,’ he said. ‘There are around fifteen small hotels down there. She’s probably holed up in one of them, waiting until it gets dark.’

  ‘Or she left the car there as a stall and walked to the bus stop and is in Miami by now,’ Silk said Frost got to his feet.

  ‘We have less than three hours to find her! You get down to the waterfront,’ he was speaking to Goble. ‘You,’ turning to Silk, ‘cover the bus station. You’ve got her description. I’m going back to the villa to search her room. I might come up with something.’ He paused at the door. To Umney he said, ‘Stay by the telephone. I’ll be dialling in for progress reports,’ then he left the room at a run.

  Driving just within the speed limit, he arrived back at the villa as the car’s dashboard clock showed 19.20. Aware time was rapidly running out, he dashed up the stairs and into Gina’s room. He feverishly searched through every drawer and cupboard, went through the contents of the little desk by the window, but came up with nothing. By now the time was 20.00. Two hours more to find her!

  He snatched up the telephone receiver and called Umney.

  ‘Any news?’

  ‘Lu’s just checked out the bus station. No one’s seen her, and we have good contacts there. Our best bet is the waterfront. Lu’s on his way down there.’

  An idea dropped into Frost’s mind. He remembered what Gina had said to him: I don’t give a shit about money. I just want to take off and do my thing.

  ‘Is there a way out, hippy colony around here?’

  ‘Where isn’t there? Sure, the freaks get together at Paddler’s Creek. Do you think she could be there?’

  ‘I don’t know. Where’s this place?’

  ‘Around ten miles out of the city towards Key West,’ Umney told him. ‘They have these swing festivals there.’

  ‘Where do I find it?’

  ‘Go along the highway south. There’s a motel on the right hand side. Twin Oakes. Take the first turning past the motel on your right and that takes you down to the beach. You think she’s there?’

  ‘How the hell do I know, but I’m going to look,’ and Frost hung up.

  He got into the Lamborghini and sat for a long moment, thinking, then he drove fast to the Spanish Bay hotel.

  Five minutes later he was once again facing Grandi.

  Frost now was all cop. He sat down, his face as hard and as expressionless as Grand
i’s.

  ‘You have her?’ Grandi snapped.

  ‘No. I’m going to level with you,’ Frost said. ‘She wanted to be kidnapped. Okay, I helped her, but it was she who neutralised the fence. She went to the harbour with a suitcase where my associates picked her up. They took her to the Ace of Spades.’

  ‘I know all that,’ Grandi snarled. ‘It’s on tape!’

  ‘But what you don’t know, she got one of my associates into bed and while they were copulating she bashed him with a gun and took off. We’re trying to find her. Now listen carefully, Grandi, she wants you dead, and she has a gun. I don’t want any more of this crap about finding her in four hours. We’ll find her, but it will take more than four hours. This is up to you.’

  ‘So she’s got away?’ Grandi seemed to shrink a little.

  ‘That’s it. She took a car. We found it on the waterfront. We’ve checked. She hasn’t tried to hire a boat. We are checking the hotels.’ Frost paused, then went on, ‘How sick is she?’

  Grandi clenched his fists.

  ‘So sick she should have been committed,’ he said as if the words were being dragged from him, ‘but I couldn’t do that to her. Instead, I put her behind an electrified fence. Amando is a mental specialist in charge of her. His weekly reports show she is deteriorating. In Rome, she took a massive dose of L.S.D. It shocked her brain out of balance. Amando describes her as a sexual lunatic. That’s how sick she is . . . but I don’t give a damn what she has become. She is my daughter, and I want her back!’ He glared at Frost. ‘It was through you, she escaped, so bring her back or I’ll fix you as I have fixed Vessi! Make no mistake about that!’

  ‘She hates you, Grandi. She wants you dead. She has a gun. She told me you want to screw her,’ Frost said.

  ‘I’ve listened to all her sick talk on the tape,’ Grandi said. ‘She didn’t know what she was saying. Even if I dropped dead tomorrow, she wouldn’t be able to touch a dollar. It is all in trust.’ He paused, then pointed his finger at Frost, ‘Find her, and bring her to me. Do that, and I will pay you five million dollars.’