Murder Takes No Holiday

by Brett Halliday

  When she looked at him to see if he was joking, he winked at her broadly. Shayne sat back.

  “Now you must go more slowly,” Vivienne said soon afterward, peering at the road ahead. “It is not far away.”

  Powys cut his speed while the girl watched for landmarks. They passed several large plantations, and went on climbing. They left a small sleeping village behind. In the end, though they were all watching for the turn, they missed it. Powys had to stop and back. It was a small sign: “R. Smith,” with an arrow pointed up a gravel road. At a quiet word from the girl, Powys cut his lights. He waited briefly until his eyes came into the new focus, then ground forward slowly in second. The dark vegetation on each side made the road easy to follow.

  “Not far,” the girl said.

  Soon Shayne made out a massive stone wall on their left, about as high as a professional basketball center taking a rebound.

  “I remember something,” Vivienne said suddenly. “Wait. When the gate opens, a bell rings at the house.”

  “Easy enough,” Powys said. “We go over the wall, eh, Mike?”

  He spotted a break in the vegetation. Coming to a halt, he got out to try the ground. Satisfied, he returned to the Morris, cut the wheels sharply and backed off the road as far as he could, stopping only when the rear wheels began to spin. He killed the motor and set the emergency. All three then set to work breaking branches to conceal the little car.

  “What do you think about our mademoiselle?” Powys said. “Can we count on her not to drive away and leave us?”

  “Sure,” Shayne replied with a grin. “I convinced her. And just to be on the safe side, let’s take the keys.”

  “You don’t mean you are going to leave me here in the jungle!” she exclaimed. “All by myself?”

  “We’ll be back.”

  “Michael!” she said pleadingly. “You don’t know what you are saying. There are wild animals.”

  “If I worried about anybody,” Shayne said, “I’d be worrying about the animals.”

  “It is nothing to joke about!”

  Powys laughed, but then said seriously, “No, you’re right. Get in the car and run up the windows. Then even the snakes can’t get in.”

  “Snakes!” she said in horror. “You, you—you—”

  He held the branches aside for her. After she was in the car, he let them fall back in place. “All right?”

  Her voice seemed small and far away. “But for the love of God, hurry.”

  “All the same,” he said in a low voice to Shayne, “this may not be so simple. I don’t suppose you have a gun?”

  “They have enough guns to go around,” Shayne said.

  “Expect you’re right,” Powys said doubtfully as they crossed the road. “I’ll give you a leg up. Mind there’s no broken glass on the top.”

  He backed up against the stone wall and made a foothold with his hands. “I had Commando training, actually. Never thought it would come in handy. Just keep your foot out of my face, will you?”

  Shayne put his toe on the Englishman’s hands and sprang upward. He swept his hand across the top of the wall without meeting any obstacles, and came back to the ground.

  “No glass, at least.”

  Powys flexed his fingers. “Next time I’m going to pick somebody who weighs less. Here we go.”

  Shayne gripped the Englishman’s shoulders, placed his foot, and went up onto the wall in one smooth flow of motion. He swung his legs up and reached down for Powys’ hand. The Englishman backed away a few steps, threw himself toward the wall and seized Shayne’s hand.

  The redhead felt a stab go through his chest, as though a sliver of glass was being driven between his ribs. He held on and pulled, and Powys came up the wall. For an instant, until he threw his free arm over the top, his full weight seemed to bear on the break in Shayne’s ribs. He scrambled up beside Shayne, and the two men dropped to the ground together. Shayne had to prop himself against the solid bulk of the wall or he would have fallen. His lips were drawn back as he fought the pain.

  “Anything wrong, Mike?” Powys said.

  Shayne grunted and pushed off from the wall. He saw the lighted house ahead, several hundred yards away, but instead of heading for it directly, across uncertain ground, they followed the wall to the gate. Then they went up the drive, single file on the turf at the edge of the gravel.

  The house was lit up like a beacon. It was all on one level, of brick and glass. On the far side, the ground dropped away steeply, and in daylight there was probably a fine view across the mountains from the flagstone terrace. The rooms were like separate stage sets, each flooded with light. A man’s figure crossed in front of one of the windows, and Shayne instinctively crouched, although he knew they couldn’t be seen. The drive curved on around the house, ending at a three-car garage. One of the cars Shayne had seen at the Half Moon had been run into the garage, but the overhead door had not been closed. The second car was parked outside on the gravel. A cab, probably the one that had brought Paul Slater from the airport, was standing at the front steps.

  Shayne pointed at the cars and made a wringing motion with both hands. The Englishman nodded. Keeping below the level of the terrace, he made his way quietly to the cab, unlatched the hood and lifted it carefully so he could get to the motor. Shayne heard a small tearing sound. Powys threw something into the darkness, lowered the hood and moved on.

  A radio somewhere in the house, turned up too high, was playing American music. Crouching, Shayne ran to the stone balustrade at the edge of the side terrace. After a moment, very cautiously, he raised his head. Standing in a lighted bedroom, on the opposite side of a large picture window, Martha Slater was looking directly at him.

  It took Shayne an instant to realize that she couldn’t see him. She was holding a lighted cigarette, and she looked very tired. The shoulder of her blouse was torn. She turned and walked away, going out of sight and then coming back.

  There were two men in the room with her. One was on the bed, and Shayne saw, with an involuntary tightening of his stomach muscles, that it was José. He was watching Martha. As she moved, a kind of hunger glittered in his small eyes. The other man was in a straight chair tipped back against the door. Shayne raised his head a little more. It was the moonfaced youth whose name Shayne didn’t know. He was paring his fingernails lazily with a long knife.

  Martha said something which Shayne couldn’t hear. José laughed scornfully.

  Shayne pulled at his earlobe. Before he could make his move, he had to know where all his enemies were located and what they were doing. He ducked down below the balustrade and eased on to the next room. This was a much smaller bedroom. The cab-driver, wearing an impromptu uniform, was sitting at his ease in an upholstered chair with one leg over the chair-arm, smoking a long cigar. He had a tall iced drink in his hand. The radio was at his elbow, with a choice of Caribbean or North American music. Outside, his meter was ticking off waiting time. There was a wonderful look of contentment on his face.

  The redhead grinned ruefully and continued his careful survey of the house. There was a bathroom and then another bedroom, both of which seemed to be empty. That brought him to the front terrace. To see into the front windows he would have had to cross the terrace, so he backed off into the darkness and retraced his steps.

  The kitchen was empty. Powys was not in evidence; Shayne could hear faint metallic noises from the garage, where he was putting the third car out of action. Passing the garage, the redhead looked into the dining room. Al, the bartender, was playing solitaire at a long table. He was in his shirt sleeves, and he was wearing his big gun in a shoulder holster. That was the gun Shayne was chiefly concerned about. He was about to move on when he noticed something else. Al was turning up one card at a time, but he wasn’t adding any of them to the red-and-black pattern spread out on the table in front of him. Instead, while he kept his hands moving, he was leaning back in his chair, listening intently. A folding door was pulled shut behind him. />
  Shayne went on, around a clump of flowering shrubs. He saw the Camel in the living room, and a moment later he saw a man who must be Slater. That left only two unaccounted for—José’s brother Pedro and the caretaker Alvarez had mentioned.

  Slater was speaking angrily. He was boyishly good-looking, but there was a weakness and petulance around his mouth, an unbecoming fleshiness of the neck and chin. The redhead was too far away to catch more than an occasional word. He studied the situation.

  The Camel was on one side of a large stone fireplace, Slater on the other, continuing his harangue. Slater stalked to the big front window. The Camel followed him with his eyes. Now they were both in profile to Shayne, and the redhead quickly vaulted the balustrade, dropping without a sound onto the terrace. Slater’s voice rose and Alvarez broke in on him. Both men were fully taken up with each other. Shayne crawled in against the building, beneath the window level, and around to the front terrace. Here he could hear the voices plainly. There was a soft scraping behind him and Powys wriggled around the corner. The Englishman winked solemnly, and made a sign that the cars were out of commission.

  “And if you are not the villain who raised this bump on my head, dear Paul,” the Camel’s voice said calmly, “I make it a condition that you tell me who did. I think that is reasonable.”

  Powys tugged at Shayne’s ankle and formed the word “Alvarez” with his lips. Shayne nodded.

  “I don’t accept that,” Slater answered. “It’s unreasonable as hell. I’m not your keeper. Do you expect me to make a list of all the people who have a good reason for wanting to beat your brains out? The woods are full of them.”

  “Perhaps,” the Camel said. “The point is, you see, that the appointment was made in the usual way.”

  “On a radio schedule?” Slater said sharply.

  “Precisely! It came in the afternoon mail. With a circle around eleven o’clock.”

  Shayne would have liked to see Slater’s face, but it would have been too risky to raise his head.

  “I swear to God, Luis,” Slater said fervently. “I don’t know how it happened. Nobody knew that trick but me. You’re not the world’s most cautious man. One of your monkeys must have seen it on your desk one of the other times, and put two and two together. I can see how you figure, but you’re absolutely wrong. I didn’t do it, goddamn it!” And he added in a low voice, “But if you want to know something funny, I almost wish I had.”

  “Is that funny?” the Camel said dryly. “Your sense of humor is a little deficient, I think. Let us be specific. I was twenty minutes late, through no fault of my own. Where were you between five minutes of eleven and twenty minutes past? Give me the names of two impartial witnesses who can assure me that you were not in a garage waiting for me to arrive so you could knock me on the head, and perhaps you will succeed in convincing me.”

  Slater didn’t respond at once. Then he said heavily, “You don’t want much, do you? Between five of eleven and twenty after I was doing something dumb. I left the hotel at ten-thirty and I didn’t get to the airport till quarter of twelve. I suppose I picked up the taxi at about eleven-thirty, but before then I was taking pains not to be seen by anybody. And for a good reason. I sneaked out and put some of the money I made on my last trip in the mailbox of Mrs. Albert Watts.”

  There was an expressive silence.

  “I know it was dumb,” Slater said miserably. “You don’t have to tell me.”

  “Dumb! It was insane! What if somebody saw you? Did you think about that? “

  “Nobody saw me. It took time, but I was careful.”

  “And why did you feel prompted to do this crazy thing? You are ill, my friend. It is as good as a signed confession.”

  “Aah—I was feeling lousy, Luis. She’s pathetic. I snowed her once at a dance, and I’ve been feeling bad about it ever since. It wasn’t her fault that Watts wanted to make himself a dirty buck by turning me in. I could have mailed it to her, but they might have traced it to me. This way was better.”

  “It isn’t good. If you go to the trouble of killing somebody, the least you can do is be quiet about it afterward.”

  “I didn’t kill him,” Slater said wearily. “Don’t try to act innocent with me of all people, Luis. But he was killed because of something I’d done for money, and all of a sudden that dough wasn’t any good any more.”

  “How much did you give her?” the Camel sneered. “Half?”

  “I wanted to give her the whole goddamn thing, but when I came right down to it, I couldn’t. I didn’t count it. I just pushed it in the mailbox. Maybe it wasn’t even half.”

  “But this is weak, Paul. Very, very weak. Oh, I am quite sure you did it. It is too absurd to be a lie. But I do not think it would take an hour to leave some money in a fat lady’s mailbox. No, I suggest that you felt generous to this creature because you knew you were about to rob me of a matter of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars.”

  Powys stirred. The redhead looked at him quickly, and the Englishman made a face to show that the sum impressed him.

  The Camel went on. “We are clearing the ground. Now this sudden midnight trip by chartered plane. Your mother is sick?”

  His voice was thick with sarcasm, and Slater said defensively, “Maybe she’s not so sick I couldn’t have gone up tomorrow. But my wife’s been putting pressure on me to straighten up. You’ve been putting pressure on me to take one more trip and make enough to retire. At the same time I’ve been getting the pressure from another source you may not know about. I haven’t been getting much sleep lately, not that it matters. Martha is a good judge of character. She knew that if you people put on one ounce more of that pressure I’d break. And if that happened, if I took one more wrong dollar, she said she’d leave me. I’ve played around a little, sure, but I worship that kid, Luis.”

  “True love,” Alvarez said. “I honor it. But please continue. You expected me to come to see you and urge you once again to be sensible and make some money. And you were afraid you would agree?”

  “Well, hell,” Slater said uncomfortably. “I know my limitations. So I thought this cable about Mother was a god-given opportunity.”

  “God-given,” the Camel sneered, “but perhaps arranged by someone on earth, eh? I will tell you, Paul. It is no news to me that you have begun to shake and shiver. A little of this pressure you speak about, applied by policemen, and I have feared you would fall apart. When you are nervous, you make me nervous. It is true, I want you to go once more. I have been working up to this one for a long time. And this knock on the head seems to me to fit, Paul. You have been thinking perhaps yes, perhaps no. When you decide at last, you do not choose the sensible, honest way, but the foolish, the dishonest. And why? You are angry at me for this so-called pressure. It will be the last time, you tell yourself, and never again, if you do it this way, will you have to make such an unpleasant decision.”

  “That’s pretty cheap psychology. And it’s wrong.”

  “This we will learn. Because of one thing I am certain. You will find out tonight what is meant by pressure, and I think you are right—you are not the type to stand up.”

  “No. No. But don’t use any muscle on me, Luis. On me or my wife. At the same time I’m not a moron. When you pulled me off the plane and said you had Martha, you really jarred me. I would have done anything you said. But then I stopped to think. Consider a possibility, Luis. What if I didn’t steal this dough? Just consider it, that’s all I ask. How can I convince you, by swearing on the Bible? You probably don’t even have a Bible. To you it’s ABC. All I have to do is get up the dough. But I can’t get it up if I don’t have it, can I? So I knocked my few brains together. I know what you do with the people who double-cross you. Crrr!”

  He made a choking sound, which he must have accompanied with a gesture, drawing his hand flat across his throat. “And if you killed me you’d have to kill Martha too, and I didn’t want either of those things to happen. So this is the way I worked it. I w
rote a letter. It’ll be found in the morning unless I get it and tear it up in the meantime. And if I’m dead I can’t very well tear it up.”

  “What is in this letter?”

  “Why, the whole damn thing, Luis. Facts and figures. I know you think you can beat a smuggling rap, and maybe you can. So I put in the dope on what happened to Albert Watts.”

  “That does not sound so menacing.”

  “You think so, do you? I know you covered yourself. You’d be careful about a thing like that. So what I said was that we did it together.”

  After a moment’s silence the Camel’s voice said softly, “My God, Paul.”

  “I knew it would impress you. I said you told me not to worry about the alibi. You could get plenty of people to swear we were somewhere else that night. But it won’t stand up against a written confession, Luis. I described how we did it. I only drove the car, naturally. You used the knife.”

  “And you—signed this amazing document?”

  “What good would it be without a signature? And I don’t think it’s bad, for something I thought up on the spur of the moment. If you let us go, you’ll still be all right. But if the cops find me in a ditch with my throat cut, you know what they’ll think. They’ll think you killed me to keep me from confessing, not knowing I’d already written it out and signed it. If you didn’t hang for one murder, you’d hang for the other.”

  Alvarez said in disbelief, “Dear God. What if somebody finds this letter before you get it?”

  “They won’t,” Slater said with confidence. “And don’t think you can follow me and pick me up again after I have it. I intend to cut your telephone wires and see that your cars won’t start without some extensive repairs.”

  There was another moment’s silence. Outside on the terrace, Shayne could feel the tension in the room. Then the Camel gave a muffled exclamation. There was the sound of a blow.

  “You imbecile!” the Camel said. “I hope you don’t think you can make a fool of me twice in one evening. I don’t have to cut your throat. I will stop short of that. We will work slowly, so you will have time to appreciate everything fully. Then we will move on to your wife, to José’s delight. You said you worshipped her, I believe? There will be little left to worship when he is finished.”