He came out into the passage, looked to right and left, then up at the trap door in the ceiling.
Lolita came to the sitting-room door.
“All right?” she asked. The strain was beginning to tell, but she still managed an inviting, convincing smile.
Wand moved forward, riding her back into the sitting-room.
“Okay, sister,” he said, speaking low, “they’re up in the loft, aren’t they?”
Her eyes widened for a brief moment, then she forced a smile, but this time it was a lot less convincing.
“They? I don’t understand. What do you mean?”
“I know you,” Wand said. “You couldn’t afford to live in this place. You better open up or you’ll be in real trouble. They are up there, aren’t they?”
Lolita’s lips were now pale under her lipstick, but she didn’t give up.
“They? I told you… I’m alone here. What is all this about?”
Wand walked to the door.
“Get Gutsey,” he said to Colon.
Colon went to the front door and waved to O’Connor who was standing by the gate, waiting impatiently. Uneasily, the fat sergeant came up the path.
“What the hell is it now?”
“Take her,” Wand said. “They’re up in the loft.”
O’Connor gaped at him, then he caught hold of Lolita’s arm. He jerked her into the passage as Mish, listening to all this, gently raised the trap door, aimed his gun and squeezed the trigger.
The gun exploded with a bang that rattled the windows. A red stain appeared on O’Connor’s tunic. He went down on his knees, like a stricken ox, his hands clasping his enormous belly.
Lolita screamed and threw herself back into the sitting-room as Colon, jerking up his rifle, ripped in shot after shot through the ceiling.
Mish, hit in the face and through the body, somehow lifted his gun and again squeezed the trigger. Shot through the shoulder, Collon dropped his rifle, falling face down on the floor. Mish tried to regain his balance, then toppled through the trap door, his dying fingers squeezing the trigger of his gun which exploded bullets through the narrow passage. He thudded down on Collon as Wand shot him again through the head.
Wand hurriedly backed into the sitting-room, crouching down on one knee. There were two more of them up there, he thought, not knowing that Jack Perry was already dead.
Carefully sighting his rifle at the already holed ceiling, he fired five quick shots into the ceiling.
“Okay, you two,” he bawled. “Come on down with your hands in the air!”
Lolita, standing against the wall, looked wildly around the room. Her eyes alighted on a heavy glass ashtray. Without hesitating, she reached for it, took three silent steps up to Wand who was staring through the doorway at the open trap and crashed the ashtray down on his head.
He dropped the rifle, gave a groan and fell forward.
Her heart hammering, she jumped over his body and ran to the trap door.
“Jess! Quick! Come down!” she screamed. “We can get away! Come down quick!”
There was a pause, then a scuffling noise and Chandler appeared in the open trap. His face was white and his eyes half closed.
“Beat it, baby,” he said hoarsely. “There’s nothing more you can do for me now… and thanks for everything.”
Blood ran out of his mouth and dripped on to the worn mat in the hall.
Lolita screamed.
“Jess!”
“Beat it,” Chandler gasped, then his eyes rolled back and he sagged forward, his arms hanging close to her face.
She caught hold of his hand, then shuddered and released it. She ran into the bedroom, snatched up her suitcase, threw it on the bed and crammed her things into it. Tears ran down her face and every now and then she caught her breath in a rasping sob.
Carrying the suitcase, she went out into the hall, looked again at Chandler, then, jumping over O’Connor’s great bulk, she ran out into the darkness of the garage. She threw her suitcase into the back of the Mini, got in and started the engine.
She drove fast towards the Miami highway.
SEVEN
FOR THE past three hours the Homicide Squad, under Hess, and the fingerprint experts, under Jeff White, had swarmed over Maisky’s bungalow.
Chief of Police Terrell, back at headquarters, was waiting impatiently for their reports.
When Sam Wand had recovered consciousness, he had staggered to the police car and triggered off the alarm. Patrolmen at the Miami-Paradise road block had arrested Lolita and had taken her to headquarters. She was now in a cell, waiting to be questioned.
Around midnight, Hess walked into Terrell’s office, his fat face shiny with sweat, his eyes dark ringed.
“Well, Fred? What’s the news?” Terrell asked as he poured coffee into two paper cups and gave Hess one. The fat detective slumped down on a chair.
“Looks like there’s only one left,” he said, paused to gulp some coffee, then went on, “No. S. But there’s no sign of the money. O’Connor’s dead. Collon has a smashed shoulder, but he’ll survive. Here’s as far as we’ve got: the bungalow was rented by Franklin Ludovick on May 2nd last year. He’s been living there up to now. He must be our No. 5. The bungalow hasn’t been properly cleaned for some time and Jeff has a whale of a lot of prints. He has wired them to Washington. We expect to hear any time now. I’ve talked to the Agent who rented the bungalow. His description of Ludovick matches the description given us by the Lab boys: sixty-five, small, frail, sandy hair, beaky nose and grey eyes. He owns an old Buick, but the Agent can’t remember its colour nor its licence number. He has pulled out. Nothing belonging to him remains in the bungalow. Looks now as if he did rat on the others. Where he is is problematic. We do know he hasn’t passed the road blocks.”
“All right, Fred. It’s a good start,” Terrell said. “Nothing yet on the truck?”
“Not so far… oh, yes, we’ve found the T.R.4. It was hidden in the sand dunes, about a mile from the bungalow.”
“No sign yet of Perry?”
“It’s my bet he’s dead. The car is soaked in blood. No man could bleed like that and survive. They’ve probably buried him some place.”
“Well, we are making progress.” Terrell finished his coffee. “Now, we have to find No. 5.”
Jacoby came in.
“Excuse me, Chief, a signal from Washington just come in.”
Terrell read the signal, then looked at Hess.
“Here’s our man: Serge Maisky. He spent ten years at Roxburgh jail as a dispenser. He retired April last. They’re sending a photo.” He laid the signal on the desk. “He’s here somewhere, so we take the City to pieces. . Where he is, the money will be. Get it organised, Fred. Put on every available man. He shouldn’t be all that difficult to turn up.”
Hess got wearily to his feet.
“Could be famous last words, Chief. But I’ll get it organised,” and he left the office.
Terrell reached for the telephone. He told the police matron to have Lolita brought to his office, but he didn’t get anywhere with her. She sat, stunned, white faced and silent, not answering his questions, but rocking herself to and fro in her misery. Jess Chandler had been the only man she had ever loved. His death had left her no hope in life. Finally, shrugging, Terrell sent her back to her cell.
* * *
Tom Whiteside opened his eyes and blinked up at the sky that showed blue through the canopy of trees. He looked at his wristwatch. The time was twenty after seven. He looked over at Sheila. She was asleep. For a girl who claimed she could never sleep, he thought sourly, she didn’t do so badly.
He crawled out of his sleeping bag and shaved with his cordless razor, then, feeling a little more alive, he went down to the car. He got from the boot the hated gas cooker, and after a fierce struggle, got one of the burners to light. He brewed up coffee while he smoked a cigarette.
Then, carrying two steaming cups of coffee back into the glade, he stirred Sheila with his
foot.
“Come on… come on… wake up,” he said irritably. “Here’s some coffee.”
She moved, moaned, then opened her eyes. She looked sleepily up at him.
“Oh… you…”
“Yes… me.” He dumped the cup of coffee by her side and went over to sit on his sleeping bag.
He watched her struggle out of her sleeping bag. She was wearing only bra and sky-blue panties. The sight of her as she stood up and stretched set his blood on fire. But he knew he was working himself up for nothing, and he looked away.
She went behind a bush to relieve herself, then came back, snapping the elastic of her panties.
“This I love,” she said bitterly. “Crouching behind a bush! What a way to live!”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake, shut up!” Tom snarled. “Can’t you ever stop complaining?”
She squatted on her sleeping bag and sipped the coffee. After the first sip, she shuddered and threw the rest of the coffee into the shrubs.
“What did you put into it… earth?”
“What’s the matter with it?” Tom demanded, glaring. He had to admit the coffee tasted like hell. Probably he hadn’t waited for the water to boil, but he had made it… at least he had done that.
“The matter with it? Don’t make me laugh!” She reached for her slacks. “What do we do now? I want to get home.”
“Do you imagine you’re the only one?” Tom forced himself to finish his coffee although it made him feel slightly sick. “We’ll have to walk or do you want to wait here?”
“Wait here? Alone? I’m not staying here on my own!”
“Well, okay, then you’ll have to walk.”
“If you imagine I’m going to walk five miles you need your head examined!”
He drew in an exasperated breath.
“Make up your stupid mind! You either stay or you walk! I’m going right now.”
She hesitated. At this moment the rising sun reflected on something close by that glittered. She looked at the glitter, her face puzzled, then she walked over to a high mass of dead branches and peered into the undergrowth.
“Tom! Here’s a car!”
“What are you yapping about now?” Tom said impatiently. He was putting on his windcheater.
“Look… a car!”
Maisky was lying at the mouth of the cave. He could see them now. His shaking hand gripped his .25 automatic. There was a dull, warning pain in his chest. Slowly, carefully, he lifted the gun.
Tom joined Sheila. Pulling aside some of the dead branches, he discovered Maisky’s Buick.
“What’s this doing here?” he said blankly.
Sheila dragged more dead branches away. They both stared at the car, then she said, “See if it will start.”
“We can’t do that. Someone’s hunting or something,” Tom said uneasily.
“See if it will start!” Sheila screamed at him.
Tom groped in his hip pocket and brought out a set of keys. As a G.M. agent, he always carried a master key for all of their cars. He unlocked the car door, slid under the driving wheel, sank the key into the ignition lock, turned it and put his foot down on the gas pedal. The engine fired.
“Well… talk about luck!” Sheila said. “Come on. We’ll borrow this and get home. Then you can get a new pump, come back here and fix our ruin.”
“We can’t do that! We could be arrested for stealing!”
“What a jerk you are! Okay, so the guy has to wait a couple of hours. So what? You can explain. You’re not stealing the car… you’re borrowing it.”
Tom hesitated, but he saw the sense in this. He got out of the Buick and walked down the path, out of the glade, to where his car was parked. He found in the glove compartment a pad of paper and a ball pen. He wrote:
I have broken down so I have had to borrow your car. I’ll be returning in two hours. Excuse me.
Tom Whiteside, 1123, Delpont Avenue, Paradise City.
That should keep him right with the Law, he thought as he fixed the note under his windshield. He hurried back to where Sheila was completing her toilet.
“All right,” he said. “Let’s go.”
She regarded him with that exasperated look of contempt that had so often made him squirm.
“Oh, boy! How bright can you be! Are you going to leave all the camping equipment in the car? Suppose some bum comes along and steals it? Are you going to pay for it, Mr. Cheapie?”
Tom hadn’t thought of this and it irritated him.
“Well, okay, okay.” He got into the Buick and started the engine.
Maisky tried to aim his gun at him, but in his weak, shaking hand, the gun barrel danced as if it were alive. He cursed as he lowered the gun. With murderous rage and sick frustration, he watched Tom back the Buick, turn it and then drive out of the glade.
Reaching his car, Tom pulled up. Both he and Sheila transferred all their clothes and the camping equipment on to the back seat of the
Buick. They were then left with the gas cooker which wouldn’t fit into the back of the car.
“Put it in the boot,” Sheila said impatiently. She got in the passenger’s seat of the buick and lit a cigarette.
Tom unlocked the boot and opened it. In the boot was a big cardboard carton with the initials I.B.M. painted in black letters on its side. He wondered vaguely what it contained, but as Sheila called to him to hurry up, for God’s sake, he put the cooker against the carton and slammed down the lid.
He got in the car and drove down the five-mile-long dirt road until they reached the Paradise City highway.
Sheila was relaxed now, her arm on the window frame of the car. This was the first time in months that she had been in a car that didn’t rattle and showed signs of power.
“Why don’t you get a better car?” she asked suddenly. “You work for these jerks. Why can’t they give you something better than our stinking ruin?”
“Just rest your mouth,” Tom said. “If I have anything more from you, I’ll go screwy.”
“Screwy? Who said you aren’t already screwy?”
“Oh, will you shut up!” Tom leaned forward and snapped on the radio. Anything to keep her quiet.
A voice was saying: “… the Casino robbery the night before last. Four of the wanted men are now accounted for, but the fifth, believed to be the ringleader, is still at large. The police are anxious to question Serg Maisky, alias Franklin Ludovick, who they think may help them with their inquiries. The description of the wanted man is as follows: age sixty-five, slimly built, height five foot seven inches, thin, sandy-coloured hair, grey eyes. He is thought to be driving a Buick coupe. The police believe he is in possession of a large cardboard carton with the initials I.B.M. painted on its sides. This carton may contain the two and a half million dollars taken from the Casino. Anyone seeing this man is asked to notify the police immediately. Paradise City 7777.”
The Buick swerved and a driver, overtaking, blasted his horn and cursed Tom as he stormed past.
“What are you doing?” Sheila demanded. “You could have had a smash,” then seeing his white face, she asked sharply, “What’s the matter?”
“Shut up!” Tom snapped, trying to control himself. He slowed the car, feeling cold sweat on his face. Had he heard aright? He thought of the big carton in the boot. He saw, again the initials I.B.M. painted on the box. Two and a half million dollars!
“You look as if you’ve swallowed a bee,” Sheila said, now worried. “What is it?”
He drew in a long, slow breath.
“Turn the radio off!”
She shrugged impatiently and snapped off the radio.
“What’s biting you?”
“I think this car belongs to the Casino robbers,” Tom said, his voice strangled. “The money is in the boot!”
Sheila stiffened, staring at him.
“Have you gone crazy?”
“There’s a carton in the boot with painted on it!”
Her eyes grew round.
“This cou
ld explain why the car was hidden,” Tom went on. “What the hell are we going to do?”
“Are you sure about the carton?”
“Of course, I’m sure… do you think I’m blind?”
A feverish excitement took hold of Sheila. She remembered what the announcer had said: This carton may contain the two and a half million dollars taken from the Casino.
“We’ll go straight home and make sure,” she said.
“We’d better go to police headquarters.”
“We are going home!” Her voice now was hard and shrill. “If the money is really in the boot, we’re not handing it over to the police! There’ll be a reward…”
Tom began to protest, then he saw the traffic was slowing down.
“What’s going on?” he said, braking and staring at the long line of cars coming to a halt.
Sheila leaned out of the window.
“There’s a road block ahead. The in-going traffic is being waved through. They are only checking the outgoing traffic.” Tom drew in a long, unsteady breath.
“We’d better tell them.”
“Oh, quiet down! We are going home and we are going to make certain first the money is there!”
Tom was now approaching the road block. He saw Patrol Officer Fred O’Toole waving the in-going cars through. He was friendly with O’Toole. They often played pool together in a down-town bar.
O’Toole grinned at him as he waved him through. “Got a new car, huh?” he called. “Had a good vacation?”
His white face set in a grin, Tom nodded and waved a sweating hand.
“We should have stopped and told him,” he said as they continued on down the highway.
“Haven’t you any guts?” Sheila said impatiently. “They are certain to offer a big reward. This is our chance, at last, to make some real money!”
Well Now, My Pretty… Page 13