Angel's Ransom (12 page)

‘May I trouble you?’

He managed to keep a match flaming in his cupped hands long enough to give her a light. She thanked him in her
husky voice, then rested her forearms on the rail beside his
own and smoked silently

They stood that way for minutes without speaking. Her calm presence at his side, quietly smoking, not offering to
talk but waiting for him to talk if he chose, cooled his
temper as much as the salt spray cooled his face. In time he
said, ‘I owe you thanks for your help back there.’

‘It was nothing.’ The cigarette coal glowed, and glowed again. ‘I could give you even more help, if you would like
me to.’

‘In what way?’

‘The same way. With Bruno.’

‘Are you and he - friends?’

‘Not as you mean it. But I have known other
Brunos
, many of them. He can be made to do what I wish him
to do.’

‘His wife is already jealous of you.’

‘
S
o?’

‘And what about Freddy?’

‘Freddy has only one interest, for the moment. As for the wife’ - Valentina dropped her cigarette into the hissing
darkness below the rail - ‘marrying a gigolo does not make
him any less a gigolo. She should have done with her
illusions
before now. Besides, I would be keeping her Bruno out
of the trouble he will get into if he is not controlled. Shall I
concentrate his interest on me to the exclusion of other
things?’

‘It would help. It would also help if you could all pretend that this is the cruise you thought it was going to be when
you came aboard.’ Blake had not forgotten the probability
that Holtz was staying out of sight in order to eavesdrop.
‘Let Holtz see that we’re not going to give him any
opposition
. Keep Bruno under
control, and there won’t be any
thing to worry about except passing the time until we get
back to Monaco.’

‘Bruno is not the only one who needs controlling. There is also the little
Am
é
ricaine
. What did you do to make her angry
with you?’

‘
S
he thinks I’m a coward.’

‘Is it important to you what she thinks?’

‘It
’s
important to me what she does. She
’s
another Bruno.’

‘With her, I can be of no help. You will have to control her yourself.’

‘That
’s
the trouble. I don’t know how.’

‘Are you so inexperienced with women, then, Captain?’

There was frank speculation in her husky voice. He caught the scent of her perfume again, and was aware that
she stood very close, waiting.

He was not immune to Valentina
’s
charm. She was a desirable woman, and her invitation was an open one. He
refused it only because he knew she was experimenting. The
Brunos
reacted a certain way, the
Freddys
reacted a certain
way, the Captain
Blakes
could normally be expected to
react
a
certain way. He understood Valentina, and he
admired her confidence in her power as much as he did her
beauty. But he did not like being classified with the
Freddys
and the
Brunos
.

He said, ‘I’m afraid I am. Bruno would call me timid. Will you excuse me?’

‘Of course. Good night.’

Her poise was undisturbed when he walked away. If anything, she seemed amused.

His rule of making a final round of the ship before going to bed died hard, but the viper was still there, hidden in the
dark. His uneasy feelin
g that he was being watched per
sisted even after he had turned in to get the sleep he badly
needed. He awoke hours later with a start, sharply, and felt
a thrill of irrational fear at the sight of Holtz
’s
small figure
in the cabin doorway. A dim light in the passageway threw
a reflection on the weapon he held.

‘Time to resume your command, Captain,’ he said. ‘Four o’clock. Jules is waiting for you.’

Blake
’s
fright passed quickly. Visible, Holtz was only a small man with a gun. He no longer even seemed to be
particularly concerned with keeping his distance. Although
the Walther was as ready as ever in his hand, he remained
almost casually in the doorway while Blake dressed, and
followed him to the pilot-house without particular attention
to the number of steps that separated them. Blake found
himself considering the possibility of an attempt for the
pistol, but put the thought rigidly away. Even Bruno would
not be that foolhardy.

Jules had charted the
Angel
’s
position at midnight. The compass bearing had not changed, nor the tachometer
readings, nor the weather. Blake was satisfied to project the
cruiser
’s
course another four hours on the chart, then verify
the new position with direction-finder fixes on Genoa and
La
Garoupe
. The yacht was west and south of Ajaccio, in
open sea.

Jules had left the pilot-house upon being relieved. Holtz stayed on to watch while Blake made his calculations and
posted the log. Blake knew that his conscientious clinging
to routine appeared ridiculous to the gang leader, in the
circumstances, but the
Angel
’s
demands were the same
whether she sailed under threat of arms or as Freddy
’s
whims directed. He said, ‘Is there any reason why I shouldn’t
know where we’re bound?’

‘We’re not bound anywhere,’ Holtz answered readily. ‘We’re passing the time.’

‘We could pass time just as easily by shutting down and drifting. We’re out of the steamer lanes.’

‘That would give you too much leisure. You might get ideas. ’

‘These long-haul wheel tricks are supposed to keep me from having ideas?’

‘Exactly.’ Holtz was wholly serious. ‘I spent a great deal of time studying you as well as your employer, Captain. You
would be surprised at the number of hours you were under
observation in Monaco. If you do not know it, you are an
over-conscientious drudge, bound by what you regard as
your responsibilities to your command. You do not leave
your ship to go ashore for an evening; your crew does. You,
rather than your deckhands, make the rounds of the deck,
test your own moorings, check your own lights. You are less
the
Angel
’s
master than you are its servant, and for that
reason I am keeping you occupied in its service. If you were
not so occupied you might, out of idleness, think of interfering with my plans. I should then have to kill you, and
lose your usefulness in keeping your passengers from similar
reckless ventures. Do you follow my reasoning?’

‘I go a step beyond it. You overheard what I said in the salon.’

‘Very acute.’ The gang leader nodded. ‘What did the Italian have in mind, after the bar was open?’

Blake hesitated only briefly. The truth was less dangerous to Bruno than Holtz
’s
imaginings. He said, ‘He was going to
put messages in bottles and throw them overboard.’

Holtz laughed his fox-bark laugh.

‘The gigolo mind at work. Anything to impress the ladies, however ineffectual. I doubt that the blonde Polonaise would
have been as impressed by his resourcefulness as he would
have liked, but one can never be certain of feminine reactions. You behaved churlishly to her when she joined you on
deck last night.’

‘
S
o you saw that, too.’

‘I make it my business to know what is going on, naturally. I did not realize that your loyalties to your employer were
strong enough to enable you to resist those
ripely
tantalizing
lips.’

Blake had snapped off the light when he finished with the log, but enough grey early-morning brightness came into
the pilot-house for him to see that Holtz had taken over the
steering chair he himself had not chosen to use. Holtz
’s
manner, possibly because he was convinced that Blake had
come to accept his authority, was one of half-mocking, half-patronizing friendliness. The gun was still in view, but as a
reminder only.

Blake said, ‘My loyalties to Freddy, as you think of them, don’t exist. He pays me a salary for the over-conscientious
drudgery you just described. That
’s
all he buys.’

‘I’m glad to hear that.’

‘Why?’

‘Because it shows that you are without burdensome moral scruples. You owe him more than mere conscientious
drudgery for the salary he pays you. You are robbing him
just as effectively as I am, only with less effort, at your
leisure. And who knows? His generosity to the ladies, at
least, is well known. Perhaps in some drunken moment he
may extend his openhandedness to his faithful yacht captain.
In such close contact with six million dollars, is it too much to
hope that some of it might rub off on you?’

‘Thanks for the character analysis.’

‘I have a motive. I want you to see
that you and I do not have greatl
y different goals. How would you like to work
for me?’

The morning light had strengthened, showing the brooding, intent look on Holtz
’s
face as he waited for the reply. It cautioned Blake to consider the possible consequence of a
wrong answer. The enormous ego that made the little man
so
sure
of his insight into other minds and other motives
would not let him accept the fact that the answer required no
time for thought.

He said cautiously, ‘I am working for you. That gun makes it a fact.’

‘I mean voluntarily. By coming over to my side. As for the gun-’

Holtz slid down off the high steering seat. He grinned the wolf
’s
grin as he backed toward the door, the Walther raised
now and pointing.

‘It is still a necessary persuader. I do not expect that we can come to terms in a moment. But we can come to terms,
Captain. Think over what I have offered you.’

He left Blake with the certain conviction that what he had been offered was an opportunity to help extort further
money from Freddy. In Holtz
’s
world a logical alternative to
working for the
Angel
’s
owner was working against him, and
that could only mean a squeeze for additional booty. It was
still true that he could not hold Freddy captive indefinitely,
or send Roche to the United States for ransom as easily as he
had sent him to Geneva. But Blake
’s
help, his established
position in Freddy
’s
confidence,
might very well be just what
Holtz needed, or thought he needed, to take another slice of
the six million. And after such a beginning it would be very
hard to convince him that that help did not have its price.
The wrong answer had trapped the
Angel
’s
captain as Holtz
had trapped the
Angel
.

The train of thought made Blake regret the finality of his assurance to Freddy that a hundred thousand dollars would
buy him out of trouble. For the first time since his attempt
to wreck the yacht, he began to question the wisdom of
submitting without resistance to Holtz
’s
authority.

The sun had risen over a clear and empty sea. The
Angel
fled southward without so much as a smudge of smoke on the
horizon to keep her company. As he had told Holtz, the
cruiser was out of regular shipping lanes, undoubtedly the
reason Jules had set their course in that direction. It seemed
like an unnecessary precaution. Even if they were to sight
another ship, he had no control over searchlight or
signaling
apparatus, a radiophone that did not f
unction, no rockets,
no flares –

His thoughts went back a step. The radiophone did function. Jules had only taken the handset, preventing any
possibility of two-way communication but without crippling
the speaker. The
Angel
could receive messages even if she
could not send them.