Angel's Ransom (15 page)

Laura di Lucca
’s
jealousy was painfully apparent. Her efforts to distract Bruno
’s
attention from Valentina and
bring it back to herself were as pathetic as they were
ineffectual
. Bruno
’s
success in ignoring her existence amused Holtz.

He said, ‘You must find it entertaining, sitting up here in your box seat watching the play acted out for you on the
small world you control. I can understand why you might
be reluctant to abandon your god-like elevation for a
subordinate position in my employ.’

‘Most of the time what I watch is the fluttering of the crew
’s
laundry,’ Blake answered dully.

Holtz
’s
contemptuous assumption that Freddy
’s
man had already become his man, the insulting confidence of the
Walther in the belt, did not bother Blake. He wanted it that
way; nobody hurt, nobody mad, nobody with bright ideas.
He had been allowed only four hours of sleep since leaving
Monaco
harbor
, and the monotony of the endless wheel
trick was dulling his senses. It
was an effort for him to calcu
late that fifty-two hours remained to go.

He felt a vague comfort that almost the first third of the ordeal had passed without serious trouble. Freddy, for the
time being at least, was no longer a problem. Bruno
’s
belli
gerence had been neutralized by Valentina, and Blake felt
reasonably hopeful that, without support from the others,
Marian would listen to his advice, however scornful of him
she was. Laura di Lucca suffered only from jealousy. If that
were the worst any of them suffered, they would be well
out of it.

On the foredeck, Bruno
’s
intimate conversation with Valentina had progressed to a point where he was showing
her something written on a piece of paper, letting her see the
writing without giving her the paper to hold. That she
immediately wanted the paper itself was apparent from the
pantomime that followed. She asked for it, he declined. She
pleaded prettily, he grinned and refused again. When she
reached for it, he kept it beyond her fingertips, making the
playful fight an excuse for a maximum of bodily contact
between them. The sight of the half-naked brown bodies
struggling together on the mattresses was more than Laura
di Lucca could stand. Valentina would have had the paper
after another moment of horse-play, but the wife intervened
with a desperately gay effort to take it from Bruno herself.
His reaction was to turn over on his back and kick at her
with both feet. She was pitiful
and ridiculous in her per
sistence. He stood up, now fending both women away from
the paper while he rolled it into a spill, then dodged away
from them to pull the hidden bottle from Freddy
’s
arm-sling.

The disturbance of his injured finger woke Freddy in time to see the last of the liquor he had been protecting gurgling
away in the scuppers. Bruno
’s
intentions were clear even
before he again dodged from the women: he stuffed the
message into the bottle, then capped it and waved his
triumph defiantly at the pilot-house before he pitched it
into the sea. Blake knew that the taunting gesture was for
him, not for Holtz. But the gang-leader made an unpleasant
sound in his throat as he reached for the pistol in his belt.

‘It
’s
only show-off,’ Blake said quickly. ‘There isn’t a chance in a million it will be picked up. Forget it.’

‘I don’t like gigolo show-offs.’ Holtz
’s
face was ugly.
‘
S
top your motors. He needs a taste of discipline.’

‘Let it go! I’ll handle
–’

The lifted Walther interrupted him. Holtz said, ‘I gave you an order, Captain. Stop your motors.’

Blake reached to close the throttles. As the purr of the diesels died and the
Angel
lost way, Holtz went swinging
down the ladder to the foredeck.

Bruno, watching him come, showed no fear. There was almost an air of expectation in the way he waited for Holtz
’s
approach. Holtz stopped three yards away, the pistol
leveled
.

Blake did not hear the question that was asked. But he had abandoned the now-drifting
Angel
to her own helm and
was on the bridge-wing in time to hear Bruno
’s
reply: ‘A
letter to my tailor. Why?’

Bruno was magnificent in the cool contempt of his manner toward the little man. Valentina and Laura di
Lucca had drawn slightly away; Freddy still blinked in his
deckchair by the rail, craning his
neck to see around the two
women. Holtz
’s
words about a god-like elevation flashed
incongruously into Blake
’s
mind.

Holtz said, ‘Jump over the side and bring it back. I want to read it.’

‘I don’t permit anyone to read my mail.’

The pistol muzzle made a small lifting gesture. ‘Over the rail. I want that bottle.’

Laura di Lucca said tremulously, ‘Do - do as he says,
caro
. It
’s
only a little swim. I’ll go in with you.’

‘Mind your business,’ Bruno said.

Only then did Blake see his intention to try for the pistol. The realization came so tardily before the attempt that he
had no time even to shout a warning against it. Bruno
turned as if to obey Holtz
’s
order, then threw himself aside
and down in a flashing wrestler
’s
lunge that brought his
outstretched foot sweeping like a flail at Holtz
’s
ankles. The
flail missed. Holtz shot three times so rapidly that the third
of the cartridge cases ejected by the automatic was glinting
brassily in mid-air when the first fell to the deck. Another,
and final, bullet he fired more deliberately, stepping toward
Bruno
’s
still struggling body on the deck. In the stunning
silence that followed the roar of the last shot, they heard
Jules’ shout from the after-part of the cruiser, the pad of his
feet as he ran forward. Laura di Lucca put her hand
gropingly halfway to her throat, choked, and crumpled to
the deck without another sound.

‘
We’ve
stopped being excess baggage, Blake said. ‘We’re witnesses to a murder.’

Hours had passed since the killing. The
Angel
again drove southward, now with Jules at the wheel. Grim and hostile
after giving Bruno
’s
weighted body to the sea, he had
accepted Blake
’s
statement that the engine-room required
more attention than he could give it in a half-hour break
from the interminable wheel watch. Having won a full hour
of relative freedom to move about, and with Holtz brooding
sullenly in some hidden corner of his own, Blake had risked
calling a council of war in the galley. Even as prisoners they
had to eat, or could pretend the need.

Only Laura di Lucca was absent. She had come out of her faint in a state of emotional shock that left her unreachable,
beyond tears or comfort, staring silently at nothing alone in
her cabin. Blake was grateful for her withdrawal from reality.
She, at least, need not know of the new danger in which they
all stood.

The galley blowers roared their soft assurance against eavesdropping when he said, ‘Until this morning, I’m
reasonably sure Holtz meant to take us back to Monaco and
let us go. He talked that way, and he seemed certain that
he could do it without any danger to himself. I thought the
best chance for all of us was
to let him do it, without inter
ference.’ Blake looked at Marian, at Freddy, at Valentina.
‘We didn’t all see eye to eye about it, but it doesn’t matter
now. Bruno
’s
death changes things. We have to reconsider
our position.’

Valentina said calmly, ‘Is that another way of warning us that we will all probably follow Bruno, Captain?’

Freddy made an incoherent sound of protest.

Blake said, ‘I didn’t mean it to be. I meant that Holtz has no particular reason to let us go now. He may intend to, he
may not. I think our best chance is still to play along and
hope that he will, after he gets the money, but we’ve got to
do all we can to be ready for him in case he doesn’t. Short
of recklessness, that is.’

Freddy said, ‘I saw Holtz
’s
eyes while he was pulling the trigger on Bruno. I’m not reckless.’

‘Don’t, please!’ Marian
’s
appeal was hardly above a whisper. Her face was more haggard than pretty now. ‘I -I - Can’t you stop talking about it? I know it
’s
my fault he
died. I’ll do anything to pay for it, reckless or not. Just
don’t - don’t - please
–’

Her throat closed. She could not go on.

‘Bruno died because he was Bruno,’ Valentina said. ‘Blame yourself for what is your fault, if
you must. Not for his rashness.’
Marian shook her head, still unable to speak.

Blake said,
‘S
haring the responsibility for what has already happened won’t help. We’ve got arrangements to make.
Freddy, how are your nerves?’

Freddy extended his good hand, regarding its unexpected steadiness with surprise.

‘Better than they ought to be. Why?’

‘You’ll have to start acting jumpy again.’

‘That won’t be hard.’

‘I want you pacing the foredeck this evening, along about dinner time. Too nervous to keep still. Valentina can keep
you company.’

‘What do we do?’

‘Keep a lookout for Jules and Holtz. They both have a habit of creeping up on the pilot-house when I’m not expecting them. You keep moving around to spot them if they
come my way, but one of you will have to stay in sight of the
wheel at all times. A lighted cigarette will mean danger;
dousing it means all clear.’

‘What will you be doing?’

‘Rewiring the radiophone. Jules took the handset and pulled out the power cable, but if I can jury
-
rig a new cable
I may be able to fix the transmitter to send code, an S.O.S.,
when we get a chance to risk it. I’m going to try, anyway.’
Blake tried to sound more hopeful than he felt. Whistling
in the dark would not save
them from their desperately pre
carious situation, but a whistle was better than a cry of
despair. It seemed to be one or the other, since Bruno
’s
death.

‘I want to help,’ Marian said. Her voice was as low as before. ‘I’ve got to help.’

‘You will. I need you to man the wheel and watch for signals while I’m working. You’re logically it because you
have my dinner as an excuse to bring you up to the pilot-house, but don’t go into it with your eyes closed. You’re
taking the same risk I am. If I’m caught, you’re caught with
me. Another thing.’ Blake looked around at his small
audience. ‘It was my idea that we all agree on any action
before we took it. I’ve told you what I think is best for us.
Holtz is still primarily after money more than blood, and I
think we can hope for the ransom to pull him back to
Monaco for the rendezvous. That means we might have the
next two days to work with. If anyone can think of a better
effort, or another effort, we can make in that time, let
’s
hear
it while we’re here together. We may not have many chances
to talk.’

The soft blast of the blowers was the only sound for moments. Freddy was the first to speak.

‘I don’t like counting on the ransom at all,’ he said
uncomfortably
. ‘Too many things can happen to keep it from being there when we get back.’

‘Holtz doesn’t think so. He
’s
put a lot of planning into making certain it will be there.’