JC2 The Raiders (51 page)

"You're a businessman, Mr. Cord," said
Malditesta. "You understand, it's nothing personal. This is my
business
. It's what I do. It's how I make my living. A man has
to make his living doing what he can, what he knows how to do. This
is strictly a business deal. You can understand that. Make her
understand it."

"Angie," Jonas whispered. "Get away. Let him do it.
What he says is true."

Angie shook her head and clung more tightly to Jonas.

"It can be both of you, if that's what it has to be," said
Malditesta.

"Like shit!"

Malditesta stiffened, then glanced behind him. "Mr. Cord
Junior," he grunted. "With a gun pointed at my back. Okay.
I've still got one pointed at your father and his new wife. You think
you can drop me before I drop one of them? Or both? Even with a slug
coming through me I can pull this trigger once or twice. Standoff,
huh?"

Angie rolled off Jonas and lurched to her feet.
She stood halfway between Jonas and Malditesta. "No standoff,"
she said. 'The only one you can kill now is
me
."

Jonas scrambled off the bed.

"No!" Bat yelled. "Stay behind her. He won't shoot
her."

"You think so?" Malditesta asked Bat. "And who's this?
We're attractin' quite a crowd here. With another gun, yet."

Toni had come through the door and was edging her way around Bat, to
confront Malditesta from the side. She did have a gun: her .30-30
Winchester.

"So," muttered Malditesta. "I guess the question is:
Just how important is the new Mrs. Cord? I guess you're Miss Maxim,"
he said to Toni. "You better point that rifle down. It might go
off. And if anybody's gun goes off, the new Mrs. Cord is dead. Her at
least. Like I asked, how important is she to you folks?"

Bat pressed the snub-nose thirty-eight against
Malditesta's lower back. "How important is your spinal cord?"
he asked. "You kill her, I'm not gonna kill you. I'm gonna put a
thirty-eight slug right through your spine. You'll spend the rest of
your life in the Nevada pen and you won't be able to walk or piss.
I'm not going to kill you, Malditesta. I'm gonna
cripple
you.
You ever figure on that?"

Malditesta moaned, as if he were already in agony. "I drop my
gun, you let me go?" he asked. "It was a business deal,
strictly."

"Sure." said Bat. "A business deal."

Malditesta hesitated for a full half minute, as if running past in
his mind whatever alternatives he might have; and then he dropped his
pistol to the floor.

Bat grabbed for a half-full, heavy champagne bottle that stood on a
table behind him. He raised it and brought it down hard on
Malditesta's head.

Malditesta dropped to his knees, then sprawled on
the floor. "You ... made a
deal
," he moaned.

"I lied," said Bat as he raised the bottle and struck
again.

"And
he
lied," said Toni as she
pulled a revolver from inside Malditesta's coat.

Jonas sat on the bed. He breathed heavily.

"We'll get a doctor," said Angie as she covered herself
with a flowered silk wrapper.

"
No
. I don't need a doctor. I needed
the pill. That's all I need. You've seen me take those before. The
nitroglycerine stops the pain."

"Pain you shouldn't have," she said. "You don't need—
"

"We don't need an investigation either," said Bat grimly.
He nodded toward the lifeless body of Malditesta. "Uh— You
realize that nobody knows but the three of us."

"Whoever sent him knows," said Angie.

"And will be the last to call the police to help find him,"
said Bat. "I'll drag him out in the desert and bury him,"
he said. "No one is going to be looking for him. No one else is
awake. There are no witnesses but us."

"I'll help," said Angie.

"Then we'll have to get rid of his car," said Bat. "He
must have had one. Drive it fifty miles or so and abandon it."

"You can do that in the morning," said Jonas.

Bat and Angie dragged the body of Malditesta by a rope looped under
his arms. Toni carried their tools: a pickaxe and a spade. Against
the cold wind, all three wore sheepskin jackets and blue jeans, boots
and gloves and hats.

The moon was setting. In half an hour it would be dark. They walked
as the moon dropped toward the distant mountains and covered most of
a mile before Bat stopped and began to chop at the frozen earth with
the pickaxe. Frost had penetrated only a few inches, and he did not
take long to dig a shallow grave.

Toni knelt over the hit man and went through his pockets. He carried
no identification.

When the grave was ready they rolled Malditesta into it. Bat filled
the hole, and together they shuffled over it until it was all but
indistinguishable from the level desert around it. As they walked
away the wind had already begun to scatter sand and dust over the
grave and over their footprints.

Back inside the house they found Jonas sitting in the living room. He
had put wood on the embers, and a fire was blazing.

"I'm hungry," he muttered. "And don't stare at the
bottle. I'm entitled to a nip. The doctors say so. Bourbon helps
reduce tension — and tension was what caused the pain."

"I'll see what's available in the kitchen," said Angie.
"Anybody else want a snack?"

Bat and Toni shook their heads. Bat poured two Scotches.

"Well," said Jonas. "What I said had to be settled ...
is settled."

Bat stood beside his father's chair and put his hand on his shoulder.
"How do you want to settle it?" he asked.

"I'm afraid I've missed something," said Toni. "What
are you settling?"

Jonas looked up at her. She stood by the fireplace in her jeans and
wool shirt. "If I'm gonna talk business in front of you, I need
to know how it stands between you and Bat."

"We're going to be married," said Bat. "We would have
told you before we went back to New York."

Jonas smiled and nodded. "That's the best news I've had for a
long time. So ... Tonight Angie offered her life to save mine. The
least I can do for her is try to keep myself alive as long as
possible. What the doctors tell me is I have to avoid tension and too
much exertion. Well, you can't ride herd on a business empire without
tension and exertion."

Bat moved over to stand beside Toni. He took her hand.

"You said I made you an errand boy," said Jonas. "Well,
I never made you an errand boy. But I admit I kept a thumb on you.
So, as from tonight the thumb is off. I'm taking Angie to Europe. I
don't know how long we'll stay or when we'll be back. We may be gone
six months. I don't know. When we do come back, I'll keep my nib
out." He stopped, and a wry smile came to his face. "Out of
whatever's left."

Bat, too, smiled, and he shook his head. "You never give up, do
you?"

Jonas shrugged. "You're gonna have your chance. It's what you
wanted, isn't it? I don't think you're entirely ready for it, but ...
well, neither was I."

"Stick your nib in one more time, Jonas," said Toni. "Order
him to take a vacation."

Jonas pointed a finger at Bat. "You do that, son," he said.
"I'm still chairman of the board, and I'm telling you: You take
a vacation."

"As soon as— "

"Not as soon as, goddammit! My old man wasn't indispensable. I'm
not, either. And neither are you."

Bat sighed. "There are things that— "

"
Bat
," Jonas interrupted firmly.
"Marry Toni. Take a nice honeymoon. I mean, really nice: out of
touch with the phones." He paused. For a moment he seemed to
have difficulty with his voice. "You're my
son
. You're
more important to me than things that might go to hell while you're
away. I'm sorry I didn't say it before now, but ... you see ..."
His voice broke. "I love you, son." His eyes shifted to
Toni. "I love you, too. And Angie. Bat— It's not a
business order. It's a father-to-son order."

"All right," said Bat softly. "And— And, I hope
you understand— No, why should you understand? I'll say it,
flat out. I love you, too."

Jonas grinned. "We've just broken a Cord family tradition."
He laughed through tears.

JONAS AND ANGIE RETURNED FROM EUROPE FOR the grand opening show in
the Follies Cabaret of the Cord InterContinental Vegas Hotel.

The headliners opening night were Maurice Chevalier, Glenda Grayson,
and Margit Little. The theme of the show was Folies-Bergère,
and the revue had been designed under the personal supervision of
Paul Derval, owner and manager of the Folies in Paris.

Never before had so many showgirls appeared on a nightclub stage.
Never before in America had so many showgirls performed in such
elaborate costumes and yet so nearly nude. In one scene the showgirls
swam in an onstage pool. In another some of them ice skated on real
ice.

Margit performed a ballet solo. Though her leotards were high cut,
they were modest by comparison with anything else in the show. Her
television show was opening in October, and Bat would take no chance
of damaging her television career.

Chevalier was his usual charming self with cane and straw hat,
dancing a little but mostly singing his signature songs, such as
"Valentina," "C'est Magnifique," and his new hit
"Thank Heaven for Little Girls."

Glenda Grayson did her monologue in the first half
of the show, coming on a bare stage in the tightly focused beam of a
spotlight, wearing her black hat, a black corselette, showing the
white skin of her upper thighs above dark stockings held up by red
garters. She sang, but mostly she kept the audience roaring with
laughter with a string of original one-liners. She returned to one of
her favorite lines — "Y' wouldn't b'
lieve
it!"
She finished with a line she had killed and now revived —
"Golda, change your name.
Please!
" That line had
always been poignant. The audience, who knew something of her
history, was moved by it.

"It's been said of a great comic that he can make you laugh,
then make you cry," said Jo-Ann, who sat at the table with Bat
and Toni, Jonas and Angie. This was her first night out since the
birth of her daughter.

For Glenda's second appearance, she was delivered on the stage in the
middle of the finale, by a three-quarter-scale helicopter that
descended over the audience at their tables and landed on the stage —
on wires of course but realistic enough to draw loud applause just
for the helicopter.

Four young male dancers lifted her from the helicopter and put her
down on the stage. She was wearing the costume that had made her
poison for television: the fifty strings of tiny, glittering black
beads cascading from her shoulders over her body, down to her ankles.
Only now, she wore nothing underneath; the thousands of beads fell
over her body, not over a sheer black gown. Her modesty, if any, was
protected by the tight control of the light that touched her. Her
audience understood she was naked; but peer and squint though they
might, they got no clear view of her. As she moved, the light dimmed,
it changed color; lighting technicians had worked for two weeks to
achieve the effect.

Chevalier came onstage in white tie and tails. They sang together,
songs identified with both of them.

The dancers of the chorus worked around them, they upstage in bright
light. They wore feathered headdresses and feather boas, but their
breasts, bellies, and hips were bare. The muscular male dancers wore
feathered and jeweled jockstraps.

The music of the pit orchestra rose and overwhelmed the singing. The
revue was ending. The helicopter came down on its wires again and
landed on the stage. Chevalier led Glenda to it. Her four dancers
surrounded her and made ready to lift her into the helicopter. At the
final moment, Glenda reached behind her neck and unfastened a clasp.
The beads fell to the floor. The dancers lifted her. Her back was to
the audience, but she was completely naked. They stood to applaud as
the helicopter rose and swept out of the room.

Jonas grinned at Bat. "You've made her a big star again. And
she'll schnook you again."

Bat shrugged. "Maybe."

"I'll promise you one thing," said Toni. "She won't
screw him."

Jo-Ann laughed. "He's a Cord," she said.

"Dad, I want to thank you for renewing your contact with Paul
Derval at the Folies."

"Interrupted my vacation," said Jonas.

"Speaking of which, when are
you
going
to take a vacation?" asked Toni. "When are
we
going
to take one?"

"That's hard to say."

"Have you become the indispensable man, son?" Jonas asked.
"Haven't you learned better than that? I thought for Christ's
sake that you'd— "

"Easy ..." whispered Angie, taking Jonas's hand.

Jonas pointed at Toni. "Before she gets too heavy," he
said. "I never did get to Acapulco. Now, that'd be a good place
for you two to go swimming— "

"I don't want to go swimming," said Toni. "I want to
see Paris in the fall. I want to be able to take long walks in the
streets, before the baby gets so big I can't do it."

"
You do it, Bat
," Jonas barked.
"By God!"

"I thought you didn't give me orders anymore," said Bat
gently.

"I don't try to be your boss anymore, but I'm
still your fuckin'
father
! You take this girl wherever she
wants to go!"

"You want to stay in Vegas and run things while I'm gone?"

Jonas shook his head. "Angie and I are flying to Honolulu on
Monday. Then on to Tahiti. Then Australia and New Zealand."

Bat frowned at Toni. "Paris ... A week?"

"Two weeks," she said firmly.