Murder Takes No Holiday (7 page)

Shayne heard him rattling for the operator. There was a sound of pages being flipped rapidly, and Alvarez gave the operator a number. Another moment passed, during which Shayne could hear the faint pulse of a ringing phone.

Then the Camel was saying urgently, “Hello, hello. Police headquarters here. Listen to me carefully. You have a chartered plane scheduled to take off for the U. S. at midnight. I don’t know the company, or the name of the pilot. There is a passenger aboard, an American, Paul Slater. S-l-a-t-e-r. I have to talk to him at once. At once! A life is at stake.”

There was an objection at the other end of the line, but Alvarez raised his voice and rode it down. “This is an emergency! Damn your rules and regulations. He must not be allowed to leave. Do you understand? Good.”

He drummed his fingers against the side of the bed, and called, “Shayne! Any more cognac?”

Shayne got up to show him the empty bottle. “Do you want some of mine?”

“No, no.” And into the phone: “He’s coming? All right, yes. I am holding on.”

He bent forward over the phone, his lips drawn back in a concentrated expression of viciousness. Shayne watched him for a moment. Feeling the redhead’s eyes on him, Alvarez looked up. Shayne went back to his drink.

“Well, Paul,” Alvarez said smoothly. “I am so sorry to interrupt your departure. At the very last moment, too… The police? No, indeed, this is your old friend and ex-business colleague. I say ex because after tonight I somehow think our business connection has come to an end. How does it happen that you neglected to let me know you were leaving?”

Shayne’s faculties were strained to the utmost. Alvarez said, “I would not take that tone with me, Paul. Of course it is some business of mine, what you do and do not do. I am distressed to hear that you must fly to your mother’s side. The sickness must be grave indeed, to make you leave without saying goodbye to your friends. Indeed, grief would appear to have unhinged your reason.” His voice hardened. “Did you really think you could get away with it?”

A moment’s silence followed.

“What, indeed?” Alvarez said savagely. “Of course you are anxious to be on your way. I understand your feelings. Why do you think I called you? To implore you to return what you have stolen from me? I am not so innocent. Or do you think I am holding you on the phone till my men have time to reach the airport? I thought of that, but they could never get there in time, and how could they force their way onto the field? I have made a better arrangement. Your wife is here with me.”

After listening to Slater’s response, he laughed unpleasantly. “Patience, patience. She is perfectly all right, although we had to hit her several times before she agreed to come with us. I would let you speak to her, but I fear she would urge you to complete your escape. Her morale seems excellent. She is quite defiant, as a matter of fact. I have a scratched face from her fingernails. I admire her for it, Paul. I assure you she will not be hurt unless you continue to do these foolish things. Come to me and we can talk things over sensibly and reach a sensible conclusion.”

He continued in a moment, “I see your position. There is a large sum of money involved, and you want to make your calculations. If you return to the plane, what horrible thing, after all, can happen?” His voice climbed shrilly. “You will not see her again, Slater! You have been quarrelling. This is a small island, news travels quickly. I know all about it. You have behaved foolishly with another woman. Perhaps it will not matter to you that your wife is dead. Perhaps you will be pleased. This is a chance I must take.”

He listened again. “I would not? You are wrong, dead wrong. If I promise you something and you pay no attention to me, I would have to do it, or no one would be impressed with me from that time on. Every petty thief in the islands would think he can rob Alvarez and have nothing to fear. I do not care to sound melodramatic, but this is what I will do. I will take her out in my boat. Sometime later, I will return alone, minus your lovely wife, minus my oyster knife, minus my anchor.”

He paused, and Shayne heard the faint note of relief in his voice when he spoke again. “I was sure you would look on it sensibly, Paul. We will be at the country place. You know the way. Get a taxi. Half an hour should do it easily. If you are delayed by a flat tire, or anything of that nature, be sure to phone me. I wouldn’t want anything to happen I would regret.”

He hung up. Shayne swallowed the last of the cognac and went over to the doorway. Alvarez still had his hand on the phone. He winked at Shayne, pleased with his own cleverness. Signalling the operator again, he gave her another number.

When the connection was open he said abruptly, “Who is this, Al?… I want three men and a car. In a hurry. Try José first. His brother, if you can get him. Offer six pounds apiece for the night, go to ten if you have to. Tell them to meet at the Half Moon. I will be waiting there in the Minx. Have you got that?”

Shayne could see the ugly outline of the .45 in the Venezuelan’s right coat pocket. He waited until the bartender had repeated the instructions and hung up. Then he stepped around the foot of the bed. Reaching down, he took the Camel’s right wrist and yanked him forward.

“Don’t try to reach the gun,” Shayne told him gently, “or you’ll be in worse shape than you are now. I heard some of that. You’ve worked up quite a crowded schedule. And where do I fit in? You made a deal with me, and I’d like to see some action on it.”

“Things have changed. I—”

Shayne took a quick backward step, jerking Alvarez to his feet. Without putting pressure anywhere except on the wrist, Shayne walked him backward until he slammed against the wall. The man’s face, gray to begin with, had turned a disagreeable shade of off-white.

“You seem to have problems,” Shayne said. “So long as you don’t forget that I’m one of them. I’m beginning to wonder if you’re figuring on dumping me. I wouldn’t like that.”

“Talk about it!” Alvarez gasped.

“Sure. But let’s talk about it now. Let’s not wait till three or four guys show up.”

“If you will let go—”

Shayne looked into his eyes for a moment longer, his own hard and unfriendly, then threw the wrist away in disgust. Alvarez swayed, but made it to the foot of the bed before he fell. Shayne didn’t help him. Little by little his strength came back, and he pulled himself into a sitting position, rubbing the wrist and looking at Shayne with hatred.

“You swine.”

“Never mind the compliments,” Shayne told him. “What’s on the program? I don’t want to be put off till everything else is out of the way. I think I heard you mention dropping somebody off a boat. That boat is going to be busy, because I’m going to be on it.”

“I said things have changed. The boat is out of the question. Thanks to your blundering, the boat’s captain is in jail.”

Shayne made a threatening gesture, and Alvarez said shrilly, “Do not hit me, Shayne!”

A moment passed, during which they did nothing but look at each other.

“I have had another idea, if you will control yourself,” Alvarez said. “Believe me, you are much on my mind. I am trying to keep six knives in the air at one time. This man I just talked to—he has a chartered plane waiting at the airport. He has been cleared for departure. We will persuade him to let you use his credentials. Give the pilot a hundred pounds additional, and he will put you down wherever you please in Florida.”

“How do you persuade the guy?” Shayne said doubtfully.

“That will not be difficult, I think,” Alvarez said. “When we straighten out another matter, he will no longer be in a hurry to leave. I do not concern myself about his feelings, in any case. I am in his debt for a bad knock on the head.”

Shayne pulled at his earlobe. “I don’t like it. What makes you think he’ll fall for that crap you were handing out on the phone.—Yeah, I heard it. What did you want me to do, put my fingers in my ears? You told him you had his wife.”

“I will have her,” Alvarez said calmly. “We will stop at her hotel and pick her up. It is on our way.”

“I don’t like that word we,” Shayne said. “I don’t give a damn how many people you kidnap, so long as you don’t take all night. But leave me out of it.”

“I’m afraid that won’t be possible. I will need your help. But do not excite yourself—it will be simple.”

Shayne snorted. “This other thing was supposed to be simple. Just drive a car in a garage. No trouble at all. And if you’d set it up so I was driving the car, I would have been skulled with a monkey wrench. Let’s talk some sense, goddamn it. Too many people know what I look like by now. Why stick my neck out when I don’t have to? When you get the guy’s papers, come back and pick me up. I’ll be here.”

Alvarez was shaking his head. “It cannot be done that way. We are wasting time, but I see I must explain. I caught Slater off-balance. I persuaded him to do what I said because he has a strong guilty feeling—the details are unimportant. His brain was frozen, but after some minutes it will unfreeze and he will wonder if I am merely bluffing, if the woman is actually with me. If this is true, the safest thing for him will be to return to the airport and leave by plane with the utmost speed. He will wish to make sure. He will phone me and insist on speaking to her. I must be able to let him hear her voice. Now do you understand?”

“It still has nothing to do with me,” Shayne said. “Send your boys out to meet him at the airport.”

“No. No. It is much too public, also much too chancy. I do not wish to call attention to myself at the moment, my position is delicate. If they missed connections, the plane would depart and you would still be here, Mr. Shayne, surrounded by police who have seen your picture.”

Shayne swore under his breath. Then he said grudgingly, “I guess you know more about it than I do. What am I supposed to do this time?”

“She lives in a second-rate beach hotel. It would be most unwise for us to break in and try to take her by force. We would arouse the hotel, the police would be summoned. It must be handled discreetly. She must walk out quietly, of her own will. She would not come with me, or with one of my men. But you are a fellow-American. We will invent a plausible story, and she will come like a lamb.”

Shayne continued to tug at his earlobe. Alvarez added, “The plane will be already paid for by Slater, and I will put you safely aboard without charging you a shilling.”

Making up his mind, Shayne shook a cigarette out of a pack. “All right, but don’t try to work any more switches.”

“I have promised.”

“And I hope you keep your promise,” Shayne said, “for your sake. What’s this doll like? What do I say to her?”

Shayne steadied Alvarez as he came off the bed and stood up. “We will think about it.”

The redhead left the other propped in the doorway and went back to lock his suitcase and turn off the lights. In the Hillman, heading back into St. Albans along the bay, Alvarez said, “The important thing, do not hurry. There is one way you could surely fetch her, to say that the husband’s plane has crashed and he is badly hurt. But no. She would rush out half-dressed, with much noise and excitement. Let us do it this way, I think.”

Glancing at him, Shayne saw that he was smiling slyly. “Tell her you are a private detective,” Alvarez said, “and you—”

“What?” Shayne exclaimed.

“I know how you must feel about the police and detectives, but this will be only for a moment. Tell her you have found out that the husband’s plane trip is only a pretext, he really goes to spend several days in seclusion with another girl. If she wishes proof, you can provide it. But she must be quiet and careful.”

“And what if she just tells me to pick up my feet and blow?”

“Convince her. You see, she can either come with you to get evidence for a divorce, or she can come to save her husband from a greedy woman.”

He made a little sound that was probably intended as a laugh. Shayne stared bleakly at the road ahead, making no further comment. Alvarez called the turns, and before long they drew up in front of a rundown hotel called the Half Moon, separated from the bay by a fringe of palms. Only a few of the windows on the front of the hotel were lighted.

“Turn the car around,” Alvarez said. “I will go in quietly and inspect. It will be better if no one sees you.”

“Damn right it’ll be better,” Shayne said.

When Alvarez got out, Shayne drove on to where the street dead-ended at a low embankment. With its short wheelbase, the Hillman was an easy car to turn. When he came back, Alvarez was coming down the hotel steps, and Shayne had a sudden impression that he was not as hurt as he pretended. His eyes narrowing, the redhead watched him falter and put his hand to his forehead, as though suddenly dizzy. He crossed the sidewalk to the Hillman and got in.

“This will be easy,” he said. “There is one man only, for the desk, the switchboard, the elevator. Look in the window. When he goes up in the elevator or must answer the phone, you will simply walk in to the stairs. Good luck.”

Shayne stayed where he was. “What if the phone doesn’t ring or if nobody wants the elevator?”

“My men will be here presently. I will send one to telephone. The room is on the fifth floor, five forty-two. From the stairs go to the first turning in the corridor.”

Shayne unlatched the door. “How much time do I have? You told the husband half an hour. If I get hung up somewhere, I don’t want you sitting down here counting the minutes until you send your army in after me.”

Alvarez said, “Take the time you need. I have a man to entertain Slater until we arrive, and I will tell him what to say if Slater calls. I agree that you must be quiet and careful.”

“And what do I do if I can get her to come with me? No, don’t tell me. I ring for the elevator. When it doesn’t show up right away, I get impatient and drag her down the stairs. That way the desk clerk won’t see me.”

“Excellent.”

Shayne left the Hillman and went up to the front steps. There was a broad porch overlooking the bay. Instead of entering the lobby he went along the porch, past a line of empty rocking chairs, until he came to a window through which he could look into the lobby. No one was behind the desk. Moving to the next window, Shayne saw the switchboard, but it was unattended. He located the elevator. The door was closed, and an arrow above was moving slowly around a semi-circle. There was a loud, ominous clanking.