Angel's Ransom (20 page)

He had just enough energy left to make his habitual security round of the yacht before turning in. He found only
Holtz above deck. The gang leader was hunched over the
radio in the salon, listening to the mutter of a short-wave
news broadcast, and Blake was not permitted access to the
passenger cabins. Holtz silently warned him away from the
companionway with a gesture of the Walther. He wore a
strip of bandage on his cheek, and a half-empty bot
tl
e of
brandy stood at his elbow.

He was sober and alert when he woke Blake, before six. This time he did not stay in the cabin doorway while Blake
dressed, but disappeared as soon as he had made the call.
Blake took time out to shave. It gave him a few extremely
important extra minutes to consider the situation revealed
by Freddy
’s
confession of the night before.

They had lost precious time. Only the day and another night remained before Holtz would learn that he had been
checkmated. The prisoners were not and never had been
in a position to count on the ransom for their release, as
Blake had urged, argued, and commanded that they do,
and Freddy
’s
failure to reveal the truth had made his efforts
worse than a waste. It had been a hard fact to accept.

‘Don’t rub it in, Sam,’ F
reddy had begged. ‘I wanted to
tell you before, but we never had much chance to talk, and somebody else was always around when we did. I didn’t
want to spill it in front of anybody but you, or where Holtz
might be listening. I thought - somehow
–’

The explanation trailed off dismally.

‘But why did you do it? A hundred thousand dollars can’t be that important to you.’

‘It wasn’t the money! I had to protect myself! I told you I had to protect myself! You know he couldn’t get any more
out of me, I know he couldn’t get any more out of me, but
does he know it? Like you said, I’ve got more fingers for
him to work on. I - I just couldn’t take it.’ Freddy added
hopefully, ‘But with Roche in
jail
they’ll be looking for us,
so we’re really better off than we were before. Aren’t we?’

‘I don’t know,’ Blake had said. ‘I can’t think.’

Now that his mind was cleared by sleep, he saw nothing to support Freddy
’s
hopefulness. The dangers had simply
increased, adding new problems to old ones, problems that
had to be faced quickly. He went aft and found Holtz
again in the salon, again listening attentively to the short-wave.

The lifted pistol stopped Blake a dozen feet from its muzzle. He said, ‘I want the key to Laura di Lucca
’s
cabin.’

‘
S
o you have decided to join with me at last.’ Holtz touched the bandage on his cheek, and a corner of his mouth
lifted in the wolf
’s
grin.
‘S
he’ll have to be dealt with in front
of witnesses, of course. The commitment must be binding. Do
you plan to dispose of her with your bare hands, or are you
hoping for the use of my pistol?’

‘Neither. She can’t be kept locked in day and night. She has human needs.’

‘Which can be easily ended whenever you decide to end them.’ Holtz took a single key from his pocket and tossed it.
’S
he is your responsibility. But I warn you. If she repeats her
recklessness, you may have to choose among your other
passengers to take advantage of the opportunity I offered
you. Bear it in mind.’

He was listening to the radio again when Blake went below.

He went first to Freddy
’s
cabin. Freddy was sound asleep in a chair, fully dressed even to arm sling and yachting cap.
In spite of a three-day stubble of beard, he looked oddly
childlike,
defenseless
in the sleep that had come to him at
last. Blake shook him awake with difficulty.

‘We’ve got to talk again, Freddy. Listen to me and try to concentrate, because I can’t stay here long. Get Valentina
and Marian up to the galley right a
way. Talk about break
fast if Holtz acts curious. Get something started, and stay
there until I get there.’ He shook the loose body again.
‘Repeat what I’ve said.’

‘Galley,’ Freddy answe
red blearily. ‘Marian and Valentina
. Breakfast.’

‘Right away.’

‘Right away.’

‘Good. Now go soak your head in cold water.’

He saw Freddy on his feet, staggering but awake, before he left the cabin.

At Laura di Lucca
’s
door he rapped, waited, and rapped again before he used the key. She, too, was fully dressed.
Lying supine on the bed, she held a crucifix in her clasped
hands. Her eyes were closed. For a moment he thought she
slept. Then she opened her eyes, turning them toward him,
and he saw in them the full, aching consciousness of everything that had happened. Her face, beneath the garish
make-up she had not bothered to remove, was that of an old,
old woman; drained of life, drained of hope, drained now
even of pain. An untouched tray of cold food was on the
small table by her bedside.

He said, ‘The door will be unlocked. You can move around as you like, but please don’t do anything foolish.’

She gave no sign that she had heard. He said, ‘You can’t hope to punish him yourself.’

Her lips moved. The words were too faint to hear. He bent over the bed to listen.

‘I wanted - him to - kill me,’ she breathed.

‘That wouldn’t help Bruno.’

‘It would - help me.’ The whisper was barely audible. ‘I want to - die. Why wouldn’t he - kill me?’

He could make no answer. Her eyes continued to ask their agonized question while he looked for the mark of Holtz
’s
blow on her head. He found an ugly scalp cut and caked
blood, nothing to indicate serious injury or need for the kind
of treatment he could give her.

Before he left the cabin, he said again, ‘Please don’t do anything foolish.’

Her answer was the question still in her eyes when he closed the door.

He did what was necessary in the engine-room, and came up the ladder with a heavy wrench hanging against his leg
through a slit in his hip pocket. He had no concrete plan for
its use, but a
weapon of some kind went with the drastic
change of attitude forced by Freddy
’s
confession. He made
that clear to the war council gathered under the softly
protecting roar of the galley blowers.

‘We’re up against it,’ he said. ‘If none of you has noticed which quarter the sun is on this morning, we turned arou
n
d
last night. We’re heading back toward Monaco. In about a
day and a night at the most Holtz is going to learn that the
big gamble hasn’t come off. After that even Freddy is going
to stop having value for him. He’ll have a getaway to make.
We’ll just be in his way.’

Freddy shifted his feet uncomfortably.

Valentina said, ‘Why do you say “a day and a night at the most”?’

‘If we’re lucky, we’ll have as long as it takes him to make the rendezvous and learn that Roche isn’t going to be there
with the money. If we’re not so lucky’ - he would rather
have been less blunt, but there was no help for it - ‘Roche
’s
arrest may finish us off instead of helping us.’

Freddy said
protestingly
, ‘Ah, Sam!’

‘We’ve got to face facts, Freddy. The probability is that right now there
’s
an all-ships call out on short wave asking
for news of the
Angel
. Holtz has already picked up a request
from Radio Grasse that we communicate, and he
’s
sitting
over the radio most of the day and night. If a police search
develops, he’ll know about it. His getaway starts at that
point, instead of later.’

Marian said, ‘Then it becomes more essential than ever to repair the radiophone, doesn’t it? Our only chance seems to
be the S.O.S.’

They were all taking it more coolly than Blake had hoped. He said, ‘It
’s
not our only chance, but it
’s
an important
one.’

‘When shall I come to take the wheel?’

‘I don’t want you to come at all.’

He thought Marian flinched at the rebuff. He said, ‘Holtz almost shot you last night. That
’s
the second close
call you’ve had with him. A third chance is too dangerous
for you. Someone will have t
o take it who can expect to sur
vive a suspicion that we’re up to something, as long as it
isn’t proved. That means you, Freddy.’

Freddy said bravely, ‘It
’s
a man
’s
job, anyway. I guess I can steer my own boat.’ To Marian he added, ‘If your
conscience still bothers you, kid, forget it. I bungled things
too.’

The unexpected overture was followed by an awkward pause. Freddy was acutely embarrassed by his own gesture,
mere so when Valentina said musingly, ‘There is more to
you than six million dollars and an unquenchable thirst,’
and lightly patted the arm that was in the sling. ‘I think I am
beginning to like you. But if I may make a suggestion,
Captain. Marian
’s
presence with you in the pilot-house is a
less suspicious circumstance than Freddy
’s
would be.’

‘Why?’

‘Because Freddy is not in love with you.’

Marian made an incoherent sound of protest, putting out her hand in quick appeal to the other woman.

‘As Holtz will see it, of course,’ Valentina continued serenely. ‘It is logical, to his kind of mind. He sees on the one
hand an impressionable girl, a romantic, contrite for her
part in the trouble that has come to us, afraid, as we all are,
for herself, and ashamed, desperately in need of a strength to
cling to. On the other hand is a man of strength and, what is
even more important to the girl, tolerance, understanding.
He refuses to blame her for what is not her fault, even while
she blames herself. How
else can she react but by giving him
first her gratitude, then her respect, finally more than
respect? Let the little man find you guiltily withdrawing
from each other
’s
arms the next time he interrupts you. He
will be suspicious no longer of what goes on in the pilot-house.
He will know, and sneer at you because you are human
even in danger.’

‘There
’s
more to you than a shape and a profile, doll,’ Freddy said. ‘You’re the boss, Sam. I’ll take orders, and
I still think it
’s
a man
’s
job. But there
’s
a lot in what she
says.’

‘I agree.’ Marian
’s
voice was low and level.

Blake could not disagree. Holtz
’s
mind probably would work that way, to the extent that he might even encourage,
rather than discourage, Marian
’s
presence in the pilot-house
as a further preoccupation for the
Angel
’s
wheelsman. He
said, ‘It
’s
unanimous, then. Does anyone have anything else
to say while we’re able to talk?’

The blowers roared softly. After a moment, Freddy said, ‘What about trying to bribe Jules over to our side?’

‘I can try. I don’t think anything will come of it. He isn’t liable to take a
check
.’

‘Offer him a - a - a
–’
Freddy gave up, helpless. ‘I never thought about that. We haven’t really got anything to
give, except a promise.’

‘There are values other than money,’ Valentina said.

Blake avoided meeting her eyes. He looked instead at the galley clock, and said, ‘I’d rather try the promise first. It
’s
six-forty now. I’ll have felt Jules out by seven o’clock, but
we’ll go ahead with the radiophone whatever he says.
Freddy, you and Valentina t
ake up your lookout on the fore
deck at that time, and you, Marian, come up to the pilot-house as soon as you see Jules leave. Same signals as before.
In the meantime
–’
Blake tightened his belt against the
drag of the heavy wrench in his hip pocket ‘ - you might
all be looking around for things we can use in a fight. Don’t
risk trying to smuggle them, just mark them down in your
mind and remember where you can put your hands on
them.’