Fast Buck (14 page)

‘You dirty, rot en creep,’ she wailed. ‘Where do you think I can go at this time?’

‘I don’t give a damn, and keep your mouth shut or I’l take the skin off your hide,’ Gil is snarled. He grabbed up her stockings, underthings and hat and threw them at her. ‘Come on; outside! You can finish dressing in a taxi.’ He opened the door. ‘Here, take this, and get out.’ He pushed a dol ar bil into her hand, ran her into the passage. ‘On your way, and be quick about it.’

As she began to curse him, he gave her another slap that shot her forward to the head of the stairs.

She bolted down them like a scalded cat.

Gillis shut the door and turned the key.

The room stank of cheap perfume and, cursing, he threw open another window and began to fan the air with a newspaper until the rumpled bed caught his eye and he dropped the paper and ran over to straighten the sheets and pillows.

He was emptying an ash-tray full of cigarette butts stained with lipstick when a knock came on the door.

He took a quick look at himself in the mirror. His pyjamas were grubby and most of the buttons on the jacket were missing. There were lipstick smears on his chest and neck. He bolted into the bathroom and hurriedly sponged them off, then slipped into a faded dressing-gown before re-entering the bedroom.

The knock was repeated. He unlocked the door and opened it.

‘Why, Eve!’ he said, staring at her. ‘What on earth are you doing here?’

‘I had to see you,’ she said. ‘Can I come in?’

‘I suppose so,’ he said reluctantly. ‘It’s a hell of a time to cal . I was asleep.’ He stood aside to let her in. ‘Sorry about the stink in here. I upset a bot le of perfume. As a matter of fact I’d bought it for you. It smells pretty horrible, doesn’t it, and the blasted girl swore it was ful of al ure.’

Eve glanced around the big, shabby room. She had been here only once before. It was a room that set her teeth on edge. It was dirty and dusty. Two naked French dolls stood on the mantelpiece, either side of a row of tarnished silver sporting trophies. Above them, slung perilously on two hooks, was a sculling oar; above the oar were two crossed squash rackets. On either side of this sporting set were boxing gloves that hadn’t been dusted since they had been hung in position.

Eve had certain knowledge that her brother had loathed sport of any kind during his very short stay at college. He had been sent down after six months of college life for ‘infamous behaviour’, the details of which she had never learned. Where he had filched the sporting trophies from she couldn’t imagine, and didn’t like to ask.

Over the bed was a large framed photograph of the men of his year, sitting bolt upright with arms crossed and chins thrust out: young men looking into the future with aggressive determination. She looked at the photograph, and for a moment she couldn’t find Adam amongst these determined young men, then she spotted him by his shifty expression, and jeering, untrustworthy smile. He was not so thin as he was now, and she noticed with surprise that his hair was thicker, and it came as a shock to realise his hair now was thinning fast, hinting at a premature baldness.

She moved away from the photograph, feeling ashamed as if she had been caught looking through a keyhole. The years that had passed since he had left college had taken a heavy toll. At least, in the photograph, he looked amused, happy and cared-for, but looking at him now, as he stood scowling at her, he looked seedy and disreputable and forsaken.

‘Wel , what is it?’ he asked crossly. ‘Do sit down, can’t you? Must you wander around sticking your nose into everything?’

She sat down, and as she did so she saw something on the floor, half hidden under the bed, and she felt a sense of sick shock as she hurriedly averted her eyes.

‘Oh, I know what you’re thinking,’ he said, sit ing on the window-sill and staring at her. ‘You’re thinking I’ve had a woman up here. Wel , you’re quite wrong. I was sound asleep when you knocked.’

‘It’s nothing to do with me who you have here,’ she said quietly. ‘But you don’t have to lie about it.

She dropped a stocking on the stairs. You’d better give it to her. She didn’t look as if she could afford to lose it.’

Gillis’s face registered surprised blankness.

‘I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re drivel ing about. I’m not the only lodger in this cess-pit. Why, only yesterday I found a pair of panties in the telephone-box,’ and he sniggered, watching her warily.

‘She looked very young,’ Eve said, as if he hadn’t spoken. ‘Almost a child. Adam, do be careful what you’re doing.’

‘Oh, shut up!’ he said furiously. ‘I’ve had enough of this. I tel you no one’s been here. So shut up!’

There was a long silence. Eve sat motionless, her hands folded in her lap, her eyes closed. The sordid room, the knowledge that that vicious little chit of a girl – she couldn’t have been more than sixteen –

had been here, the phoney sophomore atmosphere and the smell of the cheap perfume made her feel physically ill.

Adam said impatiently, ‘Well, I don’t suppose you came here to admire the scenery. What is it?’

Without opening her eyes she said, ‘Rico brought Baird to see Preston tonight. They’ve just gone.’

‘Baird!’ Adam left the window and came over to her. ‘Did you see him?’

She nodded.

‘Is he going to do the job?’

‘I think so. He wants to look the territory over first.’

‘What happened? Tel me everything. I want to know exactly what was said.’

He sat on the bed and listened while she gave him a detailed account of the meeting. When she had finished, he lit a cigarette and smiled at her, his thin, handsome face animated.

‘That’s fine. Of course he’l do it. I knew I wasn’t mistaken in my man. He’s really got something.

What did you think of him, Eve?’

She gave a little shiver.

‘He frightened me. He’s dangerous, Adam. There’s something about him – he – he’s like a wild animal: like a tiger.’

‘He’s a kil er,’ Gil is said admiringly. ‘One of the few genuine killers left. There never were many: Dillinger, Nelson, the Barkers – you can count them on your fingers. Baird’s about the last of them, and he’s just the right man for the job.’

‘Adam, this whole business is worrying me,’ she said, sit ing forward. ‘It’s too dangerous. Even if you succeeded in getting Hater out of prison, what makes you think he’s going to tel you where the jewels are hidden?’

The animation in his face went away, and the shifty expression returned.

‘Of course he’l tel us,’ he said breezily. ‘He’s going to be grateful we’ve got him out, isn’t he?

When I’ve explained to him the Rajah’s wil ing to do a deal with him, he’l only be too glad to tel us.

Without us he can’t do a thing.’

‘But he can!’ Eve said. ‘Do you think I’m an idiot, Adam? You’re not planning to help this man to escape: you’re going to kidnap him. You told me that’s what you’re going to do. You’re expecting him to resist. Of course he’s going to resist. In two years time he’l be released. If he escapes now, he is a fugitive, and if he’s caught, he’l go back to prison for another long term. He’s waited fifteen years: two more are nothing to a man like that. How can you, Adam? Why don’t you wait until he comes out a free man?’

Gillis mashed out his cigarette in the ash-tray on the dusty bedside table. His eyes were hard.

‘You can scarcely expect me to wait two years,’ he said with deceptive mildness. ‘It was only by the merest fluke I heard the Rajah was planning to gyp the insurance companies if he could. If it hadn’t been for that little rat of an A.D.G. who got tight when he and I were in the Bazaar, I never would have got the information. If I wait until Hater comes out, someone else may have the same idea and beat me to it.

I’ve got to go ahead now if I’m going to collect that money, and if it’s the last thing I do, I’m damn well going to have it. A half a million! Think of it, Eve! Think what we can do with it.’

She wasn’t deceived for a moment by his use of ‘we’. She knew she wouldn’t see any of it. It was his way of encouraging her to help him. Not that she wanted the money. If he offered it to her she wouldn’t touch it. She was keeping in step with him so she shouldn’t lose him: that was her reward for meddling in this dangerous business.

‘But it won’t be half a million,’ she said, watching him. ‘You’l have to give Hater a share. He may even want half.’

Gillis laughed. He saw the trap, and he side-stepped it with his usual slick adroitness.

‘Al right: a quarter of a mil ion, then,’ he said, smiling at her. ‘Even two hundred and fifty thousand isn’t to be sniffed at.’

But Eve wasn’t to be put off.

‘You don’t intend to give him anything, do you, Adam?’

‘You mean Hater? Why, of course. He isn’t likely to part with any information unless he gets well paid. Of course he’l have to have something: not half, but certainly something pret y big.’

‘And Kile? Isn’t he to have anything?’

‘Wel , it may be necessary to give him something to keep him quiet,’ Gil is said. ‘How curious you are.’

‘But as he is dealing direct with the Rajah, what’s to stop him taking the lot and leaving you out of it?’ Eve persisted. She had a feeling that Adam’s plans had taken care of al contingencies, and she wanted to know just what he was up to.

‘What’s to stop him?’ Gil is repeated. His eyes narrowed. ‘I would stop him. That’s something I was meaning to speak to you about, Eve. It’s up to you to find out something about him that we could use if he makes himself awkward.’

She shied away from this.

‘We’re get ing into an awful jam, Adam,’ she said, twisting her hands anxiously in her lap. ‘I’m scared. Kile expects to have all the money. Then there’s Baird. Suppose he finds out why Hater’s to be kidnapped? Do you think a man like Baird will let you walk off with all that money when he has the most dangerous part of the job to do?’

He laughed.

‘You’re continual y thinking up difficulties, aren’t you?’ he said lightly. ‘The trouble with you is you worry too much. As soon as Baird starts on the job, you don’t have to think anything more about it. I’ll handle it.’

‘That doesn’t answer my question. What are you going to do about Kile? What wil you do if Baird finds out there’s a half-million involved?’

Gillis lit a cigarette and flicked the match out of the window.

‘I’ll wait until the time comes. But it wouldn’t do any harm to keep your eyes and ears open so far as brother Kile is concerned. He must have a few secrets he doesn’t want to broadcast. Suppose you concentrate on that angle, pet? If we could get something on him, we’d have him where we wanted him if he did turn nasty.’

‘I’m not going to do it,’ Eve said evenly. ‘It’s blackmail.’

‘Why must you always put a label on everything? Suppose it is blackmail: what of it? Or do you want me to leave you to be Kile’s toy until you lose your looks and he boots you out?’

She stood up.

‘Please listen to me, Adam,’ she said quietly. ‘You may be able to handle Kile, but I know you won’t be able to handle Baird. Kile doesn’t mat er. He’s old and il and finished, but Baird’s not. He’s dangerous and he’s no fool. If he finds out…’

‘I know, I know,’ Gil is said, giving her his charming smile that was a lit le faded at the edges. ‘I heard you the first time. It may surprise you to know I’m not worried about Baird. I hope I’ve enough brains to outwit a man of his calibre. I know he’s a kil er; but that’s al . A good boxer can always beat a good slugger, and that’s what Baird is. He doesn’t scare me in the slightest.’

She caught hold of his arm.

‘Darling, I beg you not to go on with this,’ she said imploringly. ‘It won’t work. Oh, yes, I’m sure Baird’l get Hater out of prison. He could do anything, but it’s when Hater is free that your troubles are going to start. Please give up the idea before it’s too late. You’re running into something that’s more dangerous than anything you’ve ever mixed yourself up in before. You must give it up, Adam, before it’s too late.’

Gillis patted her hand.

‘I think I’l go to bed now,’ he said, yawning elaborately. ‘I’m dead tired. Go to bed yourself, Eve, and take my advice: mind your own business and leave me to mind mine.’

She looked at him helplessly.

‘Al right, darling,’ she said. She knew in a moment he would begin his threats again. ‘I’l go to bed.’

‘You wouldn’t have ten dol ars on you, would you?’ he said, as he steered her to the door. ‘It’s a debt I promised to settle.’

She opened her bag and took out two ten-dollar bills.

‘Take them,’ she said, without looking at him.

‘Only ten,’ he said, taking one of the bil s. ‘Never let it be said that I sponge on you.’

As he opened the door, she turned to face him.

‘Adam, please think about this. Can’t you see how dangerous…?’

‘Don’t let’s go al over that again,’ he said, a sudden rasp in his voice. ‘You’l begin to bore me.’

‘I’m sorry, but do think about it, darling, before it’s too late. Don’t blame me if something horrible happens. I can’t keep warning you.’

‘Have that engraved as one of those mot o things, pet,’ he said, ‘and I’ll hang it over my bed. Good night and sweet dreams.’

He gently pushed her into the passage and shut the door.

V

Jack Burns sat in his car, a cigarette hanging from his lips and a heavy scowl on his fat face. From time to time he shot his cuff and stuck his arm out of the window to see the time by his wrist-watch in the light cast by the street standard. It was getting on for a quarter-past one, and still no sign of Ainsworth.

He yawned and cursed Ainsworth, using all the bad words he knew. It took a little while to run through his entire vocabulary, and when he had finished, he felt a little less annoyed.

If only this punk Baird would go to sleep, he thought, he’d chance it and go home, but so long as the light burned in the top window, he knew he couldn’t take any risks.

He lit another cigarette and groaned. This was a hell of a life, he decided, for a guy who likes his sleep. Purvis, the old goat, would expect him to take over day duty by eleven o’clock. At this rate he wouldn’t get more than eight hours sleep, and he needed ten to feel anything like normal.