Just Another Sucker (7 page)

‘I think Rhea was very clever to trap you into helping us,’ she said. ‘But you could be even more clever than she is.’

I stiffened.

‘She didn’t trap me into anything – what do you mean?’

‘Oh, but she did. She had been watching you for days, knocking back whisky in that bar. She had picked on you to help us as soon as she had read you had come out of jail. It was her idea to plant her handbag in the telephone booth. She was sure you would take her money. I said you wouldn’t. We bet on it. I lost ten dollars.’

I sat there staring at her, feeling the blood burning my face.

‘I was drunk,’ I said.

She shrugged her shoulders.

‘I’m sure you were. I’m just telling you this so you can be on your guard. Rhea is a snake: don’t trust her further than you can throw her.’

‘Just why do you want all this money?’

She wrinkled her nose at me.

‘That’s not your business. Now tell me, what am I to do? Have you got a story ready for me?’

I stared at her for a long moment, trying to collect my thoughts. This news that Rhea had planted her bag shook me. I told myself I would have to watch her.

I said, ‘Have you fixed the date for Saturday?’

‘Yes. My friend, Mauvis Sheen, and I are going to a movie at the Capital. I’ve arranged to meet her outside at nine.’

‘Have you a boy friend you go around with from time to time? I don’t mean a regular one. I mean someone you see only now and then?’

She looked puzzled.

‘Well, yes. There are a number of them.’

‘One will do – give me a name.’

‘Well, there’s Jerry Williams.’

‘Does he ever telephone you at home?’

‘Yes.’

‘Who answers the telephone when anyone calls?’

‘Sabin – he’s the butler.’

‘Would he know Williams’s voice?’

‘I don’t think so. Jerry hasn’t called me now for a couple of months.’

‘What I’m getting at is this: you will tell your father you are going to the movies with your girl friend.

After dinner, around eighty-forty-five, I’ll telephone and ask for you. I’ll tell your butler it is Jerry Williams calling. I’m doing this entirely to take care of the police in case they come into it. Speaking as Williams, I will tell you that I have met your girl friend and we, with some other kids, are going to have a night out at the Pirates’ Cabin. We want you to join us. You’ll be surprised, but you’ll agree, but you won’t tell anyone where you are going because you will know your father will disapprove of you going to such a joint. You’ll arrive there, you won’t find your friends, and you’ll leave. As you are crossing the dark car park, a rug will be thrown over your head and you will be bundled into a car. Do you follow all this?’

She nodded.

‘My goodness! You are taking this seriously, aren’t you?’

‘I’m taking it seriously because it happens to be serious,’ I said. ‘The police, if they come into it, will check with Williams, but he’ll swear he didn’t telephone you, and they’ll realise it was a trick by the kidnappers to get you to the Pirates’ Cabin. They’ll wonder why you didn’t recognise Williams’s voice.

You’ll say the connection was bad, there was a lot of background noises of music and you never doubted it was Williams talking. That’s the explanation why you went to the Pirates’ Cabin. Okay?’

‘You don’t really think the police will come into it?’

She was nibbling at her thumbnail while she stared at me.

‘I don’t know. Your stepmother said they won’t, but I am going to be prepared. Now concentrate. I’m giving you the story you may have to tell the police. You are now in a car with the rug over you and you are held down by threatening hands. A man, speaking with an Italian accent, warns you if you make a sound, you’ll get hurt. You gather that there are three men in the car. I’ve written down a conversation you overhear. You’ll have to learn it by heart.

‘The car makes a number of turns which leads you to believe you are off the main roads. Finally, after two hours driving, the car stops. You hear a dog barking. You hear the sound of a gate being opened.

The car drives forward and stops again. You must remember all these details. If the Federal Bureau come in on this, they’ll want these details. Many a time they have caught kidnappers because the victim has heard a dog bark or has heard the noise a bucket makes going down into a well – stuff like that, and they’ll probe your memory, so you’ve got to be ready for them.’

Her eyes were very intent as she nodded.

‘I see now why you wanted me here tonight,’ she said. ‘Even if the police don’t come into this, Daddy will ask questions. He is very shrewd. He will ask just those kind of questions.’

‘Yes. You’ll be supposed to be in this place for three days and nights. You’ll be locked in a room. If the police come into this, they’ll be certain to ask you to make a plan of the room and you must be able to do it without hesitation. During the time you’re supposed to be in this room, you will hear the dog barking, you will hear the sound of chickens and cows. You’ll decide this is a rundown farmhouse.

You’ll only see one of the kidnappers and a woman who will take charge of you. I’ve written down a description of both these people, and you’ve got to memorise it. If the police come into it, watch out you stick to your story. Don’t let them trap you into mistakes.’

She was interested and very tense.

‘I understand.’

‘There is a toilet just outside the room you are in. This is just the kind of trap question they might spring on you, and you must be prepared for it. You’re allowed to go there when you want. The woman takes you. I have another plan to show you the part of the house you will see when you go to the toilet.

It’s not much: a short passage and three doors that are shut. The toilet has a cracked basin and a string instead of a chain for the flush. Remember these details. They’ll help to make your story convincing.

I’ve written down all the meals you are supposed to eat during the three days you are in this farmhouse.

You must memorise them too. Make no mistake about it, the Federal Agents will really turn you inside out if they come into this, and you’ve got to be ready for them.’

She touched her lips with the tip of her tongue.

‘You’re beginning to make me feel as if I’m really going to be kidnapped,’ she said.

‘That’s the way you’ve got to feel,’ I told her. ‘I’ve drafted a letter you must write which I will mail to your father. You’d better do it now.’

I got up and went over to the briefcase I had brought with me. Before touching the sheets of cheap notepaper I had bought at a store, I put on a pair of gloves.

She came over to the table and sat down. I stood over her and watched her copy out the letter and finally address the envelope. I made her fold the letter and put it into the envelope and then put the envelope into my briefcase.

I then handed her the sheets of paper containing all the details I had prepared for her.

‘Take this away and really memorise it,’ I told her. ‘Come here at nine o’clock the night after this, and I’ll check you, then we’re ready to go.’

She put the papers in her handbag.

‘Before you go, let’s look at the dress you have and I want to see you in the wig.’

She opened the case and took out a cheap blue and white print dress, white ballet shoes and a henna coloured wig.

I nodded to the bedroom door.

‘Go in there and change. I want to see how you look.’

‘For someone in my stepmother’s employ,’ she said, picking up the dress, ‘you certainly know how to give orders.’

‘If you don’t like it…’

‘But I do! It makes a refreshing change.’ She fluttered her eyelids at me. ‘I like men older than myself.’

‘That gives you a wide choice,’ I said. ‘Get moving. I want to get home.’

She wrinkled her nose at me, then went into the bedroom and shut the door.

I now became even more conscious that I was alone with this girl. She had that something that raised the worst in me: that would raise the worst in any man. Since I had been married, I had never fooled around with another woman and I wasn’t intending to now although I knew this girl would be easy. I had only to give her some encouragement, and she would give me the green light to go the whole way.

There was a delay while I prowled around the room, then the bedroom door opened and she came out.

The red wig made a startling difference to her appearance. I scarcely recognised her. She was holding the front of her dress up with her hands.

‘The damn thing has a zipper.’ She turned, showing me her naked back down to her waist. ‘Zip me up, will you? I can’t reach it.’

I took hold of the zipper. My hand was unsteady. My fingers touched the cool flesh of her back. She looked over her shoulder at me. There was that thing in her eyes. I pulled up the zipper. My heart was beginning to thump. She turned and moved against me, sliding her arms around my neck.

Just for a brief moment I surrendered to the pressure of her body against mine, then with a conscious effort, I shoved her away.

‘That’s something we don’t do,’ I said. ‘Let’s keep this strictly business.’

She put her head on one side as she stared at me.

‘Don’t you like me then?’

‘I think you’re cute. Let’s leave it at that.’

She made a little grimace, then moved under the light.

‘Well? Do I pass?’

‘Yes. If you wear a pair of sun goggles, no one would know you.’ I took out my handkerchief and wiped my sweating hands. ‘Okay, get changed. Leave the dress and wig here. We’ll meet again the night after next at nine.’

She nodded and went into the bedroom, leaving the door ajar.

I lit a cigarette and sat on the edge of the table. I was still pretty worked up.

Then she called, ‘Harry… I can’t get this zipper undone.’

I hesitated for a brief moment, then I mashed out my cigarette. I didn’t move, but I was aware my heart was pounding.

‘Harry…’

I stood up, silently crossed to the cabin door and turned the key. Then I turned off the light and went into the bedroom.

II

John Renick’s Buick stood outside my bungalow as I swung the Packard through the open gates and into my garage.

The sight of the Buick gave me a hell of a jolt. I hadn’t seen nor heard from Renick since he had picked me up outside the jail gates, weeks ago, and I had forgotten about him.

What was he doing here?

My mind was suddenly flustered. Nina would have told him that I had this traffic censor job. If it crossed his mind, he could easily find out I was lying about the job. Contact with anyone connected with the police was the last thing I wanted, now I was about to swing this fake kidnapping.

Besides, I was suffering from a guilty conscience. I was regretting this lapse of mine with Odette. I was now sure she had given herself to me to show me her power and her contempt of men. Our love-making – if you can call it that – had been nothing but an explosion of physical violence. She had slid away from me, and dressed hurriedly in the dark, humming a jazz tune under her breath, ignoring me.

‘I’ll see you the night after tomorrow,’ she had said out of the darkness. ‘’Bye for now,’ and she had gone, leaving me still on the bed, ashamed and angry with myself, and hating her.

When I heard the cabin door slam shut after her, I got off the bed and turned off the recorder. I had taken the tape and put it in its container. Then I had taken a shower and then had gone into the sitting-room and had drunk two stiff whiskies, one quickly after the other. But neither the shower nor the whiskies had done anything to dent this soiled feeling I had nor lessen the feeling of guilt that I had betrayed Nina who was slaving all day to keep us going.

I walked slowly up the path from the garage, took out my key and opened the front door. The clock in the hall told me it was ten minutes after eleven o’clock. From the lounge, I could hear Renick’s voice and Nina’s sudden laugh.

I stood hesitating.

Renick and I had been close friends for twenty years. We had gone to school together. He had been a good, straight cop, and now he was the D.A.’s special officer, a position of importance in this city, carrying a good salary. If this kidnapping idea turned sour, he would be the first to be involved in the investigation, and I knew he was no fool. He was one of the brightest and shrewdest investigators of the whole bunch. In my newspaper work I had met them all: Renick topped the lot. If he handled the investigation I could be in trouble.

I braced myself, crossed to the lounge door and pushed it open.

Nina was working on a large garden pot that stood on her work bench. Renick lounged in an armchair, watching her, a cigarette burning between his fingers.

As soon as Nina saw me, she dropped her paint brush and ran over to me. She slid her arms around my neck and kissed me. The touch of her lips against mine gave me a sick feeling. I was still remembering Odette’s hot, animal caresses. I pushed her away gently and with my arm around her, I forced a smile as Renick got to his feet.

‘Hello there, John,’ I said and shook hands. ‘You’re a stranger.’

Once a cop, always a cop. I could see by his steady, puzzled stare, he knew something was wrong. He gripped my hand and his grin was as lop-sided as mine.

‘That’s not my fault, Harry,’ he said. ‘I’ve been in Washington for the past month. I’ve only just got back. How are you? I hear you have a job.’

‘Well, call it that,’ I said. ‘It’s better than nothing.’

I dropped into a lounging chair. Nina sat on the arm, her hand on mine and Renick went back to his chair. The searching, probing stare was still there.

‘Look, Harry,’ he said, ‘you can’t go on like this. You’ve got to get settled. I think I can swing this thing with Meadows if you want it.’

I stared at him.

‘Meadows? Swing what?’

‘My boss,’ Renick said. ‘I told you: I spoke to him about you. We need a good Public Relations man: you’re hand-made for the job.’

‘Am I? Well, I don’t think so,’ I said. ‘After what those jerks did to me, I wouldn’t work for the City for any money.’

Nina’s grip tightened on my hand.