He was sweating with anxiety. “Sit on that bunk,” he commanded.
Shayne grinned and started toward him.
Jack warned, “Are you nuts, Shayne? He’ll do it.”
At the second step Shayne saw from the tightening of the other detective’s eyes that he was about to shoot. He turned aside.
“Teddy, what are you on?”
“Vodka, same as usual. I haven’t had a drop since before supper. The meaty part of the leg. But I’m shaking so bad I could miss, Mike, in the wrong direction. Sit down and reconcile yourself.”
“What was that word-reconcile?”
“Never mind. Sit down.”
“Are you going to give me a towel? These shorts are clammy as hell.”
“Get him a towel.”
Jack faded backward. Reappearing, he tossed Shayne a bath towel. Shayne dropped his wet shorts to the floor and began towelling himself off.
“I could have ripped out your equipment,” he observed. “You wouldn’t have liked that. One of those bugs costs about five hundred bucks.”
“Don’t I know it,” Teddy said. “I got it on approval. When I collect the fee I’m in a new category. No more watchman jobs. No more all night stake-outs and sleeping in cars. No more skip-traces, no more collections.”
“Who are you working for?”
“I have the.38. I ask the questions. Who are you working for?”
“Mrs. De Rham.”
“Amazed to hear it,” Teddy said sarcastically.
Shayne continued to work the towel briskly. The distance seemed about right. He snapped the towel at the gun. The corner of the towel cracked against the barrel and knocked it aside. Shayne slid in fast before Teddy could recover and chopped down at Teddy’s wrist. The.38 went spinning across the carpet.
“You ought to stick to what you know.”
Teddy was holding his wrist, looking aggrieved. Shayne assumed that the other man would stay out of it, but as he went for the gun he was clubbed behind the ear with a fist like a hoof. Jack retrieved the gun and tossed it to Teddy.
“You shoot him. I’m sure as hell not going to.”
Shayne recovered and felt the spot where he’d been hit. As soon as the room stopped spinning he picked up the towel and knotted it around his waist. Teddy, gun in hand again, was smiling.
“You’ve got a thick skull. Jack usually drops them. A pretty good club fighter before T.V. killed boxing.”
Shayne groped his way to the bunk and sat down. As soon as he could speak he repeated his last question.
“Who are you working for, Teddy?”
“I can’t answer that. It’s confidential, you know how it is.”
He turned to his assistant. “Get the earphones on, and when you hear voices, turn on the tape recorder.”
“Teddy, I don’t know how to work that thing.”
Teddy gave the shiny new recorder an affectionate pat “Nothing to it, you push a button. Tell me when you hear anything and I’ll take over.”
He picked the more solid of the two remaining chairs and moved it against the door. “Now we wait. I don’t know how it is with your practice, Mike, but mine’s always been ninety percent waiting.”
He pulled up his pants legs carefully and sat down, the.38 on his knees.
“I should be able to trace the boat,” Shayne commented.
“I rented it. Paying cash. Mike, I have nothing but respect for you. I discount most of what I read in the papers, but the times I’ve worked with you personally I’ve seen you pull some pretty amazing stuff. Those goddamn sources of yours, they’re all over. Sure, you could find out who my client is, but my argument is-tomorrow. Not while you’re sitting here wearing a bath towel.” He tapped cigar ash onto the carpet. “Tomorrow it won’t matter. From your point of view you should have cut the bug loose before you followed the wire. I can see how your mind worked-find out who planted it first, but this time I think you guessed wrong.”
“I’d like to hear what they’re saying myself.”
“The nerve of the guy! Let’s change the subject. Who do you like in the N.F.L. this year?”
They talked football for a time, then Teddy put the gun away and took out a worn deck of cards.
“I think I can take a chance you won’t jump me. Want to play some gin? Move that little table and you sit on the floor, where you’re more helpless.”
“I didn’t bring any money with me.”
“I’ll trust you.”
Shayne moved the table with Teddy watching, one hand inside his jacket. After Shayne was settled, he shuffled and dealt.
From time to time Teddy snapped a question at Jack, to be sure he was awake, but the listening device was still picking up nothing but music. Teddy was so pleased with the way he had held a gun on Shayne that he took too many chances with his discards, and he was soon fifty dollars down. He began to think more carefully. Shayne blitzed him again.
Teddy’s cards went spinning off the table as the door opened behind him and banged the back of his chair. The gun leaped into his hand. Instead of looking around he stared belligerently at Shayne.
“Now watch it, Mike.”
“What’s going on?” a woman’s voice said. “I’d like to come in.”
With a backhand wave, Teddy moved Shayne across to the bunk. Jack had whipped off the earphones. Teddy hooked a toe around the leg of the chair and moved it so the door could open.
The woman who entered was smartly dressed in a short knitted sheath. She had dark hair which she wore back from her forehead, a full-breasted figure, a humorous mouth. She held herself well, with complete self- assurance, as she looked from the gun in Teddy’s hand to Michael Shayne, dressed insecurely in a towel.
“You must be Mrs. Brady,” Shayne said.
CHAPTER 11
“I am Katharine Brady,” she agreed. “Who are you?”
Teddy burst out, “Damn it, Shayne, if you knew she was Mrs. Brady, why wrestle me for a loaded.38?”
“This can’t be the well-known Mike Shayne,” Mrs. Brady said. “Why are you pointing a gun at him? I didn’t hire you to make a disturbance. Just the opposite. You assured me you could handle this with discretion.”
Teddy said weakly, “I have, Mrs. Brady. He’s working for the other side. I had to make him hold still.”
Her eyes slid over Shayne’s powerful bare torso. “You had a fight for a gun and Mike Shayne lost?”
“It was two against one,” Shayne said with a half grin.
Her mouth moved slightly. “And were you really trying?”
Teddy lowered the.38 slowly until it pointed at the floor. “I had to evaluate the situation according to the facts as I knew them. I thought the best thing to do-”
“You did the right thing, actually,” she said, still looking at Shayne. “I’m sorry I spoke so sharply. Have you taped anything yet?”
“Nobody’s doing any talking,” Jack said. “Just listening to records.”
She came further into the room. “There’s no point in standing around glaring. I brought some vodka. Why don’t we make some drinks?”
“With Shayne in the room,” Teddy said, “I don’t think we ought to exactly relax.”
“I don’t intend to relax. Keep your gun out if it makes you feel better. At least let’s all sit down. Is there a refrigerator on the boat?”
“Up ahead,” Teddy said with a movement of his head.
