“I have a plane at Maiquetia if you can get me aboard.”
“With some of our people, of course. To watch you when you count the money.”
“As many as you like. Paula ought to be one of them. I may need her to help identify faces.”
“But there are other parts to this idea. How will you make certain that the necessary ones are informed?”
“I want you to plant it with a pigeon, so it doesn’t come directly from me.”
“A pigeon?”
“You must have a word for it in Spanish. Somebody who reports directly to Mejia. Nobody in this room, I hope, but there must be somebody else here in the barrio. Let him overhear a couple of your guys talking. Michael Shayne, Alvares’ loot, Palm Beach, in a hurry. That ought to be enough.”
Serrano frowned. “You think Luis Mejia is connected with this?”
“I don’t know about connected. But after you talk to enough cops you begin to recognize the signals. He knows more about it than he told me, which wouldn’t be hard because he didn’t tell me anything much. Why should he? But in Florida he’ll be on the other side of the table. There won’t be any problem with Lenore. There was nothing phony about those stab wounds. The guy was really trying to kill her; he just didn’t know how. Then there’s the widow.”
Serrano and the girl exchanged a glance. Serrano said, “We have a connection to one of the people in the house, a maid.”
“What kind of connection?” Shayne said quickly. “Can you phone her?”
“No. But we can be in touch within one hour.”
“Can you find out if Frost was out there today?”
Serrano considered. “Is it important?”
“I think so. Frost’s people have a tap on Mejia’s line. Anything involving me will be passed on to Frost right away. And if he passes it on to the Senora, we’ve closed another circuit. The money’s very much on her mind. It wouldn’t surprise me if she changed out of her black dress and caught the first plane.”
Serrano said deliberately, “I think perhaps you’re trying to trick us. You want this money for yourself.”
“Do I?”
Serrano asked the girl’s opinion, and the discussion ran around the room. Shayne had another drink of the explosive liquor and waited.
He was asked questions from time to time, and again he explained the role he planned for himself. It was simply to convey the impression that he knew more about the money than he actually did, in the hopes of setting off a scramble.
At least two of the young men distrusted Shayne and wanted nothing to do with his proposition. Paula seemed to lean the other way. Serrano was in the middle. Shayne listened for a time, then asked the young men on the cot to move. He folded his jacket to use as a pillow, lay down, and fell asleep.
SIXTEEN
When he was shaken awake an hour and a half later, only Serrano, Paula and one other were in the room.
Serrano said quietly, “There is a difference of opinion among us. We must ask you more questions.”
Shayne swung his feet to the floor and lit a cigarette. “I thought we’d covered everything. Has anything new happened?”
“We have learned that the North American Frost did indeed visit Senora Alvares, and yesterday also. The lady today has had much to drink.”
“Does that happen often?”
“No, it is unusual. Our person there says she was unsettled by a visit from Shayne, the Yankee detective. We will receive a phone call if she leaves the house, but she is sleeping soundly now. Before we do anything further, we want to ask you two things. We assume Senor Rourke was unable to tell you any names, because surely a guard was present when you talked to him. How did you know about Paula?”
“Frost showed me her picture. They’ve been watching Tim, and they knew he was seeing her.”
“Lenore Dante.”
“She bolted out of the Alvares farm looking scared, with her hair flying. We followed her to the boat.”
“Where is she now?”
“I have her tucked away.”
Serrano nodded. “I think I understand you, your tactic in a matter that must present great difficulties for you. You stir things up, set one group against another, spread expectation. And the way we respond to all this tells you something. Of course you are manipulating us as well. What you say you want is not necessarily the truth. Now tell me what you expect to happen when you reach familiar surroundings, Florida. You will have Lenore Dante with you. Do you believe she will run directly to this money, to make sure it’s safe?”
“That depends on whether she knows who was trying to kill her. She claims she doesn’t.”
“If and when you find the money, what percentage will you allot us in return for our assistance?”
“There’s no reason to work it out in advance because it won’t be enforceable. I expect you to provide enough muscle so you can take it away from me.”
“But as you yourself point out, in Florida you have the advantage.”
“I’ll explain something. If I cut you out of the split you’ll have a legitimate beef. You can’t take me to court on it, but the next time I need some cooperation from somebody, they’ll say, ‘Why help this creep? Remember how he screwed those Venezuelans.’ Do you follow that? Hell, take a chance. What can you lose?”
“That,” Serrano said dryly, “is precisely what we are trying to determine.”
The rest of the afternoon passed. The bottle of pisca remained available and Shayne sampled it occasionally. He was brought an evening meal of beans and dry, unleavened bread. At one point he and Paula were alone in the room.
“Does Tim-” she began, and stopped. “Does Tim think I’m responsible for that bomb?”
“Probably.”
“Then I hope you find out who really did it. Some of our cadres have been drawn to the idea of selective terror-bombings, killings, to show our presence, and this might seem to be such a thing. So there is confusion among many who support us. I’ve been arguing on your side. I think you should be given the chance. But there’s the suspicion with some that you’re an imperialist agent, and this is all an elaborate deception.”
“If you can think of any safeguards, I’ll consider them. We ought to get moving fairly soon.”
“Not before dark.”
“I need to get a call through to the Palm Beach police chief I told you about, and this might be the night he goes bowling.”
Shayne’s hand shot forward and snaked the pistol out of her holster. Her hand fastened on his, but he held the muzzle of the long-barreled gun against her breast. Her pupils dilated.
“You can’t think you can get out of the barrio.”
“I can shoot a few people trying.”
Serrano came in, stopping abruptly. He was unarmed. Shayne twisted the gun viciously, bringing it around to cover the guerrilla leader.
“I’m beginning to wonder where we stand.”
Serrano’s hands had come out from his body, but he was otherwise motionless. He spoke quietly in Spanish to Paula.
“The answer to that,” Shayne said, “is yes, I’m just nutty enough to try it. You’ve had all afternoon to talk. I’ll stick the gun in your back and let you walk a half step ahead of me. I think I might make it. Of course somebody who doesn’t like you might take a shot at me so I’d be forced to put a slug in your spine. That’s a chance we’d both take.”
“I accept the chance,” Serrano said.
