excesses.
“I figured it was time I put you to work.”
“You haven’t done badly for a starter, horseman.” She dropped down on the bed again, stretched lazily, then sat up and looked at me. “Could that have more than one meaning?”
I answered her question with a question. “How’d you like to shoot fifty thousand of your hard-earned money at the moon?”
“What’s the odds?”
“Ten to one or better. For our end.”
She leaned down over me until her bare breasts tickled my chest. “Money I’ve got coming out of my ears. Which leads to something I’ve wanted to say before—” She hesitated. “Why take on another job at all? We could go anywhere, live anywhere. Do anything. Sit back. Take life easy.”
“Doing what? Touring Tibet? Exploring the Antarctic? Taking a trip around the world? While I sat in cocktail lounges listening to the rust harden on me?”
“Forget I even mentioned it, horseman. When do we leave?”
I patted her arm. “It’s not set up yet, but it’s getting close.” I reached for her and pulled her closer to me. “If it works out, I’ll need someone to watch my back.”
“I’ll watch the front, too.” She was watching it now. Not only watching it but skillfully stimulating it.
“I’d want you to go to Key West and see about buying a bar. Something on the order of the Dixie Pig, only with a few rooms on the second floor.”
She paused in her endeavors. “How long would we need it?”
“Six weeks to two months at the outside.”
“I could lease it for two months. It’s common practice. It protects the new owner against too-enthusiastic reports of receipts by the old owner. But that’s too easy. What do you really want me to do?”
“That’s it. The bar will be the headquarters for the project. Key West isn’t large enough for strangers to move around unnoticed in the off season. There’ll be a shortwave receiver in the back room. You’ll be—”
“I knew there was a catch to it,” she said gloomily. “I’ll be babysitting with the shortwave set while you’re away on the job.”
“I want someone I can trust monitoring that set.” I waited for a moment before continuing. “You realize I’m giving you a fine chance to blow a fast fifty thousand dollars?”
She resumed her uninterrupted labors. “Just tote yourself back to Hazel in one piece and we’ll argue about the fifty thousand later.” Her labors having produced a natural manifestation, she slithered her long length atop me. “At least I’ll be going with you to Key West,” she murmured. She squirmed against me languidly. “Mmm-m-m! Let me be on top this time?”
I let her be on top that time.
I thought fleetingly of Erikson’s and Slater’s reactions when they learned that our land-based operative would be a woman.
It was all I could do to keep from laughing.
And I didn’t want to laugh right that minute because I was afraid I’d spoil Hazel’s rhythm.
The second meeting with Erikson and Slater started out with Slater doing most of the talking. I’d moved Hazel out into a motel down on the waterfront near the Harbor House. If the project jelled during the meeting, I could put her in motion with a phone call.
I listened to Slater, but I watched Erikson. He returned the compliment. The big blond man sat slightly to one side, continually sizing me up. If his purpose in abruptly adjoining the first meeting had been to run a check on Earl Drake, I knew it must be frustrating him that he had uncovered nothing about Drake. Or about Charlie Gosger, Slater’s onetime acquaintance.
Slater was in good voice. “This team was put together like the Los Angeles Rams front four,” he assured me. “Each guy has somethin’ special to contribute. Chico Wilson owns a boat an’ speaks Spanish. Karl”—he nodded toward Erikson—“is sharp with all kinds of radio and radar, an’ he can produce the kosher-lookin’ forged naval orders that’ll get us to Guantanamo. Plus he’s better’n a green hand in a skirmish.”
Slater grinned at the unsmiling Erikson, then continued. “You were picked because you’re a wizard with a handgun,” he said to me. “An’ because you’ve had practice gettin’ cash out of tight places.”
“A bank?” I said.
“Not a bank, but a place with a lot of the same problems.”
“If I knew something about the problems, I could be doing some planning,” I suggested.
“You’ll know in plenty of time to be doin’ your plannin',” Slater said. “What else?”
“You’ve mentioned this team concept before, but you’ve never mentioned the most important item. What about the split?” Slater looked blank. “If I’m putting up the risk money, I get a bigger slice off the top. Isn’t that elementary?”
Slater glanced at Erikson, who said nothing. The Viking hadn’t uttered a word since muttering an ungracious hello when he entered the room. “Okay,” Slater went on after his momentary hesitation. “There’s four principals, right? We’ll make it a five-way split, an’ you get two shares while the rest of us get one. You pay off the guy you’re bringin’ in from your cut, an’ we’ll all toss in a specified amount to pay off the guy runnin’ the cruiser. How does that sound?”
It sounded as though he had made it up on the spur of the moment. How could Slater and Erikson have gone that far without working out the split? Not that there was anything the matter with the proposal as such. I looked at Erikson sitting in his chair. “I want to hear him say it, too.”
He shifted position before replying. “It sounds all right.” He said it rapidly as though impatient to move on to another subject. “I’d like some assurance from you,” he said to me, “that you’re capable of cutting the mustard on a job like this.”
“I don’t see your pedigree laid out on the table here,” I told him.
“I’ll vouch for both of you to each other,” Slater volunteered. “Could you ask for anything better’n the stamp of my approval?”
His grin did nothing to dispel the tension. “What about this place in Key West?” Erikson said to me. His tone of voice was as sour as his expression. “What’s so special about it?”
I spoke in the present tense as though the lease had already been signed. “It’s a waterfront bar with rooms upstairs. We won’t want to be doing much moving around in public.”
“You own the bar?”
I stretched another point. “The party you’ll be teaching to operate the shortwave radio owns it.”
Erikson grimaced as though reminded of something unpleasant. “I still feel there’s no need to include anyone else in the—”
“That’s the way it is,” I shut him off. “I’m putting more into this than anyone except the man with the boat, and he wants a deposit on it. I want a shortwave radio in the back of the bar and an operator I can trust, or it’s no deal.”
“Let’s meet again tomorrow,” Erikson said shortly.
I could feel anger rising. “What’s going to make tomorrow any different from today?”
He didn’t answer but looked toward Slater. “One more day won’t hurt things,” Slater said, but I could see he said it reluctantly. Slater didn’t welcome the delay any more than I did. “But we can’t ask Drake to hold off indefinitely on this, Karl,” he added.
“Tomorrow is take-it-or-leave-it time,” I said firmly.
“Tomorrow it is,” Erikson said. He rose to his feet, seemingly in a hurry to leave. “Come on, Slater.” He led the way to the door.
Slater silently mouthed the word “bar” to me while Erikson’s back was turned. I nodded. “See you tomorrow,” Slater said to me with a wink as he followed Erikson from the room.
I waited ten minutes before going downstairs to the bar. With that much time to think things over, it struck me that every time we got down to a nuts-and-bolts discussion of the operation, it was Erikson who did most of the talking.
Slater was seated at a corner table. I joined him after making sure Erikson wasn’t in the bar. “Don’t get nervous about things,” Slater said as I sat down. “Everything’s gonna be all right.”
