Erikson jerked a thumb at Slater. “At the time, he was working in one of Meyer Lansky’s casinos in Havana. A man in Batista’s cabinet came to a Lansky underling with word of the conveniently available cash. It was hijacked while being transferred in an armored car.”
“You’re talking about what — eight or ten years ago?” I asked Erikson. “That’s a long time. Why should the cash still be there?”
“Because nobody could find it,” Slater answered for him. “If anything happens to me, the bundle will be there till the end of the world.”
“He convinced me,” Erikson said. “Or I wouldn’t be here. He also said that you would advance the stake to finance the recovery.” I didn’t say anything. “We’d assemble in Key West,” Erikson continued. “I’ll get us onto the naval base there and from the base to Guantanamo with forged orders. We’ll break out from Gitmo through the U.S. and Cuban fortifications into the interior and from there make our way to Havana. One member of our group knows a place for us to stay in Havana that he claims is safe. He also has a fast fishing cruiser and a first mate who will make the run from the Keys to the vicinity for our pickup when we have the cash.”
It didn’t sound enthralling. “We fight our way from Guantanamo to Havana through the Cuban army?”
“It should be more subtle than that.” Erikson leaned forward and helped himself to one of Slater’s cigarettes. He tapped it several times on the back of his wrist. His way of talking with his entire attitude indicated a man who had confidence in himself. “Although nobody ever said this project would be a Methodist tea. Slater vouched for you, and I’ll vouch for our fourth man. Slater will—”
“I know you think your pick is prob’ly hell on wheels,” Slater broke in, “but Drake an’ I could find us a fourth man who’d be for real.”
“No,” Erikson said. “My man already has a suitable boat, for one thing. And I’m not about to line myself up one against three on a proposition like this.”
“I still think—” Slater tried again.
“No.” Erikson cut him off with finality.
I found Erikson’s one-against-three remark interesting. I’d been thinking of myself as one against three if I took on the project. Now here was Erikson putting Slater on my side. If Slater stayed lined up permanently on any side, he’d changed from the Slater I knew.
Erikson’s hard blue eyes were upon me again. “About financing the project,” he said. “We’ll need a headquarters in Key West. A deposit on the boat. Arms. Quite a lot of arms and ammunition. Naval uniforms and gear to enable us to play the part while we’re getting to Guantanamo. Cuban uniforms to get us to Havana. A first- class shortwave receiving station in Key West and a first-class backpack transceiver to take with us. Around fifty thousand dollars in working capital, in other words. Do you have the money?”
I didn’t have $5,000. “He always has the money,” Slater answered for me before I could find out what kind of liar I was.
There were still some things I wanted settled. “We’ll be setting up the shortwave receiving station in the Key West headquarters, I take it?” I asked Erikson.
“Not necessarily. It could go in the boat.”
I was beginning to get the shape of an idea. “I’d rather see it on dry land.”
“That would mean another operator if it wasn’t the cruiser’s first mate who was monitoring the channel.”
“I’ll supply the operator.”
“No,” Erikson said. He said no in the manner of a man who has had a lot of practice saying it. “We don’t need—”
“He’s sayin’ he wants someone watchin’ his back while we’re still on the mainland,” Slater interrupted. “Right?” he said to me.
“Right.” I fixed Erikson with as hard a stare as I could manage. “I’d like to make certain that it’s not just my money that gets to Cuba.” Erikson hesitated. “Take it or leave it.”
“I might leave it,” he warned. “I see no reason—” He broke off and started over again. “Let’s sleep on it.” His voice overrode Slater’s when Slater tried to speak. “We’ll meet here again day after tomorrow.”
Slater muttered something under his breath, but I had no objection. I figured that Erikson had his own reason for the adjournment, probably a desire to check me out, if possible. I had no qualms on that score. Mr. Erikson would run into a brick wall. “Day after tomorrow it is,” I said.
“Same time,” Erikson said shortly. He made Slater leave the room first and followed five minutes later himself.
The ex-Navy man evidently didn’t want Slater and me to put our heads together again.
Among the members of the proposed group I’d met so far, the element of trust seemed to be in short supply.
I thought the whole thing over while I went downstairs to dinner.
I didn’t have the cash, and with two fast-knitting but still-broken fingers on my left hand, I had little enthusiasm for making a solo play to get it.
I didn’t have the money, but Hazel did.
I knew that she could run a boat and that she could navigate.
She could learn to operate a shortwave receiver.
With the touchy kind of project this one was apt to turn into, I’d need all the insurance I could get.
If she took any interest at all, Hazel could supply several different kinds of insurance.
CHAPTER FOUR
I drove out to the airport at twelve thirty A.M. to pick up Hazel. I stayed in the shadows across a strip of macadam that separated the floodlighted cabstand from the parking lot. When Hazel appeared, I watched for five minutes while she strolled up and down the platform, fending off starters and cabbies. I wanted to be sure she hadn’t been followed. Then I waved to her. She spotted me in the parking lot and crossed the road to join me.
“I was beginning to wonder if I’d made the trip for nothing,” she said as I took her bag from her. She slipped her arm through mine.
“Not a chance. How are things up north?”
“Quiet, except for the sheriff. He’s getting heat from the parents of the kids, so he’s throwing some of it off. He came out to the ranch whining that he was going to send them to talk to me. I told him that if he did, I’d tell them to talk to Ned Higginbotham. Ned’s the undertaker who laid out Gunnar, and Ned had a few things to say about the condition of the body. Nobody ever showed up at the ranch.” She nudged me in the ribs. “How do you like this store-boughten outfit?”
She had on a bright green dress that somehow didn’t clash with her bright red hair. “Too much of it,” I said as I opened the car door for her. She smiled. “You’ll need an alias to use at the hotel while you’re registered.”
“How about Belinda Bigteats?”
“Very appropriate.”
“Why do I need a separate room?” she pouted.
“Because hotels don’t care what kind of an orgy is going on as long as everyone in the orgy is paying for a separate room. You may not even get to see the inside of yours.”
“That sounds better.”
Walking through the lobby of the Aztec, I paused at the entrance to the cocktail lounge. “Want a drink before we go upstairs?”
“Who needs a drink?” she retorted. Her gamin grin was both impertinent and provocative.
She registered as Belinda Mackey, dropped her key into her handbag, and we went upstairs to my room.
We undressed and went to bed.
There was nothing frantic about it.
Nothing frenzied.
It was just slow, and easy, and good.
“How come I got your telephone call so soon?” Hazel inquired sometime later while she sponged off our
