I looked into the slate grey eyes. The juvenile pose didn’t kid me for a moment. Those eyes were a complete give away – something she couldn’t conceal. They were the unhappy, puzzled eyes of a girl who wasn’t sure of herself, knew she was going the wrong way, and not strong enough to do anything about it.
‘I want to hear this direct from you,’ I said. ‘Are you a party to this kidnapping idea?’
The girl looked swiftly at Rhea and then at me.
‘A party to it?’ She giggled. ‘Isn’t he a doll, darling Rhea? Yes, of course, I’m a party to it. Darling Rhea and me thought it up between us. It’s a great idea, isn’t it?’
‘Is it?’ I stared at her. ‘Your father mightn’t think so.’
‘That’s no concern of yours,’ Rhea snapped. ‘Now, if you are satisfied, perhaps we can discuss this thing.’
‘We can talk about it,’ I said. ‘When does it happen?’
‘As soon as it can be arranged – the day after tomorrow perhaps,’ Rhea said.
‘Miss Malroux disappears – where is she disappearing to?’
‘Call me Odette,’ the girl said, and she pushed her chest out at me. ‘All my friends do…’
Ignoring her, Rhea said, ‘There is a quiet, small hotel at Carmel. She can go there. It will only be for three or four days.’
‘How will she get there?’
Rhea moved impatiently.
‘She has a car.’
‘It’s a honey,’ Odette told me. ‘A T.R.3. It goes like the wind…’
‘You can’t drive a car like that without being recognised,’ I said. ‘You must be a familiar figure to people living here.’
She looked a little startled as she said, ‘I suppose I am.’
I looked across at Rhea.
‘Your idea, of course, is that only you, your stepdaughter and your husband are to know about this kidnapping?’
She frowned at me.
‘Of course.’
‘Is it all that simple for you to disappear?’ I said to Odette. ‘Haven’t you any friends? How about the servants?’
She lifted her slim shoulders.
‘I’m always going away.’
I looked at Rhea.
‘If I were in your husband’s place and someone telephoned me that my daughter had been kidnapped and to get her back I had to pay out five hundred thousand dollars, I wouldn’t be in too great a hurry to pay up. The way you plan it, there is no atmosphere. If I were your husband I might even think it was a hoax.’ I stubbed out my cigarette, then went on, ‘And I would call the police.’
‘A lot depends on how convincing you are when you telephone him,’ Rhea said. ‘That’s what I’m paying you for.’
‘I’ll be convincing,’ I said, ‘but suppose he does call in the police? What are you going to do? Tell him it’s a joke? Admit you two were just having a bit of fun or will you say nothing and hope I’ll get the money and the police won’t find out the truth?’
‘I keep telling you…’ she began angrily.
‘I know what you tell me,’ I said, ‘but I don’t have to believe you. If the police come into this, will you call it off or will you still go ahead?’
‘We go ahead,’ Odette said. ‘We must have the money!’
There was a sudden hard note in her voice that made me look sharply at her. Her face had a bleak expression and she wasn’t looking at me, she was staring at Rhea.
‘Yes,’ Rhea said, ‘we must have the money, but for the hundredth time the police won’t come into it!’
‘It will be a lot safer to assume they will,’ I said. ‘Okay, it is possible your husband will hand over the ransom, but when he gets his daughter back, he is practically certain to tell the police and they will investigate. A man who has made as much money as your husband isn’t a fool. How do you know he won’t arrange to have the money marked? What use would it be to you if you didn’t dare spend it?’
‘I’ll see he doesn’t do that,’ Rhea said. ‘That is something we don’t have to worry about.’
‘Is it? I’d like to share your confidence.’
‘My husband is very ill,’ Rhea said, her voice hard and bleak. ‘He does what I tell him to.’
I felt a chill crawl up my spine as I looked from her to Odette. Both of them were staring at me. The girl had lost her ‘little-girl’ pose. She seemed suddenly as hard and as ruthless as the older woman.
‘I’m going to assume your husband will contact the police,’ I said. ‘If you don’t like the way I’ve planned this thing, say so and I’ll quit.’
Rhea’s hands were fists in her lap. Odette was nibbling at her thumbnail: her eyes intent.
I spoke directly to her.
