'Sure . . . let's have that drink.'
She led him back into the living-room.
'Sorry there's only coke. We can't afford liquor.'
Toni blew out his cheeks, but maybe a coke was better. He knew he was already loaded.
'Fine.' He sat down, eyeing her as she left him to go into the kitchen. She came back with a coke and handed it to him.
He leered at her, drank, then leered again.
'Some chick!'
'That's what Johnny was always saying.'
'Your half-brother?'
She laughed and sat down away from him.
'I've never had a brother . . . half or otherwise.' She winked at him. 'Strictly between ourselves, a girl has to be respectable in this dreary neck of the woods. Johnny was a stray my husband picked up, but he was good in bed.'
Toni became alert.
'What's happened to him?'
She shrugged.
'Ships that pass in the night.'
'What the hell does that mean?'
'He stayed three nights. He left early this morning. He was a nice guy . . . but funny in a way.' She looked at him. 'He was superstitious. Are you superstitious?'
'Me? No.'
'He was always talking about a St. Christopher medal he had lost. It seemed to prey on his mind.'
Johnny! Toni leaned forward.
'Where did you say he was going?'
'Miami. He had money. He said he was going to hire a boat and go to Havana. Now, why should anyone want to go there?'
'Did he have any baggage with him?'
'A big suitcase. It was heavy: even he had trouble with it.' She cocked her head on one side. 'Why the interest?'
Toni sat still, thinking. This was important information. He knew he should get back fast and telephone Luigi. They might pick up this sonofabitch in Miami before he hired a boat. Then he looked at Freda. Maybe an hour wouldn't make any difference.
He stood up.
'Let's you and me find out if one of those beds is soft,' he said.
She laughed.
'That's what you're here for, isn't it?'
Breathing fast, his unsteady fingers unbuckling his gun harness, Toni followed her into her bedroom.
Sitting in the shade and cursing the mosquitoes that were buzzing around him, Johnny saw Toni come out on deck and get into the motorboat. He looked at his strap watch. Toni had been in there for an hour.
Johnny didn't need to exercise his imagination to know what those two had been doing. He felt a cold bitterness towards her. How could she tell him she loved him?
He waited until Toni's boat was out of sight, then he walked quickly across the jetty and into the living- room.
He heard her in the kitchen. He went to the door to find her making pastry. In a casserole, the pigeon breasts were simmering.
'It's all right,' she said, seeing him in the doorway, and quickly she told him what she had said to Toni. 'I sold it to him. I know he's convinced.'
Johnny drew in a deep breath. If Toni now convinced Massino of this story, then the heat would be off. Massino would know that he ( Johnny ), once in Havana, would be out of his reach.
'I told him you had a heavy suitcase with you,' Freda went on. She paused while she rolled out the pastry. 'That was smart, wasn't it, Johnny?'
But in spite of what she had done for him, in spite of her cleverness, Johnny could only think of the hour she had spent with Toni alone.
'Did you enjoy his company?' he asked, his tone bitter.
She looked at him, her eyes suddenly stony.
'Is that all you have to say . . . no thanks?'
