That settled it. Only she had heard my conversation over the phone. Only she knew I had
arranged to meet Ginny at the airport. It was as simple as that. Ginny wasn’t going to fall into
Pepi’s hands. I had still the last word. The road was straight: on either side were mangrove
thickets. It was as simple as that.
“Well, so long, Ginny,” I thought. “This is the way out. This is the only way out,” and I got
a picture of her in my mind with her copper-coloured hair and her big, serious eyes and her
lovely mouth as I pulled down hard on the wheel.
As I swung the car off the road, I shoved the accelerator to the boards. I felt the car leap
forward. I didn’t look where we were heading. My eyes were fixed on the driving rnirror. I
could see Della’s face.
“Go ahead and shoot me,” I thought. “If this is my end, it’s your end too. You’re not going
to get your dirty claws on Ginny.”
186
I saw the fear and horror in her face. I heard her thin, wailing scream. I saw the gun drop
out of her hand as she threw up her arm to shield her face.
Then we hit a tree, bounced off it, shot into the undergrowth and smashed into another tree.
I held on to the steering-wheel for dear life. Della had disappeared. I felt the car turning over.
“This is it,” I thought, and I wasn’t scared. I was thinking of Ginny as the car turned over, and
I was still thinking of her when something crashed down on my head.
187
PART FIVE
CURTAINS
I
“COME on! Snap out of it!” a voice bawled in my ear, and a hand caught hold of
my coat front and hauled me upright. “Wake up, louse!”
I got my eyes open with an effort, and stared into the fat, blue-chinned face of Benno.
Instinctively, I tried to throw a punch at him, but my arm didn’t respond.
Snarling, he slammed me across the mouth with the back of his hand, and I flopped back on
the bed, scarcely conscious.
Dimly I heard a fat voice say, “Don’t hit him like that, you fool! I want him to talk!”
“He’ll talk!” Benno said viciously, and hauled me upright again. “Come on! Take notice or
I’ll yank your goddamn ears off!”
I opened my eyes again and looked around. I was lying bound hand and foot, on my bed in
the bedroom of my apartment on Franklin Boulevard. Benno was sitting on the bed, and
Ricca stood at the foot of the bed.
For a long moment I was confused and bewildered, then I remembered Ginny. Was she still
in the apartment? Had I imagined she had been there? I remembered her coming to the door
and the terror on her face.
“What have you done with her?” I croaked.
Ricca smiled.
“She’s in the other room. You played your hand pretty badly. I wanted her as well as you,
and you led me right to her.”
I strained at the cord that bound my hands, but it didn’t give.
“Better bring her in here,” Ricca said to Benno. “It’s time we started.”
Benno patted my face with a hand that smelt of lavender water.
“You and me are going to have fun before long,” he said.
188
He went into the other room.
Ricca continued to smile and puff breath at me. His snake’s eyes were vicious.
