He pulled up outside one of the cabins.
“Here we are. Everything’s ready for you, Mrs. Wertham,” he said, twisting around in the
driver’s seat to look at Della. “Your usual cabin. Where do you want me to put Ricca?”
“He can have the cabin next to mine: the one Paul has,” she said, and got out of the car.
“Want me to get the doc down to look at him?” Reisner asked, not moving from behind the
wheel.
“I’m okay,” I said, joining Della. “Nothing that a good sleep won’t put right.”
“Suit yourself,” he returned, making no attempt to conceal his indifference.
“Don’t wait, Nick,” Della said. “We’ll have a talk in the morning. Thanks for picking us
up.”
Reisner smiled. His eyes went from Della to me, and back to Della again.
“Well, so long. Call up at the office around noon. We’ll have a drink and a get-together.”
The big car moved off. Della and I stood watching its bright twin rear lights until they had
disappeared, then she drew in a deep breath.
“Well, that’s Reisner,” she said. “What do you think of him?”
“Tricky.”
“Yes. Well, come in. I could do with a drink.”
She led me into the cabin and switched on the lights. The place consisted of one large room
that served as a sitting-room by day and a bedroom by night, a bathroom and a kitchenette.
105
No expense had been spared to make it luxurious and comfortable. It was unbelievably lavish
with its press-button gadgets that operated the windows, the curtains and let down the wall-bed and opened the built-in cupboards. Everything in the place seemed to be worked by
pressing buttons.
“Like it?” she asked, flopping on the bed. “Paul had a flair for this kind of thing. There are
thirty other cabins on the estate, each with its own special decor, but I like this one best. Get
me a drink, Johnny. You’ll find whisky in that cabinet over there.”
“I’ll say I like it,” I said as I mixed a whisky and soda. “And the casino! He must have
spent millions on it.”
“He did.” She leaned back on her elbows and looked fixedly at me. The white silk blouse
pulled hard across her breasts, and her thick, dark hair fell away from her face and neck,
showing the white column of her throat. “All this could be mine if it wasn’t for Reisner.”
“Would you know what to do with it if you had it?” I said, not paying much attention to
what I was saying. The sight of her like that had got me going again.
She took the whisky.
“Wouldn’t you, Johnny?”
“I don’t know.” I went over to a panel in the wall on which were a number of ivory buttons.
I pressed one of them marked curtains, and watched the dark-green plastic curtains swing
smoothly across the big double windows. “Can you imagine Reisner parting with half a
million? I can’t.”
“He will if we handle him right.” She looked down and noticed the rip in her skirt. From
where I was standing I could see, through the tear, the white line of her flesh above the top of
her stocking. “I must look a wreck,” she went on, got to her feet and stared at herself in the
mirror that concealed the door to the bathroom.
I came up behind her and we stared at our reflections in the mirror.
Apart from her dishevelled hair, the little cut on the side of her nose, and her ripped skirt,
she still looked good - too good for my present mood.
Our eyes met in the mirror. She looked fixedly at me, her dark, glittering eyes suddenly
tense.
“Better go to your cabin now, Johnny.”
