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“No.”
My hands were shaking, and I was suddenly short of breath.
“It’ll happen sooner or later if we’re going to work together,” she said, “but I don’t want it
to happen now. Please go, Johnny. Not now. It’s not safe.”
My hands closed over her shoulders. I felt a shiver run through her. I turned her, pulling her
against me.
“You’ve had your say ever since we met,” I said. “You’ve dictated the terms and I’ve
jumped through the hoop. It’s going to be different now. I’m having the say and you’re
jumping through the hoop.”
Her arms came up and slid around my neck.
“I like you when you talk like that, Johnny.”
V
I had finished a regal breakfast served by a Sphinx-faced Filipino, and had wandered out on
to the verandah to smoke a cigarette in the sunshine when I saw Della coming from her cabin
towards me.
The sight of her in a sky-blue, off-the-shoulder linen dress, a big picture hat and a pair of
sun-glasses the size of doughnuts started my heart thumping. I ran down the steps to meet
her.
“Hi, Johnny,” she said, smiling up at me.
“You look good enough to eat.”
“You don’t look so bad yourself.” Her blue eyes approved the white slacks and the sweat-shirt the Filipino had laid out for me. “And they fit, too.”
“They sure do. Where did they come from?”
“I fixed it. I’ve been busy fixing all kinds of things this morning. We’ll go down to the
tailor’s shop some time and get you properly fitted out. You have to dress the part here.”
“I can’t believe this is happening to me. I expect to wake up and find myself in a truck
heading for Miami.”
107
She laughed.
“It’s happening all right. Come and look at the place before we talk to Nick.”
We spent an hour wandering around the vast estate. There wasn’t a trick Wertham had
missed. There were acres of pleasure gardens, an aquarium and sunken lily ponds. Not far
from the casino was an arcade of shops where you could buy anything from a diamond
necklace to an aspirin tablet. An artificial waterway surrounding the estate, screened by oak
trees, hung with Spanish moss, offered a fine hiding-place for you and your girl if you wanted
to go for a tour in an electrically driven canoe. There was even a zoo at the back of the casino
where peacocks, flamingoes and ibis strutted on the vast stretches of lawn.
“Come and look at the lion pit,” Della said. “This is Reisner’s pet idea. He’s crazy about
lions. You’d be surprised how many people come here just to gape at them.”
We stood side by side, our arms touching, and looked down into the deep pit, guarded by
steel railings where six full-grown lions sprawled lazily in the sunshine.
“I can gape at them, too,” I said. “There’s something about a lion …”
“Reisner feeds them himself. He gives up all his spare time to them.” She turned away.
“Well, we’d better get on. There’s still a lot to see.”
Farther along the broad carriageway we passed an open-air restaurant with its glass dance-floor. A fat, middle-aged Italian in a faultlessly cut morning-coat and a white gardenia in his
buttonhole hurried towards us.
“Johnny, this is Louis who looks after our three restaurants,” Della said as he bent to kiss
her hand. “How are you, Louis? I want you to meet Johnny Ricca.”
