said Maurer could buy any of the policemen who guarded him. How do I know Maurer hasn't bought those women who stay with me?'
Conrad was both startled and shocked to learn how her mind was working.
'You must stop talking like this.' He went to her and caught hold of her arms. 'Look at me, Frankie. I love you. Can't you see I love you? I promise you you're safe. I promise you there's nothing to worry about.' She was staring at him.
'You love me? You? I didn't think . . . I had no idea.'
'I don't suppose you had,' Conrad said quietly. 'I didn't intend to tell you, but I can't have you thinking you're not safe. You're more precious to me than my own life. You don't have to be scared of Madge or the other two. They're all right. Honest, they won't let anyone near you, nor will I.'
She pulled away from him.
'But how can you love me?' she said, half to herself. 'You know about me. You can't love me.'
'Now look, Frankie, you've got to stop this nonsense. You're not to blame for what your father did, and you've got to stop believing you are.'
She looked at him, her eyes shadowy with bitterness.
'So easy to talk,' she said. 'So very easy to talk. You don't know what it is like to have people point at you, to whisper about you, to pull their children out of your way. You don't know what it is like to be hunted by a screaming, infuriated mob as I was hunted the night they killed my father. And now it's going to start all over again. What a fool I was to have told you anything! What a stupid fool I was!'
He knelt beside her.
'Frankie, if you'll let me, I'll take care of you. I've got it all figured out. I'll take you away when the trial's over. We can start a new life together. I want you to marry me. No one will know who you are where we'll go. We'll go to England. I have a friend who wants me to sink some money in his farm. He wants me to be his partner. There's a house for us, and no one will know you. Will you let me take care of you? Will you let me build a new future for you?'
She got up abruptly and without looking at him, she went over to the window.
'Future?' she said. 'But I haven't a future. I know I haven't.' She stared at the red ball of the setting sun as it slowly sank below the horizon, casting a red glow over the sea. 'My time's running out, Paul. There's no future for me, only a very immediate present.'
II
'It's got to look like an accident, Jack,' Gollowitz said. 'It's got to. If there's the slightest suspicion of murder, we're finished. A full-scale inquiry would put us out of business. Someone is bound to talk once the pressure's on. It's got to look like an accident.'
Maurer sat hunched up over his desk, his small eyes gleaming angrily. For ten days now he had racked his brains for a way to get at Frances, but the solid wall of defence that Conrad had erected baffled him.
'She's got to die!' he snarled. 'The only way to get at her is to set fire to the hotel. Then when they bring her out, we'll swarm all over them.'
Gollowitz spread out his fat hands pleadingly.
'We've got to think of another way. We can't do it like that. It'd finish us.'
Maurer got up and began to pace the floor.
'What other way? Goddamn it! There is no other way! How are we to get at her unless we smoke her out? How the hell can we make it look like an accident?'
Gollowitz wiped his glistening face. The past ten days had been dangerous and difficult for him. It had come as a great relief when Maurer had sent for him and had told him to forget what he had said at their last meeting. He realized now Maurer couldn't do without him. The problem was too big for Maurer to handle himself.
'Ferrari could do it,' Gollowitz said. 'I'm sure he could.'
Maurer paused to stare at Gollowitz.
'Is he still in town?'
Gollowitz, who had expected an explosion, nodded eagerly.
'He's in the bar right now.'
'We're admitting failure by using him, Abe,' Maurer said. 'You realize that?'
'We have failed. I wouldn't have brought him in if we hadn't failed to get Weiner. I know you blame me, but there was no alternative as there is no alternative now. If anyone can get at that girl, Ferrari can.'
Maurer came back to his desk and sat down. He stared down at his snowy blotter, his forehead furrowed, his eyes narrowed. He sat like that for some minutes. Then he picked up the receiver.
'Louis? Ask Ferrari to come to my office. He's in the bar.'
Gollowitz sat back. It was a moment of triumph for him. He felt vindicated. Maurer was now doing what he had had to do.
'You're playing this right, Jack,' he said. 'It's the only way.'
Maurer looked up.
'You're kidding yourself, Abe,' he said softly. 'You think I'm playing it your way, but I'm not. Ferrari is going to take care of the girl, then I'll take care of Ferrari. That's the difference between running this organization and letting the organization run you!'
