After more thought, I decided it was impossible to make any plan until I had seen the bank. This meant a trip to Los Angeles.
I thought of all the work piled up on my desk and the appointments I had lined up for tomorrow and I cursed Rima. But my work would have to be shelved. If I was going to find her I would have to act at once.
I would have to take the ten-thirty plane tomorrow morning. Jack would have to handle the urgent appointments. What he would say I couldn’t imagine, but I had to move fast. There was a slight chance that Rima would be going to Los Angeles and a slighter chance that I might spot her.
I would have to part with the first ten thousand dollars. I then had three clear weeks ahead of me before I had to pay the second instalment. In that time I had to find and silence her.
CHAPTER THREE
I
I got to the office before eight o’clock and I was in a pretty depressed mood.
Sarita had been quiet during breakfast. We had said little to each other. Nothing was said about the bungalow, but it was there, between us like a ten-foot wall.
When I looked at my desk and saw all the paper work piled in my In-tray, my heart sank. By going to Los Angeles, I would be throwing a hopeless burden on Jack. I knew he was pretty booked up this morning with appointments with contractors at the site of the bridge.
I slaved for an hour, getting some of the urgent paper work out of the way, then the door jerked open and Jack breezed in.
‘Hi, Jeff!’ he said, going over to his desk. ‘I’ve got four bulldozers on the job. They are beginning to clear the site right now. I’ve started them, now I’ve got to see Cooper about those concrete mixers. Any mail in yet?’
‘Not yet.’ I hesitated, then blurted out, ‘Look, Jack, I’ve got to take a couple of days off.’
He was pawing through a mass of papers, muttering under his breath. For a moment, he didn’t seem to have heard, then he looked up sharply.
‘What was that?’
I leaned back in my desk chair and tried to look casual.
‘I have to take a couple of days off. I want you to hold the fort.’
He stared at me as if he thought I had gone crazy.
‘Hey! Wait a minute! You can’t do that! You can’t take time off now, Jeff! What are you thinking of!
You have Kobey, Max Stone, Crombie and Cousins lined up for appointments, haven’t you? I want those estimates for the steel today. You can’t take time off now!’
‘I’m sorry, but I have to. This is very urgent private business.’
His jovial face suddenly turned hard and flushed brick red.
‘I don’t give a damn how urgent it is! We’re building a bridge and we have a time limit! To hell with your urgent and private business! You’ve got to stay right here and do your job as I’m doing mine!’
‘But I have to go, Jack.’
He ran his hand over his balding head, staring at me. Slowly, the flush died down and into his alert eyes came a quizzing, shrewd expression.
‘What’s up then?’
‘Personal trouble,’ I said woodenly, not looking at him. ‘It’s important to Sarita and me.’
He moved papers about on his desk, frowning, then he said, ‘I’m sorry I blew up. I’m sorry too to hear you have trouble. Let’s put our cards on the table, Jeff. You and I are partners. We have put our money in this firm and we’re in it together. We have landed the biggest job the City can offer us. If we fall down on it, we’re cooked. Make no mistake about that. I don’t know what your trouble is, but I’m reminding you this job represents my future as well as yours. If you miss these appointments, we’ll lose five working days. There’s no two ways about that. If Mathison takes it into his head to telephone and finds you’re not at your desk, he’ll hit the ceiling. I’m making an issue of this, Jeff, because neither of us can nor should take a minute off for at least two months.’ He lifted his shoulders in a shrug. ‘Well, I’ve said my piece. It’s up to you what you do. If you take time off now, the bridge will be five days late, and we will have fallen down on the job, and we won’t get any more jobs like this one. I know it, and nothing you say will alter the facts.’
I knew he was right. I felt a murderous impulse go through me as I realised that Rima must have counted on this, had counted on me being chained to Holland City so she could hide herself away in her own time and with the confidence that once she was hidden, I could never find her.
I hesitated for a long moment, then I gave up. I had to think of Jack and the bridge even if it meant sacrificing myself. I would have to wait. It would make the hunt for Rima much more difficult and I stood to lose my second ten thousand dollars, but I had no alternative.
‘Okay, forget it,’ I said. ‘I’m sorry to have brought it up.’
‘Sorry – hell! You’ve got to stay here, Jeff, or we’ll be sunk! Now we have that little item off our chests, what’s the trouble? You and I are partners. I’m not that stupid I can’t see by looking at you that there is something badly wrong. It’s a good thing to share bad things: share this with me.’
I very nearly told him, but I stopped in time.
My only way out of this mess was to find and silence Rima. I couldn’t bring Jack into it. This was something I had to do on my own. I would be making him an accessory to murder.
‘It’s something I have to handle myself,’ I said, looking away from him. ‘Thanks all the same.’
‘That’s up to you,’ he said and I could see he was hurt and worried. ‘I won’t press it. I want to put on record that if you want help, financial or otherwise, I’m here. I’m your partner. What concerns you, concerns me. Understand?’
‘Thanks, Jack.’
We looked at each other, slightly embarrassed, then he got to his feet and began collecting his papers.
‘Well, I’ve got to get going. I have a couple of guys waiting for me right now.’
When he had gone, I took out my cheque book and wrote a cheque for ten thousand dollars in favour of Rima Marshall. I put the cheque in an envelope, addressed it to the Los Angeles bank and put it in my Out-tray. Then I ’phoned my bank and told them to sell my bonds.
I was caught, but I was still determined to find Rima if I could before I parted with any more money.
If I really got down to the job and worked practically non-stop, I could gain a few days breathing space.
I had three weeks in which to clear my desk, and to get so far ahead with my work I could afford a few days off: three weeks before the second payment was due.
I went to work.
I doubt if any man at any time has ever slaved harder than I did during the next two weeks. I worked like a crazy man.
I was at my desk at half-past five in the morning and I worked through until past midnight. During those two weeks, I scarcely said more than a dozen words to Sarita. I left her asleep, and on my return found her in bed. I drove my contractors nearly out of their minds. I turned poor Clara into a thin, sunken-eyed automaton. I got so far ahead with my work that Jack couldn’t keep pace with me.
‘For the love of Mike!’ he exploded after the twelfth day, ‘we’re not finishing this goddam bridge next week! Ease off, will you? My boys are going nuts under this pressure!’
‘Let them go nuts!’ I said. ‘I have everything buttoned up on my side, and I’m taking three days off from tomorrow. By the time I get back, you should have caught up. Have you any complaints if I take three days off?’
