simple. Why waste a lot of time talking about the weather and the movies and who do you know and so on? What I forgot was that I was way ahead of you as far as whiskey consumption went.”
Shayne frowned. Something was bumping at regular intervals against the side of the boat.
“At least you’re thinking about it,” Lee said approvingly. “That’s a step. I won’t say another word until you’ve had a few drinks and we’ve taken care of the weather. Isn’t it a pleasant evening? Warm, and all that crap? What’s your favorite TV program?” She leaned her forehead against him. “Mike, you’re so big.”
“Yeah.” Shayne went around to the other side of the boat and looked over the rail. By leaning out he could see a few rungs of the rope ladder beneath the window of the main cabin, and below that, nothing but black shadow. The thumping sound came again.
Lee had followed him. “Honey?” She drew his arm against her breast. “Did I say anything wrong?”
“The big trouble is, Lee,” Shayne said, moving away from the rail, “we’re in different time zones. You’re relaxing. I’m working.”
“What kind of work?”
“I’m a detective.”
Gently but firmly he moved her out of his way. She let him go, but called after him, “And does that mean you’re not human?”
Steve was sitting helplessly on the floor, surrounded by film. “I’m licked,” he told Shayne. “My old man tells me never to start something and not finish it, but this-”
Shayne stepped over a loop of film and entered the cabin. Betty was back in front of the mirror, twisting from one side to the other, to get different slants on her stomach and hips.
“Fat as a pig,” she said with disgust. “And I hardly eat anything. I just nibble at a piece of dry toast for breakfast.”
Shayne looked for the light switches and turned them on. There was a tiny expandable tensor light on one of the bedside tables. Extended to its full stretch, it just reached the window.
“You decided to come back,” Betty said, recognizing him. “Tell me. You don’t have any axe to grind, one way or another. Am I too big back here?”
She slapped herself resoundingly. From the resonance, there was nothing but flesh under the half-slip.
Shayne directed the concentrated beam of the little lamp downward toward the water, without replying.
“All I want is an opinion,” she complained. “I didn’t say you had to flatter me or anything.”
A passing boat had sent out a long wake, which was now beginning to subside. The bottom of the ladder was taut where it went into the water, as though something was weighing it down. Shayne shifted the lamp’s beam. A long black shadow swam up from below, knocked lightly against the boat’s planking and sank out of sight.
Lee’s voice called from the rail, “What was that?”
Shayne waited, playing the light back and forth along the slick black surface. The shadowy object came up again. It was unrelieved black along its entire length. This time it barely nudged the boat, not quite breaking water before it was gone. It looked shiny and hard, and was about as long as a man’s body.
Shayne wedged one of the joints of the lamp over the sill and slipped off his jacket.
“Why not?” Betty said approvingly. “I’m not going to bed with you, and don’t try to persuade me. One man at a time is my motto, irregardless. But go ahead, take off some clothes. It’s stuffy in here.”
Shayne kicked out of his shoes and swung one leg over the sill. Betty watched open-mouthed.
As his foot found the top rung of the ladder and he swung his second leg after the first, she cried shrilly, “You don’t care how you upset people, do you? Come in here and say those things about Vince-I’m just beginning to forget I heard them. Then you come in again and climb out the window! How much can a person stand?”
Shayne redirected the lamp’s beam before starting down. His big rangy body cut off the light. When one of his feet went into the water he twisted aside, flattening himself against the boat, to let the beam thrust past him. The jet-black shadow glided up silently, grazed the planking and was sucked back down, twisting. Shayne’s teeth grated together. He reached down and tried to grasp it when it rose, but he was blocking the light again and he couldn’t see what he was doing.
His fingers slipped across a hard, rounded surface, cold and unpleasant. Under his touch, the object rolled in the water and a narrower shadow separated itself from the main bulk. It was a black-clad arm. Immediately the menacing shape changed into the figure of a man, clad in a black diver’s outfit, with a narrow canister of oxygen strapped to its back.
Shayne went down two more rungs, going into water up to his knees. When the body rose this time he caught it by one arm and brought it up. The other arm was hooked around a rung of the ladder, over and under. The fingers in their black glove were locked on the rope. With difficulty, wet to the thighs, Shayne rolled the body over on one side, supporting it across his knee while he tried to free the rope from the clutching hand. The further it came out of the water, the heavier it was. He decided against going back on board to look for a line. He was afraid he had dislodged the body just enough so the next swell would carry it away.
The face mask was ajar, and apparently the airtight suit had filled with water. For an instant the powerful beam struck a cold cheek and a staring eye. That was the only glimpse Shayne was ever to get of the face of Vince Donahue.
The beam danced away. Betty’s voice called, “Don’t! I’m scared!”
One of Shayne’s arms was hooked through the ladder. With the other he kept the black-clad body from sliding away. He said calmly, “Betty, point the light down here.”
Lee cried from the deck, “Is that a body?”
“Leave it alone,” Betty said hysterically. “Let somebody else find it.”
Shayne kept his voice level. “It’s Vince. I want to get him out and see if there’s anything we can do for him. Turn the light this way.”
“No,” Betty whispered in horror. “It’s not Vince.”
“I’ll do it,” Lee said. “Hold onto him, Mike.”
He heard her footsteps leaving the deck. As he shifted his grip he touched a slack line. Following it through the water, he found it looped around Vince’s wrist. Perhaps he could lash the body to the ladder until he could get something more substantial down from on deck. He hauled it in, working carefully with one hand. It came easily, and something came with it. In a moment he touched a floating bait bucket. He unclamped the lid knowing what he would find inside even before his hand went in and felt the packages of bills.
He fastened the lid again and picked at the knot at Vince’s wrist until it came loose. Passing the free end rapidly around the rung of the ladder, he slipped it through the bight and made it fast with a quick pull.
The girls were arguing at the cabin window above him. Lee said angrily, “He needs the goddamn light!”
The beam drifted back toward Shayne, then abruptly winked out.
There was a scrabbling sound from the window. Lee said, “Betty, help me find the plug. Or get out of the way.”
“It can’t be Vince,” Betty said harshly. “He can swim like a fish. It’s somebody else. I can tell you one thing, I’m not going to look at him.”
Shayne jacked the body another foot or so out of the water. The ladder kept twisting under him. Without a block and tackle be couldn’t get the body on board unless he could open the suit to empty out some of the water. He wrestled with it in the blackness, swearing savagely. The black rubber was as slippery as though it had been polished and oiled.
He freed the tab of the zipper under the chin, carefully levered the body on one knee and worked the zipper down. Water spurted out. For a moment the swell became stronger and the ladder swayed away. He tilted the body at a steeper angle. Already it felt much lighter. In another moment, he thought, he could begin manhandling it up the ladder.
The light came on again. Lee’s voice said, “Get back inside, Betty. You can’t see anything.”
The beam wavered violently, coming to rest on the back of Vince’s head.
“What did I tell you?” Betty said triumphantly. “It’s a Negro. We can’t help if he’s already drowned. Why let it wreck the party?”
“Betty, watch out or you’ll-”
There was a sudden cry. The ladder lurched convulsively in Shayne’s hand, and Betty lost her balance and fell on him, knocking him into the water. He swallowed a mouthful of bay water before he came up, sputtering. He still had contact with the rubber-clad body, but the suit was rapidly filling with water. The zipper was out of reach. Betty
