When he could see that she wasn’t going to yell he nodded pleasantly and continued past.
Kitty was waiting. She quickly pulled the bolts and lowered the window. He swung one leg through the opening and jackknifed his big body in after it.
She hugged him quickly. “You said five minutes. It’s five minutes on the dot. I’m beginning to see how people could come to rely on you.”
“Did you get Barbara?”
“Yes. I decided not to tell her where I’m really going. I said Mexico City, and I sort of jumped it at her, to see how she’d react. She didn’t react one way or the other. She just wanted to know if I’d changed my mind about signing. I said no, and that was that. At the end she gritted her teeth and told me to send her a postcard, the hypocrite.”
Shayne decided not to mention his suspicions about the apartment across the street. They would find out soon enough what that meant, if it meant anything.
She had brought out a bottle of whiskey, a bottle of gin, a bucket of ice cubes, and soda and water. Shayne made the drinks. She had an Ella Fitzgerald record on the record player, turned low.
“I’ve been trying to think if there’s anything else I ought to tell you,” she said nervously. “I can’t think of anything, and there’s no point in going around in circles. So to change the subject, how are you at backgammon?”
“Fair,” Shayne said, handing her the drink.
“Mmm. Now does that mean you’re really only fair, or that you’re very good and you don’t like to boast? Because I was going to suggest that we put a little money on it.”
Shayne smiled slightly. “There’s only one way to find out how good I am. Five bucks?”
She studied him for another moment before assenting. She moved the bottles aside and laid the board on the low coffee table.
“On guard,” she said, rattling the dice in the cup. “Expect no mercy.”
After a time, when bending over the table became awkward, they moved to the floor. Kitty kicked off her shoes. She was drinking steadily. She also won steadily, and by eleven, when the phone rang, Shayne had dropped three games in a row and was out fifteen dollars.
They looked at each other across the board while the phone rang again. She was on her knees, about to throw the dice, her eyes bright with excitement. She put the dice box down quietly.
“It’s a funny thing. I’d completely forgotten why you were here.”
She reached the phone and picked it up before it could ring again. After listening a moment, she held it out to Shayne.
“Tim Rourke.”
Shayne took the phone. “Yeah, Tim.”
“What’s that I hear?” Rourke’s voice said. “The faint tinkle of ice cubes? Soft music? The usual pattern, buddy. You relax while I keep my nose pressed to the grindstone.”
“Did Natalie kick you out?” Shayne said with a grin.
“She’s threatening to. Mike, this girl doesn’t know that the world is going through a sexual revolution. She’s still playing by grandmother’s rules. I want to talk about love and she wants to talk about real-estate prices.”
“What’s she say about real-estate prices?”
“In a minute. My thoughts are all organized, and don’t try to short-circuit me. First-you scoffed when I said I might get that air tank analyzed. It’s Sunday night. Everything’s closed. But you don’t want to underestimate my connections. I know a nurse who works the night shift at Jackson Memorial, and she had a lab technician run off the tests. It’s nitrous oxide, Mike.”
Shayne rubbed his thumb the wrong way along his jaw. Kitty had her head close to the phone so she could hear what the reporter was saying.
“The ordinary hospital anesthetic?” Shayne asked.
“That’s it. Ideal for the purpose. You can’t taste it. You can’t smell it. And so easy to get-every medical supply house has it, no prescription needed. Any time I want to murder a scuba diver, that’s what I’ll use. CO or CO 2 could get in by accident. Not nitrous oxide-that has to be put. The kid in the lab said it was about half air, half nitrous oxide. You still had about ten percent oxygen, a tick less than you’d get on the top of Mt. Everest. That was to give you plenty of time to get out of sight before you conked out.”
Kitty said something in Shayne’s ear. Shayne told Rourke: “Hold on.”
“How would they get it in the tank?” Kitty said.
“I heard that,” Rourke said. “No problem. All you’d need is a little two-way coupling. Any plumber would have it. Mike, are you on?”
“Yeah.”
“Point number two. During a brief interval while I wasn’t chasing Natalie around the sofa, she called a gal she knows who works at Florida-American, the land company. And the news is that yes, they made an offer for Key Gaspar, and confidentially, off the record and for God’s sake don’t put it in the paper, the price is a cool one million clams.”
“A million?”
“Three times what Natalie thought was the outside figure. Cash, not stock or promises. What gives? The head of the company is a guy named Hilary Quarrels. You never heard of him. Don’t feel bad-I never heard of him either. Apparently he’s a big name in that part of the forest. He’s handling it himself, playing it close to the chest. This friend of Nat’s doesn’t think either the price or the location makes sense, but Quarrels does all the deciding in that outfit. As far as she knows, Tuttle’s daughter Barbara has been doing the negotiating. And for the time being, that’s all.”
“Thanks, Tim. It’s been a long day. You must be worn out.”
“Oh, I am. And Natalie’s showing no consideration at all. I probably won’t feel up to calling you again.”
“Anesthetic,” Kitty said thoughtfully after Shayne put the phone back. “Speaking of coincidences-Barbara’s a nurse’s aid in a hospital a couple of days a week. These are nice people!”
“It may help keep the peace,” Shayne told her. “Most hospitals have a pretty good system for keeping track of that kind of stuff. I’ll find out if any bottles of nitrous oxide have been reported missing. It gives us one more handle. Whose play is it?”
She picked up the leather dice cup and shook it, putting it down a moment later. “Mike, I know it’s all very scary, but I keep thinking of more urgent things.” She poured more whiskey into her glass without looking at Shayne. “Such as what are we going to do about the sleeping arrangements?”
chapter 5
Shayne laughed. “It’s early. You can’t be sleepy yet. Let’s change games. How would you feel about a little craps?”
“I haven’t shot craps in years.”
“That’s fine. I’ll be glad to explain the rules.”
She used her backgammon winnings as betting money, and half an hour later she had won another forty dollars, all the cash Shayne was carrying. He looked ruefully into his empty wallet.
“I’ll have to give you an IOU.”
“I never gamble on credit,” she told him smugly, racking the bills. “No, Mike. The time has come. This has been one of the pleasantest evenings I’ve ever had, which is really amazing considering the circumstances. That doesn’t alter the fact that you’re here for business reasons and not for pleasure. Right?”
“Right,” Shayne said, a corner of his mouth quirking upward.
“Will you stop grinning at me so I can remember what I was about to say? You’re here on pleasure. Not business.” She stopped. “No, that can’t be right. It’s the other way around. I’ve had too much to drink, I regret to say. I’ve never been the bait in a trap before. It’s a brand-new experience and naturally I’m nervous. But nobody’s going to set a foot in the trap so long as the lights are on so let’s get underway.”
She sat back on her heels and looked at the sofa, then at Shayne, then back at the sofa. “You won’t fit
