“Yes.”
“What else?”
“I did jobs.”
“What kind?”
“All kinds. Pick up his pants from the cleaners. Bring a message to his firm, carry his goddamn ledgers around.” Benny sounded irritated. “And answered the goddamn telephone. A telephone girl-”
“What kind of calls?”
“Christ, all kinds of calls. What kind of calls you interested in, Alverato?”
“Shut up. I’ll ask the questions.”
Benny shut up. He didn’t want to go too far.
“Let’s see what you know, Tapkow. Who was old Ager’s man in Frisco?”
“Screwy Pinton.”
“How did Ager get his junk into the country?”
“Heroin?”
“What else, damn it?”
“Pendleton handled that.”
“I asked how.”
“Italy. From Italy.”
“Tapkow, you don’t hear so good. You haven’t told me a thing I didn’t know.”
So that was it. Alverato couldn’t play with Pendleton, so maybe one of the flunkies knew a little something. Just a clue, maybe, a million-dollar clue.
“Well? Maybe you’re thinking?”
The chance, Tapkow, the one-in-a-million chance!
“There were a few phone calls that sounded big. There’s one that came through often. He’d send me out of the room after I took the call. Big stuff, by the way Pendleton acted. The contact was A.A. That’s all I can think of right now. A.A.”
“Big stuff? You said big stuff?” Alverato was up and roaring. “You bet your lousy life that was big stuff. Me, Agrippino Alverato, get it? A.A.! And now get outa here, you broken-down punk. Get outa here before I tear your head off!”
Benny sat paralyzed with fear. Not fear of the big man, like an ox butting the air. But felt himself turn limp with the sight of this thing running through his fingers. And it had been so close, so close…
“Get out!” and he could feel the fine spray of spit, the face was that close.
It woke him up. There was always that last ounce of strength.
Benny went to the table and poured himself a drink. His hand was shaking just a little, but he poured it. He drank the whisky neat, watching Alverato stand by. Perhaps Pendleton had been right about Big Al. A noisy hangover from another time, riding on the coattails of old Ager, a machine gun in each hand.
“I got something to sell.”
“You have-” Alverato wasn’t so fast any more. He was still staring.
“How much are you paying?”
“Listen, punk, I pay what it’s worth. What are you selling?”
“About the Italy contact. How much?”
“Punk, learn something. Big Al never pulled a double-cross. If it’s worth something, I pay plenty. But first I gotta see.”
“A thousand on account, Al. I never double-cross, either.”
“A deal.”
Benny stepped closer and talked. “There’s a lodge up in the mountains. Pendleton goes there once, twice a year. Nobody used to go there but him and me driving. He hasn’t been there for a year. I was still driving him, now and then. The old keeper up there knows me, he hasn’t heard the latest.”
“Come on, come on, what’s up there?”
“It’s a safe, Al. I know where it’s hidden. No money in it-just papers and a notebook with a lock. I’ve seen it from the door. I’ve seen him hold the thing when he made his phone calls, some of them abroad, and everybody had to leave the room when he made-”
“All right, all right” Alverato walked to a porthole and looked out Then he turned.
“It’s a deal; you go up there. See me tomorrow at nine. One of the boys will pick you up at the pier.”
Chapter Six
They started for the mountains at ten in the morning. Smiley drove and Benny sat in back. He had his arms folded and wasn’t talking.
“Mr. Tapkow?”
“Call me Benny.”
“Sure thing, Benny. You got any idea what kind of a safe it is?”
“That’s your department. All I know, it’s in the wall.”
“Sure thing, Benny.”
They drove a while.
“Benny, is it round or square? You remember?”
“Round.”
“Oh. I guess that means-”
“Say, Smiley, how about thinking to yourself? This isn’t the wrong kind of job for you, is it?”
“Oh, no, Benny. I’ve studied with the best.”
“So drive.”
“Sure thing, Benny.”
They drove for two hours and turned into the mountains. After that came a gravel road that wound through the woods.
The big gate came without warning. Benny got out, stopped at the left gatepost, and felt the mortared crevices between the big stones. One of them swung out and showed a telephone.
Benny talked, and then the gates swung open. They drove through, up the winding road, and stopped at the porch of the lodge. There was an old man on the steps and he was carrying a shotgun.
“Come on out and show yourselves,” he called.
They did.
“Mr. Benny! I sure am glad to see you again. And who might that be by your side?”
“That’s Smiley, Mr. Huston. A new man.”
“Mr. Pendleton never said nothin’ about him comin’ out.”
“That’s why he’s with me. It’s O.K., Huston, you can put that pepper-grinder down.”
“Well, come on up, then, but Mr. Pendleton never said nothin’ about no Smiley comin’ out here. In fact, Mr. Pendleton never said nothin’ about comin’ out this month at all, except maybe.”
Benny walked up to the old man. He sounded casual. “He said maybe, huh? He didn’t say any more than that, did he?”
“He said maybe, young feller. Don’t you know what he’s planning to do? Don’t you-Hey, what’s that Smiley feller fixin’ to do there?”
Huston took a step down from the porch, watching Smiley pull a long black satchel and a small oxygen tank out of the car. “I think I better-” and that’s as far as he got. Benny had stepped behind the old man and with a swift, efficient swing sapped him on the back of the head. Huston sank into himself and rolled down the wooden stairs.
Benny led the way through the big living room, through the kitchen, and into a pantry. He opened two cabinet doors-one on the bottom, one to the left-and then he pushed against the molding of the doorframe.
One of the pantry shelves started to hum and move, and there was the safe; small, round, flush in the
