“Don’t you see?” Luther said excitedly. “This is our escape! We can fly over the goddamn navy and get away!”
Vincini nodded slowly. “Good thinking. That’s what we’ll do.”
Eddie realized they were going to get away. His life was saved, but he had failed after all.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Nancy Lenehan had found the answer to the problem as she flew along the Canadian coast in the chartered seaplane.
She wanted to defeat her brother, but she also wanted to find some way of escaping from the tramlines of her father’s plans for her life. She wanted to be with Mervyn, but she was afraid that if she left Black’s Boots and went to England she would become a bored housewife like Diana.
Nat Ridgeway had said he was willing to make a higher offer for the company, and give Nancy a job in General Textiles. Thinking about that, she had realized that General Textiles had several factories in Europe, mostly in Britain; and that Ridgeway was not going to be able to visit them until the war was over, which might be years. So she was going to offer to become the European Manager of General Textiles. That way she could be with Mervyn and still be in business.
The solution was remarkably neat. The only snag was that Europe was at war and she might get killed.
She was reflecting on that distant but chilling possibility when Mervyn turned around in his copilot’s seat and pointed out of the window and down; and she saw the Clipper floating on the sea.
Mervyn tried to raise the Clipper by radio, but he got no response. Nancy forgot about her own troubles as the Goose circled the downed plane. What had happened? Were the people on board all right? The plane appeared undamaged, but there was no sign of life.
Mervyn turned to her and shouted over the roar of the engines: “We have to go down and see if they need help.”
Nancy nodded vigorously in agreement.
“Strap in and hold tight. It may be a rough splashdown because of the swell.”
She fastened her safety belt and looked out. The sea was choppy and there were long rollers. The pilot, Ned, brought the seaplane down in a line parallel with the crests of the waves. The hull touched water on the back of a swell, and the seaplane rode the wave like a Hawaiian surf rider. It was not as rough as Nancy had feared.
There was a motor launch tied up to the Clipper’s nose. A man in dungarees and a cap appeared on the deck and beckoned to them. Nancy gathered he wanted the Goose to tie up alongside the launch. The bow door of the Clipper was open, so presumably they would board that way. Nancy could see why: the waves were washing over the sea-wings, so it would be difficult to board through the normal door.
Ned edged the seaplane toward the launch. Nancy could tell it was a tricky maneuver in this sea. However, the Goose was a high-winged monoplane, and its wing was well above the superstructure of the launch, so they were able to draw alongside, with the hull of the plane bumping against the row of rubber tires on the side of the boat. The man on deck tied the plane to his vessel fore and aft.
While Ned shut down the engines of the seaplane, Mervyn came aft, opened the door and broke out the gangway.
“I ought to stay with my plane,” Ned said to Mervyn. “You’d better go and find out what’s going on.”
“I’m coming, too,” said Nancy.
Because the seaplane was roped to the launch, the two vessels rose and fell together on the waves, and the gangway shifted relatively little. Mervyn disembarked first and held out a hand to Nancy.
When they were both on deck, Mervyn said to the man on the launch: “What happened?”
“They had fuel trouble and had to splash down,” he replied.
“I couldn’t get them on the radio.”
The man shrugged. “You’d better go aboard.”
Getting from the launch to the Clipper involved a little jump, from the deck of the launch onto the platform made by the open bow door. Once again Mervyn went first. Nancy took off her shoes and stuffed them inside her coat, then followed suit. She was a little nervous, but in fact it was easy.
In the bow compartment was a young man she did not recognize.
Mervyn said: “What happened here?”
“Emergency landing,” the young man said. “We were fishing, saw the whole thing.”
“What’s wrong with the radio?”
“Dunno.”
The youngster was not very bright, Nancy decided. Mervyn must have had the same thought, for he said impatiently: “I’d better speak to the captain.”
“Go this way—they’re all in the dining room.”
The boy was not very sensibly dressed for fishing, in his two-tone shoes and yellow tie, Nancy thought with amusement. She followed Mervyn up the ladder to the flight deck, which was deserted. That explained why Mervyn had been unable to raise the Clipper on the radio. But
She began to feel uneasy as she went down the stairs to the passenger deck. Mervyn led the way into number 2 compartment and stopped suddenly.
Looking past him, Nancy saw Mr. Membury lying on the floor in a pool of blood. She put her hand to her mouth to stifle a cry of horror.
Mervyn said: “Dear God, what’s been happening here?”
Behind them, the young man in the yellow tie said: “Keep moving.” His voice had become harsh.
Nancy turned to him and saw that he had a gun in his hand. “Did you do this?” she said angrily.
“Shut your fuckin’ mouth and keep moving!”
They stepped into the dining room.
Three more men with guns were standing in the room. There was a big man in a striped suit who looked as if he might be in charge. A little man with a mean face was standing behind Mervyn’s wife, casually fondling her breasts: when Mervyn saw this he let out a curse. The third gunman was a passenger, Mr. Luther: he was pointing his gun at another passenger, Professor Hartmann. The captain and the engineer were also there, looking helpless. Several passengers were seated at tables, but most of the dishes and glassware had fallen to the floor and smashed. Nancy caught a glimpse of Margaret Oxenford, pale and frightened; and in a sudden flash she recalled the conversation in which she had glibly told Margaret that regular people did not need to worry about gangsters because they only operated in the slums. How stupid of her.
Mr. Luther was speaking. “The gods are on my side, Lovesey. You have arrived in a seaplane just when we need one. You can fly me and Mr. Vincini and our associates over the navy cutter that the treacherous Eddie Deakin has summoned to trap us.”
Mervyn looked hard at him and said nothing.
The man in the striped suit spoke up. “Let’s get moving, before the navy starts to feel impatient and comes along to investigate. Kid, you take Lovesey. His girlfriend can stay here.”
“Okay, Vinnie.”
Nancy was not sure what was going on, but she knew she did not want to be left behind: if Mervyn was in trouble she would rather be by his side. But no one was asking what she preferred.
The man called Vincini continued giving instructions. “Luther, you take the Kraut.”
Nancy wondered why they were taking Carl Hartmann. She had assumed this was all something to do with Frankie Gordino, but he was nowhere in sight.
Vincini said: “Joe, bring the blonde.”
.The little man pointed his gun at Diana Lovesey’s bosom. “Let’s go,” he said. She did not move.
Nancy was horrified. Why were they kidnapping Diana? She had a dreadful feeling she knew the answer.
Joe poked the barrel of the gun into Diana’s soft breast, prodding her hard, and she gasped with pain.
