‘Sit down and drink your coffee,’ I said. ‘Don’t let’s talk yet. There’s plenty of time.’
‘But, Ches…’
‘I said we wouldn’t talk yet. I want a little peace while I drink my coffee. Just relax, will you, and try to keep quiet?’
She sat down opposite me, her face suddenly sulky, and poured the coffee.
I savoured the situation. If I had no troubles, if Aitken dropped dead and if she were to marry me, this could be the set-up for the next twenty years or more: she sitting opposite me, looking lovely and a little sulky every morning while we drank coffee. I found the picture a lot less exciting than I had, imagined it would be.
We finished our coffee in silence. From time to time we looked at each other across the table. It was a pretty odd breakfast, but I was determined not to listen to her troubles before the first cigarette of the morning.
When we had finished the coffee, I pushed a box of cigarettes towards her, got up, walked over to the settee and lay down on it I lit a cigarette and stared up at the ceiling. I now felt more or less ready to cope with whatever she had to tell me.
‘Okay,’ I said, not looking at her. ‘Let’s have it. You’re now being blackmailed—is that it?’
She sat rigid, her clenched fists on the table, her eyes wide open.
‘Yes. He came yesterday evening. I was swimming. He suddenly appeared as I was getting out of the bath.’
I let smoke drift out of my open mouth.
‘If you were wearing the bikini I saw you in, I’m surprised he had the heart to blackmail you.’ I lifted my head to look at her. ‘How did you like him? He struck me as the type most girls would rave about.’
‘I thought he was hateful,’ she said in a cold, flat voice.
‘Really? Perhaps that was because he wanted money from you. I’m sure if he asked you to go out to dinner with him, you would have found him enchanting.’
‘Ches! Will you please stop talking like this! He is demanding thirty thousand dollars! He said you and I could find that amount!’
‘I know. He seems to have a certain child-like faith in our ability to raise such a sum. He has put the same proposition to me. He has given me until the end of the week to find the money. Do you think you could find thirty thousand dollars?’
‘Of course not!’
I reached out and tapped ash off my cigarette.
‘How much can you find—’
‘I don’t know. I have a diamond ring. It’s the only thing I really own. Roger gave it to me before we were married. It must be worth something.’ She began to twist a ring on the third finger of her right hand. ‘I don’t know how much. Perhaps you could sell it for me.’
I stretched out my hand.
‘Let’s have a look at it.’
She stared at me as if she couldn’t believe she had heard aright, then she pulled the ring off her finger, got up and came over to me. She handed the ring to me.
I took it, looking up at her.
‘Sit down here,’ I said, patting the settee.
She sat down, folding her hands in her lap. Her expression was puzzled and worried.
I examined the ring.
It wasn’t bad, but there was nothing about it that would excite any jeweller to fall over himself to buy it.
‘I’d say you might hock it for five hundred,’ I said, ‘providing you told the guy your mother was starving, and you were dying of consumption, and if, of course, he believed you.’ I dropped the ring into her lap. ‘Well, we’re making progress. We now have only to find twenty-nine thousand and five hundred dollars.’
‘Ches! Why are you talking like this to me?’ she demanded angrily. ‘What have I done? I warned you we would be blackmailed and you didn’t believe me and now you turn against me. It’s not my fault.’
‘I’ve had a very trying night,’ I said patiently. ‘Your problems, Lucille, don’t interest me immediately. I have other things to think about.’
‘But they are your problems as well!’ she flared. ‘How are we going to raise the money?’
‘That, as Hamlet once said, is the question. Have you any suggestions to make?’
‘Well, you—you can find most of it, can’t you? You told me you had twenty thousand dollars.’
I looked at her.
She was sitting forward, her eyes frightened and anxious, and she looked very young and lovely.
‘I have to give that to your husband. He might be annoyed if I gave it to Oscar instead.’
‘Ches! You’re not taking this seriously! What is the matter with you? This man says he will tell Roger we were making love on the beach together and he will tell the police I killed the policeman! He says he has a photograph of you changing the number plates of your car!’ She began to beat her fist on my knee. ‘You’re in tins as much as I am! What are we going to do?’
I pushed her hand away.
‘We’re not going to let this situation stampede us,’ I said. That’s the first thing. The second thing is we’re not going to pay Mr. Oscar Ross, and the third thing is you’re going to get dressed and go home before someone comes here and finds us together in an obviously compromising situation.’
She became rigid, her clenched fists between her knees.
‘You’re not going to pay him?’ she said, her eyes growing round. ‘But you must! He’ll go to the police! He’ll tell Roger… you must pay him!’
‘There’s no must about it. We have until the end of the week: that’s six days. I’ll be surprised if I don’t find something in that time about Ross that will discourage him from pressing his claim. A man like him must have a past. He’s anxious to leave town. I’m going to dig into his past, and I’m going to find out why he wants to leave town. I may turn up something. I’m certainly not going to pay him a dime until I’m convinced I must pay him and I’m far from convinced at this moment.’
She stared at me, aghast.
‘But if he finds out you are investigating him, he may not like it. He may go to the police…’
‘He won’t. Now will you be a nice girl and get dressed and go home? I have lots of things to do and you’re in the way.’
‘But you’re not really serious? You’ll only antagonize him. He—he may raise the price.’
‘He won’t,’ I said. ‘He’s no fool. He knows thirty thousand is as much as he can hope for. Now will you please go home?’
Slowly and reluctantly she got to her feet.
‘Don’t you think we’d better give him the money, Ches? We—we may go to jail if you try to be clever.’
I smiled at her.
‘Will you relax and leave this to me? We have time and we may be lucky.’
‘I don’t like it,’ she said, staring down at me. ‘I think it would be better to pay him and get rid of him.’
‘Naturally you would think that because it’s not your money. If you’re so anxious for him to be paid why don’t you ask your husband if he will lend you thirty thousand dollars? There’s a slight chance that he might.’
She made an angry movement with her hands, then turned and went quickly out of the room.
I reached for the telephone book, turned the pages until I came to the R’s. I found Oscar Ross had a place called Belle Vue on Beach Boulevard: not perhaps the best district in town, but at least as good as mine.
Out of curiosity, I checked to see if Art Galgano was in the book. I wasn’t disappointed nor surprised
to find he wasn’t.
I put the book down, got to my feet and poured another cup of coffee. My head was beginning to ache again, and I went into the bathroom, found some aspirin and washed down the three tablets with the luke-warm coffee.
I went back to the settee and sat on it while I did a little thinking. After ten minutes or so, Lucille came out of my bed-room. She made an attractive picture in her lemon-yellow slacks and white shirt. In her right hand she carried a white wrap-over handbag.
