She started to struggle, then relaxed almost immediately. «You gangster» Her voice was a savage whisper.
The obsolete expression caught Pitt off guard. Slowly he released his hold and stepped back. «That's me, one of big Al Capone's torpedoes, fresh off the boat from Chicago.»
«I wish to heaven I'd…» She broke off and crossed her arms and massaged the reddening skin on her shoulders. «You are a devil.»
Pitt felt no hate in return, only a touch of remorse as he noted the angry masses of red welts where his fingers had dug into her flesh.
There was a long pause before she spoke. «I'll tell you what you wish to know.» Despite the subtle change in tone, there was nothing soft in the coldness in her eyes. «But first, could you help me to the bathroom. I feel… I think I'm going to be sick.»
Pitt extended his hand and grabbed her wrist, feeling her muscles tighten under his grip. Suddenly she braced one foot against the railing of the bed and threw every ounce of her slender body into a shoulder block to Pitt's stomach. She caught him off balance; he fell backward over a chair, crashing to the floor and taking the bedstand lamp with him. Pitt had hardly collided with the shag carpet when Summer jerked open the sliding door and vanished out onto the balcony.
Pitt made no effort to rise, but leaned back and relaxed into a more comfortable position on the floor. Ten seconds passed. He could hold it back no longer; he began to laugh. «Next time you exit a man's tenth-floor apartment, you'd best carry a parachute.»
She slowly stepped back into the bedroom, her lovely face livid with rage. «There is an evil word for you.»
«I can think of at least a dozen,» he said, smiling politely.
She moved to the other side of the room, putting as much space as the room allowed between them, and lowered herself into a chair, her eyes exploring his. «If I answer your questions, what then?»
«Nothing,» Pitt said quietly. «When you tell a story I can swallow without gagging, you're free to leave.»
«I don't believe you.»
«My dear girl, I'm not the Boston Strangler or Jack the Ripper, and I assure you, I'm not in the habit of abducting innocent virgins from Waikiki Beach.»
«Please,» she implored softly, «It was not my intent to harm you. I must work for my government just as you must work for yours. You have information I was ordered to obtain. The content of the syringe was an ordinary solution of scopolamine.»
«Truth serum?»
«Yes. Your reputation with women made you a prime suspect»
«You're not making sense.»
«The United States Navy, or at least its intelligence section, has reason to believe one of Miss Hunter's lovers has been trying to gain classified information concerning her father's fleet operations. I was ordered to investigate your involvement with her. That's all there is to it.»
That wasn't all there was to it. There was no doubt in Pitt's mind that she was lying. He also knew that she was trying to buy time. The only classified information that Adrian Hunter possessed was how the Navy's up-and- coming crop of future admirals rated on her personal lovemaking scale.
As Pitt rose from the floor and moved in front of her, she saw the brutal gleam in his eyes and she visibly tensed. Confused and angry, Pitt found himself sensing a strong degree of compassion toward the girl. He gazed at the red hair tousled over one eye, and the long slender hands reclining loosely on an inviting lap.
«I'm sorry it turned out this way,» he said. «Damned sorry.» He felt a little foolish. «Too bad you ruined a good thing. You're not with Naval Intelligence, dear heart. You're not even a bona fide American. Hell, nobody's used the term gangster in this country since the 1930s. You also failed your secret agent test. No professional would have bought that phony telephone call to the police, but you did. Anyway, the Navy isn't in the habit of allowing their female operators to run loose among villain types minus a backup crew armed to the teeth within screaming distance. You don't carry a purse, and your dress is too tight to hide a transmitter to warn the watchdogs when the going gets nasty.» The shock treatment was working too well. Her face drained of all color and she truly looked sick.
He went on. «And, in case you think I might be as pure and virginal as you are, you're sadly mistaken. I checked you over from hair to painted toenails when I carried you here from the beach. The only thing you've got on under that dress is a tiny holster for the syringe, taped to the inside of your left thigh.»
Summer's eyes were glazed with revulsion. Pitt couldn't remember when a woman had looked at him like that. She turned and stared at the bathroom as if she were making up her mind to throw up in the sink or on the shag carpet. The sink won. She rose unsteadily from the chair and reeled into the bathroom, slamming the door.
He soon heard the sound of water gushing as the commode was flushed; then the faucet on the sink was turned on. Pitt walked over to the balcony and gazed at the twinkling lights of Honolulu in the distance, while far below, the ocean breakers droned against the beach. He lingered at the balcony perhaps a little too long.
He was jolted back to reality by the sound of running water in the bathroom; the flow was too constant, too prolonged for normal routine. It took him three steps to reach the door — locked from the inside. No time for a theatrical «are you in there» line. Balancing on one leg, he kicked hard at the lock with the other, revealing an empty room.
Summer was gone. Her only trace was a trail of knotted bath towels, tied to the shower curtain railing and stretching over the windowsill. Casting an anxious eye below, he saw the last towel dangling only four feet above a chaise lounge on the balcony belonging to the room beneath his. No lights were showing, no shouts of alarm from the tenants. She had escaped safely. For that he was thankful.
He stood there recalling her face — a face that was probably compassionate and tender and gay.
Then he cursed himself for letting her get away.
It was early morning. Thin, ghostly trails of vapor were left behind from a light rain that had come and gone during the night The humidity would have been stifling but for the tradewinds that swept clean the sodden atmosphere and dispersed it over the blue ocean beyond the encircling reefs. The sandy strip of beach that curled from Diamond Head to the Reef Hotel was empty, but already tourists were beginning to trickle from the great glass and concrete hotels to begin a day of sightseeing and shopping excursions.
Lying crosswise on the sweat-dampened sheets of his bed, a naked Pitt gazed out the open window at a pair of myna birds who were fighting over a disinterested female perched in a neighboring palm tree. Black feathers flew in profusion as the birds squawked riotously, creating a disturbance heard for nearly a block. Then, just as the miniature brawl was about to reach its final round, Pitt's door chime sounded. Reluctantly, he slipped on a terrycloth robe, walked yawning to the door, and opened it.
«Good morning, Dirk.» A short, fire-haired man with a protruding face, stood in the hall. «I hope I'm not interrupting a romantic interlude?»
Pitt stretched out his hand. «No, I'm quite alone. Come on in.»
The little man crossed the threshold, looked unhurriedly about the room, then stepped out on the balcony, taking in the splendid view. He was nattily dressed in a light tan suit and vest, complete with watch and chain. He had a neatly trimmed Ahab, the whaler's red beard, with two evenly spaced white streaks on each side of the chin, presenting a facial growth that was strikingly uncommon. The olive face was beaded with perspiration either from the humidity or from climbing the stairs, or both. When most men wove their lives through the channels of least resistance, Admiral James Sandecker, Chief Director of the National Underwater and Marine Agency, hit every barrier, every obstacle in the shortest line from point A to point B.
Sandecker turned and nodded over his shoulder. «How in hell do you get any sleep with those damned crows screeching in your ears?»
«Fortunately, they don't fly amok until the sun's up.» Pitt motioned to the sectional couch. «Get comfortable, Admiral, while I get the coffee going.»
«Forget the coffee. Nine hours ago I was in Washington. The jet lag has my body chemistry all screwed up. I'd prefer a drink.»
Pitt pulled out a bottle of Scotch from a cabinet and poured. He glanced across the room only to be met by
