Toni blotted sweat off his face with his sleeve.
“Maybe the boat is better.”
He didn’t want to get too close to Johnny if this suspect was Johnny.
“Yes. There are always fishermen on the lake.” Salvadore eyed the field glasses. “With those you can see without being seen. I’ll loan you a fishing rod. Just go out on the lake and act you’re fishing.. okay?”
“Yeah.”
A pause, then Salvadore said, “If it’s him, I get the reward… yes?”
“How the hell do I know?” Toni snarled. “Why the hell should I care anyway?”
“That’s no way to talk to your betters,” Salvadore said. “I ask a polite question: I expect a polite answer.”
“So get stuffed!” Toni snarled. “How’s about something to eat?”
Salvadore moved forward. His hand caught Toni’s wrist in a grip of steel, his vast belly, rock hard, smashed into Toni’s side, driving the breath out of him. His arm was twisted and he found himself gasping and on his knees. He felt a hard, sweaty hand slap him heavily around his ears, then dazed, he groped for his gun as Salvadore released him.
“Don’t do it!”
The snap in Salvadore’s voice made him turn and look up. He found himself looking into the menacing barrel of a .45.
“All right, my friend,” Salvadore said gently, “so now you’ll be polite. I may be fat and old, but I’ve eaten boys like you for breakfast. So now you ask politely for dinner.”
Toni got unsteadily to his feet.
Salvadore put his gun back into its holster, hidden under his thin coat.
“Look,” he said and the gun appeared in his hand, then he chuckled. “I was Lucky’s best man. I’m still good. Okay, so I’m old, but I’ve never lost the sharpness,” and the gun disappeared. He patted Toni’s shoulder. “So you want something to eat, huh?”
“Yes, please and thank you,” Toni said huskily. “I guess I could eat something.”
Salvadore put his thick arm around Toni’s shoulders.
“Come.” He led him into the kitchen. “Always in my home there is good food.”
An hour later, Toni got into Salvadore’s small fishing boat, awkwardly carrying a fishing rod and the field glasses. Salvadore had fitted him out in a dark blue shirt, a pair of Levis and a bush hat. He showed him how to start the outboard engine.
“Just put the rod in here,” he said pointing to a clip on the side of the boat. “Don’t get too close to the houseboat. If anyone comes up to you… there are many fishermen on the lake… tell them you are my friend. They won’t bother you.”
Toni steered the boat out into the middle of the lake, then cut the engine. He could see, in the distance, the houseboat. He clipped the rod into position, then focused the glasses on the houseboat.
He was startled at the power of the glasses.
The houseboat seemed to spring forward at him as he peered through the eyepieces. He could see the sun burning his back and settled himself to flaked paint, the holes in the deck and the rust on the rails. There was no one to be seen. He sat there, feel-watch.
NINE
The previous evening just before Scott had gone to bed, Johnny had asked permission to borrow the 12 bore shotgun.
“Thought I might take a walk in the woods and bag something for supper.”
“Sure,” Scott said. “A good idea. I never get time now for shooting. You could find coot or pigeon.”
So the following morning after a swim, Johnny took the gun with a pocketful of 6 shot cartridges and told Freda he would be back for lunch.
“Don’t get lost,” she warned him. “Keep to the path and don’t go far.”
He spent the whole morning in the jungle and enjoyed himself. He bagged four pigeons and two wild duck, and he felt ten feet tall as he walked into the kitchen where Freda was cooking steaks.
“Quite the man around the home,” she said as he showed her the birds. “Suppose, this afternoon, you go on making yourself useful? I’ve asked Ed to put up four shelves over there. If I’ve asked him once, I’ve asked him twenty times. The wood’s all cut. How about it?”
“Sure,” Johnny said. “I’ll fix it.”
They had lunch, then went to bed together and around 15.00 Freda said she would go across to the village and collect the mail and the newspaper.
“I’ll fix the shelves.”
It was because he spent the next two hours in the kitchen that Toni, sweltering in the sun, didn’t catch a glimpse of him, but he did see Freda as she came on deck, got in the motorboat and headed towards him.
Hastily, Toni hid the field glasses and lifted the rod from its clip.
Freda’s boat passed him by a hundred feet and he was aware she looked at him. He kept his head lowered and flicked the rod with what he hoped was a professional movement.
Some chick! he thought. Man! Could he use a piece of tail like her!
If it were really Johnny holed up in the houseboat, Toni thought, he certainly had it good. But was it Johnny? He surveyed the houseboat once again with his glasses, but he saw no sign of life. Hell! He was getting roasted alive out in this goddamn sun and he was aware that there were no other fishermen on the lake. Maybe he had better go back. He could be attracting attention Thy sitting out in the boat like this. Again he searched the houseboat with his glasses, then still seeing nothing, he laid the rod down and decided to return. He would come out later when the sun was less fierce.
Unused to the sun, he was now getting painfully sunburned. He moved over to the outboard engine, caught hold of the starting handle and yanked. There was a splutter and nothing else. Cursing, he yanked on the cord again. Again no results.
He glared at the engine and cursed it. Four more times he yanked at the starting cord with sweat streaming off him, but the engine wouldn’t fire. He sat on the side of the boat, his shirt soaked with sweat.
Salvadore had told him he would have no trouble with the engine. All he had to do was to pull the cord. Now the bastard wouldn’t start! He could get burned alive out here!
He had been crazy to have used the boat! He knew nothing about boats, or outboard engines. He couldn’t even swim! He looked longingly at the cool water around him.
His gun harness was chafing his skin. He was wearing it under his shirt. He reached inside the shirt, undid the harness and took it off, laying the gun by the fishing rod.
What the hell was he to do?
He went back to the engine and dragged at the cord. The engine spluttered and died.
Then he heard the phut-phut of an approaching motorboat. Looking up, he saw Freda returning from Little Creek. He waved to her and she cut her engine and steering her boat, came drifting up to him.
“Are you in trouble?” she asked.
Toni stared at her. His eyes took in the sweep of her breasts, the firm outline of her buttocks, her blonde hair and her brilliant blue eyes.
“Yeah. She won’t start.”
“It’s the heat. You’re oiled up. Take the plug out and clean it. You’ll start then.”
Toni looked around.
“I’ve got no tools.”
“I’ll do it. You hold the boats together.”
She opened a locker and took out a tool kit, then slid into his boat. As she got in, her foot caught in the harness of his gun and she stumbled, rocking the boats. He caught hold of her, steadying her and the feel of her arm in his hand sent a sexual jolt through him. He kicked the gun and the harness out of sight under one of the seats.
She was kneeling, her back to him and she opened the tool kit.
“You’re new around here, aren’t you?” she said as she got out a box spanner.
“Yeah. I’m a friend of Bruno.” He eyed her back, feeling lust go through him.
“I thought I hadn’t seen you before.” She got the plug out. “See? Oil.”
She turned, holding the plug.
“Never thought of it,” Toni said huskily. “I don’t know a thing about boats�
� just down here on vacation.”
“Salvadore is a good friend of mine.” She took a rag from the tool kit and cleaned the plug. “It’s always nice to see a new face.”
He eyed her wondering what she meant.
“I guess.”
“You won’t get any fish at this time,” she went on as she put the plug back and tightened it. “In another two hours, but it’s too hot now.”
“You can say that again… I’m frying.”
“Are you staying with Salvadore?”
“That’s right.”
She looked at him: her blue eyes inviting.
“Maybe I’ll see something of you.”
Was she giving him the ‘come on’? Toni wondered, and again lust stabbed him like a sword thrust.
“Why not?” He peered at her. “Bruno tells me you have your half-brother staying with you.”
“He left early this morning. He has business in Miami.” She smiled. “I miss his company. It’s lonely for me. My husband doesn’t get back until late.”
“Yeah. I can imagine.”
She got into her boat.
“You try now. She’ll start.” She reached for the starter on her engine. “If you’ve got nothing to do why not drop by around halfpast five?” Her blue eyes met his. “My husband doesn’t get back until seven.”
Before he could reply, she started her engine, waved to him and sent the boat fast away from him.
Toni stared after her, his heart thumping. If that wasn’t an invitation for a lay, what was? And what a lay! But wait, he told himself, suppose Johnny or whoever this punk was hadn’t gone? Suppose she was setting him up to walk into a trap? But why should she? He knew her type: a chick with hot pants. Maybe this guy hadn’t been her half-brother. Maybe he wasn’t Bianda. So he had gone and she had the itch again.
He pulled the starter and the engine fired. With his mind seething with excitement, he headed back to Little Creek.
Salvadore was on the quay and he helped Toni tie up the boat.
“Did you see him?”
“No, but I saw her. The goddamn engine wouldn’t start. She fixed it. She says her half-brother left this morning for Miami. She wants me to go over there at half-past five.” Toni wiped his sweating face with the back of his hand. “What do you think?”
Salvadore shook his head.
“If he’s there you could walk into trouble.”
“Yeah, but if he’s there why should she ask me over?” He leered. “It’s my bet whoever’ this punk is, he’s gone and she wants it. So okay, I go over there, take a look around, slip her what she wants, then tell the boss it wasn’t the guy and go back. That makes sense, doesn’t it?”
Salvadore looked at him for a long moment.
“It’s your funeral. You could be right. Anyway, why should I worry? You can take care of yourself. If you want to go, then go.”
“Yeah. How’s about a long, cold beer? I’m boiled.”
Johnny was just putting the last of the shelves in place when he heard the distant sound of Freda’s outboard motor. He tightened the final screw and then went to the kitchen window.
He saw her boat coming fast and as he was about to step out on deck, he paused, seeing another boat far out on the lake. His instinct for danger stopped him in his tracks. He watched the other boat with a lone man in it, heading for Little Creek.
Freda steered the boat under the kitchen window and called “Don’t come out!” The urgency in her voice told him there was trouble.
He moved into the living-room and waited until she joined him.
“What is it?”
Quickly she told him of her encounter with Toni.
“He has a gun and harness,” she concluded. “He says he’s Salvadore’s friend.”
Johnny sat down. He had a feeling of being suffocated. The net was drawing in on him.
“Tell me about him,” he said. “What’s he look like?”
“Around thirty, thin, dark, good-looking. He had a tattoo on his right arm: a naked woman.”
Johnny flinched.
Toni Capello! The tattoo fixed it!
Seeing his reaction, Freda said, “Is he one of them?”
“Yes… he’s one of them. They’ve got close, baby.”
They looked at each other and she came to him, kneeling by his side.
“He asked about my half-brother. I said you had gone.”
“I must go.”
“No!” Her hand touched his face. “We can bluff him, Johnny. I told him to come and see me at five- thirty. I think he’ll come. You go out into the jungle and wait. I can convince him you’ve gone and then they’ll look elsewhere, but from now on you stay here and keep out of sight.”
He stared at her.
“You asked him to come here?”
“Johnny! I love you! I want you to be safe! He’ll come. I’ll show him around, then I’ll get rid of him. Once he’s sure you’re not here, he’ll go away.”
“You don’t know what you’re doing! This man’s dangerous! I know him! You can’t have him here alone!”
“There’s no man born I can’t handle,” Freda said and smiled. “I know men. I can handle him. You go to the jungle and wait. I’ll get rid of him before Ed gets back.”
Johnny stared at her. Then into his mind he remembered what Scott had said: We swim raw. You don’t have to bother about Freda. She’s seen more naked men than I’ve seen shrimps. He had thought then that this had been a stupid remark from a stupid man, but now he wondered if Scott could have been speaking the truth.
Did it matter? He looked at her. Without her, he could shortly be
dead. He felt a moment of sadness, then he shrugged.
“I guess that’s the best way to handle it. Okay, I’ll go into the jungle, but watch him… he’s as tricky as a snake.”
She was watching him.
“Don’t look like that, Johnny. In another four days, we’ll be away from here. I’m doing this for you and only for you.”
“Yes.” He moved away from her.
For me? he was thinking, or for the money?
“It was smart of me, wasn’t it… to tell him you had gone.” He could see she was longing for a little praise, but he couldn’t give it. There was a pause, then she went on, “But from now on you must keep out of sight. You must stay indoors, but it’s only for four days.”
“That’s right.” He couldn’t look at her. He had never felt so depressed. “Watch him. I’ll get moving.”
“Kiss me.”
Did he want to? He forced himself to look at her, then those brilliant blue eyes hooked him. She came into his arms, her fingers going through his hair, her body hard against his.
“Johnny… Johnny… I love you,” she said, her lips against his cheek. “We’ll soon be free of this. Trust me! I’ll handle him.”
With his gun and vacuum flask of ice water, Johnny went into the hot jungle and sitting in the shade, he settled to wait. From where he sat he could see the lake and the houseboat.
A few minutes after 17.30, he saw a motorboat coming across the lake.
Toni had been hitting the bottle and now he was full of whisky courage and lust. He had borrowed a coat from Salvadore so he could wear his gun harness and he had taken care to clean, oil and check the gun before leaving Little Creek.
He didn’t expect trouble, but he was ready for it. His fear of Johnny was damped down by whisky and the thought of Freda.
As he neared the houseboat, he cut the engine and let the boat
drift up as Freda came out on deck.
“Hi!” she said. “I was hoping you’d come.” She caught the rope he tossed to her and made the boat fast. “I bet you could use a drink?”
“Yeah.” Toni scrambled on deck. His hand went inside his coat and eased the gun for a quick draw. He looked around, very tense now.
“Well, come on in.” Freda turned and walked into the livingroom.
Moving like a cat, keeping close to her so if there was
trouble her body would shield him, Toni moved into the room. One quick glance told him they were alone.
“Let’s take a look around, baby,” he said. “I like to know we’re strictly on our own.”
She laughed.
“You men ! Johnny was the same. Scared my husband was hidden somewhere with a shotgun. Come on, then.”
Leading the way, she took him from her bedroom to the other two bedrooms, into the kitchen, into the shower room. She even opened a big closet for him to inspect.
Then turning, a jeering look in her bright blue eyes, she said, “Satisfied?”
Toni grinned. He was now completely relaxed.
“Sure… let’s have that drink.”
She led him back into the living-room.
“Sorry there’s only coke. We can’t afford liquor.”
Toni blew out his cheeks, but maybe a coke was better. He knew he was already loaded.
“Fine.” He sat down, eyeing her as she left him to go into the kitchen. She came back with a coke and handed it to him.
He leered at her, drank, then leered again.
“Some chick!”
“That’s what Johnny was always saying.”
“Your half-brother?”
She laughed and sat down away from him.
“I’ve never had a brother… half or otherwise.” She winked at him. “Strictly between ourselves, a girl has to be respectable in this dreary neck of the woods. Johnny was a stray my husband picked up, but he was good in bed.”
Toni became alert.
“What’s happened to him?”
She shrugged.
“Ships that pass in the night.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“He stayed three nights. He left early this morning. He was a nice guy… but funny in a way.” She looked at him. “He was superstitious. Are you superstitious?”
“Me? No.”
“He was always talking about a St. Christopher medal he had lost. It seemed to prey on his mind.”
Johnny! Toni leaned forward.
“Where did you say he was going?”
“Miami. He had money. He said he was going to hire a boat and go to Havana. Now, why should anyone want to go there?”
Knock, Knock! Who's There? Page 15
