by Nick Carter
I broke into a cold sweat.
Hastily I moved to the phone. There was one in each room of the suite. I picked it up and the desk answered immediately — not too many calls in the dead of night.
"Mrs. Peabody, please."
After a moment I heard the phone ring in the next room.
"Hello?" It was Juana.
"Don't say a word. This is Nick. I hear Parson in there. Pretend this is a wrong number."
"I'm sorry. I believe you've got…"
"Keep him there. I'm meeting Corelli tomorrow night, midnight. The Veleta. The contact is dead. Keep Parson there all night if you can. He may be the man who killed Corelli's double."
"You're bothering me, please, and I don't have to put up with this."
"Don't tell him anything. Keep him on the string. If you understand all this and can comply, say 'I don't mean to be rude, but I can't help you. Then hang up."
"I don't mean to be rude, but I can't help you."
I hung up. I could hear Parson's voice calling from the other end of the room.
"Who was that, Juana?"
"Wrong number. Some drunken Englishman."
Parson laughed. "Sure he wasn't an American?"
"He had an accent just like you," Juana retorted.
Good girl! She was as cool as powdered snow.
I checked my stiletto blade, my Luger, and changed into my turtleneck sweater, and jacket. I was going into the bar again. I wanted to think. And I did not want to be in that room the rest of the night. Perhaps I could pay the bar boy to let me sack out in the lounge next to the bar.
I turned off the light and walked out quietly.
The bar was exactly the same as I had left it. I glanced around. It was not likely that everyone was in bed already.
I tried the desk. "Where is everyone?"
"The discothèque," said the clerk, surprised. "In the basement."
"I don't hear any noise."
"It is soundproof, Sector."
I shrugged and went down the stairs that I had thought led to the lower level of the hotel where the supply rooms were located.
Three doors led off the landing below, and one said: DISCOTHÈQUE.
I crossed to the bar on my right and ordered a drink. The barkeep, dressed like a flamenco dancer and sprouting long sideburns sleeked down against his skull, made the drink quickly.
Now I let my eyes roam carefully over the patrons of the discothèque. I had overlooked this one place: it might possibly be the spot where The Mosquito had hidden after the killing, if indeed The Mosquito was not Barry Parson.
But I did not see the man I had first seen in the bedroom of the villa at Torremolinos.
I was about to sit down when I did see someone I knew.
She was seated in a far corner, all alone, under an overhanging piece of structure that simulated a large flat rock. The light hit her full in the face in one of those illuminated moments, and she blinked and turned away.
She was obviously Elena Morales.
What was her role in this charade? Did she know why Barry Parson had come to Sol y Nieve? Was she part of it? Or was she simply an innocent bystander, part of the window-dressing set up by Parson to keep his own part shielded?
Or was I wrong about Parson?
I strolled over, looming suddenly out of the gloom over her and smiling broadly.
"Hello, Elena."
"George! What a pleasant surprise!"
"When did you get here?"
"Oh, Barry and I got here at about eleven. We both took showers, changed our clothes, and went right down to the dining room, but of course it was past time for eating. And we saw your wife. She said you had gone on out." Her eyes sparkling. "On business."
"But here you are — alone!"
"Well, we came down here, the three of us. There was another fascinating man here. A German. Barry had to go upstairs to straighten out something about the baggage. He came back about a half hour later. The German man had to leave. Then we danced and…"
"How long did the German stay?"
Elena smiled. "Is this what you call a cross-examination, George?"
I laughed. "Of course not. What happened after Barry came back from the baggage?"
"The German man left, as I said, and then about twelve-thirty Barry said he would take Juana to her room. Juana was tired. He told me to wait here." She frowned, glowering. "I am still here."
I ordered drinks.
"What happens if Barry doesn't call you?" I asked, remembering what I had instructed Juana.
She chuckled. "I go to bed by myself."
"Maybe not."
Her eyes focused on my face. "You are telling me something?"
"Perhaps."
"Okay," she said, turning to me and putting her hand on my thigh. "I tell you what. Why don't you get a bottle and come up to my room? We'll wait for Barry to return up there."
I got a bottle of cognac and we went up the stairs together. Elena was weaving a little, but she was very capable of holding liquor.
Their room was on the third floor. Elena took her key from her bag and gave it to me. I opened the door and let her in. She turned on the light and I closed the door behind us.
She got out some paper cups and I opened the bottle, poured some cognac and started drinking as I sat on the edge of the bed.
"Your wife is very pretty," said Elena.
I nodded.
"Do you have marital problems?"
"No more than anyone else."
"But it seems your wife likes other men."
"Like Barry?"
"Yes."
"Barry is your husband?" I asked.
She shook her head. "We pretend." She smiled.
"How long have you known him?"
"Oh. A month maybe."
"Where did you meet him?"
She raised an eyebrow. "In Malaga."
"What does Barry do for a living?"
She laughed. "He makes love."
"No. I mean, what is his business?"
"I do not pry into a man's affairs."
I nodded. Of course. She would not. She was a Spaniard. A Spanish woman does not pry into her husband's «other» life — ever.
"And you," she said with a smile. "What do you do?"
"I'm a photographer," I said, trying to remember what my cover was after an instant's total amnesia. "I sell pictures."
"Ah." Elena looked at me carefully. "You know, I have never seen you with a camera."
"We are on vacation," I said lamely.
"Well, it is true of the British too," she murmured softly.
"Barry never works either?"
She shook her head. "He says he is a representative of a company in Britain. A sales representative."
That was a new one. It was obviously Parson's cover story. I decided to find out some more about him.
"What does he sell?"
"I don't really know. I do not ask."
"Does he ever correspond with Britain?"
"I do not think so. I never see him writing a letter. But he makes a lot of telephone calls."
"Ah."
"He has a secretary, I think. He is always talking to her."
"I see." I frowned. "Where is she?"
"I do not know. He gets on the phone and I do not know where he is calling to because I am not in the room when he starts. Or when she calls to him, I have to give him the phone, and he waits for me to leave the room."
I nodded. "You Spanish women are wonderful," I said. "An American woman would listen at the door. Or put a wire tap on him." "But it takes a special discipline not to eavesdrop."
She nodded. Then she smiled. "Too much for me."
"You do listen?"
"I do."
I grinned. "Good girl."
"He's never talking about business, though. He is always talking about people. People I don't understand about. He calls them, 'that one, or 'himself, or 'the man, or 'the woman. "
That sounded like good chatte
r for an agent.
"Have you ever talked to his secretary?"
"Yes. I put on the accent a little for her, to make her think I am stupid." She grinned at me with a sudden pixy-like flash of humor.
I squeezed her thigh. "You're not stupid at all, Elena."
"But she believes I am stupid."
"Who?"
"Chris. The woman to whom Barry talks."
"Do you know her other name?"
Elena shook her head.
"Has he talked to her as long as you've known him?" I asked, really not understanding where we were going, but simply continuing on the normal road of information-gathering.
"Oh yes. He has always been in touch with her. He used to make long distance calls to straighten out some of his business affairs."
"In England?"
"Oh no, not always. Sometimes France."
"Are you sure it was France?"
She frowned. "I think so. I do not always listen so closely, George. I do not always have the proper chance. Why are you so interested?"
"I like Barry." I smiled. "I just wondered what land of business he was in."
"I like Barry, too."
"You know the night Barry and I came home to the villa with Juana?"
"Yes."
"Where was he that day?"
"He was home all day. I think."
Then he had not shot Corelli — The Mosquito or some unknown party had. Barry was not the Mosquito — no chance of it.
"And did he talk to Chris that day?"
"Chris?"
"The girl. The secretary."
"Oh. No. I don't think so. He stayed around the villa. We went to the beach."
"The beach? In the winter?"
"We sat on the sand in the sun." She giggled. "It was fun."
"How about the day after that? Any calls to England?"
"No. Nothing that day."
"Later?"
"Well, I think she calls this morning. You know, early today."
"The girl Chris?"
"St. She is a nice girl. Very efficient. I have a picture of her in my mind. You know? Sitting at the desk in that office. Very official."
I nodded.
"I see her on the phone. I see her talking to Barry. She is thinking about me and she is not liking me." Elena showed her teeth.
"She knows about you and Barry?"
"Oh, sure. Christine and I…"
I reached out and gripped her arm. I almost spilled her drink. "What is?" She lapsed into an accent.
"Christine? You said — Chris."
"Is the same name. Something is wrong?"
Something was not wrong. Something was very right. Now it all fell into place. Chris was Christine. Christine was Christina. Christina cut off at the middle with the front missing was Tina.
Elena sighed. "You are going away?"
I shook my head. "What ever gave you that idea?"
"Your mind has gone somewhere else already."
I reached out and took her in my arms. "Not any more. Look. The cognac is all gone. You got any ideas?"
"I think about it," said Elena, extricating herself from my arms. "I put on something more comfortable."
She got up and went into the bathroom.
When she came out she was much more comfortable in almost nothing.
And I was completely comfortable.
Nine
I was halfway through my breakfast in the morning when Juana came into the hotel dining room and walked over to me. She was freshly showered and smiling.
"Good morning, Mrs. Peabody," I said with a half rise and mock bow at the waist.
"Good morning, Mr. Peabody," she said stiffly.
She sat down.
"You look cross," I observed, buttering a hard croissant. "Rocks in your bed?"
She looked around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. Only six other patrons were in the dining room at the moment.
"I kept him there all night, just for you!" she stormed at me under her breath.
"Thank you," I said. "I'm sure you enjoyed it."
She blushed furiously. "Now what's this all about?"
"I told you. I'm not sure even yet that Barry Parson is all he claims to be."
She glanced around. The waiter hovered over us. With a smile she ordered and the waiter hurried off. She turned back to me. "Neither am I," she confided.
I glanced up. "Oh?"
"You said he might be the man who killed Corelli's double."
"I take it back. He can't have done it. He has an alibi."
"But he seems to know a lot about the Mafia."
I shrugged. "He claims he's an agent. And that British Military Intelligence is working to try to dismantle the Mafia drug chain."
"I know all that. But he doesn't seem to ring true."
"Interesting," I mused. I had always had the same thought.
"Where were you all night?" she asked suddenly.
The waiter brought her a tray filled with a Continental breakfast and a steaming coffee pot.
"I stayed with a friend."
One eyebrow rose as she broke open a roll and buttered it. "Oh?"
"Mrs. Parson."
"If there is a Mrs. Parson," she scoffed. "I thought you might stumble over her in the discothèque."
"So I did."
"What really happened to the contact who was killed?"
I glanced around. "The Mosquito followed me to the engine house and killed him. I learned the rendezvous point, however. I'm meeting Corelli tonight at midnight."
"Had you better talk so freely here?"
"A bug in the coffee pot?" I grinned. "I doubt it. But don't say anything in your room that you want kept confidential. I'm convinced the damned thing is bugged. I think that's how Corelli's would-be killer got onto me. Juana, did Parson say anything about Corelli?"
"Corelli?" She shook her head. "No, why?"
"I think he knows Tina Bergson."
Juana froze. "Can you be sure of that?"
"Not really." I leaned back. "Why?"
"He speaks Italian, you know. Very well."
"What's that got to do with Tina Bergson?"
"Nothing at all. I was thinking of Corelli."
"You think Parson is Italian and knows Corelli?"
Juana shook her head. "I don't think anything. I just said that he surprised me when he came out with an Italian phrase."
"What phrase?"
She colored. "I don't remember."
"But you know it was Italian?"
"He admitted it. Very cool he was, too."
"And it was accidental?"
"Very much so." Juana looked down at her plate. She had suddenly become prim and precise. I did not smile, although I was laughing inwardly. Something inadvertent in the midst of love-making, I knew that much. And he had come out with a good rich Italian phrase. Interesting. Very interesting.
"Does he ski?" I asked.
"I don't know. I mean, should I know?"
"I just wondered. We're going up on the slopes today, Juana. I've got to put in an appearance for the cover story. And I'd better take some pictures." "Good. I'm sick and tired of all this boudoir work."
"You seem to be bearing up under it very well," I said casually, looking her over. "In fact, I've never seen you look so — oh, satisfied, if you grasp my meaning."
She fumed. "I'll grasp your…"
"Now, now," I cautioned, gulping the remainder of my café con leche down.
"When are you skiing?"
"I've got to get up to my room and clean up first."
She nodded. "I'll be ready at nine-thirty."
"Nine-thirty then. We'll go to the top. Veleta. You game?"
"Sure!" Her chin came up. She was defying me. I felt better. She was still fighting for her mind and her equality. Good girl.
* * *
We lugged our equipment out onto the Prado Llano and got in one of the cable cars to take the first run up to Borreguilas.
It was a bracin
g day, with the sun high in the sky, and the wind carrying a bit of moisture. It would snow that night, I thought. I remembered I had smelled a bit of snow in the air the evening before. Now it would come, I was sure of that.
The cable car bounced and jerked and we sat there riding up and up into the heights of the Sierra Nevadas. You could see everywhere from there. It was getting colder and colder — rapidly. I turned around and looked down and it was the same as looking out over the edge of the world. In the vast distance the whole plain of Granada was laid out before me, although there was some haze down there, enough to kill a full panoramic view of everything.
We jumped off the cable car while the attendant held it for us, and walked across the flats outside. It felt very high here, the air thin, the cold enveloping us from all sides, and sneaking into our skins through the clothes.
We walked to the head of the ski run in silence. It was desolate country — all mica schist and snow — without a tree or bit of growth anywhere. Just snow and rock and sky. Silently I buckled on my Austrians and watched Juana as she struggled with her Canadians.
We stood there a few minutes, looking down the slope, and then I slid the goggles down from my cap, tugged the cap over my ears, and waved to her.
"You first!"
She nodded, pushed herself forward with her knees bent, and started to traverse along the steep part of the first drop.
I followed, taking it easy, and enjoying the crisp bite of the snow on the ski edges. We were in the very best of weather conditions.
We rested once and she brought out a pair of sandwiches she had brought along for their surprise value. We ate them and did not say a word between us. We just basked in the sunshine and the delight of the loneliness and the beauty of the mountainside.
We finished the sandwiches and continued on down.
It was a wonderful run.
Wonderful.
After making the lesser run down from Borreguilas, we sat around all afternoon in the hotel lounge swapping stories with Barry Parson and Elena Morales while the fire crackled and the tourists came and went. We could see the lower run — Borreguilas to the Prado Llano — outside the window, and spent our time commenting on the forms of the various skiers.
Finally I went up for a rest and shower. Dinner was a muted affair, with the usual large number of courses, and I was beginning to get a little on edge at eleven-thirty. We were still sitting around and drinking at that point.
