Cargo for the Styx

by Louis Trimble

  I said, “Why not? I’m just another mark.”

  She began to blubber like a schoolgirl after her first date in a drive-in movie. “You aren’t either,” she wailed. “And I love you. I couldn’t hurt you when I love you, could I?”

  I stared down at her. At the sophisticated, executive Miss Wilson. At the hard-as-nails busness-woman type. I said, “When did this passion hit you?”

  She ignored my tone of voice. “Last night. About—about …”

  I said, “About the fourth time?”

  “There wasn’t any fourth time.”

  I said, “That’s what I mean.”

  She said, “I can’t change your mind, but it’s true. And I didn’t help Vann.”

  “What were you doing all day today, getting a tan on the beach?”

  She said, “I was in my apartment, on the bed, where Otho tied me.”

  “Who let you loose?”

  “Nobody. I got myself loose.”

  I said, “Otho used his knots on me too. You don’t get loose from Otho’s knots.”

  She said, “I kicked and twisted until the bed came apart. Then I was free enough to wriggle to the telephone. I knocked it off the hook. Finally the operator realized something was wrong and sent a bellboy up to find out. He untied me.”

  I said, “I’ll bet he got a kick out of that.”

  She sounded weary. “I made up a story about some drunken friends and a practical joke. I don’t know if he believed me but it doesn’t matter.”

  The bellboy might not have believed her, but I did. No one could have made up a story as unbelievable. I said, “When was this?”

  “Two hours ago,” she said. “I went to your office. You weren’t there. But your car was in the lot across the street and you’d left the keys in it. So I took it and went to the boat. I saw the police there and—”

  I said, “Why take my car? Where was yours?”

  She didn’t fall into the trap. She said, “It wasn’t anywhere. Someone must have stolen it.”

  I said, “If this is all on the level, someone did. Okay, so you saw my boat half blown up. Then what?”

  “I thought you were dead,” she said, “And I went up to talk to Mr. Minos.”

  I said, “To congratulate him?”

  “Martin, stop that. And you’re hurting me. You’re awfully heavy.”

  I said, “You didn’t complain last night.”

  She said, “My God, if that’s all you can think about, go ahead and get it over with.”

  I let loose of her and moved away. She straightened up on the bench and rubbed her wrists. She said, “I went to ask for his help. I didn’t know where else to turn.”

  I said, “What was wrong with the police?”

  “I didn’t dare. I’ve been too deeply involved, Martin.”

  I said, “How did you figure Aggie could help?”

  She said, “I was going to tell him that everything was going to be blamed on him.”

  “What does ‘everything’ mean?”

  “The sinking of the Temoc,” she said.

  “I suspect Aggie knows,” I said. “He arranged the deal.”

  “But he didn’t, Martin,” she protested. “He was going to be what Vann called the patsy.”

  I said, “Nuts. Aggie owns the Temoc. Who else can collect the insurance?”

  “I don’t know. But I do know that Vann expects to make a lot of money.”

  I said, “A hundred thousand is a lot of money.”

  “More than that. He talked about hundreds of thousands.”

  I said, “Just how much do you know?”

  “That’s all,” she said. “I overheard a little. He wouldn’t tell me very much except what I was supposed to do.”

  I said, “You let Vann hook you in one of his gambling dives, is that it? Then he made you shill for him and get Jaspar in deep.”

  “He threatened to tell my firm I’d been gambling heavily,” she said. “I worked hard to get where I am. I just couldn’t sacrifice it.”

  I said, “What got you started gambling in the first place?”

  She said simply, “What usually starts someone gambling? A need for release.”

  I said, “Try men, they’re cheaper.”

  “I didn’t know any I liked well enough,” she said.

  “Until me,” I said.

  “That’s true. Don’t mock me.”

  I said, “All right, you got hooked. You helped hook Jaspar. Then what?”

  “Then I asked for my I.O.U.’s back. Vann said he’d give them to me as soon as he collected from Jaspar. But instead of giving them back, he asked me to do more work for him.”

  I said, “After you were tranferred down here?”

  “Yes, just recently, when Jaspar came down. Vann told me to play up to him and see that he didn’t get any ideas of not co-operating.”

  “I should think Jaspar would be sore as hell at you.”

  “He never did realize my part in it,” she said. “Oh, Martin, I feel so terrible. Without me, it never would have happened.”

  I said, “They’d have got another dame.”

  “No,” she said. “Vann told me I was the only one who could do the job. He made a point of that.”

  I said, “All right, he hooked you. You claim you refused to help against me. But what are you doing here? How did you know where to find me?”

  She said, “I tried to follow Mrs. Minos. I got up to her house just as a sedan drove away. She came right after it. I followed her. Only she dodged me. The next thing I knew, she’d come up from behind me. She had a gun. She asked me what I was doing following her. I told her I’d heard you were killed and I wanted to warn her husband. Then she told me you were alive. We got to talking and decided how I could help. She told me where you were and I came here.”

  Great little helper, Bonnie Minos. I said, “And on your way, you stopped and called Vann?”

  “Believe that if you want,” Irma said wearily. “I can’t change your mind.”

  I said, “Keep trying. What plan did you and Bonnie cook up?”

  “I was to drive you in this thing to the Temoc.”

  “While Bonnie does what?”

  “She’s looking for her husband.”

  I said, “Very neat. And after you deliver me, then what?”

  “Then I bring the—this thing back here and wait for her.”

  I said, “Let’s get started.”

  She sat up straight. “You do believe me then, Martin!”

  I said, “I wish I knew whether I did or not. I’ll find out in a few minutes, though.”

  She didn’t say anything. She gave me the keys to the catamaran. I got it started. She went on deck and cast off. I eased the gadget away from the dock. I finally figured out how to handle it. Then we proceeded noisily down the harbor to Pier 7.

  I said, “Handle it a while to get the feel.” She did, and very well. “All right,” I told her, “take me in under the stern. I’ll try to catch that hawser. When I do, you back out and go toward the bow. Make a racket and draw whoever’s on board forward. Got it?”

  “Yes, Martin.”

  We started in. I got out of the cabin and on top. I lay waiting while she eased us forward as quietly as she could. I got to my knees as we moved in under the stern. I reached for the slack in the big line running from the stern to the dock. I got my hands on it. I thudded my heel on the top of the cabin. The catamaran started away. It moved out from under me. I hung from the rope, easy pickings for anyone who might be looking.

  No one seemed to be bothering with me. I heard the catamaran start toward the bow of the Temoc. I handed myself up the rope until I got a grip on the stern. I hauled and slid and fell on the deck. I rolled into a piece of shadow and lay panting. My arms felt as if they were only halfway in their sockets.

  The motor of the catamaran roared up. I risked a quick glance. It was going like a hydroplane, hell bent away from Pier 7. I could hear voices now. They came from the bow. One
was familiar. It had no inflection.

  Vann said, “What was the idea of that?”

  I didn’t wait for him to figure it out. I started forward, keeping to shadow. I found a nice, comfortable spot. I crouched in it and waited for my first victim to come along.

  CHAPTER XVII

  THE Temoc was getting ready to sail. Feet tramped from dock to deck and back. The motors were started, checked, and shut down. The electrical connections from dock to boat were removed. There was a lot of noise, but none of it came near me.

  If I leaned out of the dark shadow where I crouched, I could see movement. Light streamed from Jaspar’s cabin and from the pilot house. Now and then a man walked into the light and out of it again. I recognized Vann and Otho. I didn’t see Jaspar Clift.

  Finally he came aboard. He was wearing his skipper’s uniform, cap pushed toward the back of his head. He stopped in the light, letting me get a good look at his face. It was tight drawn.

  He said to someone in the pilot house above, “Still no sign of Prebble. It looks as if he really tied one on.”

  Vann’s voice called down, “Otho can make coffee.”

  I added to myself, “And what else will there be time for but coffee?” I thought I had the method of destroying the boat pretty well thought out. One of these men was a dynamite expert. He had planted explosive twice already today; he would probably use it again on the Temoc. And it wouldn’t be long. The men would want to be close enough to shore to ‘save’ themselves after the explosion.

  I wished I could figure out just how anyone but Aggie Minos was going to profit from this deal.

  I was getting no place squatting here in the dark. I hadn’t seen Otho pass through the light for some time. I could no longer hear Clift and Vann. If they were holding any conferences, they were being quiet about them.

  I decided to try my luck somewhere else. I moved along in shadow, fumbling my way to the after end of the main cabin. I slipped inside. There were no lights here, but I could see a faint gleam ahead. I made my way toward it.

  I worked through the mess and the galley. I stopped where light seeped under the door to Jaspar’s cabin. I stepped cautiously up to the door and laid my ear to the panel.

  I heard someone walking about. I heard the gurgle of liquid being poured into a glass. Footsteps sounded coming down from above. Vann said in his colorless voice, “Lay off that stuff. You have to get us out of this harbor.”

  “I can handle myself,” Clift said. He sounded sullen.

  “I said to lay off. Hell, it’ll be over in a little while. Then you can tie one on.”

  Clift didn’t answer. After a few moments, he said, “Where’s Otho? We’re ready to sail.”

  “He says he recognized that rig that buzzed us a while back. I sent him to check on it.”

  Clift said savagely, “It belongs to someone I know. Leave them alone.”

  “Your job is to get us out of the harbor,” Vann said. “And that’s all the job you have. Forget anything else.”

  Footsteps moved away and upward. The conference was over and I was no richer than I had been. I backed carefully aft. I returned to my spot in the shadow and crouched down to wait.

  I was getting tired of waiting. It seemed to be all I did lately. This time the waiting wasn’t long. I could hear footsteps coming down the dock. They moved up to the deck, two pairs. I saw Otho and I saw Irma. He had a grip on her arm. She was yanking to get free.

  She said, “Take your big paw off me.”

  Vann’s head popped into view above. “What’s the beef?”

  “Look what I found in that Minos dame’s catamaran,” Otho said. He sounded proud.

  Irma managed to pull her arm loose from Otho’s grip. “I tried to tell him I was coming here,” she said. She rubbed her arm where he’d held it. “The big ape wouldn’t believe me.”

  “And why were you coming?” Vann asked softly.

  “I changed my mind,” Irma said. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life being shoved around like I was today.”

  “You’re going to find it difficult to make me believe that,” Vann said.

  “I’ll make you believe it,” she answered.

  I wondered if I was hearing my own funeral sermon. As far as I knew, all she had to trade to Vann for her safety was the knowledge that I was alive and aboard.

  A light came on in the galley, then in the mess, and finally over my head. I tried to pull back farther against the wall of the after cabin.

  “I’m listening,” Vann said.

  Irma said, “Zane is alive.”

  Suddenly she screamed. It was a high-pitched wail that prickled the hair at the base of my neck. I’d been busy squeezing myself against the wall. Now I looked forward. Otho was plowing straight for me, looking right at the spot where I waited.

  I said, “Brother, you’ve had it,” and got to my feet.

  “He ain’t just alive,” Otho yelled, “he’s right here.”

  He took two more steps and brought himself within arm’s range of me. He had his mouth hanging open. He was breathing through it noisily. He looked pleased.

  He said, “You’re a hard man to kill, Zane.”

  I stepped forward and feinted with my left. He rolled his head to the side. I plastered my right into his ribs. It was like bouncing my hand off a corrugated iron roof. Otho brought his hand around, palm out, and caught me on the ear.

  I took two dancing steps sideways. He brought the other hand up and clobbered me on the opposite ear. I took two dancing steps in the other direction. He bounced me back again.

  This could go on all night. I tried to catch my balance long enough to use a heel on his instep. But he knew all the tricks. He just shook his head and hit me with both hands at once.

  My head felt as if it had just gone under a stamping machine. I heard the explosion somewhere between my ear channels and my nasal passages. That’s all I heard except the faint echo of myself hitting the deck at Otho’s feet.

  The air smelled dusty and thick. There was no sharp saltwater scent. Yet I knew I was aboard a boat. I could feel it moving under me. I was aboard a boat and going somewhere at slow speed.

  I opened my eyes. A faint light, set high above my head, showed me where I was. It showed me stacks of crates labelled ELECTRONICS SUPPLIERS—FRAGILE—HANDLE WITH CARE. I was in one of the holds of the Temoc.

  I didn’t feel too well. Faint bells pealed in my head. My nose felt clogged. I explored it. My fingers came away bloody.

  Otho’s little treatment had racked me up good.

  I sat on a crate and looked around. From the size of the hold, I was aft, not forward. I glanced upward. The small light set high was burning against dampness. It wasn’t meant to give much illumination. But it showed me the hatch cover battened down. And it showed me the ladder lying against the crates near me.

  I went to the ladder and lifted it. By the time I got it in place, the sweat was rolling off me, soaking me. I swallowed and realized I was thirsty. I heard my stomach rumble and decided I was hungry. I didn’t think anyone was going to do much about either problem.

  I climbed the ladder and pushed at the hatch cover. It was solid. I balanced myself and took off a shoe. I began hammering on the underside of the hatch cover with the heel of the shoe.

  Sweat rolled down into my eyes and made me stop while I wiped it away. I heard footsteps. Someone stopped by the hatch and began to work it open.

  I put my shoe back on. The cover lifted. I sucked in the sweet, clean salt air of outside. The face that looked down into mine belonged to Vann. Not even he could take away that fresh smell.

  He said. “All right, customs made its final check. You can come up now.”

  “For what?” I demanded. “So you can drop me overboard?”

  “For a little chat,” Vann said.

  “I like it down here.”

  He said, “You come up or Otho comes down after you.”

  I went up.

  The little chat
Vann wanted was held in the lounge. Clift was there nursing a cup of coffee. Aggie Minos was there with a drink in his hand. Otho wasn’t there nor was Irma.

  I sat down. Aggie smiled at me. Clift looked down into his coffee. Vann went away and came back with coffee for me.

  I said, “While you’re being so damn helpful, how about a sandwich?”

  “What kind?” Vann asked. He was in fine humor. “Beef, chicken, you name it.”

  I said, “The condemned man chooses beef.”

  Clift glanced up at me and away again. I looked at Aggie. “When did you come aboard?”

  “About five minutes ago,” Aggie said. “I jumped the gun.” He sounded apologetic. “Vann spotted the sloop and ran me down.”

  I said, “Then you’re a guest too?”

  Aggie showed me his teeth in a fine smile. “A privileged guest. They can’t get rid of me.”

  I said, “That’s right. Then there’d be nobody to collect the insurance.”

  Aggie nodded. Vann came in with my sandwich. I was surprised. It was a good sandwich. Vann said, “You seem to be pretty well up on what gives here, Zane.”

  I said, “I know a little.”

  Vann sat down with a cup of coffee. He stirred it slowly. “Just how much do you know?”

  I ate half the sandwich before I answered. I said, “If I told you that, I’d have nothing left to bargain with.”

  Vann’s pleasantness disappeared. “You haven’t got much to bargain with as it is.”

  I said, “You can’t do much until you find out what I know and with whom I communicated.”

  Clift said, “The hell he can’t. He tried twice today, didn’t he?”

  Vann shook his head. “Save your breath, Clift. You’re in this and you’ll stay in.”

  Vann glanced at me. “The two attempts today were set up to look like accidents, Zane. The third one will obviously be an accident.”

  “Meaning that when you blow a hole in the Temoc, I blow with it.”

  “Otho’s very good with dynamite,” Vann said. “He learned about it in the war.”

  “Cheers for Otho,” I said. I turned my attention to Aggie. “How’s your wife these days?”

  Aggie sipped his drink. “Unfortunately she was below decks in the sloop. It went down too fast for her to get out.”