Armed… Dangerous… ms-54

by Brett Halliday

  “Hold it, Brownie!” Shayne snapped. “This isn’t Russian roulette. I’m carrying a full clip. Hi, baby,” he said to Michele. “I thought you might pick up somebody on the way in. Now I want both of you to do this my way. Don’t panic. It’s going to cost you some money, but I’ve got everything under control.”

  “Darling!” Michele cried. “Why should I not bring somebody? We could not handle it alone, the two of us.”

  Shayne grinned savagely. “Couldn’t we? Brownie, turn around. Keep your hands out where I can see them. Open the door slowly. Very slowly.”

  She put the key in the right lock and did as he told her, after a puzzled glance at the. 45. Inside, they bunched up in the little foyer. Shayne kicked the door shut. He disarmed Brownie, touching the small of his back with the. 45 while he went inside Brownie’s coat to get the pistol in his waistband.

  Shayne herded the French girl into the kitchen space and handcuffed her to the door of the refrigerator, using one of the two pairs of handcuffs that had been meant for the driver of the Sanitation truck.

  “My God,” she said.

  “What the hell’d you expect?” Shayne burst out. “Do you know what that truck was carrying?” he asked Brownie. “Junk! Heroin, coke, reefers-you name it. Cartons of the stuff. And that makes a difference, kid,” he said, touching Michele’s shoulder lightly with his gun. “OK, Brownie. We’re going for a walk.”

  “Nobody told me!” Brownie cried. “All I got so far is five bills. I’m with you, man. Anything you say.”

  “The first thing to do is shut up,” Shayne told him.

  Sweat had broken out on Brownie’s forehead. “OK,” he whispered. “What do I care?”

  Shayne jerked his head toward the door. He locked the bolt in the open position and flicked the spring lock so he could get back in without a key. Brownie walked down the hall ahead of him, taking deep breaths as though each one was his last.

  “Right here,” Shayne told him at the door of the incinerator.

  “I really didn’t know about it,” Brownie said. “This is funny as hell.”

  “Cheer up, Brownie. With a little luck you’ll live through it.”

  “Luck,” Brownie said bitterly. “I don’t know the word.”

  Shayne took out the second pair of handcuffs. Brownie was glad to see them, having expected Shayne to use the. 45. In a moment he was handcuffed to the incinerator bin.

  “I put an out-of-order sign on the door,” Shayne said. “Keep quiet and maybe nobody’ll know you’re here. Hijacking a cargo of horse is serious, man, thirty years to life. If I happen to think of it, I’ll come back tonight with a hacksaw.”

  “I’ll appreciate it,” Brownie said simply.

  Shayne removed the bullets from Brownie’s. 38 and dropped the unloaded weapon down the chute. He took the rounds with him; live ammunition was one of the things the landlord didn’t want tenants to put in the incinerator.

  Back in Michele’s apartment, he locked the door and stood for a moment smiling at her. She returned his gaze coolly.

  “I had a faint hope that you would not look in the cartons,” she said.

  “Do you know I damn near didn’t? I could see it was police evidence, the way you said, and blackmail crap is something I wouldn’t know how to handle. But this stuff is as good as cash.”

  “Not quite. You need a buyer you can trust.”

  “You’re my buyer,” he said. “Not that I better start trusting you this late in the day.”

  “I admit I lied to you, but it was necessary. You would never have done it otherwise.”

  “How right you are, not for a lousy fifteen G’s. There’s going to be some real heat. If I didn’t have you as a contact, I’d find a nice deserted pier and dump the damn stuff.”

  “You would not.”

  He shrugged. “Wouldn’t I?”

  He went into the other room for the bourbon and poured himself a drink.

  “Nothing for me, I see,” she commented.

  He ignored the remark. After tasting the whiskey he sat down where he could watch her, and lit a cigarette. She hooked a stool with her toe and pulled it close enough to the refrigerator so she could perch on it.

  “Seriously,” she said.

  “OK, I’ll be serious. What can I do with this load, open a store? I’m not in the business, and frankly it scares me. And this buddy of mine with the truck. It’s registered in his right name, and that means we have to get it out of that truck fast. I guess I wouldn’t dump it in the river, at that. I’d dump it in Central Park and set it on fire. If you want it, you’ve got till eleven tonight.”

  “What is your price?”

  “Five hundred grand.”

  Her eyebrows went up, and her lips formed a tiny O.

  “And don’t try to beat me down,” he said, blowing out smoke. “I like those nice round numbers. I happen to know how much H is retailing for now per ounce. I made a guess at how many ounces. Ounces, hell. Tons. It’s a fair price. You still ought to clear about a million bucks. That’s OK with me. You have the setup to merchandise it. I don’t.”

  She smiled. “You expect me to believe there is no place you would settle between nothing and a half million?”

  “There’s an easy way to find out,” Shayne said. “Say no and I won’t have to wait till tonight.”

  “Do you know,” she said after a moment, “I think you would actually do it.”

  Shayne went on smoking in silence, his eyelids hooded. She said, “If I ask you very nicely, may I have a drink?”

  He got a glass, pushed the bottle within her reach and let her pour it herself with her free hand. She tossed it off and thought for a moment. She said decisively, “I suppose my answer must be yes. Unlock me.”

  “I don’t have the key.”

  She gave him a startled look. “I do not carry half a million dollars in my purse, after all.”

  Shayne went on smoking. “You’re the genius. Suggest something.”

  “Darling,” she said. “Do you still consider coming to Europe with me?”

  Shayne looked at her bleakly. “Why? Before you give me a half million, you want to know if we’re going to end up with a joint checking account?”

  She smiled slightly. “Something like that. A joint account-no, that would be going too far. If you wish, you can go somewhere and live like a cinema star until the money is gone. Las Vegas, now there is the logical place. Sit down in a casino with a roll of thousand-dollar bills. The girls will notice you, the police will notice you, the income tax people will notice you. And very soon you will be without money again, if not in prison. Why not change your way of doing these things, darling? You could do worse than throw in with me. It is a practical proposal. The plane is waiting. I do not press you to say for certain. Merely think about it.”

  “You go on ahead,” Shayne said with a trace of a grin. “I’ll join you later.”

  Now there was a frightened look in her eyes; she clearly wasn’t accustomed to having her proposals rejected. She gave a slight shrug.

  “Very well. The money. I promise to pass on your figure, but I can tell you now, a half million dollars on demand is out of the question. Time will have to be given, thirty days at least, so some of the drugs can be sold.”

  Shayne shook his head. “It has to be cash. I don’t give a damn how you raise it. That’s your business.”

  “Half a million!” she said scornfully. “One hundred thousand, perhaps one twenty-five.” As he made a move to get up, she added hastily, “I act as messenger. How will you make delivery?”

  Shayne rubbed the side of his jaw. “I’ll let you know. I’m going to need another truck, to begin with.” A smile spread over his face. “One of those Sanitation jobs-why not? I’ve still got the uniform. The bigger they are, the easier they are to steal. I’ll take a room at that motel we were in yesterday. I want to get a phone call at four, and I do mean on the dot. I don’t insist on small bills, but nothing over a hundred. This buddy of
mine is in the building business, and he’s going to get me a blasting cap. You know what they are. I’ll rig it to a jug of gasoline. I know I won’t have time to count the full half million. Even with nothing smaller than hundreds I couldn’t wade through it in less than half an hour. Maybe an hour-I have no idea at all. What I want you to do is have them set it up in ten packages, fifty thousand apiece. I’ll check a couple at random. Now I want you to be sure you’ve got the picture, baby. This Molotov cocktail will be planted in the truck. I’ll carry the detonator in the palm of my hand.” He leaned forward, his eyes intent on hers. “Don’t short-count me, kid. Don’t anybody try to jump me. If I so much as smell trouble, if that count is off by more than a few hundred-”

  He closed his fist on the glass and it shattered in his hand. He held her eyes for a moment more, and then laughed.

  “That’s making a point the hard way.” He threw the pieces of broken glass into the sink. “So long as you remember, that detonator’s going to be the only protection I’ll have.”

  “You keep surprising me. That is actually rather intelligent, and I mean to pass it on. I keep coming back to what happens then.”

  “Give me a number to call and I’ll tell them to come and get you.”

  “I would rather have you come and get me.” Shayne had cut the palm of his hand. He wadded up a dish towel and clenched it in his fist to stop the bleeding. “What kind of a plane have you got?” he said.

  “A Jetstar. Captain and navigator.”

  “Who’s it registered to?”

  “A certain company in Luxembourg. If you have something against Portugal, the captain will drop us off wherever we wish en route. Cuba. The Bahamas. Tangier. If you wish to believe I am thinking primarily of the money, believe it. It may even be true. Does it matter? I am considerably taken with you, my dear. Is absolute trust necessary between two people? Of course not. I keep my eye on you, you keep your eye on me. If we are in bed together much of the time, that will be easy.”

  Shayne shook his head admiringly. “Don’t you ever give up? Well, I have the afternoon to think about it.”

  “I make progress,” she said. “Come a bit closer. Have you ever made love to a girl chained to a refrigerator?”

  Shayne grinned. “How can you think of sex when there’s a half million dollars at stake? And don’t tell me it’s the same thing.”

  He went for the phone. It was on a table at the end of the sofa. The cord only stretched as far as the edge of the kitchen area. She reached for it, but there was still a gap of several feet.

  “That settles it, surely,” she said. “You will have to cut me loose. There is a hardware store on Amsterdam Avenue where you can get a saw.”

  “And then what?” Shayne said. “I don’t have any more handcuffs. Give me the number and I’ll do the talking.”

  “No. Because then you could bypass me, and I would be left out in the cold. I must dial the number, at least. In the drawer there, beside the sink. A sharpener for the meat knife.”

  Shayne sorted through the drawer and brought out a bone-handled implement with an abrasive surface and a round end. He put the phone on the floor. Michele found that by reaching out at her full stretch, she could fit the end of the sharpener into the holes of the dial.

  “You agree this is a reasonable request?” she said.

  “Go ahead and dial the goddamn number.”

  He went into the other room, making no attempt to see what number she was painstakingly dialing. What she didn’t know was that Power had inserted a device in the base of the phone to record the numbers of outgoing calls.

  She called Shayne back and told him, “Ask for extension thirty-eight.”

  He picked up the phone. In a moment a girl’s voice said hello.

  “Thirty-eight,” Shayne said.

  “Thirty-eight? Are you sure you have the right-oh, yes. One moment.”

  Then a man’s voice said pleasantly, “Yes?” It was the same voice Shayne had heard when he tapped the Staten Island line.

  “I’m a friend of a friend,” Shayne said. “You may not want to mention any names.”

  “Nonsense, why not? This friend would be Michele?”

  “Yeah. You may not worry about your phone, but I think I’ll worry about mine. So you’ll know who’s talking, she paid me seven and a half G’s yesterday, and she owes me another seven and a half.”

  “Making fifteen in all,” the voice said, amused.

  Shayne grunted. “I thought she cut a piece for herself before it got as far as me. If anybody ever gives this doll the lie-detector test, she’ll wreck the machine. Well, you probably know by now that things have gone a little sour.”

  “But not totally, I understand? Where is Michele?”

  “Right here, but she can’t come to the phone.” He lowered his voice, holding Michele’s eyes across the intervening space. “You probably want to know what it’s going to cost you. Five hundred thousand.”

  “How much?” the voice said sharply, losing its pleasant quality.

  “An even half million. In American money. That’s not the asking price, it’s the ticket on the deal. I’ve just been arguing with her, and I think I’ve convinced her I mean it. Of course she’s hoping to siphon some of it her way sooner or later. How long will it take you to scrape up that much cash?”

  “It can’t be done in any amount of time. I don’t have it.”

  “Do your best,” Shayne said philosophically. “I want to give you a phone number.” He thumbed through the yellow pages for the number of the motel, and read it off. “Call me there at four and I’ll tell you the next step. Ask for Matt Maguire. If I don’t get that call, I’m setting fire to the truck. Which would be a shame, considering all the dough you’ve already put into this.”

  “You’re bluffing. Nobody bluffs me. I was about to make you a more realistic offer. But if that’s the way you want it-”

  Shayne interrupted. “That’s the way I want it. Don’t try to play poker with crazy people. I’m nuts, I admit it. I don’t like handling junk. Neither do you, I notice, whoever the hell you are. They murder you on a drug rap in this state. I’ll deal with you for five hundred grand and not a penny less. Michele knows me. Michele, baby, tell the man. Will I set fire to the truck if I keep getting this price-is-too-high routine?”

  He held out the phone.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Louder,” Shayne told her. “Say something else so he’ll know it’s really you.”

  “Yes, Mr. A.,” she said, “he really will.”

  “Put her on,” the man’s voice said.

  Shayne laughed. “Huh-uh. I’m just a country boy, but I know if I’m not careful with you guys I’ll lose my teeth. Think about it for another thirty seconds.”

  “It is two o’clock now. You are allowing me two hours to raise the money. I doubt that it’s enough. You know nothing about how business is conducted in the modern world.”

  “But this isn’t a regular business, is it? That reminds me. If you’re thinking about sending some muscle to the motel to beat my head in, don’t. I’ve parked the stuff with a friend of mine, and he’s itchier than I am. If I don’t call him by five after four, whoosh!”

  “I see,” the voice said softly. “I think I understand the situation. Till four.”

  Shayne hung up. “How old is he, anyway?” he asked Michele.

  “Older than you,” she told him, “and far less interesting.”

  “I’ll bet,” Shayne said dryly.

  He moved the phone well beyond her reach, and tossed off a fast drink. Michele continued to watch him.

  “If you try,” she said, “you can think of some better way than leaving me chained to a refrigerator.”

  “It won’t be so bad,” Shayne said. “If you get hungry, you’ve got everything right there. In one way I’d like to wait till dark, but I think I’ll need daylight for this transfer. It’s going to be touch and go there for a couple of minutes. I’ll try to get every
thing wound up by five, and let’s hope for your sake it goes off OK. The last thing I’ll say to the guy will be where he can find you.”

  “Perhaps you will decide to come yourself, after all.”

  Shayne grinned. “I’ll keep thinking about it.”

  He brushed his hand across her breast, and her lips parted. He took her keys and threw the bolt from the outside. On the way to the elevator he opened the door of the incinerator closet and told Brownie, “Everything’s rolling right along.”

  CHAPTER 15

  Power had been waiting for Shayne’s call. He answered instantly.

  “I wish you’d consider opening a New York office,” Power said jubilantly after Shayne reported what had happened. “Could we use a man like you around here! All right. I don’t want to take any unnecessary chances. I’m still not persuaded that Kraus was their only man in the department, so let’s play it close to the vest. You, me, Tim Rourke and Jamieson-the four of us ought to be able to handle it. Tim can operate the camera. This is one arrest I think I deserve to make in person.”

  “I only see one hole in it,” Shayne said thoughtfully. “If this guy is strictly a money man, why won’t he send somebody to make delivery? The way he sounded, he’s not somebody who sticks his neck out unless he has to, and it doesn’t seem to me he has to.”

  “You may be right,” Power conceded. “But this is no ordinary deal, and would he trust anybody else with it? A half million in cash-that’s a powerful temptation. Even so. He’ll have to do his own recruiting this time, and that’s going to give us one more link. We can get the phone number from the girl’s phone. Extension thirty-eight will pinpoint it. We have the girl herself, or we will have. We have a lead to the bank on William Street. I think it may be nearly enough.”

  “Maybe,” Shayne said dubiously. “What do I tell him when he says he can’t raise the full half million? Do I settle for less?”

  “Play it by ear, Mike. The one thing you really have to convince him of is that you’ll blow up the truck at the first hint of trouble. That’s essential. They lock up the Motor Shop at four. Get down there as fast as you can. It shouldn’t take more than five minutes to set up. I’ll bring everything we need. Give him a five-o’clock deadline-he’ll need that long to package the money. I’ve got a hunch we’re going to put this over, Mike.”