1974 - So What Happens to Me (20 page)

“Fifty thousand a year, tax free, this nice apartment, a Caddy and Mr. Big Shot at the airfield. How marvellous!”

I sat down. I was over the shock now and my mind was beginning to work.

“Fantastic, isn’t it?” I was aware my voice was a little husky.

“That’s the way the cookie crumbles, Pam. A terrible thing about Bernie. I had no idea he had a dicky heart: did you?”

“No.” She lit her cigarette. “I went to his funeral: it was the least I could do. I hoped you would have been there too.”

A chill crawled up my spine. So she could explode the story that we had crashed into the sea.

“I know you and Bernie. . .”

“Don’t let’s talk about Bernie,” she cut in. “He’s dead. Let’s talk about me.”

“Sure.” Without any hope I went on, “Do you want your job back Pam? I can fix it.”

“How nice of you Jack. Well, no . . . I will want something rather better than that. . . now.”

So it was going to be blackmail

An immediate thought dropped into my mind. She had come here alone. Suppose I killed her? Would that stop this nightmare that was slowly building up around me? So okay, I killed her, but what was I going to do with her body?

I said. “What can I do to be helpful Pam?”

“I’ve been talking to Claude. He tells me you’ve returned all the money. Claude hasn’t been helpful. He told me to talk to you.” She crossed her slim legs. “Bernie was planning to marry me. We would have shared a million dollars. I would love to own a million dollars.”

I nodded.

“Who wouldn’t?”

She flicked ash on the carpet.

“I spent five days at the Continental Hotel at Merida.” She regarded me, her green eyes stoney. “They could have been dull, lonely days, but as it happened, Juan picked me up.”

“You were always a girl to find friends.” I said.

“Come on Jack! You’re not listening: Juan Aulestria. Remember? He works—used to work for Orzoco: remember now?”

My mind went back to the tall, thin man with thick longish hair and the smoothness of a snake and my heart skipped a beat.

“Juan was very kind to me,” Pam went on. “He’s with me now: we’re staying at the Hilton. He thought it would be more tactful for me to see you first, then he will talk to you.” Her red lips parted in what could be called a smile. Juan has marvellous tact.”

I had had enough of this cat and mouse act. I saw now that she had me in a comer. I was thankful I hadn’t done anything stupid like killing her. Aulestria was far more dangerous than she could ever be.

“Let’s skip the buildup,” I said. “Let’s talk business. What do you want?”

She took from her bag an envelope and tossed it into my lap.

“Take a look Jack.”

The envelope contained four good photographs of the Condor wreck as it lay in the jungle. There was no mistaking the plane.

Its name and number were clear on the fuselage. The fourth picture made me stiffen. It was of Erskine’s dead body, his head in a halo of blood.

“Just in case you miss the point of that photo” Pam said, “and I’m sure you don’t: what was Harry doing out of the flight cabin at the time of the crash?”

I put the photos on the table.

“What else?” I asked and lit a cigarette. I was surprised to see my hands were steady.

‘Isn’t that enough?” She lifted her eyebrows mockingly.

“You could talk yourself into trouble. You were part of the hijack.”

“You prove it. I was Bernie’s girl. He told me to wait for him in Merida. I had no idea what you three were planning. Juan is going to tell the insurance people. If they are to be told.”

“Okay. So what’s the pay-off?”

“Five hundred thousand dollars: my half share of Bernie’s money.”

I couldn’t believe it. Staring at her, I said, “Come on!”

“You heard Jack.”

“And where do you imagine I could raise money like that?”

“From the Essex bitch: from where else?”

“You’re crazy! She would no more give me a sum like that than fly to the moon.”

Pam smiled her hateful smile of triumph.

“She will.” She took another photograph from her bag. “I wouldn’t have thought of it but Juan did. He arranged for a private eye to keep tabs on you the moment you returned here.”

She flicked the photo into my lap. “Five hundred thousand is nothing to her. She’ll pay to keep this photo away from Mr. Lane Essex.”

I looked at the photograph. It showed me outside the cabin, standing by the new Caddy. I was handing my overnight bag to Sam.

She left behind her the smell of cheap scent and the five damning photographs. Just before she left she said Aulestria would be contacting me.

“From now on Jack, he’ll be in charge of the negotiations. We won’t wait long. See the bitch and fix it.”

I wondered how Vicky would react. I was sunk. That I knew, but could I get her out of this mess? If Sam’s loyalty stood up under pressure, that photo of me arriving at the cabin wasn’t all that damaging. Vicky could tell Essex that she had lent me the cabin while I was on vacation and she had never been near it. After thinking, I realised this was a pipe dream. She must have told Essex she was going to the cabin and I was sure Sam wouldn’t stand up to an Essex cross examination.

So what was to be done?

I put the photographs back in the envelope and the envelope in my breast pocket. I lit a cigarette while I tried to find a way out. My first thought was to trap Pam and Aulestria somehow and kill them, but that too was a pipe dream. Aulestria was no fool. He would have taken precautions, lodging another set of photographs with an attorney with instructions: in the event of my death. Had Pam been handling this on her own, I was sure I could trap and kill her, but not Aulestria.

Again I thought of Vicky. I was wasting time, trying to find a way out. I had to discuss it with her and I cringed at the thought of her explosion. You involve me in this and you’ll be sorry you’re alive! Now, because she had had hot pants for me, she was involved. Because she couldn’t give me up, she had lied about the crash not only to Essex but also to the insurance people.

I looked at my watch. The time was 14.45.

Bracing myself, I left the apartment and drove back to the cabin. It was a drive I was to remember for the rest of my days.

The nearer I got to the cabin the more scared I became. I had already seen her in a rage and I flinched at the thought of how she would react once she knew how involved she was I also thought of the years I could spend behind bars. I couldn’t hope to get out under fifteen years. I would be middle aged by then and fit for nothing. Very late in the day I thought of my old man. This would kill him: I was sure of that.

I pulled up outside the cabin and Sam beaming, opened the door.

I went into the cabin, leaving him to put the Caddy out of sight, in one of the garages.

Vicky was lying on the settee, a copy of Vogue in her hand.

I stood in the doorway, looking at her. She put down the magazine and smiled at me.

“Hi Jack!” She laughed. “You’re nice and early.” She patted the settee. “Come and kiss me.”

I moved into the room and shut the door. I didn’t approach her, but stood still, my shoulders against the door.

She lifted her eyebrows.

“Come on Jack! You mustn’t take me seriously. I was mad. I get mad. Have you fixed it?”

“Start getting mad again.” I said. I took the envelope from my pocket and tossed it onto her lap.

Her violet eyes turned hard. The sexy, hungry smile went away like a fist when it becomes a hand.

“What is this?”

“Take a look.”

She stared at the envelope but didn’t touch it.

“What is it?”

I came to the settee, picked up the envelope, took out the five photos and spread them out on her lap.

She looked at them, then slowly picked each one up and examined it carefully. She finally came to the one of me and Sam. She stared at it for a longer moment, then she put the photos together and offered them to me.

“How much?”

Apart from the fact her face was stone hard and had lost colour and her eyes were glittering, she was fantastically calm.

I could tell by the way her breasts moved under the sweat shirt that her breathing was even and that must mean her heart beat and her pulse were normal.

“How much?” she repeated.

This was a remarkable woman. She didn’t have to have it spelt out and the explosion I had expected didn’t materialise.

“Five hundred thousand . . . half a million.”

She stared up at me. “You’re an expensive lover.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Well, don’t look as if the end of the world has come. Sit there.” She pointed to a chair nearby. “Tell me about it.”

I sat down.

She lay motionless, staring down at her hands as I told her about Pam and Aulestria.

“They won’t stop at half a million of course,” she said as if speaking to herself. “I pay them off and later they will come back: blackmailers always do.” She looked up and regarded me. “You killed Erskine. Could you kill them?”

“Yes, but that won’t solve this problem. Aulestria will have protected himself.”

She nodded.

“The alternative is I go to my husband and tell him I’ve been foolish and hope he will be kind to me.” Again it sounded as if she were talking to herself.

‘You could do that,” I said nervously.

She stared at me.

“You’re a little man aren’t you Jack? You’re now wondering what is going to happen to you.”

“I want to get you out of this mess.”

“Do you?” She smiled. “Well, that’s something I have - a half million. What do you suggest? Shall I pay these two? It would be no problem until they come back for more. What do you think?”

It was my turn to stare at her.

“You mean you can find five hundred thousand?” My voice was husky.

“Of course. That’s no problem. The problem is should we do it?”

My mind raced.

If she could raise the money and if those two were satisfied with the pay-off, this could let me out. I might even be able to keep my new job with Essex Enterprises. Why shouldn’t they be satisfied with half a million?

“It’s a solution,” I said, trying not to sound eager.

“So it is. Yes . . . as you so rightly say. it’s a solution.” She stubbed out her cigarette. “Well, so let’s pay them.” She paused to look me over. “You’ve met them: I haven’t. Do you think we can trust them?”

I didn’t know, but I wasn’t going to say so. I was too anxious to get off the hook.

“For that money, they must play,” I said. “For God’s sake! A half a million!”

“They’re at the Hilton, didn’t you say? See if you can reach them Jack. Let’s get it settled.”

‘You really mean it. Vicky? You’re going to pay then?”

“Yes. I can’t land dear Lane with a ten million dollar bill for his stupid plane, plus the knowledge that I’ve been behaving like a hooker, can I?” She shrugged. “After all what is half a million?”

Giving her no chance to change her mind, I called the Hilton and asked for Mr. Aulestria. There was a delay, then a man’s voice said. “This is Aulestria.”

“Crane. The deal’s on,” I said. “How do we fix it?”

“Here at eleven o’clock tomorrow.” Aulestna said and hung up.

“At the Hilton at eleven o’clock.” I told Vicky.

“It will take me two days to raise the money. Find out how it is to be paid.” Her violet eyes were very impersonal. “Now run away. I must talk to my broker.” She flicked her fingers at me. “Go home.”

I had always had a presentiment that sooner or later there would come a time when she would flick her fingers at me the way she flicked them at her other men slaves, but it didn’t bother me. I was too thankful that there hadn’t been a scene and that she was going to pay and my future wasn’t in jeopardy to let a little thing like that cause me grief.

“I’ll report back to you,” I said as I moved to the door.

She was reaching for the telephone and didn’t even look at me so I went out into the fading sunshine, got the Caddy from the garage and drove back to my apartment.

I knew there was every chance that Aulestria would squeeze her again, but I told myself that she was so goddamn rich, she could afford to be squeezed.

Yes . . . my future looked bright again.

The following morning. I arrived at the Hilton hotel a few minutes to eleven. As I was asking at the desk for Mr. Aulestria a man came up and lurched against me. He immediately apologised and I thought he was just another clumsy jerk, who banged into people and I forgot about him but later, I was to remember him.

Aulestria was waiting for me in a large room with a double bed and the usual Hilton fitments. Pam was sitting by the window. She didn’t look around when Aulestria opened the door.

“Ah, Mr. Crane,” he said, smiling his. snake’s smile. “Good to see you again.” He closed the door. “So she is going to pay?”

“That’s right.”

“How wise of her. She has agreed to five hundred thousand?”

“Yes.”

“Well. . . a little unexpected. I was rather expecting her to bargain. However, that is very satisfactory. I want the money in bearer bonds.”

“That can be arranged. I want all the photos and all the negatives and an acknowledgement from you that the transaction terminates the deal.”

“Of course you get the photos and the negatives, but no acknowledgement.”

“That means you can put the squeeze on again.”

“Mr. Crane! I assure you. We are perfectly satisfied with half a million, aren’t we, Pam?”

Without looking around, she said, “If you are Juan, then I am.”

“Be assured, Mr. Crane. When will the money he ready?”

“The day after tomorrow.”

“Quite satisfactory, but not later. Bring the bonds here at ten o’clock. Don’t be late. We have a plane to catch.”

He conducted me to the door.

“What a fortunate man you are, Mr. Crane.”

I stared at him.

“You think so?”

“Ask yourself” and he bowed me out of the room. I drove back to my apartment and called Vicky.

“Bonds?” There was a pause. “All right, I’ll get them. Sam will deliver them to you tomorrow night,” and she hung up.