Part 7 (1/2)
”Right. They wouldn't have to be so secret and careful, and they wouldn't have to give away half the net.”
”So somebody ripped off the dream book.”
”Or he trusted the wrong person?”
”Hisp, at the bank? Tom Collier?”
”Who knows? We both know what can happen. Suppose there is a man you can trust with your life. Nothing he wouldn't do for you. But all of a sudden you're dead, and he sees an angle. Foolproof. The daughter? She's got a bundle. No need to worry. So this fellow, this true and blue friend, there he is with all Professor Ted's notes and a.n.a.lyses and studies. Basic research was in that journal, a book about so big. The backup research would fill a big suitcase. True-blue friend lays back and waits for heat. There is no heat at all. So finally, he makes his move, trying to set it up so there's no risk at all.”
”I never heard you say so much before, all at one time.”
”Ted trusted you, you son of a b.i.t.c.h!”
Never before has my jaw fallen open in surprise. Here is what happens. There are nineteen different things you can say, and you open your mouth to say them all, and you can't decide which one to say first. So you sit there like a stuffed guppy.
And then I was in midair, mouth still open. Total launch. The juvenile reaction. Honor offended and all that. He tried to tip his chair over to the side, but it didn't tip fast enough. I made a midair adjustment of arm, shoulder, and back and popped him on the side of the head as he was toppling. It made a clear white whistling pain in my hand, reminding me that one almost never hits the hard parts of people with the naked hand. One hits the soft parts with the hand, and the hard parts with a utensil.
I sailed over him and tucked my shoulder under and rolled and came up. I pounced on him, grabbed two handfuls of garments and picked him up and slammed him back against the bulkhead, and drew back to put the next one into a soft part of him.
”Whoa!” he said in a fumbling voice. His eyes weren't in good focus.
”Whoa your a.s.s!”
”Uncle,” he said. That's right. The old schoolyard word. It stopped me. It boggled me.
”Uncle?” I said.
”I wanted to know. I found out. So no more hitting.” His voice was clearer. He shook the mist out of his eyes. I stepped back, but I stayed ready.
”I lie a lot,” I said. ”But I don't steal from live friends or dead friends.”
”So I know that, now.” He worked his jaw, felt his face. ”That was some tag. My head is still ringing. The last time I got hit that hard, a Greek came up behind me and laid me out on the deck with a fid. You know, I had the idea I could maybe take you if it ever came to that. Even if that was a lucky shot, I don't think so.” He moved around me and stood his chair back up and sat in it, with a heavy sigh.
I kneaded my knuckles and worked them into the palm of the other hand, standing the pain in order to explore for any little grinding of bone chip, grating of fracture. I held the hand out, fingers straight, and looked at it. It was puffing so fast I already had a dimple wherever there used to be a knuckle.
”Usually I keep my cool better than that, Frank. It cost me a hand. I think I steamed because I really liked Ted. I miss him. Once upon a time he saved-I forgot. You know all about that.”
”Look at it from where I live, McGee. He died here. You and Meyer were close to him. Either of you could have the stuff. I knew it wouldn't be Meyer.”
”Why not?”
”We played a lot of games of chess aboard that bucket. I know how his mind works. He conceals intent by making something look like something else. He doesn't advertise the fact he's being tricky. This isn't his style.”
”So it has to be mine?”
”Let's not go through the big tumbling act again. It has to be somebody else. Your hand doesn't look so great.”
It took an effort to make a fist. Soon it wouldn't be possible. ”I feel like such a d.a.m.ned juvenile, Frank. I only hit people in self-defense. Usually.”
”I could stay over long enough to play some chess with Meyer in the morning, if I can get into the hospital, and if he's up to it.”
”I'll get you in, and unless he had a bad night, he'll play.”
Friday morning I smuggled a guest and a magnetic chess set into room 455. Blaney, the boss nurse, was all set to run Frank Hayes out of her territory. He looked like the handyman at the local drunk farm. But he turned a considerable and unexpected charm in her direction, all very courtly, gracious, considerate, and almost overdone. The Russians say it is impossible to spoil porridge with too much b.u.t.ter. Blaney hesitated, then shrugged, then smiled, then laughed aloud, then gave him a girlish little slap on the arm and went out, giggling.
Meyer, who had brightened considerably at the appearance of Hayes and the chess set, looked marvelingly at Frank. ”Who would ever have known!” he said.
Hayes opened his big fist and looked at the diminutive chess p.a.w.n. ”You get white,” he said. ”Shut up and open.”
They got into a long closed game, dull for the onlooker. I wandered out. When I returned at noon, they were talking, and the board had been pushed aside. Meyer had offered the draw and Hayes had accepted. Meyer looked weary. He yawned and said, ”The decision of the Board is that you use your contacts and see what you can find out about Mansfield Hall.”
”Gentlemen, your faithful, loyal employee has just finished making a few phone calls, and begs to report on that very situation. Hall is a professional go-between. He has spent so much time sitting in a cell for contempt of court because he wouldn't answer questions, people tend to trust him. He has had ulcers so bad he has about a third of a stomach left. He is reputed to be a poker player of formidable talent. Suppose you have five thousand acres of land over in Boondox County and you want to get it quietly rezoned so that the Devastation Minerals Company can set up a phosphate mining operation there and a chemical fertilizer plant, and will pay you fifteen hundred bucks an acre for it, if you can deliver it with the new zoning. Because that comes to seven point five mil, you are willing to lay out a hundred and fifty thousand cash to buy a favorable vote from three out of the five county commissioners of Boondox County. Mansfield Hall will find a legitimate investment for you. You put in three hundred thousand and, seven months later, you give up and cash in your chips and show a long term loss of two hundred thousand. In the mean time three commissioners have become richer by fifty thousand each, in some way they are perfectly willing to explain, if they are ever asked.”
”Does he do any laundry work?” Frank asked. ”I mean on a straight basis. Turn it in and get it back all pretty?”
”I wouldn't know. Maybe. It's rumored he handled a big kidnap payoff. He has some kind of status with the Cuban community, for some sort of services rendered. He spends a lot of time on airplanes, domestic and foreign. Apparently he's smart, sly, well-connected, and doesn't cheat his clients.”
”Where would you say he'd pick up his clients?” Hayes asked.
Meyer yawned again. ”From other attorneys,” he said.
They brought Meyer's lunch tray and rousted us. A bland diet. Food that was beige, tan and buff and looked pre-chewed, with the tray brightened by the diet.i.tian's touch-a dollop of red gelatin on a very small green leaf, and a wedge of bright yellow lemon on the tea saucer.
Blaney brought it herself, saying, ”Well! We should be hungry by now, shouldn't we?”
Meyer looked at it and said, ”We are. We are. You can be the one to eat it, my dear.”
”You're a lot better,” she said. ”Let him have a good long nap today, fellows.”
It was a good long nap. Frank's gear was locked in my car. I drove him to the airport, over to the private sector and out to where his crew of two were sitting on camp chairs just inboard of the starboard wing tank of the white s.h.i.+p, in the noonday shade of the delicate-looking wing. Ted and Harry.
Harry was a bald ex-colonel with a boyish face. Ted was much younger, a Navy type who had gotten out after 'Nam. Turn Arnold Palmer's clock back to about twenty-eight, give him overlong reddish curls and a pair of eyes of a gray even paler than my own, paler than spit. They both wore odds and ends of uniform of several services from several wars.
Some signal must have been sent which I did not recognize, because when Frank said, ”This here is McGee,” I got a far more than casual inspection.
After they went aboard to get on the air and order up the battery cart, Frank gave me Mansfield Hall's card, complete with penciled unlisted special number on the back.
”Tell him you're authorized to negotiate for me. Maybe you can push the door open far enough to see what's beyond it. Probably not. Give it a try. It bothers me.”
”And how do I get to you if I learn anything?”
”That's on this other card. What's going to happen, I am going to take on one more project than I've got the troops to handle, and that's when you're coming aboard. I'll work you down to a nub and make you very rich.”
”I'm employed. Self-employed.”
”Ted and Harry gave you good marks. I worked with you once, remember? Meyer has a high opinion.”