Part 4 (1/2)
”I didn't think about that.”
”Walter Albany said her resources were 'substantial.' ”
”Meaning how much?”
”Hmmm. To interpret the trust attorney lingo, taking into account the area where Walter practices, I would say that adequate would mean up to a quarter million, comfortable from there up to a million, and substantial could mean anything from there on up to... let's say five or six million. Beyond that I think Walter could say 'impressive.' So you thought it over and you came to see me because you want to know how many people knew there was was such a letter. Me and my secretary and the deceased. And you, and whoever you may have told.” such a letter. Me and my secretary and the deceased. And you, and whoever you may have told.”
”And a nurse?”
”Possibly. I wouldn't know.”
”I told Miss Pearson, the sister, yesterday when she came over to the motel to have a drink with me. She had no idea her mother and I had stayed in touch the past five years. I had to account for being fairly up to date. But I said nothing about what Helena asked me to do.”
”You brought the letter with you? It was in the room?”
”No.”
”If somebody were looking for it, would they look elsewhere? At your home in Fort Lauderdale?”
”They might, but they wouldn't find it.”
”Would you know someone had looked for it?”
”Definitely.”
He looked at his watch. It was after five. He frowned. ”What kind of work do you do, Mr. McGee?”
”Salvage consultant.”
”So what you want to find out from me is whether you should trust your initial judgment of Mr. and Mrs. Pike and Miss Pearson or whether the incident at your hotel room is sufficient cause for you to look more closely?”
”Mr. Hardahee, it is a pleasure to deal with someone who does not have to have detailed drawings and specifications.”
He stood up. ”If you can manage it conveniently, you might join me for a drink at the Haze Lake Club at seven fifteen. If I'm not in the men's bar, tell Simon, the bartender, that you are my guest. I have a date to play doubles in... just twenty minutes.”
When I walked in, I saw that D. Wintin Hardahee had finished. He was at the bar with a group of other players, standing with tall drink in hand in such a way that he could keep an eye on the door. When I appeared, he excused himself and came over to meet me and took me over to a far corner by a window that looked out at the eighteenth green. In the fading light the last foursomes were finis.h.i.+ng.
Hardahee was in white shorts and a white knit s.h.i.+rt, with a sweat-damp towel hung around his neck. I was correct about his fit look. His legs were brown, solid, muscular, and fuzzed with sun-bleached hair. The waiter came over and Hardahee said the planter's punch was exceptional, so I ordered one without sugar and he asked for a refill.
”Win your match?”
”The secret of winning in doubles is to carefully select and train your partner. That blond boy over there is mine. He is constructed of rawhide, steel wire, and apparently has concealed oxygen tanks. He's keeping my name fresh and new on the old trophies and making all the other players hate me.”
”Everybody hates a winner.”
”Mr. McGee, since talking to you, I have been synthesizing all the bits and pieces of information I have concerning Tom Pike. Here is my subjective summary. He is energetic, with considerable fiscal imagination, a great drive. He has personal charm with magnetism. A lot of people are rabidly and warmly loyal to him, people who from time to time have been on his team, or connected with his team in one way or another, and who have made out very well and had some fun doing it. They think he can do no wrong. He has the traits and talents of the born entrepreneur, meaning he is elusive, fast-moving, and very hard-nosed, as well as being something of a born salesman. So there are people who have necessarily been in the way of the deals he has a.s.sembled from time to time and they have been bruised and are eager to claim they were tricked, and quite obviously they hate him. I know of no successful legal action brought against him. As you said, everybody hates a winner. It is a mistake to confuse shrewdness, misdirection, and opportunism with illegality. I can think of no one who knows Tom who is indifferent to him. He polarizes emotions. My guess would be this. If he knew you had a letter his mother-in-law wrote before her death and if he thought there was any information in it of any use to him, he would have come to you and sooner or later you would have found yourself telling or showing him the part or parts he wanted to know about.”
”How would he manage that?”
”By studying you to find out what you want and then offering it to you in such a way you would feel grateful toward him. Money or excitement or advance knowledge or whatever happens to be your choice of private vices. If he had to have something, I think he would go after it his own way first.”
”And if that didn't work?”
”He'd probably turn the problem over to one of the many people aching to do him a favor, no matter what it might be.”
”And you don't like him.”
He pursed his lips. ”... No. I think I like Tom. But I would be uneasy about getting into any kind of business a.s.sociation with him. I'm quite sure I'd make out very well, as have many others, but the inner circle seems to become... a group of faceless men. In any kind of speculation tight security is imperative. They seem to become very... submissive? No. That isn't accurate. Retiring, discreet, and slightly patronizing toward the rest of the working world. I guess I am not a herd animal, Mr. McGee. Even if it would fatten my purse.”
”So if it wasn't Pike or one of his admirers, how come I had a visitor, then?”
”My considered opinion is that it beats the h.e.l.l out of me.”
”Well, if somebody was looking for something they think I have, and wants it badly enough to take a chance of getting caught going in or out of a motel room, the next place to look is in my pockets.”
”If it's smaller than a bread box.”
”I think I'll hang around and do a little trolling.”
”Keep in touch.”
”I will indeed.”
I drove back to the Lodge and ate one of the fake-Hawaiian special dinners, then went from the dining room into the c.o.c.ktail lounge and stood at the bar. Business was very light. Some young couples were splos.h.i.+ng around outside in the big lighted pool. The bar was a half rectangle and I became aware of a girl alone at an end stool, by the wall, under a display of ancient fake Hawaiian weapons. She wore a weight of red-gold wig that dwindled her quite pretty and rather sharp-featured face. She wore a white dress, which seemed in better taste than the wig and the heavy eye makeup. She had a cl.u.s.ter of gold chain bracelets on one arm, smoked a cigarette in a long gold and white holder, and was drinking something wine-red out of a rocks gla.s.s, a measured sip at a time, as self-consciously slow and controlled as her drags at the cigarette.
I became aware of her because she wanted me to be aware of her. It was puzzling because I had appraised the motel as no hangout for hookers. Also, though she was apparently dressed and prepared for the part, her technique was spotty and inept. There are the ones who operate on the mark of their choice with the long, wide-eyed, arrogant-insolent-challenging stare, then properly leave it up to him to make the next move. There is the jolly-girl approach, the ones who say to the barkeep in a voice just loud enough to carry to the ears of the mark, ”Geez, Charlie, like I always say, if the guy doesn't show, the h.e.l.l with him. I'm not going to cry my eyes out, right? Gimme another one of the same, huh.” Then there's the fake prim, the sly sidelong half-shy inquisitive glance, and the quick turn of the head, like a timid doe. Or the problem approach, troubled frown, gesture to have the mark come over, and then the dreary little set piece: Excuse me, mister, this may sound like a crazy kind of thing, but a girl friend of mine, she asked me to be here and tell the guy she had a date with she can't make it, and I was wondering if you're George Wilson. Or: Would you mind, mister, doing me a crazy kind of favor? I got to wait here to get a phone call, and there's some nut that was bugging me before and said he was coming back, and if you'd sit next to me, then he won't give me any problems, okay?
But this one didn't have any routine to depend on. Her infrequent glance was one of a puzzled uncertainty. I decided that it was another instance of the courage of The Pill bringing the bored young wife out hunting for some action while hubby was up in Atlanta at another d.a.m.ned sales meeting. I wondered how she'd manage if I gave her no help at all.
What she did was get up and head for the women's room. She had to walk behind me. So she dropped her lighter and it clinked off the tile and slid under my feet. I backed away so I could stoop and pick it up, but my heel came down on her sandaled toes. I recovered in time to keep from coming down with all my weight, but I came down hard enough to make her yelp with anguish. I turned around and she limped around in a little circle, saying, ”Oh, dear G.o.d!” while I made apologetic sounds. Then we compounded it by both bending at the same instant to pick up the lighter. It was a solid, stinging impact, bone against bone, hard enough to unfocus her eyes and unhinge her knees. I caught her by the arms, moved her gently over, and propped her against the bar.
”Now I will bend over and pick up the lighter.”
”Please do,” she said in a small voice. She grasped the edge of the bar, head bowed, eyes shut.
I wiped the lighter off with the paper napkin from under my drink and placed it in front of her. ”Are you all right?”
”I guess so. For a minute there my toes didn't hurt at all.”
She straightened, picked the lighter off the bar, and made a rather wide circle around me and headed for the women's room. I motioned the bartender over and said, ”Amateur night?”
”New to me, sir. You got each other's attention anyways.”
”House rules?”
”They say to me, they say, Jake, use your judgment.”
”So what do you say to me?”
”Well... how about bon voyage?”