Part 15 (1/2)
”Two fifty-five gallon drums fit behind those blocks on the port and two on the starboard. A friend named Johnny Dow is bolting the blocks down where they belong. He'll put four clean empty drums in place-”
”Darling, please!”
”-clean empty drums in place and use braided steel cable with turnbuckles to make them secure, using the eye bolts. Meyer, who has the keys and knows the security systems aboard, will open up the Flush Flush this afternoon, and Johnny will move it to the gas dock and get the drums filled with diesel fuel and get my tanks topped off and bring it back to the slip. Meyer has the list of provisions and maintenance supplies and will see that they are brought aboard and stowed today. I have a hand pump that starts a siphon action to transfer the fuel from the drums to the regular tanks.” this afternoon, and Johnny will move it to the gas dock and get the drums filled with diesel fuel and get my tanks topped off and bring it back to the slip. Meyer has the list of provisions and maintenance supplies and will see that they are brought aboard and stowed today. I have a hand pump that starts a siphon action to transfer the fuel from the drums to the regular tanks.”
”Please, dear.”
”At the most economical speed, the additional two hundred and twenty gallons builds the maximum range, without safety factor, up to eleven hundred miles. I have not told Meyer why I wanted him to do me these favors, and I imagine he thinks it is busy work I have invented to keep him out of Miami.”
”I'm sorry.”
”I was d.a.m.ned reluctant to make that promise to you, M.A. But you wanted it made, and I have made it. Having made it, I would not dog it.”
”If I ever say 'Like what?' to you again, the way I said it that time, wash out my big mouth with yellow soap.”
”I promise you that too.”
”Brutal male chauvinist pig?”
”Well, if you put up a fight, I'm not sure I can manage the soap part.”
She grinned, a.s.sumed the stance, jabbed with a long left, and then hooked off the jab, a respectable whistler missing by a calculated inch.
”My very best punch,” she said.
”You keep impressing me in new ways, Mary Alice.”
”Darling, what are you going to do? Stay in the same place again tonight?”
”Join me?”
”Too many eyes are watching me. At least, I have the feeling they are. I think somebody saw me get home this morning. I tried to be sly, but it turned out stupid. I left my car home and took a cab. And so, of course, arriving home at eight something in a cab looks worse than if I'd had my car. No, honey, much as I need you, I'd be too jumpy. Where are you going to be the rest of today?”
”Here and there.”
”But what is there you can possibly do?”
”Once in Vegas I saw an old lady in the Golden Nugget, absolutely totally broke. The slots had cleaned her. So she was sidling around pulling at the handles on the off chance some idiot left a coin in one of them. I saw her find a handle that she could pull, and she hit three somethings and got about twelve dimes down the chute. She got a half hour out of those dimes before she was broke again and started to pull at the handles on the idle machines. That's my mysterious system, M.A. I go around pulling handles in case some idiot forgot he left a dime in the machinery.”
”What if I have to get word to you?”
”Leave a message at the Contessa for room 1802. This shop is letter A. Your place is B. If you are coming to the Contessa, it is C. If you are going to Lauderdale to wait for me, it's D. Use a last name that fits. Miss Adams, Miss Brown, Miss Carter, Miss Dean. So I'll check in for messages now and then. 'Miss Carter called and will call again' means I'll head for the hotel and see you there. Clear?”
”Sure. You do that pretty d.a.m.ned fast, you know. You must have had a h.e.l.l of a lot of messages from girls in your day.”
”In my day? Thanks. I had the feeling these were my days, somehow.”
”If I let you live through them, maybe. I've got more work to do here. What'll I do with this funny box?”
”Put it in the safe for now.”
”Should I tell Hirsh? I don't want to.”
”Save it for now.”
”Okay, dear. Please take care of yourself.”
”I came here to take you to lunch.”
”I don't want to be seen with you. And I'm not hungry. And you don't know how unusual that is. I'm always hungry.”
Harmony Towers had all the exterior charm of a women's prison. But inside the colors were bright and cheerful, and the people at the main desk were helpful. Miss Moojah was expecting me, and I could find her in Community Room 7, down that corridor to the end, through the fire door, and up the stairs one flight, and I couldn't miss it.
Fifteen old people were sitting in a circle in Community Room 7 and a swarthy young lady was saying, ”Weeth the irregular verps, Mr. Lewis, you muss memorize, eh? Traer. To breeng. Breeng me a drink. Imperative. Traigame una copita. Eh?”
They all stared at me, and a woman hopped up, excused herself, and walked briskly to the doorway, motioning me back out into the hall. She was medium tall, erect, stick thin, with penciled brows and hair dyed mahogany pink. She had a ma.s.sive, jutting, macrocephalic jaw. Out in the hall she looked me over with great care, and then said in a deep, metallic contralto, ”Around here one gets so accustomed to seeing withered little crickety old men or fat wheezing sloppy old men, one tends to forget how they must have once appeared, Mr. McGee.”
”I could have come later, after your cla.s.s.”
”I would rather you took me away from it. It is a matter of duty and conscience to attend. There are seven dolts holding the rest of us back. I have pet.i.tioned to have the cla.s.s split in twain. I am so far ahead of the lesson schedule right now, it is pitiful. Come along. We can talk in here. A waiting room. There are dozens in the building. Waiting for what? An absolute waste. Please sit down. Hirsh told me you are a friend of Meyer, and you are trying to help him. He was reluctant to tell me why he needs help. But with a bit of urging he gave me the whole story.”
”Did you really bash two holdup-people with a toy baseball bat?”
She looked astonished. ”What's that got to do with anything?
There were three. I didn't have to hit the third one. I told him that I would, and he believed me and left. Why do you ask?”
”I was curious. It seems to be just about the most stupid kind of behavior possible.”
”You certainly say what you think.”
”I'm trying to figure out how much weight I should give to anything you tell me.”
”It was stupid behavior. The bat was a gift for my grand-nephew. Still wrapped. I s.n.a.t.c.hed it up out of terror, certain the man was going to kill me. I hit him, and he fell down, and I became notorious. I was interviewed. My picture was in the paper. So I bought another bat for the little boy. When the second holdup attempt occurred, I felt I was in a dream. I had to retain my reputation as a character. I hit him in slow motion. His eyes rolled up out of sight, and he still stood there until I hit him again. More publicity. On the third attempt I told him I would hit him. He left. After he left, I looked for the bat. It was gone. Hirsh had disposed of it. I fainted dead away. Stupid, Mr. McGee? No. Not stupid. Silly. Very very silly.”
”I had to know. Sorry.”
”I understand. My mind is quite clear.”
”Do you think Hirsh is right? Is the Sprenger stuff gone?”
”Yes.”
”Have you wondered about how it could have been done?”
”Young man, we are all fascinated by larceny. Fortunately for civilization, most of us merely think about it. Obviously the entire alb.u.m was taken and another subst.i.tuted. It is equally obvious that Mr. Sprenger managed it by devising some diversion, some alternate focus of attention. Had I still been employed by Mr. Fedderman, he would never have taken on the Sprenger account.”