Lawrence Block - Enough Rope

“Oh, sure.”

“You won’t kill me?”

“Oh, don’t be silly,” he said.

She knew exactly what he meant. He meant, Let’s not talk about it, doll, but of course we’ll kill you. What else?

“I’m more fun when I’m alive,” she said.

“I’ll bet you are.”

“You better believe it.”

He came closer to her. She straightened her shoulders to emphasize her youthful curves and watched his eyes move over her body.

“That’s a pretty sweater,” he said. “You look real good in a sweater. I’ll bet a guy could have a whole lot of fun with you, baby.”

“I’m more fun,” she said, “when I’m not tied up. Howie won’t be back for a half hour. But I don’t guess that would worry you.”

“Not a bit.”

She sat perfectly still while he untied her. Then she got slowly to her feet. Her legs were cramped and her fingers tingled a little from the limited circulation. Ray took her in his arms and kissed her, then took a black automatic from his pocket and placed it on the table.

“Now don’t get any idea about making a grab for the gun,” he said. “You’d only get hurt, you know.”

Later he insistedon tying her up again.

“But I won’t try anything,” she protested. “Honest, Ray. You know I wouldn’t try anything. I want everything to go off just right.”

“Howie wouldn’t like it,” he said doggedly, and that was all there was to it.

“But don’t make it too tight,” she begged. “It hurts.”

He didn’t make it too tight.

When Howie came back he was smiling broadly. He closed the door and locked it and lit a cigarette. “Like a charm,” he said through a cloud of smoke. “Went like a charm. You’re okay, honey girl.”

“What did he say?”

“Got hysterical first of all. Kept telling me not to hurt you, that he’d pay if only we’d release you. He kept saying how much he loved you and all.”

She started to laugh. “Oh, beautiful!”

“And you were right about the safe. He started to blubber that he couldn’t possibly raise a hundred thousand on short notice. Then I hit him with the safe, said I knew he kept plenty of dough right there in his own basement, and that really got to him. He went all to pieces. I think you could have knocked him over with a lettuce leaf when he heard that.”

“And he’ll pay up?”

“No trouble at all, and if it’s all cash he’s been salting away that’s the best news yet: no serial numbers copied down, no big bills, no runs of new bills in sequence. That means we don’t have to wholesale the kidnap dough to one of the Eastern mobs for forty cents on the dollar. We wind up with a hundred thousand, and we wind up clean.”

“And he’ll be scared to go to the police afterward,” Carole put in. “Did you set up the delivery of the money?”

“No. I said I’d call in an hour. I may cut it to a half hour though. I think we’ve got him where we want him. This is going so smooth it scares me. I want it over and done with, nice and easy.”

She was silent for a moment. Howie wanted it over and done with, undoubtedly wanted no loose ends. Inevitably he was going to think of her, Carole Butler, as an obvious loose end, which meant that he would probably want to tie her off, and the black automatic on the table was just the thing to do the job. She stared at the gun, imagined the sound of it, the impact of the bullet in her flesh. She was terrified, but she made sure none of this showed in her face or in her voice.

Casually she asked, “About the money — how are you going to pick it up?”

“That’s the only part that worries me.”

“I don’t think he’ll call the police. Not my old man. Frankly, I don’t think he’d have the guts. But if he did, that would be the time when they’d try to catch you, wouldn’t it?”

“That’s the general idea.”

She thought for a moment. “If we were anywhere near the south end of town, I know a perfect spot — but I suppose we’re miles from there.”

“What’s the spot?”

She told him about it — the overpass on Route 130 at the approach to the turnpike. They could have her father drive onto the pike, toss the money over the side of the overpass when he reached it, and they could be waiting down below to pick it up. Any cops who were with him would be stuck up there on the turnpike and they could get away clean.

“It’s not bad,” Ray said.

“It’s perfect,” Howie added. “You thought that up all by yourself?”

“Well, I got the idea from a really super-duper movie—”

“I think it’s worth doing it that way.” Howie sighed. “I was going to get fancy, have him walk to a garbage can, stick it inside, then cut out. Then we go in and get it out of the can. But suppose the cops had the whole place staked out?” He smiled. “You’ve got a good head on your shoulders, kitten. It’s a shame—”

“What’s a shame?”

“That you’re not part of the gang, the way your mind works. You’d be real good at it.”

That, she knew, was not really what he’d meant. It’s a shame we have to kill you anyway, he meant. You’re a smart kid, and even a pretty kid, but all the same you’re going to get a bullet between the eyes, and it’s a shame.

She pictured her father, waiting by the telephone. If he called the police, she knew it would be all over for her, and he might very well call them. But if she could stop him, if she could make sure that he let the delivery of the ransom money go according to plan, then maybe she would have a chance. It wouldn’t be the best chance in the world, but anything was better than nothing at all.

When Howie said he was going to make the second phone call she asked him to take her along. “Let me talk to him,” she begged. “I want to hear his voice. I want to hear him in a panic. He’s always so cool about everything, so smug and superior. I want to see what he sounds like when he gets in a sweat.”

“I don’t know—”

“I’ll convince him that you’re desperate and dangerous,” she continued. “I’ll tell him—” she managed to giggle “—that I know you’ll kill me if he doesn’t cooperate, but that I’m sure you’ll let me go straight home just as soon as the ransom is paid as long as he keeps the police out of it.”

“Well, I don’t know. It sounds good, but—”

“It’s a good idea, Howie,” Ray said. “That way he knows we’ve got her and he knows she’s still alive. I think the kid knows what she’s talking about.”

It took a little talking, but finally Howie was convinced of the wisdom of the move. Ray untied her and the three of them got into Howie’s car and drove down the road to a pay phone. Howie made the call and talked for a few minutes, explaining how and where the ransom was to be delivered. Then he gave the phone to Carole.

“Oh, Daddy,” she sobbed. “Oh, Daddy, I’m scared! Daddy, do just what they tell you. There are four of them and they’re desperate, and I’m scared of them. Please pay them, Daddy. The woman said if the police were brought in she’d cut my throat with a knife. She said she’d cut me and kill me, Daddy, and I’m so scared of them—”

Back in the cabin, as Howie tied her in the chair, he asked, “What was all that gas about four of us? And the bit about the woman?”

“I just thought it sounded dramatic.”

“It was dramatic as a nine-alarm fire, but why bother?”

“Well,” she said, “the bigger the gang is, the more dangerous it sounds and if he reports it later, let the police go looking for three men and a woman. That way you’ll have even less trouble getting away clear. And of course I’ll give them four phony descriptions, just to make it easier for you.”