Brett Halliday - Win Some, Lose Some

He walked away, the back of his neck red with anger. Shayne and Frieda found places in the chamber where the bids would be opened. Rourke gave Shayne a two-fingered salute. The media people clotted around Canada, but Rourke left him alone, having had his interview the day before. It had lasted six hours, and Rourke had been up most of the night writing an insider’s view of the carnage at Homestead, and the next article in the highway series. Both his city editor and managing editor had come to the bid-opening because Rourke had promised more fireworks. All the TV channels had sent units.

Philip Gold, the Highway Commissioner, looking nearly as dapper as usual, arrived with a small staff. As he passed Shayne and Frieda, they caught a strong wash of perfume, a musky fragrance that wouldn’t have seemed out of place on a bull moose. Frieda whispered, “He must want us to love him in spite of everything.”

Gold took his place at the front of the chamber and asked if there were any last-minute bids. Parties of technicians from all the big contracting firms, including Canada’s, had been busy in the corridor, scribbling changes and making their final quotes. The envelopes were hastily sealed. Canada’s, as usual, came up last. Canada himself was sitting back, smiling. As everybody knew, his instinct was infallible. He invariably guessed right and gave the lowest bid by a narrow margin.

Gold put on heavy glasses and took a letter opener out of an attache case. Everybody involved in the process began writing furiously as he opened each envelope and read out the figure. The bids, as always, varied so widely that the estimators seemed to be bidding on different jobs. Finally only two bidders were left to be heard from. One was a huge Georgia firm, B. and B. Contractors, which had made a number of attempts to break into Florida highways and had invariably been beaten back. Gold’s hands, as he arranged the envelopes, were concealed behind a low rail, and he managed to substitute a different envelope for B. and B. Rourke and Shayne, however, had come early to position a mirror above and behind him, high up to the right of the flag. It was the action in this mirror that the TV cameras were recording. Gold’s attache case was open beside him. He read out a figure. There was a murmur in the room. So far B. and B. had it, with only Canada still to be heard from. Again Gold did a sleight of hand with several envelopes hidden in his case, all sealed, all identical except for the bids inside. Shayne had seen these envelopes before, when Canada gave them to Gold at the meeting in the construction trailer. The letter opener snicked. Gold called out a figure. By several tens of thousands, it was higher than the one from the Georgia firm.

The room was absolutely still.

“It appears that B. and B. is low bidder,” Gold announced, peering over his glasses. “Am I correct, gentlemen? I therefore award B. and B. the contract. Congratulations. I hope this leads to a long and fruitful association.”

The unopened envelopes were cleverly slipped back in his attache case, and the lid snapped shut. Canada leaped to his feet, nearly purple.

“You double-crossing fink! You bastard! You cheap kike! You think you’re going to get away-”

His hand came up. There was a gun in it.

Shayne caught the arm and forced it down. “No, Larry. Not today.”

Canada threw himself from side to side. A vein like a rope was beating in his temple. Others sprang to help, but Shayne had the fat man under control. Gold had dropped out of view as abruptly as if he had actually been shot. Frieda reached across for the attache case, containing the evidence of the fraudulent bidding. When the gun dropped, Canada’s fierceness and fury went with it. His free hand came up to claw at his chest. He gurgled unpleasantly and slumped to the floor like an emptying grain sack.

A dirty youth in work jeans pushed through the crowd. “Are you Mike Shayne? Can you come quick?”

Shayne signaled to Rourke. Frieda’s van was nearest, and they went in that.

“I was beginning to worry about you,” Rourke said, getting in. “Because this has been one of your sloppiest efforts, you know that? Not that I’m complaining. Canada gave me some marvelous stuff, and I think those shenanigans with the bids may kill the Everglades link-put it off, anyway. So the paper’s going to be more friendly when I go in to negotiate my next raise. However-”

“However what? You didn’t really expect we’d put Canada in jail?”

“No, I guess not. A heart attack’s almost as good. You stage-managed that nicely. How did you know Gold was planning to dump him?”

“Canada’s hot this morning. And we know Gold-he was bound to try to make money out of it and close a deal with somebody else. A heart attack? I had my hand on his chest, and his heart beat seemed pretty good. But when he gets up off the floor, he’s going to be hungry. He ate too much for breakfast, but it’s almost time for a midmorning stack. He eats under pressure, and the pressure is going to be steady from now on. It’s a stretched-out version of capital punishment. Now what else is bothering you?”

“You know what is bothering me. The money. That’s going to be the most expensive mile in Interstate history. When I saw that cooler go in-You’ve never been that careless before, Mike. I admit, I wouldn’t have done it any better, but I’ve come to expect a little more efficiency from you.”

Frieda, at the wheel, was smiling. “Thirsty, Tim? Have a beer.”

“What are you talking about? I’m under pressure, too, but I don’t drink beer under pressure. I’m more inclined to drink whiskey.”

“Wouldn’t a cold beer taste good right now? It’s Miller’s in cans. There’s a cooler back of your seat.” Rourke’s mouth opened. He looked from Frieda to Shayne. They were both laughing.

“No,” Rourke said firmly. “Goddamn it, no. I saw that box go up the belt with my own eyes. “Wallace for President,’ without the W. That Goddamn stoned dolphin.”

He waved in disgust. “All right, all right. You fooled me completely, but I wasn’t the only one. When did you do it?”

“No problem,” Shayne said. “We had most of the day, while you were talking to Canada. Those coolers are pretty standard. We weren’t looking for any particular sticker, so long as we got them in pairs. Side by side, they weren’t exactly identical, but nobody made the comparison. We put phone books in one, and that was the one that went into the asphalt. Benjamin made the switch in the parking lot when he came back from the rest area.”

Rourke had twisted in his seat and unclamped the lid of the Styrofoam box. He lifted out the shallow compartment with its three cans of beer.

“My, my,” he said. “Isn’t it lovely?” He picked out several packages of hundreds, and let them spill slowly back. “A king’s ransom. What are you going to do with it? Do I get a chance to vote? Keep it, Mike! Hell,” he said in growing excitement, “you’ve been knocking your head against walls so long-Who does it belong to? A bunch of hoodlums! Turn it in, it’ll disappear in the general fund the way those phone books disappeared in the asphalt. You deserve it. Nobody’ll ever know. They all think it went in the Goddamn road.”

“It’s a lot of money,” Shayne said. “We’re thinking of setting up a foundation.”

“The Mike Shayne Foundation,” Rourke said promptly, “Mike Shayne, chief beneficiary. I’m for that.”

Shayne shook his head. “Funded by the organized criminals of Miami. I want to set up a system of benefits for the victims. The people who get shot in the stick-ups. Hospital bills for people who get mugged. Reimbursement for thefts.”

“I see it,” Rourke said sadly, replacing the lid. “It’s a nice idea, very poetic. And I can’t even print the story. But it reassures me. I really did think you were slipping.”