Brett Halliday - Murder Takes No Holiday

“No sign of anybody.”

He drove on to the driveway to the cottages without turning on his lights. Arriving in front of his own cottage a moment later, he shut off the motor, got out and went around to help Alvarez. The Camel had opened the door, and Shayne caught him before he fell. He half-carried the Venezuelan into the cottage, knocked over a chair on the way across the living room. He dumped his burden on the sofa and turned on a lamp.

Alvarez was goggling up at him, gasping. “This pain-do you have an aspirin?”

Shayne laughed. “You need more than an aspirin, amigo. You need a head X-ray and a few weeks in a nursing home.”

Shayne produced glasses and his bottle of cognac. After a quick search through his suitcase he found a tin of aspirin tablets. He gave this to Alvarez, who gulped down four, two at a time, and followed them with a stiff peg of cognac.

He shuddered as the cognac took hold. “That is better. Where is your phone?”

“In the bedroom, if you can make it,” Shayne said.

“I can make it.”

He came erect, and stood swaying for a moment, leaning on the back of a chair.

“Want some help?” Shayne asked, watching him narrowly.

Alvarez shook his head and reached the bedroom doorway in three lurching steps. There he rested again. Gathering his strength, he plunged forward and collapsed on the bed.

Shayne handed him the phone. He waited, breathing hard. After the sixth long breath he rattled for the operator.

Shayne took off his white coat, which was badly soiled where Alvarez had grabbed it, and changed back into the gray tropical worsted he had worn from Miami. Alvarez rattled the phone impatiently.

“What is the matter with this damned operator? Shayne, get me some ice. This pain is so bad I can’t think. And I must think. In a towel, a wash-cloth-anything.”

The redhead went to the little kitchenette. He opened the midget refrigerator and turned on the hot water faucet. Leaving the water running, he quietly returned to the living room so he could hear what his guest was saying. Alvarez was talking very rapidly in Spanish. It was too fast for Shayne. He listened for a moment. When Alvarez didn’t switch back to English, Shayne returned to the kitchenette.

The ice-tray was an ancient model. He had to wait till the water ran hot before it would warm up the tray enough to release the cubes. He wrapped half a dozen in a dish-towel and took them to the bedroom, where Alvarez seized them gratefully and pressed them to his temples.

“Yes, yes,” he said into the phone in English. “But yesterday! Yesterday. I want to know his exact words. Did he say he had not decided if he would do it? Or precisely what?”

Shayne returned to the living room and sat down to his cognac. His eyes were hard.

“And in the end?” Alvarez said. “How did you leave it? You persuaded him?”

He listened for some time.

“All right,” he said. “I understand that. Still you had a feeling that he would go ahead as planned? This is important. I must know exactly.”

There was another long pause. “And then today on the phone?”

There was a longer pause before he spoke again. “No, no. I am not criticizing you. He is not an easy person, and you do very well with him. When do you see him again?”

A moment after that Alvarez exclaimed, “If he comes back! What do you mean if he comes back? He can’t be leaving St. Albans! But when? How?”

He waited for an answer.

“At midnight! Why didn’t you tell me? Blessed Mary, that’s in five minutes. I cannot-Wait. Wait there a minute.”

Shayne’s muscles tightened.

In the bedroom Alvarez said slowly, “Call the airport. Have them get Slater for you. Insist on speaking to him, don’t allow them to put you off. Tell him he must come to you at once. You are hurt. No, no. That is not enough. God, this pain! His wife is not going with him?”

Shayne poured cognac while Alvarez listened to the answer.

“Good, good,” Alvarez said, beginning to sound more sure of himself. “If they have quarreled, she will not be at the airport to see him leave. What do you say, if the wicked Senor Alvarez has the innocent blonde-haired Martha Slater in his clutches, will Paul hasten to rescue her? Do not answer. Perhaps he will merely laugh loudly, but I must try it at least. You told me he feels great guilt about these meetings with you. Now he will feel more guilt because of the quarrel. Yes, I think with luck I can get my hands on Paul Slater, and he will be sorry he hit Luis Alvarez with a wrench… What? I don’t care if you believe it or not. If you had my headache you would know it happened. Ring off.”

Shayne heard him rattling for the operator. There was a sound of pages being flipped rapidly, and Alvarez gave the operator a number. Another moment passed, during which Shayne could hear the faint pulse of a ringing phone.

Then the Camel was saying urgently, “Hello, hello. Police headquarters here. Listen to me carefully. You have a chartered plane scheduled to take off for the U. S. at midnight. I don’t know the company, or the name of the pilot. There is a passenger aboard, an American, Paul Slater. S-l-a-t-e-r. I have to talk to him at once. At once! A life is at stake.”

There was an objection at the other end of the line, but Alvarez raised his voice and rode it down. “This is an emergency! Damn your rules and regulations. He must not be allowed to leave. Do you understand? Good.”

He drummed his fingers against the side of the bed, and called, “Shayne! Any more cognac?”

Shayne got up to show him the empty bottle. “Do you want some of mine?”

“No, no.” And into the phone: “He’s coming? All right, yes. I am holding on.”

He bent forward over the phone, his lips drawn back in a concentrated expression of viciousness. Shayne watched him for a moment. Feeling the redhead’s eyes on him, Alvarez looked up. Shayne went back to his drink.

“Well, Paul,” Alvarez said smoothly. “I am so sorry to interrupt your departure. At the very last moment, too… The police? No, indeed, this is your old friend and ex-business colleague. I say ex because after tonight I somehow think our business connection has come to an end. How does it happen that you neglected to let me know you were leaving?”

Shayne’s faculties were strained to the utmost. Alvarez said, “I would not take that tone with me, Paul. Of course it is some business of mine, what you do and do not do. I am distressed to hear that you must fly to your mother’s side. The sickness must be grave indeed, to make you leave without saying goodbye to your friends. Indeed, grief would appear to have unhinged your reason.” His voice hardened. “Did you really think you could get away with it?”

A moment’s silence followed.

“What, indeed?” Alvarez said savagely. “Of course you are anxious to be on your way. I understand your feelings. Why do you think I called you? To implore you to return what you have stolen from me? I am not so innocent. Or do you think I am holding you on the phone till my men have time to reach the airport? I thought of that, but they could never get there in time, and how could they force their way onto the field? I have made a better arrangement. Your wife is here with me.”

After listening to Slater’s response, he laughed unpleasantly. “Patience, patience. She is perfectly all right, although we had to hit her several times before she agreed to come with us. I would let you speak to her, but I fear she would urge you to complete your escape. Her morale seems excellent. She is quite defiant, as a matter of fact. I have a scratched face from her fingernails. I admire her for it, Paul. I assure you she will not be hurt unless you continue to do these foolish things. Come to me and we can talk things over sensibly and reach a sensible conclusion.”