Brett Halliday - Mermaid on the Rocks

“Someone in a boat,” she whispered.

“What kind of a shot is Eda Lou?”

“Eda Lou! Don’t be an idiot.”

Eda Lou spoke acidly from the doorway. “On the floor already, I see. That didn’t take long. I don’t like to barge in on the orgy, but I thought you might like to know there’s a boat out in the cove.”

“Stay away from the window!” Barbara commanded. “They’re shooting at us.”

“Who’s shooting at us, may I ask?” the old woman said sarcastically. “Cupid?”

She was wearing high-heeled slippers and an old-fashioned floor-length negligee with a collar of feathers. The carbine fired again and she went down like a stone. A loose feather floated down after her.

She moaned faintly.

“Eda Lou!” Barbara cried. “Are you hurt?”

“Twisted my ankle,” the old woman snapped. “What a rotten shot. I thought there was something creepy about that boat-it just sat there with no lights on. What a comfort to think we have a man in the house for a change.”

Shayne grunted. “Take a look around.”

She did as he told her, without lifting her head. “I think I see what you mean,” she said slowly.

The front windows came down to within twelve inches of the floor. The room was as brightly lit as a stage set. From the gunman’s position in the cove he commanded every inch of it except for a narrow stretch of front wall. There were two standing floor lamps, one large ornate table lamp with a Tiffany glass shade. The main light came from a brass ceiling fixture, four frosted bowls attached to a central stem. This was controlled by a switch which Shayne could see on the wall inside the door. To reach the switch, he would have to pass the double sliding glass door.

“We’d better turn off the lights,” Eda Lou suggested. “I’ll unplug the lamps. You get the chandelier.”

Shayne grinned at her. “You get the chandelier. I’ll unplug the lamps.”

“Good for you,” she said. “Let the women do the hard part. And Cal always said you were one of the toughest people around. You’ve slowed down, Shayne.”

Shayne went on grinning. “What would Cal do in a case like this?”

She glared at him fiercely. Then one of the feathers in her collar tickled her and made her nose wrinkle. She gave a short laugh.

“Just what you’re doing, boy. He played the odds, and that’s how he lived as long as he did.”

Using his elbows and the muscles of his upper thighs, Shayne wriggled forward without raising any part of his body more than an inch. He ended at the front wall beyond the big window.

“Who do you think’s out there, Barbara?” he said, lighting a cigarette.

“How would I know?” she responded irritably. “Daddy was involved in a million things. He was never afraid to make enemies.”

Eda Lou snorted. “Honey, give the man credit for some sense. You know who it is, and Mike knows you know.”

Barbara shot her an angry look. “Will you keep out of this? I don’t suppose I can ask you to leave the room, but please stop interrupting.”

“Pardon me for living,” the older woman said acidly.

Barbara pivoted to look at Shayne. There was fear in her eyes, but she made an effort to speak lightly. “As it happens, I can make a pretty good guess who it is. It’s my demented Uncle Brad. Divide a million dollars in two and it’s more money than if you divide it in three, that’s elementary. Mike, obviously you don’t want to risk your neck unless you’re paid to do it. Will you work for me? Keep me intact through Wednesday, and I’ll pay you ten thousand. That’s five thousand dollars a day.”

Eda Lou put in, “This is Mike Shayne. Don’t you read the papers? He wouldn’t help you across the street for less than twenty.”

Barbara gave her another hard look and she said meekly, “I thought you might not know.”

Barbara said through set lips, looking back at Shayne, “Fifteen, Mike?”

“Do you have fifteen?” Shayne asked.

The fear in Barbara’s eyes deepened to panic. “You won’t insist on being paid in advance, will you? Cash is the problem.”

“What happened to the option money from Florida-American? Did that pay for Shanahan’s judgeship?”

Eda Lou snickered. Barbara’s face was working.

“Don’t turn me down, Mike, please. What’ll I do? Brad’s insane! You don’t know what he’s like. He’s a killer.”

“Yeah, there’s that old killing in his record,” Shayne observed, “but I thought you said it wasn’t important?”

She swallowed, saying nothing.

Shayne went on, “And I couldn’t help you even if I wanted to, which I don’t. I can’t work for two people at the same time. That’s one of the rules. I already have a client.”

“Not any more. Can’t you-”

She stopped abruptly. She looked at the phone, then at the detective. The blood drained out of her face. Shayne grinned at her.

“You bastard,” she said faintly.

“That’s what people sometimes call me,” Shayne agreed.

“What’s going on around here?” Eda Lou demanded. “What’s all the back-and-forth?”

“Brad met with an accident,” Shayne said without looking away from Barbara. “A cop shot him. I’m glad to say that I helped.”

Barbara cut her eyes toward the neat little holes in the window.

“No, that isn’t Brad out there,” Shayne said. “So who is it? It can’t be Kitty, because I know where she is. That leaves Judge Shanahan. It hardly seems in character, but who else is left? People sometimes step out of character when they have a strong enough reason-if they don’t want to get married, for example.”

“You tricked me once,” Barbara said coldly. “Although what you imagine you’ve proved, merely because I assumed that phone call was about Kitty-”

“I’m not trying for courtroom evidence,” Shayne told her. “Just checking an idea. You work in a hospital, don’t you? What do you know about the properties of nitrous oxide?”

Barbara drew in her breath sharply and raised her head. The carbine cracked. This round gouged a splinter out of the window frame. Barbara banged her forehead against the floor.

“I don’t know what you mean,” she said in a low voice.

“The hell you don’t,” Shayne said. “Do you know what the statutes say about conspiracy to commit murder? Look it up.” There was a harsh edge to his voice. “I’m going to chase that guy away in another minute. I’ve been faking a bit here. I can push the sofa in front of the glass doors and get past without being shot at. I didn’t bring a gun, but I doubt if he’ll stick around to find that out. I’ll see Kitty at breakfast and pass on your proposition. If she asks my advice, I’ll advise her to take it. By the time she gets a hundred-percent ownership, this buried-treasure story is going to sound pretty stale. But it’s up to her. If she says no, I want you to realize there isn’t a thing you can do about it. Not one thing. So relax and stop trying. If you decide to go on trying, you’d better kill me first. Is that clear?”

Eda Lou clapped ironically.

“I haven’t done anything,” Barbara said in a faint voice.

“That’s fine,” he said. “Go on doing nothing, and if you’re lucky you’ll stay out of the electric chair.”

She made a weak little sound.

“What she’s trying to tell you, Mike,” Eda Lou said, “is that she’s going to change her ways. And if you want a gun, there’s a. 25 in the drawer of that table.”

“A. 25,” Shayne said sarcastically. “You wouldn’t happen to have a slingshot to go with it? Never mind, it’ll save moving the furniture.”

He worked away from the wall and slowly reversed. He began to creep toward a heavily carved table, all the way across the room. Reaching it finally, he rolled over on his back.