Brett Halliday - Mermaid on the Rocks

She lit a cigarette and said briskly, “To answer your question, I’m not your mother. I repeat, not. It seems to me I’d know, wouldn’t I? Freeze it, will you, for good?”

“I haven’t mentioned it once in five years!”

“And that’s once too many. I was your father’s dear friend and longtime companion, and the only reason he never married me was because I never brought the subject up. If I’d been the mother of his only child, wouldn’t he leave me a piece of his stinking Key? Really. Think it over.”

“God, you’re a hard person to get along with.”

“And how would you change your way of life if I said yes? What would you do, look after me in my old age? When I said I wanted to go on a cruise, did I say I wanted to go with you? You’re the world’s dullest travel companion, dear. I’ll never go through that again. Those goddamned ruins.”

Barbara dropped her cigarette into her martini glass. The phone rang before she could speak. Shayne saw her shoulders stiffen.

“Well, answer it,” Eda Lou said. “It’s probably somebody who wants to break the bad news about Brad.”

“Damn it, I’m too tired.”

Eda Lou exclaimed with annoyance and went to the phone, her cigarette between her lips.

“Hello? Yes, but she’s asleep. The way all Christian people ought to be at this time of night. This is her housekeeper, and what can I do for you?” After a moment she said sharply, “Who?” She covered the mouthpiece. “It’s Hank Sims! Now what the hell?”

Into the phone she said, “Out of the blue. We were all so broken up when we heard that you and that pretty wife had decided to go separate ways. What do you mean I don’t sound sincere? I’m always sincere when anybody wakes me up just before daybreak. You already said you wanted to talk to Barbara. Call at a civilized hour. I’m going back to bed. Dial the number again and you’ll get a busy signal.”

She listened briefly. “Hold on a minute.”

Covering the phone again she said, “It’s about Frank, and he says it’s important. You have to talk to him, baby.”

“About Frank?” Barbara went to the phone as though sleepwalking. “He’s dead. Brad killed him before he went to Kitty’s. I know he did.”

“Talk to him,” Eda Lou said patiently. “I don’t think it’s that bad.”

Barbara took the phone. “Is Frank all right? — But where are you? I’m coming into Miami later. I can meet you. Yes, of course, if you’re in Marathon you might as well drive over, but what’s it about? — All right, I’ll make some coffee. But this better be important!”

She hung up and whirled on Eda Lou. “He has something to show me and he won’t talk about it on the phone.”

Eda Lou’s eyes narrowed against the smoke from her cigarette. “If it’s bad, we can’t guess it away. He’ll be here soon enough.”

“How about their divorce? Did that go through or are they still-”

She left the room. Eda Lou followed, taking the martini pitcher and the glasses.

Shayne changed position, easing the pull on his injured leg. The sky was beginning to brighten in the east. The tangled undergrowth all around the big tree seemed less formidable than when he had fought his way through it in pitch darkness. He rubbed his ears and replaced one earphone. After finishing his cigarette he added it to the burned out butts in the peanut can and lit another.

Then the women came back into the living room.

Eda Lou was still wearing her negligee but Barbara had changed into pink slacks and a blouse. She had worked on her face and hair. Shayne checked her appearance through the binoculars. She looked fresh and glowing, and Shayne wondered, not for the first time, at the resilience of women.

“I ought to be worrying,” she said brightly, “but I’m not. I’ve decided how to handle Frank. I’ll bring it out in the open. Was he shooting at me, or wasn’t he? Naturally he thought I’d just send back his ring on some pretext or another. He’s in for a surprise.”

“Baby,” Eda Lou said admiringly, taking bottles to the sideboard, “I like to listen to the way your mind works. We have to do something about this broken glass, unless we want Hank to think we sit around shooting out light bulbs.”

“I’ll get the vacuum cleaner.”

Barbara left the room. Alone, Eda Lou picked up a fragment of one of the frosted bowls. Her eyebrows knotted.

“Goddamn it to hell!” she said in a fierce undertone, and hurled the piece across the room. It shattered against the far wall. Sighing, she poured herself a slug of straight gin and tossed it off.

“And what a slob I’m turning out to be,” she said.

Her face brightened as Barbara came back with the vacuum cleaner.

Barbara said, “What do you think about my Shanahan strategy? Aren’t you going to give me the benefit of your long experience?”

“None of the men I’ve known ever took a shot at me with a carbine. They knew I’d shoot back.”

“Frank doesn’t dislike me. He just doesn’t like the idea of marriage. Heavens, people get used to it.”

She turned on the vacuum cleaner. Shayne saw their lips move, but the roar from the machine drowned out their words.

Barbara was in midsentence when she turned it off. “-with Kitty. Frank said to leave it to him. He knows a way he can make her sign, if she still says no.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. Something to do with Uncle Ev, something sordid, no doubt. Blackmail usually is.”

Eda Lou was frowning. “Did Frank say that about Ev, or is it just a guess?”

“He implied it. Sweetie, don’t give me a third degree, all right?”

“There’s the car. We’ll talk about it later. I’ll bring in the coffee and vamoose. Just one thing about Hank, baby. He’s as crooked as a hairpin.”

“Crookeder. I know that. I can’t abide him, so will you worry about something else?”

“Don’t answer any questions. If he starts to give you a hard time, yell. I’ve got the. 25. I’ll come a-running.”

In the tree house, Shayne freed one ear from the earphones and heard the sound of a car on the clamshell driveway.

Hank Sims was at the wheel of a promoter’s car, a white Chevrolet convertible with white-walled tires and red leather upholstery. The top was down. It passed out of sight for a moment and stopped in front of the house.

Barbara waited in the living room, checking her hair and makeup, while Eda Lou went to the door to let him in. He sauntered into binocular-range, hands in the back pockets of his tight Levis. He was a burly young man in a full black beard.

“Still wearing that awful disguise, I see,” Barbara observed. “No wonder nobody wants to give you a full time job.”

Sims slouched into the room. “I’m not looking for jobs. I’m self-employed.”

“And it must pay very well,” Barbara said cheerfully. “I see you’re driving a new car.”

“I’ll get some coffee,” Eda Lou said disapprovingly.

The moment the housekeeper was out of the room Sims’s hands came out of his pockets. He took Barbara in his arms and kissed her hard. At first she tried to twist away. That lasted only an instant. Then her arms came up and the embrace became deep and mutual.

He broke off abruptly. “What have you been up to?”

“Nothing too exciting,” she said shakily. “Damn you, anyway. After Kitty walked out I thought you might at least give me a ring once in a while.”

“After who walked out? I walked out, for cause, and that’s how it’s going to be in the action. Goddamn it, when money’s going around the table I want my share.” He put his hand on her breast. “I wanted to call you. I almost did a couple of times but things were too involved.”