Джеймс Чейз - I Hold the Four Aces

Helga laughed.

‘Marvellously!’

Hinkle pushed the trolley to the bedside.

‘Will you be in for lunch, madame?’

‘No. We are going into the mountains and we won’t be back until four or five. If we could have an omelette for dinner?’

‘Certainly, madame.’

He left her, and Helga drank her coffee, thinking about Grenville. His love-making had been marvellous. She felt sure now that she could persuade him to take an important position in her corporation. She wouldn’t want to be married in Lugano. She would want the marriage to take place in Paradise City. To launch Grenville, it would have to be a big affair, and the thought thrilled her.

They would fly to Paradise City at the end of the week. The announcement would be made. There would be a lot to arrange. She wondered how Loman and Winborn would react. Then she frowned. She suddenly remembered she had gone off with Chris without telling Winborn or Loman where she was! She also remembered she had left most of her clothes at the Plaza Athénée Hotel.

Winborn might even imagine she had been kidnapped! Jumping out of bed, she took a quick shower and then slipped into a trouser suit.

As she left the bedroom, Grenville, wrapped in a towel, came towards her.

‘Darling!’ Helga ran to him and they kissed. ‘Did you have a lovely swim?’

‘Marvellous.’

‘I’ve just remembered... I haven’t told my people I am here. Ask Hinkle for coffee and sit on the terrace. I won’t be long.’

Leaving him, she went into the living-room and reached for the telephone.

Grenville went to his bedroom and put on slacks and a polo neck sweater, then went out onto the terrace.

‘Tea or coffee, sir?’ Hinkle asked, suddenly appearing.

‘Coffee please.. nothing else.’

Grenville sat down. Faintly, he could hear Helga talking on the telephone. He must gain a little time, he told himself. He must see Archer. But how?

While swimming, he had considered Helga’s proposal. He was sure, even in four years’ time, he would not be capable of earning five million dollars. No, he must first try for the million dollars Archer was promising him. If that didn’t work, then maybe he would have to think again, but, first, he must see Archer.

Hinkle brought the coffee.

‘Is there a golf course near here?’ Grenville asked.

‘Yes, sir: a reasonable one, I understand. It is at Ponte Tresa. I have a map if you would care to look at it.’

‘Thanks, I would.’

He had finished his coffee and had studied the map before Helga appeared. She looked irritated.

‘I’m going to be held up,’ she said, sitting by his side. ‘My stupid people are making a mess of buying the site at Versailles.’ She put her hand on his. ‘That’s why you are going to be so important to me. You and I, working together, won’t make a mess! I was planning to go into the mountains, but, now I must stay here for more telephone calls.’

Here was Grenville’s chance.

‘I understand.’ He smiled at her. ‘Helga, darling, about last night’s talk. May I have just a little time? Would you mind if I have a game of golf? When playing golf, I think better than at any other time, and I will be back with an answer.’ He smiled. ‘I think the answer must be yes.’

Helga, her mind now occupied with business, nodded.

‘Go ahead, darling. Take the Rolls. When do I see you?’

‘I’ll be back around three o’clock. Will that be all right?’

‘Of course. But your clubs... don’t you need clubs to play golf?’

Grenville laughed.

‘The pro will lend me a set.’ He got to his feet, bent and kissed her. ‘I’ll get off.’

She watched him leave, disappointed. She would have liked him to have stayed with her, to be able to consult him, to get his views on the difficulties that had arisen, and to be able to assess his thinking, but, she told herself, there was time.

Standing on the terrace, she watched him drive away in the Rolls, then she went to her bedroom where Hinkle had just finished making the bed.

‘Would it bother you to give me something light for lunch, Hinkle?’ she asked. ‘I have phone calls to make and Mr. Grenville is going to play golf and won’t be back until after lunch.’

‘Certainly, madame. I suggest a grilled sole.’

‘Yes.’ She wandered restlessly around the bedroom. ‘Hinkle! I really love him! I’m trying to persuade him to take a position in the firm, but he is so correct. If I can persuade him, we will marry.’

‘If that would make you happy, madame,’ Hinkle said, in his disapproving voice, and went into the bathroom.

The telephone bell began to ring, and for the next three hours Helga was engrossed in the affairs of the Herman Rolfe Electronic Corporation.

Sitting in the shabby lounge of the Hotel de Suisse, Archer thought back on the previous day. He had been busy and was satisfied. He had rented a Mercedes from the Avis people, then had gone around talking to the various estate agents until he had found a small wooden villa on the outskirts of Paradiso which is a continuation of Lugano. It was a modest place and he had been forced to rent it for a month, but it would act admirably, he told himself, as a hide-out for Grenville.

Tomorrow at 14.00, Segetti and Belmont would arrive. He would drive them to Helga’s villa so that they would know where to find it and then to the rented villa. Tomorrow night the kidnapping would take place.

Archer nodded to himself. As long as Grenville had taken care of Helga, Archer could see no reason why, in a few days, he wouldn’t be worth a million dollars. It was, he thought, a well worked-out plan, but everything depended on how well Grenville had done his homework.

Glancing through the dirty glass doors of the hotel that led into the street, he saw a silver and black Rolls-Royce pull up and Grenville about to get out.

Jumping to his feet, Archer hurried from the hotel, and Grenville, seeing him, opened the off-side door. Archer got into the car and Grenville set it moving.

‘What a magnificent car!’ Archer exclaimed, and a wave of envy ran through him. He thought if it hadn’t been for Helga, by now he might just possibly have been able to buy such a car.

‘I have to talk to you!’ The sharp note in Grenville’s voice made Archer look quickly at him.

‘Is something wrong?’

‘This woman is suffocating me! She’s driving me crazy!’ Grenville snapped. He edged the car through the heavy traffic until they came to the lake. He looked for parking space, but, in Lugano, parking space was practically non-existent. Muttering under his breath, he continued on, until he found a space with a no-parking sign. He pulled in and turned off the engine. ‘She now wants me to work in her firm! Can you imagine? She’s determined to marry me! She says she will loan me five million dollars so I won’t be living on her! Who in his right mind would want to work for her? She would never leave me alone! When I wasn’t screwing her, I’d be at a desk!’

Archer drew in a deep breath. If only such an offer had been made to him, he thought. How he would have jumped at it! A loan of five million dollars, and the opportunity to work with the Herman Rolfe Electronic Corporation! He regarded Grenville and suddenly had complete contempt for him. He was, indeed, a gigolo, afraid to work, afraid of responsibility.

‘Yes, I understand your feelings,’ he said quietly. ‘But there is no need to get worked up, Chris. How have you left it?’

‘I told her I wanted to think it over,’ Grenville said sullenly. ‘I said I thought best when I was playing golf. It was the only thing I could think of to get away from her. She is caught up with some dreary business about buying a site in Versailles so she let me go.’ He banged his clenched fist on the driving wheel. ‘She would marry me tomorrow if I agree to work for her!’