Джеймс Чейз - You're Dead Without Money

‘Hi, Fat-guts!’ he bellowed in a voice that made my eardrums quiver, ‘having a ball?’

Barney didn’t deign to look his way.

‘He will come to no good, Mr. Campbell,’ he said as soon as the massive man had been absorbed in the crowd. ‘No respect for his elders or his betters... just a low fisherman. Fat-guts! Wait till he’s my age. Like I said... no respect’

I said that was the trouble with the younger generation.

‘You’re right, Mr. Campbell.’ Barney sipped his beer. ‘Well, getting back to Vin... he sat in the car and wondered how he was going to handle Judy. The more he thought about her the more irritated he got. Now when a thug like Vin gets irritated, he becomes like a vicious dog. Sooner or later the dog will snap and then bite and Vin was built on the same lines. He decided he would force Judy to give him the name of this stamp buyer. He would scare her into opening her mouth even if he had to rough her up. Once he had made this decision, he considered how he was going to do it.

‘He had no illusions about Judy. She was tricky and he was sure she was tough. Even if he roughed her up so she parted with the buyer’s name, as soon as he let her go, she would squeal to the cops. Once the cops moved in, it was goodbye to all that money. Vin thought about this for over half an hour, then he came to the logical solution. If he was going to knock Elliot off, what was the matter with knocking Judy off too? Once rid of her, once rid of Elliot all he had to do was to make Cindy talk and if she got tricky why not knock her off as well? If he had to knock her off, then to make a nice clean job of it, he would also knock off Joey.

‘Vin now realized that it was one thing to think about knocking off four people but quite another thing to do it successfully. By successfully, he naturally meant having no trouble with the cops. What was the use of getting a million dollars if you had the cops breathing down your neck?

‘He would have four bodies to get rid of... one was tricky enough... but four!

‘Then he remembered the deserted cove Judy had taken him to the first time they had met. Burying bodies in sand wasn’t hard work. Hard work never had appealed to Vin. But he couldn’t believe no one ever went to the cove and sooner or later some kid would dig or the sea would wash up and then there would be trouble.

‘He thought some more and finally decided that the cove was too dangerous. Then he remembered seeing a bulldozer at work on swampland a few miles outside the City. He remembered hearing a barman talking about a big reclaiming scheme and another luxury hotel going up there. This might be a hiding place for bodies.

‘So Vin drove out to the swamp right away. He found three bulldozers working, tearing up mangrove trees and leveling the ground and a twenty-foot high cement mixer grinding out cement which was being used to cover the masses of rubble trucks were unloading.

‘Vin sat in the car and watched the cement mixer at work. He noted there was a perpendicular steel ladder going to the top. After a while, he convinced himself that he could carry a body up there and tip it into the mouth of the machine. What better method of getting rid of a body?’

Barney paused and squinted at me.

‘From all this, Mr. Campbell,’ he said, ‘you can see how the thought of so much money turns a man into something less than an animal. Once Vin convinced himself that he could get rid of the bodies without trace, he drove away from the swamp feeling pretty pleased with himself. The first move would be to get Judy to part with the buyer’s name. He would fix that when he met her this evening. He wondered now how he could kill her quickly, silently and without mess. This was important if he was going to knock her off at the Blue Heaven motel.

‘As he drove through the shade of the palm trees that lined the highway, he considered the various methods he had heard about while in jail and while fraternizing with various criminals in New York. A gun or a knife were out: there must be no blood. He considered a crushing blow at the back of the head, but that still might produce blood. He had read somewhere that there was an artery in the neck which, if pressed hard enough, would produce the required effect, but as he had no idea where the artery was located he passed that one over. Then he remembered a Mafia button man he had once met who was a garrote artist. His garrote had been a dog lead so if the cops ever searched him and found it, he had an explanation ready. The lead whipped over the head, the hands crossed, a knee driven into the back did the trick in a few seconds.

‘ “Why not?” Vin said aloud.

‘On his way back to the bungalow he stopped at a pet store and bought a leather dog lead.

‘The pansy assistant asked him if he would like the name of his dog stamped on the lead.

‘ “You may not believe it,” the assistant said, regarding Vin with serious eyes, “but doggies do know and they do care . It won’t take a tiny moment and it will be only three dollars extra.”

‘Vin told him to get stuffed.

‘In the meantime, Joey got back to, the bungalow. As soon as he came into the back garden, Elliot saw he was worried. He and Cindy had been waiting for Joey’s return and as he joined them, Elliot said a little anxiously, “All okay, Joey?”

‘ “Yes.” Joey sat down. “I rented a safe and here’s the key.” He handed Elliot a safe deposit key. “But we’re being tailed, Don. I didn’t spot the tailers, but I get a feeling and it’s never wrong. I was picked up as soon as I left here. As soon as I got the feeling, I shook the tailer off... I lost him. It was tricky. He was good, but I lost him.”

‘ “What’s going on?” Elliot was puzzled. “That’s the second time you think you were followed.” Then he remembered that the C.I.A. were interested in the stamps. Could the C.I.A. be following Joey? He decided he wouldn’t start a scare without more information so he said nothing. “You’re sure you lost them?”

‘ “I’m sure,” Joey said.

‘Elliot got to his feet.

‘ “Suppose we hide the key that’s an idea?”

‘Joey agreed.

‘They went together into the small shed that housed a few gardening tools and a battered power mowed. Elliot hid the key under a can of weed killer.

‘ “Now if anything happens we know where it is,” Elliot said.

‘Joey looked sharply at him.

‘ “What does that mean?”

‘Elliot grinned.

‘ “Probably nothing. Tell Cindy where it’s hidden.”

‘Later, Vin returned to the bungalow. Joey and Cindy had gone for a walk and Vin found Elliot on his own in the garden.

‘ “Give me a thousand bucks,” Vin said, “and I’ll get the buyer’s name tonight.”

‘Elliot studied him.

‘ “Okay... you are sure she will tell you?”

‘ “Yeah.”

‘ “She could be conning you.”

‘Vin moved impatiently.

‘ “We’ve gone over all that jazz. She shows me the letter her old man had from the buyer.”

‘ “And you will show it to me?”

‘ “Sure... if she’ll part with it.”

‘ “Look, Vin, no offence, but I don’t trust you. I have to be sure the name of the man you give me is the buyer. Get me his name and I’ll call him. If he says he’ll buy, I’ll give you the number of the drawer, but not before.”

‘Vin restrained his temper with an effort.

‘ “Get me the money and stop acting like a goddamn movie star.”

‘ “Just so long as you know,” Elliot said and went into the bungalow.

‘Vin stared after him, his eyes vicious.’

Orson was alerted by Nisson around 21.00 that Pinna in the Jaguar was heading his way. He immediately alerted the six men Lessing had stationed around Larrimore’s house: three of them in the garden, two in a parked car and one patrolling the road.