Джеймс Чейз - So What Happens To Me?

‘Come on Jack! You mustn’t take me seriously. I was mad. I get mad. Have you fixed it?’

‘Start getting mad again.’ I said. I took the envelope from my pocket and tossed it onto her lap.

Her violet eyes turned hard. The sexy, hungry smile went away like a fist when it becomes a hand.

‘What is this?’

‘Take a look.’

She stared at the envelope but didn’t touch it.

‘What is it?’

I came to the settee, picked up the envelope, took out the five photos and spread them out on her lap.

She looked at them, then slowly picked each one up and examined it carefully. She finally came to the one of me and Sam. She stared at it for a longer moment, then she put the photos together and offered them to me.

‘How much?’

Apart from the fact her face was stone hard and had lost colour and her eyes were glittering, she was fantastically calm. I could tell by the way her breasts moved under the sweat shirt that her breathing was even and that must mean her heart beat and her pulse were normal.

‘How much?’ she repeated.

This was a remarkable woman. She didn’t have to have it spelt out and the explosion I had expected didn’t materialise.

‘Five hundred thousand... half a million.’

She stared up at me. ‘You’re an expensive lover.’

I didn’t say anything.

‘Well, don’t look as if the end of the world has come. Sit there.’ She pointed to a chair nearby. ‘Tell me about it.’

I sat down.

She lay motionless, staring down at her hands as I told her about Pam and Aulestria.

‘They won’t stop at half a million of course,’ she said as if speaking to herself. ‘I pay them off and later they will come back: blackmailers always do.’ She looked up and regarded me. ‘You killed Erskine. Could you kill them?’

‘Yes, but that won’t solve this problem. Aulestria will have protected himself.’

She nodded.

‘The alternative is I go to my husband and tell him I’ve been foolish and hope he will be kind to me.’ Again it sounded as if she were talking to herself.

‘You could do that,’ I said nervously.

She stared at me.

‘You’re a little man aren’t you Jack? You’re now wondering what is going to happen to you.’

‘I want to get you out of this mess.’

‘Do you?’ She smiled. ‘Well, that’s something I have — a half million. What do you suggest? Shall I pay these two? It would be no problem until they come back for more. What do you think?’

It was my turn to stare at her.

‘You mean you can find five hundred thousand?’ My voice was husky.

‘Of course. That’s no problem. The problem is should we do it?’

My mind raced.

If she could raise the money and if those two were satisfied with the pay-off, this could let me out. I might even be able to keep my new job with Essex Enterprises. Why shouldn’t they be satisfied with half a million?

‘It’s a solution,’ I said, trying not to sound eager.

‘So it is. Yes... as you so rightly say. it’s a solution.’ She stubbed out her cigarette. ‘Well, so let’s pay them.’ She paused to look me over. ‘You’ve met them: I haven’t. Do you think we can trust them?’

I didn’t know, but I wasn’t going to say so. I was too anxious to get off the hook.

‘For that money, they must play,’ I said. ‘For God’s sake! A half a million!’

‘They’re at the Hilton, didn’t you say? See if you can reach them Jack. Let’s get it settled.’

‘You really mean it. Vicky? You’re going to pay then?’

‘Yes. I can’t land dear Lane with a ten million dollar bill for his stupid plane, plus the knowledge that I’ve been behaving like a hooker, can I?’ She shrugged. ‘After all what is half a million?’

Giving her no chance to change her mind, I called the Hilton and asked for Mr. Aulestria. There was a delay, then a man’s voice said. ‘This is Aulestria.’

‘Crane. The deal’s on,’ I said. ‘How do we fix it?’

‘Here at eleven o’clock tomorrow.’ Aulestna said and hung up.

‘At the Hilton at eleven o’clock.’ I told Vicky.

‘It will take me two days to raise the money. Find out how it is to be paid.’ Her violet eyes were very impersonal. ‘Now run away. I must talk to my broker.’ She flicked her fingers at me. ‘Go home.’

I had always had a presentiment that sooner or later there would come a time when she would flick her fingers at me the way she flicked them at her other men slaves, but it didn’t bother me. I was too thankful that there hadn’t been a scene and that she was going to pay and my future wasn’t in jeopardy to let a little thing like that cause me grief.

‘I’ll report back to you,’ I said as I moved to the door.

She was reaching for the telephone and didn’t even look at me so I went out into the fading sunshine, got the Caddy from the garage and drove back to my apartment.

I knew there was every chance that Aulestria would squeeze her again, but I told myself that she was so goddamn rich, she could afford to be squeezed.

Yes... my future looked bright again.

The following morning. I arrived at the Hilton hotel a few minutes to eleven. As I was asking at the desk for Mr. Aulestria a man came up and lurched against me. He immediately apologised and I thought he was just another clumsy jerk, who banged into people and I forgot about him but later, I was to remember him.

Aulestria was waiting for me in a large room with a double bed and the usual Hilton fitments. Pam was sitting by the window. She didn’t look around when Aulestria opened the door.

‘Ah, Mr. Crane,’ he said, smiling his. snake’s smile. ‘Good to see you again.’ He closed the door. ‘So she is going to pay?’

‘That’s right.’

‘How wise of her. She has agreed to five hundred thousand?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well... a little unexpected. I was rather expecting her to bargain. However, that is very satisfactory. I want the money in bearer bonds.’

‘That can be arranged. I want all the photos and all the negatives and an acknowledgement from you that the transaction terminates the deal.’

‘Of course you get the photos and the negatives, but no acknowledgement.’

‘That means you can put the squeeze on again.’

‘Mr. Crane! I assure you. We are perfectly satisfied with half a million, aren’t we, Pam?’

Without looking around, she said, ‘If you are Juan, then I am.’

‘Be assured, Mr. Crane. When will the money he ready?’

‘The day after tomorrow.’

‘Quite satisfactory, but not later. Bring the bonds here at ten o’clock. Don’t be late. We have a plane to catch.’

He conducted me to the door.

‘What a fortunate man you are, Mr. Crane.’

I stared at him.

‘You think so?’

‘Ask yourself,’ and he bowed me out of the room.

I drove back to my apartment and called Vicky.

‘Bonds?’ There was a pause. ‘All right, I’ll get them. Sam will deliver them to you tomorrow night,’ and she hung up.

I replaced the receiver and stared out of the open window. There was something so out of character about this set-up that it began to bother me. I had expected a vicious explosion from this woman: no explosion had come. I had been willing to bet that she wouldn’t have parted with half a million dollars and yet she had meekly submitted. The only thing in character had been those flicking fingers.

I tried to convince myself that she had so much to lose that half a million was an acceptable pay-off. Like her husband, she was stinking rich, such a sum was like a hundred dollars to me and yet somehow it didn’t jell. It was so completely out of character. As I sat staring at the sunset, my future began to fray at the edges.