Donald Hamilton - The Interlopers

When I stepped into the doorway between the two rooms, Pat Bellman was standing just inside the other door. She was wearing the same or another pair of faded jeans, a short cowboy jacket of the same durable material, and some kind of a checked cotton shirt, red and white. She was standing there as if she'd been suddenly struck by paralysis, very pale, with a look of horror on her face as she stared at the small, crowded, bloody battlefield before her.

"That's my girl," I said. She didn't even look up at the sound of my voice; she just kept on staring. I went on: "Stay just like that. Don't move a muscle, or the body-count will rise to four practically instantaneously."

She didn't move. I went over and checked her for weapons. There weren't any, or, if there were, they were small and well hidden. When I stopped in front of her, she raised her eyes slowly to my face, and licked her colorless lips.

"You… you killed them!"

"Don't say that," I protested, hurt. "Here I've just gone to a lot of trouble to make it look as if they killed each other…

"You killed them!" she whispered, unheeding. "All of them! Just like you killed Mike Bird. What kind of a murdering monster are you?" Her voice rose in a shrill, hysterical way on the last words.

I looked down at her for a moment. I'd been kind of taken with her for a while, I remembered, but it seemed a long time ago. Now I was, to say the least, disenchanted with her; and I guess a reaction of sorts was setting in. Even in my line of work, three dead men in less than a minute is a shade over the quota. Anyway, I obviously had to do something fast to keep her from throwing a noisy wingding in here. I'll admit I welcomed the excuse.

I changed my revolver from my right hand to my left, drew back the hand thus freed, and slapped her face, once, just about as hard as I could without breaking my hand or her neck. She staggered aside and almost fell over the nameless man lying face down nearby. She caught herself, gagged, and moved away from the corpse, putting a belated hand to her cheek.

"You hypocritical little phony!" I was surprised to hear that my own voice was noticeably shaky. Like I say, reaction. I went on harshly: "First you smiled at me and sent me out to where your sniper was.waiting to shoot me down! When that failed, you dispatched a couple of other boys to take care of me… Oh, yes, they made it quite clear what their orders were! And then, for God's sake, then, after trying twice to have me killed, you have the unmitigated, gold-plated gall to come in here and complain because all your inefficient assassins bungled their jobs and got themselves dead! Just what kind of monster are you, Skinny?"

She licked her pale lips once more, not looking at me directly. "I never thought… we never expected..

"What? That somebody might object to being murdered for your convenience?"

"It was… it was such a lot of money." Her voice was almost inaudible. "Such a lot of money. Fifty thousand dollars. And we thought it would be… would be kind of fun. Exciting."

It wasn't the same old grim racket anymore, I reflected sourly. All kinds of people were taking it up for kicks. Or pretending to.

I asked. "Who was going to pay you all this money?"

She didn't seem to hear me. She said in a choked voice: "Fun! Oh, my God! They're dead! They're all dead, and it was all my idea. But I never dreamed..

Her face changed abruptly. She gulped, and turned toward the door in sudden distress. Her problem was obvious, and I stepped aside and let her stumble out into the dark. The sounds she made out there were quite convincing, so I took advantage of her momentary helplessness to retrieve my bag, tackle box, and fishing rod. I made sure I'd left nothing behind that I didn't want to leave, turned out the lights, and locked the door. When I came to Pat Bellman, she was still doubled up with cramps, but they weren't producing much anymore. I waited for her to recover. At last she fumbled in her pants pocket for a Kleenex and wiped her mouth and turned to face me.

"Damn you," she said shakily. "Damn you, you didn't have to stand there watching!"

I said, "Skinny, cut it out. Of course I had to stand there watching. And you'll lay off the proud-lady routine or I'll smack your face again."

She licked her lips, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you'd better get things perfectly clear, Miss Bellman. You're not a fine lady who can demand respect and consideration from the gentlemen around her. You're not a nice girl who can expect the nice boys to look the other way politely while she upchucks her dinner. You're a murdering bitch who's been caught in the act, and I'm the guy you tried to murder-or have murdered. Remember that, and conduct yourself accordingly, and maybe we'll get along without any more slugging or shooting. Where's your car?"

She hesitated, apparently considering some kind of argument or protest, but she decided against it. "Back along the dirt road about a mile and a half. I ran it off into the woods where it couldn't be seen."

"Let's hope you did a good job, so it'll still be here when you come back for it. If you come back."

"What… what are you going to do with me?"

I said, "Whatever's necessary to make you tell me about fifty grand, and the people who were willing to pay it, and what they thought they were buying for it." She started to speak, and I interrupted her: "But not here."

I led her to the truck. Thirty minutes later we were on the main highway heading west toward Prince Rupert and the coast.

THE PHONE BOOTH WAS PRETTY exposed, standing near the highway in the bare dirt parking area serving a small roadside restaurant, now closed for the night. However, I didn't have much choice. I wanted to get a warning message through as soon as possible, now that we were a reasonable distance from the scene of my latest crimes, and this was the only facility we'd encountered in over an hour. Up ahead, according to my information, were some sixty miles of construction work, where the highway through the coastal mountains, formerly a gravel road, was being rebuilt and paved.

My chances of finding any kind of a suitable communications center along the torn-up stretch didn't seem promising; and while Mr. Smith's fine young men were supposed to be keeping a cautious watch over me and reporting my progress and my problems, I never like to count on other outfits to do things right if I can get our own people on the job. After everything that had happened tonight, if I loused up the mission, it didn't seem likely that it would be on account of a mere phone call.

I drove into the lot, therefore, and jockeyed the rig around until I could more or less cover both cab doors from the booth. The girl beside me stirred uneasily.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Just making sure I can nail you if you make a break while I'm on the phone." I looked at her and put a mean grin on my face. "You remember that guy back there with the hole in his head? I hope you appreciate that I made that shot left-handed-and while he had the drop on me, or thought he had. I'm even better with my right hand. Give it a try if you like. I'll bet you don't make ten yards, measuring from the sill of the car door to the nearest point of your body, wherever it falls."

I waited, but she made no response, and I went over to the booth and called our relay man in Vancouver, keeping an eye on the truck and the highway at the same time, as best I could.

When Vancouver answered I said, "Eric here. Three packages, perishable. Francois Lake. McAllister Lodge, Cabin Number One. Got it?"

"Got it. Sounds like you've been a busy little man. What do you want, a pickup-and-disposal squad?"

"Not if it can be avoided. If they just disappear, people will ask questions I'd rather not have to answer. How much international pressure can we apply through channels? It would be very nice if the local authorities could give out that the boys obviously killed each other off, for reasons unknown. I've got it set up to look that way, more or less. A mystery man who rented the cabin is being sought for questioning, but not very hard, since it's all cut and dried. Can do?"