Donald Hamilton - Murders' Row

“We’ll wait,” I said. “We’ll let them come on board.”

Rosten said angrily, “You’re in no position to dictate-”

I got up. He stopped talking and stepped back warily. I said, “There are three of us. You’ve been outvoted.”

“If I decide not to help you-”

I said, “You’ve pretty well got to do something, with us or without us, before your wife catches onto you. If you want to try it on your own, go ahead. You’ll have two shots, if you get your hands on the gun. Let me give you a little professional advice, Rosten: once you make your move, don’t hesitate for a fraction of a second. Don’t make any speeches; don’t strike any poses; just grab the gun and shoot. Take Mrs. Rosten with the first barrel if she’s closer; but be sure you get Nick with the second, because he won’t give you time to reload. It will be kind of gory. A shotgun makes a hell of a mess at close range. But you don’t care about that. What’s the matter?”

He was looking kind of green. “I-what do you want me to do? To help, I mean?”

It wouldn’t have been diplomatic to gloat over his surrender. I said, “You’d better bolt the door when you leave now, but I’ll expect it to get unbolted quietly right after the passengers come aboard, before we’re clear of the land and everybody starts relaxing and looking around.”

“All right. I’ll try.” He didn’t sound happy.

“Then I’d like an adjustable crescent wrench, five or six inches long, as soon as you can manage to smuggle it in here. You can pick one up in the engine room or somewhere, can’t you, and slip it inside your shirt? A pair of pliers might work, or a small Stillson. Can do?”

A suspicious look came to his face. He glanced at the porthole. “If you think you’re going to slip out through that when we get close to shore, and leave me holding the bag-”

“Hell, man, I can’t swim fifty yards in calm water, and who’s going to open that thing with a little six-inch crescent, the way they have it bolted down? Just get me the wrench, huh? And now you’d better get out of here before you’re missed and she sends Nick looking for you.”

He left, looking like a man keeping a date for his own hanging. After the door had closed behind him, Teddy turned to look at me. Her eyes were bright. She hesitated; then she grabbed my arm and pulled me down beside her so she could kiss me on the ear.

“You were wonderful! I-I’m sorry about all the mean things I said to you, Matt!”

“Sure,” I said.

“It’s going to be all right, isn’t it? With his help-”

“Sure,” I said. “It’s going to be fine.”

“I-I’ll always be grateful. If-if we get out of this, I’ll show you how grateful I am,” she murmured, clinging to my arm.

“Cut it out,” I said. “Don’t strain my self-control. I might get ideas and rape you right here.”

That brought a startled little giggle from her. After a moment, she said, “Well, go ahead. There isn’t much else to do in this dismal box of a cabin, and we won’t reach Mendenhall until way after dark.” She pecked at my ear. “Go ahead. If you want to.”

I turned to look at her. After a moment, her eyes wavered and color came into her face. She was being terribly wicked again; she was being grownup and sophisticated; she was bluffing. It would have been interesting to determine how far she’d carry it, strictly as a scientific project, of course; but this was hardly the time for irrelevant experiments. Besides, at the moment she had no more physical attraction for me than a plastic doll. In fact, I’d have given a great deal to be able to replace her with a doll-a doll with blind glass eyes, and no capacity for emotion or memory.

“Cut it out, Teddy,” 1 said shortly.

“Well, you’re the one who brought it up!” This wasn’t exactly true, but I didn’t challenge it. I saw relief in her eyes, and also a kind of triumph: she’d made me, an older man, back down on a matter of sex. She laughed and hugged my arm fondly. “I know it’s going to be all right, I just know it!” she breathed. “You know all about these things; you’ll fix it, won’t you, Matt? I knew the minute I saw you that you were somebody special, somebody different from all the silly kids…

I sat there awkwardly as she snuggled up against me and gave me the line she must have developed for entertaining her father’s friends. I didn’t resent it. She was just talking too much because she was scared. She had a right to be. She didn’t know how different I was.

I sat there thinking about the way it was going to have to be done. I had no faith in Louis Rosten. If he came through, that was fine, but I couldn’t count on him; and even if I could, I certainly couldn’t count on being able to take over the schooner with his help and that of a ninety-pound girl-not against Robin Rosten, Big Nick, and two enemy pros.

I’d talked about it blithely because it was what I was expected to talk about-by Teddy, by Rosten, and by Robin herself, if her husband should decide to betray our grandiose plans to her-but it simply wasn’t a reliable solution. Whatever I really did, it would have to be quick and unexpected, and it would have to take place right here in this tiny cabin.

The knowledge in Dr. Michaelis’ head must not leave the country. To make sure that it didn’t, the man would have to die practically the moment he was pushed in the door-assuming my luck held that far, and he was actually put in here with us. There couldn’t be any hesitation or staffing around; there couldn’t be any waiting to see what might or might not happen afterwards, with or without the help of Louis Rosten.

The little girl beside me nibbled affectionately at my ear. ”You think I’m being silly and corny, don’t you, Matt?“ she murmured. ”You think I’m just babbling away because I’m scared silly. Well, maybe I am, but I really do think you’re-“

I felt her start and look up at the deck over our heads. The schooner was talking loudly now, driving hard southwards, creaking and groaning; but there had been another noise, something like a human cry. Teddy looked at me apprehensively. 1 moved my shoulders briefly. After a little, we heard sounds in the passageway.

It was Louis, of course. He’d managed to louse it up even faster than I’d expected. Nick threw him in and bolted the door again. I got down from the bunk and turned him over. His left arm didn’t seem to be properly attached to his body. Teddy screamed when she saw what had happened to his face.

PLEASE DON’T THINK I’m being callous, or anything, when I say it was kind of a relief. It blew away, so to speak, the cobwebs of illusion. It was tough on Louis, but he wasn’t a particularly good friend of mine, and it made everything sharp and clear. We could all stop kidding each other now.

I mean, the message was plain: we were through with the phony glamor and politeness. We were through with lovely ladies in filmy peignoirs smiling seductively as they passed out the loaded highballs; we were through with the trick psychology, the slick dialogue, and all the rest of the Hollywood jazz.

Instead, we had, on deck, harsh reality in the shape of a tough woman with delusions of persecution and grandeur, in jeans, packing a shotgun, with a murderous giant to do her bidding. And below, in the swaying and weaving little steel prison of a cabin, we had some more crude reality in the form of a man with a dislocated shoulder, perhaps a cracked skull, certainly a broken nose and several missing front teeth, bleeding copiously. It was an effective antidote to dreams. We weren’t going to walk out through an unbolted door and take over the schooner with a wave of the hand. Well, I hadn’t ever thought we would, really.