A moon that looked like a Camembert cheese hung in the cloudiest sky. The nodding palms cast long, spooky shadows. The red glow of the charcoal fire reflected on Miss Wonderly’s skin. She lay on her back, her arms crossed behind her head, her knees bent. She wore blue
shorts, a red halter and sandals. Her honey-coloured hair hid one side of her face.
I knelt before the fire, grilling a couple of spareribs. They smelt and looked fine.
We were tired, but we had the house ship-shape. I was surprised the way Miss Wonderly put her back into cleaning the joint. We had scrubbed and swept and dusted. We had laid coconutmatting down in two rooms and shifted the boat’s bunks into one of them. We’d unscrewed the two small arm-chairs from the cabin and dragged them into the house, and we’d taken the table too. With a couple of good paraffin lamps, the place looked almost like home.
In the cockpit of the boat I had found a Thompson and an automatic rifle and enough ammunition to start a minor war. I brought the automatic rifle to the house, but left the Thompson in the cockpit. I didn’t know when we might be cut off suddenly from the house or the boat, and I reckoned a division of weapons wise.
There was a portable radio on the boat, and we brought that up to the house too.
It had been a good day’s work in spite of the heat, and now we were ready for something solid to eat.
I divided up the spareribs, the hashed brown potatoes and a couple of Cokes.
“Here we go,” I said, dumping the plate on Miss Wonderly’s chest. “Eats.”
She sat up, after putting the plate on the beach wrap she had spread out so she shouldn’t get sand in her hair. In the moonlight and the firelight she looked swell.
“Still scared?” I asked, cutting my meat.
She shook her head. “No.”
We’d been so busy that we hadn’t even thought about Killeano and the rest of them.
“It doesn’t seem like it all happened this morning, does it?” I said. “I guess you’ve got some talking to do. How do you figure in all this?”
She sat for a while without saying anything. I didn’t rush her, but I had to know.
“I was a fool,” she said suddenly. “I came out here because I was promised a job, and because I was sick of pushing off men who thought showgirls were easy to make. The job sounded good, but it turned out to be just another masher’s build up. He didn’t want me to work. He wanted me to give him a good time. It wasn’t my idea of a good time, so I found, myself stranded here without the means to get back.”
“When will you girls learn?” I said.
“Speratza came along. He wanted someone to look after the flowers and decorations at the Casino. I got the job.”
“You and flowers go together,” I said.
She nodded. “It was all right for eight months. I liked it, and the money was good. Then suddenly Speratza sent for me. He was in his office with Killeano and Flaggerty. They stared me over, and I didn’t like the way they whispered to each other. Killeano said that I’d do, and he and Flaggerty went off. Then Speratza told me to sit down and offered me a thousand dollars to entertain you. I didn’t know it was you then. He told me you were an important visitor and said, for reasons I needn’t know, I was to entertain you, and if I did the job well he’d give me the money and my ticket home.”
“And what did you think?”
“I didn’t know what to think. It was an awful lot of money, and I wanted to get home, but there was something about the way Speratza talked that warned me not to touch the job. I asked him exactly what I had to do. He said I was to take you around, give you a good time, and then persuade you to take me back to your hotel. He said I was to sleep with you, but you would be doped and you wouldn’t bother me. It was important that I should spend the night in your room. I thought it was a divorce frame-up. I didn’t like it. and I refused.” She gave a little shiver and stared across the moonlit bay. “He tried to persuade me, but the more he talked the surer I was that something was wrong. Then he got up and told me to follow him. We took a trip in his car to the harbour.”
She stopped talking and stared down at her hands. I didn’t hurry her, and after a while, she went on.
“He took me to a house on the waterfront. As soon as I was inside I knew what it was. I could tell by the awful old woman and the girls that peered over the banisters. It was horrible.”
I gave her a cigarette. We smoked in silence for a few minutes.
“He said he’d keep you there if you didn’t play. Is that it?” I said.
She nodded. “I was so scared I would have done anything to get out.”
“That’s all right,” I said.
“Well, I said I’d go through with it, and he took me back to the Casino. He said they’d watch everything I did. He and Flaggerty would be with us the whole time, unseen, but watching, and if I warned you, they would kill you and send me to that place.”
“Nice guys,” I said. “What happened when I passed out?”
“I knew the brandy was drugged. They had to tell me that so I wouldn’t drink it myself. After you had passed out, I let them in. Speratza and Flaggerty looked you over and put you into the bed. They told me to get in with you and to stay there until it was daylight. They told me I wasn’t to move until then. I was so scared I did what I was told. I knew something horrible would happen. I heard them moving about in the sitting-room, and I know now what they were doing. I stayed awake all night, and then when it got light I went into the sitting-room. Well, you know what happened then.”
I shifted closer to her.
“But you sold them out in the end,” I said. “Why? Why did you take that risk?”
She looked away. “I wouldn’t rail-road anyone into murder,” she said. “Besides, I said I was on your side, remember?”
“I remember,” I said, “but you were in a jam. I wouldn’t have blamed you if you had played with them.”
“Well, I didn’t,” she said.
I turned her face so I could see her.
“I could go for you,” I said.
She slid her arms round my neck and pulled my head down. “I’ve gone for you,” she said, her lips against my neck. “I don’t care. I can’t keep it to myself. I wouldn’t let them hurt you.”
We played around for a while: loving her wasn’t hard work.
“Now I wonder what I’m going to do with you?” I said, after the Camembert moon had moved around to our left.
“Do?” She sat up, her eyes scared. “What should you do?”
“Can I leave you here? Can you manage on your own?”
She clutched at my arm. “What are you going to do?”
“Use your nut, baby,” I said. “I’ve got plenty to do. There’s Killeano—remember him? That fat little guy who looks like Mussolini?”
“But you’re not going back to Paradise Palms?”
“Sure I’m going back, I only came here so you could be safe.”
“Oh, you’re crazy,” she cried. “What can you do against so many?”
“You’ll be surprised,” I said, smiling at her. “There’s a murder rap hanging over us. I’m going to bust that for a start. We’re not safe until I find Herrick’s killer and persuade him to come clean.”
“But you can’t go back alone,” she said frantically.
“I’m going back alone, and I’m going in a few minutes,” I told her. “Ah I want to be sure about is that you’ll be all right while I’m away.”
“I won’t be all right,” she said quickly—too quickly.
I shook my head at her. “Oh yes, you will. Now listen, I’ll be back tomorrow night. I’m taking the boat, and you’re to stay near the house. You’ve the rifle and enough food. You keep your ears and eyes open, and you’ll be all right. If anyone comes, lock yourself in the house. They won’t get at you, if you use your head. But no one will come.”
“Suppose you don’t come back?” she asked, her lips trembling.
“You’ll still be all right,” I said. “I’m leaving you seventeen grand. Go to Mac. He’ll get you back to New York somehow. I’ll drop in and talk it over with him.”
“No,” she said, “don’t do that. I’d rather no one knows I’m alone.”
That made sense.
“But you mustn’t leave me.” She pressed her face against mine. “I don’t want to lose you now I’ve just found you.”
We argued back and forth, but I was going anyway. She got the idea at last, and stopped trying to persuade me. She sat with her hands folded in her lap, looking scared and sad.
“All right,” she said.
“Herrick knew something important. It was so important that they killed him,” I said. “Can you think what it could have been?”
She shook her head. “I hardly knew him. He used to come to the Casino, but I never spoke to him.”
“Did he have a girl?”
She nodded. “He went around with a red-head. She’s a singer, and has an apartment on Lancing Avenue, a big chromium and black marble block on the left as you go up.”
“Know her?”
“No, but I’ve heard the other girls talk about her. She’s hard, not my type.”
“Her name?”
“Lois Spence.”
“Okay, maybe she’ll know something.”
“You will be careful?” she said, putting her hand on my knee.
“Sure,” I said. “Now Killeano. Know anything about him?”
“Only that he is important, owns the Casino and is the City Administrator.”
“Did you ever ask yourself why Herrick should hang around the Casino? He wasn’t a gambling man, was he?”
“No.”
“Well, all right,” I said, getting up. “Maybe Miss Spence will answer all the questions. I’m going to dress now, honey.”
I went into the house and put on a dark blue linen suit, a dark blue shirt and a dark red tie. I went into the sitting-room and found her waiting for me. She was making a brave show, but I could see she was near tears.
I gave her the cigar box.
“Take care of that, sweetheart,” I said. “That’s all the dough I have in the world, and I sweated earning it.”
She clung to me.
“Don’t go,” she said.
I patted her.
“If anything should happen to you…” she said.
“It won’t. Come down to the boat,”
It was still hot, and mangroves burning in the still air smelt fine. She looked so nice standing in the moonlight I nearly said the hell with it. But I didn’t.
I cast off.
“No sleeping-draught for me tomorrow night,” I called, as the boat drifted out of the harbour.
She waved, but she didn’t say anything. I guess she was crying.