Chapter 13
It was five in the afternoon when I left Fritzi's apartment. I had some time to kill, because I didn't want to make any kind of move without the cover of dark. I was still playing it by ear, trying to fashion a plan out of the situation. How I went about it depended a lot on Duke himself.
I tried to decide where he might have the jewels, what he was planning to do with them.
The second question wasn't very hard to answer. Back in Puerto Reyes, when we'd had a lot of time to lie around and speculate about such things, Duke and Chris and I had all discussed the best way to cash in on the jewels.
That was one thing on which we had all agreed.
The jewels might be worth a hundred thousand, if we could find a fence to buy them. To us they would have been practically worthless. Cash you can spend. Jewels, you can't. So a fence was the answer.
I didn't know how long it would take Duke to locate a reliable fence in Nashville, if there were such a thing. He would have to contact someone in the underworld he could trust. Someone who could trust him enough to put him onto a fence. The chances were, he would have to go out of town for the fence.
That was one reason I was anxious to find him and keep a close watch on him. When he made his move, he would have the jewels. That's when he would be most vulnerable. The beauty of it was, I was the only one who knew about the jewels.
Until he contacted the fence, of course.
I walked up the street to where I had left the Karmann Ghia. As I cruised along, I got to thinking about Billie, back at the motel in Fairview. I hoped she would stay put for a while. I didn't want her getting restless and deciding to shove off on her own.
I wanted her there when I was finished with Duke. She had started to grow on me.
I drove without much sense of direction. I was looking for a nice quiet bar and restaurant where I could spend a couple of hours until it grew dark.
I found just the place. For an hour I sat at the bar and drank bourbon on the rocks. Then I went into the dinning room and had a leisurely dinner of prime ribs and baked potato. When I went outside, night had fallen.
I stopped for directions at a service station, then drove out West End Avenue until I found Pine-crest. It was an area of winding streets and big two and three acre lots. Every house was in the thirty thousand dollar bracket or more. The way Duke was throwing it around, he wouldn't have much of our money left in a few more weeks.
5604 was a big two story stucco house set among a cluster of jack pine trees. There seemed to be a single light burning in the front of the house. I drove on by and parked off the road, behind a small clump of bushes that hid the Karmann Ghia from view. I pointed the hood for a fast getaway.
Then I walked back through the big yard. The house stood on the top of a small hill. I had a flashlight and the automatic. The gun was in my hand. This time I wasn't about to let Duke Bevins get the jump on me.
I didn't know if he was home.
I didn't know what I would do yet if he was. I was just nosing around and hoping for a break.
When I reached the side of the house, I looked back down the hill. The street was deserted There was very little traffic in this part of town. I walked around the back of the house. The garage was empty.
The only light was burning in the living room. I could see into it through a split in the drapes. I stood for five minutes looking in and listening. I didn't hear a thing, and nothing moved in the room.
I went to the front door, pushed the buzzer, and darted into the shadows.
I stood there for a minute, but nothing happened. I went back to the door and tried it. Locked. I walked around the house then, trying the side door and the one in back. Everything was locked up tight.
I punched a hole through a screen over one of the windows in back with my pocket knife. I slipped a finger inside the screen and loosened the hook. Then I took the screen down and leaned it against the side of the house.
The window wasn't locked inside. I slid it up and crawled through. I was in a kind of pantry. So far the only noise I had made had been sliding the window up. But if there was anybody home,, they would have come to the door when I buzzed.
I pushed open the pantry door and walked through the kitchen. A lamp was burning beside an easy chair in the living room. I stood in one corner of the room and looked it over carefully, trying to figure out where Duke might have hidden the jewels--
First I walked over to the small bookcase and looked behind it. I pulled each book out, one at a time and flipped through the pages. Duke had just enough imagination to cut out a hiding place in a
; book. But I went through the shelves and found nothing.
That was too obvious for even Duke. He'd found a better place to hide them.
I dug around in the tobacco in a big ceramic canister. No jewels there. I pulled up the cushions on the easy chair and the sofa. I checked behind every picture. Finally I decided they weren't in the living room.
I snapped on the flashlight and climbed upstairs. It was easy enough to find Duke's bedroom. It was a mess, just like his quarters had been back in Puerto Reyes. I switched off the flashlight until I had closed all the drapes. Then I snapped it back on again.
His suitcase was open on the floor. He was still living out of it. I dug through the clothes, then checked the lining. That's where I had found some of his money, and that is probably why I didn't find the jewels.
I went over the bedroom carefully. There was nothing in the pillows, nothing under the mattress. I was checking through the closet when I heard a car pull up outside.
I switched off the flash.
Then I ran down the hall to the head of the stairs. I moved into a room which Duke wasn't using. I left the door slightly open, so I could see down the stairs without being seen.
A key grated in the lock.
Duke came in the front door alone. He looked as big and burly as he always had. I half expected him to be carrying the package with the jewels, but his hands were empty. I had a gun in my hand, and that made me feel pretty damned good.
This was just the way I wanted Duke, easy and unsuspecting. Except that I couldn't play my hand until I knew where the jewels were. I had to wait and hold on tight.
A light switched on in the hallway. I saw his shadow cast across the floor. Then I heard the clutter of the telephone, and Duke was dialing a number.
I held my breath.
I heard the hollow, cracking sound of the bell ringing on the far end of the line. Then Duke grunted.
"Stegner? This is Bevins." There was a moment of silence. "You just got in town? Okay. You know my address. Come on out. I'll be waiting."
There was more silence, then the crackle of a voice on the phone. The house was so still I could almost hear what the man was saying.
"Of course I've got them," Duke muttered. "You make sure you've got the money."
The man named Stegner said something and Duke hung up. I stayed in the door, watching through the crack. Duke walked into the kitchen. I heard him going through drawers. Then he came back to the hall. He had a small crowbar.
There was a wooden post at the foot of the stair railing. Duke shoved the crowbar under the round top of the post and pried up. He got the top loose and reached down into the hollow center of the post.
When he pulled his hand out, he had a cloth sack about the size and shape of the tiara. He put the top back on the post and carried the crowbar to the kitchen.
Then he waited in the living room for the man to arrive. I heard a car pull into the drive, saw the flash of headlights across the front windows downstairs. I smiled grimly. All I had to do was wait and listen and pick the right time to make my move.
The buzzer sounded, and Duke went to the front door. I saw the man come in, but I didn't get a look at his face. They stood for a moment in the hallway, talking in low whispers, then they went into the living room.
There was more talk, above the clink of glasses. I heard a sound like someone riffling money. That would be Duke counting the cash. I wondered what price he had settled on for the jewels. Knowing Duke, he'd made a good bargain. I was glad he had handled that part of it for me.
The two men talked some more, finally set down their glasses and came to the front door. Duke actually shook the man's hand. He was feeling pretty good about the money.
He didn't know it belonged to me.
T waited for a couple of minutes after the man had driven away. Duke was in the living room, counting out his wealth. I could hear his grunts of satisfaction as he shuffled through the bills. He was probably counting every one, just for the joy of it. I could hear a light thump each time his fingers hit the table top.
I figured he was too engrossed to hear me coming down the stairs, even though they creaked a little. I walked into the living room, the automatic in my hand.
Duke was seated before a card table, which was covered with stacks of green bills. When he saw me, his hands stopped in mid-air. A stack of money was frozen in his fingers. His mouth came open with a sigh. A muffled sound of pain. The cigar fell from his thick lips.
"How much did we make on the jewels, Duke?" I asked.
"Who are you?"
His voice sounded like the dull croaking of a frog. I moved into the light to give him a better look at me. He squinted. His mouth was still open. He exhaled, and it came out a gasp. Then he shook his head in disbelief.
"Color my hair a dark brown, Duke. Shave off the mustache. Put a knot on my head where you slugged me and what have you got?"
"You're dead--"
He still couldn't believe it.
"Sorry about that, Duke. I stayed alive just so I could come back and haunt you."
Duke kept shaking his head. His face was a pasty white.
"The boat burned."
"You burned it, but I got over the side."
"I can't believe it."
"You thought you'd gotten away clean, didn't you, old pal? Old buddy. But I've been tailing you since Acapulco. I almost got the jewels then."
"That girl-"
"She was double-crossing me too," I muttered. "It's a hell of a world. Who can you trust?"
"Look, Hank-" Duke was beginning to get a little color back in his face. 'There's plenty here for both of us. I got a good deal on the jewels. Eighty-five thousand."
"You're a piker," I said. "They were worth a hundred. And how about that ten thousand of mine? And how about that five-thousand dollar cruiser you burned down to hide the bodies? I had a share of that too."
"Forty thousand apiece," Duke said, his voice rambling like a man in a trance. "I'll give you the extra five. For you, forty-five thousand."
"You're dreaming, Duke. I'm taking it all. If you're lucky you may still be alive when it's all over. If I had you in Puerto Reeys, I could get away with murder. Here, it isn't so easy. I don't like risks."
"Listen, Hank. Be reasonable-"
"Sure. I'll be reasonable. I'll give you five minutes to gather the money up neatly and put it in something I can use for carrying."
"You can't have it all-"
His voice was a sudden cry of desperation. A geyser of money shot into the air as Duke came up with the table. There was an instant when I couldn't see Duke, and in that instant he was on me. The breath went out of me as his head drilled into my gut.
We went rolling on the floor.
The automatic clattered away. I was down on one knee, looking for it, trying to get set for Duke's rush. Then I had to forget the gun. Duke came at me like an enraged bull, his arms swinging wildly.
The hard club of a fist cracked against my skull, and for a moment my head felt as though it wasn't there. My brain was soggy, and it was filled with bells, ringing like hell.
I remembered coming awake in the silent boat, stumbling over Chris's body, staggering over the side in a whoosh of flames and panic drew like a knot in my chest. I wasn't going to let Duke win again.
In a sudden blind fury, I rushed at him. My fist glanced off his jaw, then I threw a left into his belly. Duke threw a punch that exploded in my face, stunning me for an instant. But I kept after him. There was thick blood in my mouth, flooding out through my lips.
I wanted to kill him. I had the chance, and it might be the only chance I would ever have.
This time when Duke rushed me, I stepped to the side and brought my foot up from the floor. It was a lucky kick. The toe of my shoe cracked against Duke's ribs. He screamed with pain. He was on both knees, groping for me. I kicked again, nearly tearing his head from his neck.
He went over in a heap.
But I wasn't finished yet. I smashed his face with a right and a left and a right. I kept smashing until he was no longer conscious, until his face didn't look like a face at all, but a ripe tomato someone had stepped on.
That's when I finally stopped.
I crawled around the room looking for the automatic and found it against the wall near the fireplace. I stayed on my knees gathering money. It took me half an hour to get every last bill picked up and put into packs. I wasn't going to leave Duke a nickel of it.
I found a stack of envelopes on the writing table, and I filled each one with money. I had twenty envelopes in all, which I dropped into a pillow case I swiped from an upstairs bed.
Duke was still out, but he was beginning to moan. He'd have a lot to moan about when he finally came to. By then I planned to be long gone. I didn't even tell him goodbye as I went out the door and walked across the yard to where I had parked the Karmann Ghia.