I went back to my chair, sat down and closed my eyes.
Time passed. I dreamed I was sitting in the Maser, waiting for an unfaithful wife to come out of a sleazy motel where she had been having it off with a Romeo: my future.
Then the front door bell rang, ringing persistently. I came awake with a jerk.
The cops?
I got to my feet. The short sleep had sobered me. I looked at my watch. The time was 23.05.
The bell rang again.
I smoothed down my hair, straightened my crumpled jacket and went into the lobby. My heart was thumping. My brain revolved around possible lies when Lepski began to shoot questions at me.
The bell rang again.
I opened up.
Gloria Cort pushed by me and walked into the living room.
It only needed this, I thought. She’s after the ten thousand I promised her.
With dragging feet, I followed her into the living room.
“Now listen, baby...” I began.
“Shut your mouth!” she snapped. “You listen to me!” She dropped onto the settee and regarded me with that expression some women can paste on their faces that set up the red light in any man’s mind.
“Have a drink?” I suggested.
“Listen! I’m quitting, but you need to know something before I go.”
She looked so tense, I left off reaching for the bottle and slumped into the nearest lounging chair.
“So, okay, I’m listening,” I said.
“That bug you gave me. I fixed it, as you said, in Alphonse’s office. I listened in. If it hadn’t been for that bug, I wouldn’t be here. I would have been fished out of the harbour with my brains on my face.”
I gaped at her.
“Now, look...”
“Listen! That sonofabitch Alphonso was planning to murder me! I listened to him telling that nigger to knock me on the head and toss me into the harbour!” She suddenly smiled. It was a smile a cobra might envy. “I beat him to it. He’s dead: I’m alive.”
I continued to gape at her.
“By giving me that bug, you saved my life, and you can save Nancy Hamel’s life too.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Nancy’s life?”
“For two nights I have been listening to Pofferi and Diaz talking. Here’s something I’ve only just found out: Nancy has a twin sister. They are identical twins. Nancy and Lucia. Get it?”
The last piece of this jigsaw puzzle dropped into place. The two beds in the tent: the woman I saw leave the yacht with Pofferi and Jones. Lucia, not Nancy!
I was now alert and very sober.
“Keep talking,” I said.
“I heard them telling each other how clever they had been. Because Lucia was to replace Nancy, they got rid of Penny Highbee who would have spotted Lucia posing as Nancy. Then Lucia telephoned Nancy, asking her to come to the Alameda. Nancy would do anything for her sister. It was Nancy who financed the escape from Italy and hid those two on the island. When Nancy came, they locked her in a room. Lucia put on Nancy’s clothes and drove Pofferi, hidden in the trunk of Nancy’s car, to Hamel’s place. She had no trouble passing the barrier. The guard thought she was Nancy. Then leaving Pofferi in the house, she took off in the yacht with Jones to establish an alibi. When Pofferi murdered Hamel, Lucia returned. That old goat, Palmer thought she was Nancy. He handled the Fuzz and the press. Last night, Jones took Nancy to Hamel’s place. She was drugged. She, Lucia, Pofferi and Jones are still there.”
“Jones took her in the trunk of his car?”
She nodded.
That made sense. Lucia, posing as Nancy, must have alerted O’Flagherty by telephone that Jones was coming. There would be no problem at the barrier.
“Nancy and Lucia are identical twins?” I asked.
She made an impatient movement.
“They are like two peas in a pod. I caught a glimpse of Lucia. I wouldn’t have known the difference. Now, I’ll tell you something else. I heard Alphonso talking to that nigger about me. He said I could make trouble. As Russ’s ex I would want a share when they got their hands on Russ’s money. He told Jones to get rid of me: knock me on my head and dump me in the sea. My dear, sweet, boyfriend! Can you imagine?” She smiled, an icy, vicious smile. “So I fixed Alphonso before he fixed me.”
I stared at her.
“What’s that mean?”
“I knew Alphonso had had those two Indian kids murdered. So I found Joey and gave him one of Alphonso’s guns. All Joey wanted was a gun.” Again she smiled. “That kid did a real fixing job.”
“Jesus!” I said.
“Now, I’m leaving for Frisco. I have always known where that snake Alphonso kept his smuggling cache. I have it. I haven’t a care in the world.”
I pointed like a gun dog.
“How much did you get?”
“Plenty.” She gave a hard laugh. “That’s not your business. I’ve come here because those jerks are going to murder Nancy after she has been forced to sign a batch of cheques. They haven’t the know-how to forge her signature. When they have the signed cheques, she goes into the sea.”
I was scarcely listening. I was wondering how much loot she had filched from Diaz.
“Baby, I have a great idea,” I said, giving her my sexy smile. “How about us going away together? What’s wrong with us setting up a beautiful partnership?”
She gave me a look that would curdle milk.
“Did you hear what I said? They will kill that ninny as soon as they have forced her to sign a batch of cheques! Do you want her death on your conscience?”
“Look, baby, how much loot did you get from Diaz?” She swept out of the chair.
“Is that all you can think about — money?”
I blinked at her.
“What else is there to think about except a doll like you?”
“If I didn’t want to tangle with the Fuzz, I’d tell them myself. You won’t sleep with yourself if you let them kill that girl!”
“I don’t want to sleep with myself! I want to sleep with you, baby. How much did you get?”
She glared at me.
“I thought I had seen every creep in the world, but you take the Oscar.”
She stamped out, slamming the door.
I blew out my cheeks, then lit a cigarette. I listened to her car roar away.
Baby, I said to myself, you just can’t win. I sat for a while, being sorry for myself, then my mind switched to Nancy.
If you let them kill that girl.
Well, okay, I would have to do something, but I was not going to the cops. Then I thought of Lu Coldwell. He could handle this and keep me covered. The FBI always protected their informers.
I hunted up Coldwell’s home number and dialled. After a wait, Coldwell came on the line.
“Lu, this is Bart Anderson,” I said. “Come to my place, pronto! It’s an emergency.”
“For God’s sake!” Coldwell said crossly. “I was going to bed. What’s so urgent?”
“Not over the phone, Lu. Get your ass over here fast! It’s to do with an Italian,” and I hung up.
I looked at my watch. The time was 23.45. I called the Herschenheimer house. Carl answered.
“This is Bart,” I said. “I’ll be late: maybe an hour. Stick around until I arrive with a bottle of Scotch,” and I hung up before he began to squeal.
It took Coldwell twenty minutes to come ringing on my doorbell. I let him in.
“What’s all this?” he demanded.
I told him the information I was about to give him came from an informer. Before I talked, I wanted his guarantee I was kept under cover.
“I could lose my job, Lu. I came on this thing when I should have been working for the Agency. If you don’t give me your word to keep me covered, I’m not talking.”
“Pofferi?”
“Yes. I know where he is right now, but no cover, no talk.”