"That's kind of you. Good-bye, Mrs. Costigan, and I hope you enjoy your lovely clock."
Julio took the case out to the car, and when he came back, Mrs. Costigan was still in front of the mantelpiece, admiring. "You know, this is the first time in my life that I ever got something for nothing. Never won a lottery, not even a door prize."
"Your lucky day," said Julio. "You want a beer to celebrate?"
"Don't be silly. When did you ever see me drink beer?"
Julio went to the kitchen and came back with two beers. He gave one to Snake, and they raised their bottles in a silent salute. Snake asked, Where did you put the case?
In the trunk, with the hot one facing the gas tank.
What if she gives the others away?
Never happen. Those spares were just window dressing.
She might dump them.
She might, but I doubt it. She's a torch, and there's only one thing on her mind right now. She has to see it burn.
We'll see.
That we will.
They saw it in the middle of the night, sitting on the front porch. There was only the sliver of a moon, but there was enough light to see the street, and the street was empty. They sat side by side on the glider, waiting. They had been waiting for almost an hour.
"What time is it?" asked Snake.
"Almost one."
"What if she doesn't show?"
"She'll be here. She has to see it. That's the biggest part of it for a torch."
"That nurse…"
"Which one? There were three of them here today."
"Come on, the one you jumped. I really think you got to her. She asked me about you before she left."
"Like what?"
"All sorts of things. I could see that she was interested."
"What did you tell her?"
"Well, I said that you were Cuban, and a man of passion, and…" She stopped as a car turned the corner, and rolled to a stop down the street. "Do you think…?"
Julio was silent for a moment, and then he nodded. "It's Gemstone. I just tapped."
Snake shivered. "Not me. I wouldn't want to be inside that head right now. What time is it?"
"Just one o'clock. It might take a while."
"How long?"
"Long enough for the flame to eat through the metal. Might be a few minutes."
As he spoke, the car exploded into flames. The explosion rocked the street and rattled windows. A figure was flung from the wreck. It looked like a flaming doll. It was also a screaming doll. The doll rolled over and over in the street, burning and screaming.
"Gemstone's last fire," said Julio. "I hope she got a kick out of it."
"It's the least we can wish her."
The screaming stopped. Julio tapped. "She's gone."
"Feel like calling the cops?"
"Let someone else do it." Lights had begun to show in windows. "Now that the job is over, would you like to tell me what it was all about? Why did she want to burn down this place?"
"Would you believe me if I said I didn't know?"
"No."
"I'm sorry, Julio, but I really can't say anything."
"I didn't think you would." He stood up. "Your room or mine?"
19
REMEMBER when you were a kid in school, and after the summer vacation your first assignment in class was to tell all the other kids what you did on your summer vacation? Well, here is what I did not do during my fun-filled eight-day cruise aboard the S.S. Carnival Queen. I did not lie beside the pool with a drink in my hand, and watch the girls go by. I did not play deck tennis or shuffleboard, I did not try my hand at skeetshooting, and I did not drive a bucket of golf balls into the Caribbean. I did not dance all night with the lovely ladies, nor did I see the inside of any of their cabins. I did not take a carriage ride through the winding streets of Nassau, I did not visit the tomb of Ponce de Leon in San Juan, I did not go snorkeling in St. Thomas, and I did not shop the sophisticated boutiques of St. Maarten. All I did, aside from eat too much, was keep a constant watch on Calvin Weiss, and play high-stakes poker with him every night. Even there, I didn't have the pleasure of winning, because I still was throwing him hands every time I could. I would not have minded any of this if, during all that time, I had pulled even a single lead on Madrigal, but after six days at sea and in ports I knew nothing more than when I had started. By then it was Friday and we were homeward bound, cruising off the coast of Hispaniola. We had one more day at sea, arriving back in Port St. James early Sunday morning.
"It's impossible," I reported to Sammy by telephone.
"Your favorite word."
"Look, you try it. I go around all day tapping heads, and all I get is Let's kill Calvin, let's kill Calvin. There are more than two hundred people into the game so far, and that's all they think about."
"And Madrigal has to be one of them."
"Maybe."
"Nothing maybe about it. If he-assuming it's a he-hasn't hit so far, then he's going to try it the night of that game, tomorrow night. It's his best shot."
I had to agree, but I didn't see what good it did me. "All I can do is continue to stay close to Calvin."
"What about Saturday night when he drops out of sight for the game?"
"I'll have to take my chances. Nobody knows where he goes."
"Not good enough. You'll have to be with him every minute that night."
"How am I supposed to do that?"
"Think about it. How much does the winner take out of that pool?"
"About twenty grand."
"And how much of the company money have you lost to Calvin so far?"
"A little under ten."
"Then don't you think it's about time that you started winning?"
"Oh."
"And don't tell me that you would have thought of it yourself."
"I would have."
He hung up.
That night, Calvin greeted me with an exuberant whoop as I sat down at the poker table. I was his buddy, but I was also his pigeon. "This is my boy," he explained to the table. "My boy Ben is better than MasterCard and he's better than American Express. He is my personal cash machine, I just push the right button and he throws money at me."
There were grins around the table. They had seen how often I had locked horns with Calvin, and had come out second best. I told them, "Not tonight. Tonight the worm turns, the empire strikes back, and the meek inherit the earth." I said to Calvin, "Let's make it easy on ourselves tonight. I'll cut cards with you now, one time and one time only, for fifty grand. Then we can have a couple of drinks, and relax."
His eyes narrowed. "You serious?"
"Sure. Look at all the time we'll save."
I wasn't serious at all. There is no way that I can control a cut, but I knew he wouldn't go for it, and I wanted to shake him right from the start.
"No," he said slowly, "let's do it the hard way."
"Suit yourself. Whose deal is it?"
That was about one-thirty in the morning. Four hours later a sweating, shaken Calvin Weiss asked me if I would take his personal check. He had been playing on markers for the past hour, and I had his IOU's for a total of forty-three thousand stacked in front of me. Three of the other players were also holding his paper, and he was in for over fifty large. He didn't have that kind of money in the bank, I knew that from tapping his head, but he wanted us to take the check. He was broken, and I was the one who had done the breaking, but I couldn't feel too sorry for him. Even with my particular advantage, I can't completely break a player, wipe him out and put him in debt, unless he insists on playing bad poker. There is no rule in the book that says that you have to play every hand and meet every raise. But that was his game, and it got worse when I started to turn the screws. After an hour of it he should have had the sense to cash it in and call it a night, but he went on chasing dreams until the sun was up and the coffee was cold. And now he wanted us to take his check.