Five minutes later, Frost, Silk, Umney and Goble were sitting around the table in the room overlooking the swimming pool.
The three men listened while Frost talked.
‘So it’s on,’ Frost concluded. ‘I could have a slight problem with the girl. She’s a reefer smoker. She wants to be kidnapped. Could be, at the last moment, she’ll change her mind. This is a risk we’ll have to take.’
‘So long as she neutralises the fence so we can get in,’ Silk said, ‘she can change her goddamn mind as often as she likes.’
‘Now I want the pill for Marvin,’ Frost said.
Silk produced a tiny pillbox.
‘All you have to do is drop it in his drink. Within six hours, he won’t know what’s hit him.’
‘For how long?’
‘Guaranteed for seven hours.’
‘So, I dope this drink at eight o’clock and he gets knocked out at two o’clock, and he surfaces at nine...right?’
‘That’s guaranteed.’
‘And Amando?’
‘Marcia will fix him. He’ll come to the surface around the same time.’
‘So, okay, let’s get down to the paperwork. I want to see the ransom note.’
Umney opened a briefcase and took from it a sheet of paper.
‘Here it is... it’s a draft, but if you want it changed, we’ll try again.’
The ransom note was brief:
Sign the enclosed order to the National Bank, Lugano. You will be given instructions by telephone how to deliver this order to us. Any tricks, and you will not only go to jail for tax evasion (specimen copies of your tax frauds enclosed) but you will not see your daughter again.
Frost nodded.
‘Okay. Now how about the order to the bank he has to sign?’
Umney produced another paper. This was a letter to be signed by Grandi to the National Bank, Lugano, instructing them to transfer thirty million dollars from account No. G/556007 to account No. N/88073, Ferandi Bank, Zurich.
Frost looked at Silk.
‘What’s this 88073 account?’
‘For years, I have had a numbered account with Ferandi,’ Silk said quietly. ‘They know me, so there is no problem paying in thirty million. It’s a private bank and they deal with people who want to sweep money under the carpet: tax evasion, Presidents who don’t think they will last long, film stars... no problem.’
‘So the money goes into your own personal numbered account?’
‘There’s no way else to do it, but we’re all covered.’ Silk nodded to Umney who produced another paper.
Frost studied it. This was an order to Ferandi Bank to pay to each of the signatures (on production of passports) the sum of five million dollars drawn from the thirty million dollars of account G/556007, National Bank, Lugano, and to pay from this account the sum of ten million dollars to Mr. Guiseppe Vessi at his request.
‘We all sign,’ Umney said, ‘and each has a copy. When we have the girl, I telephone Grandi. I arrange to meet him at the Three Square motel which is a good meeting place with plenty of cover. Lu and Mitch will be there, but of sight.’ He paused, then went on, ‘He can’t afford to be tricky, but we have you as an inside man. If you think he’s calling the cops or acting smart, you’ll alert me. I have a gimmick here,’ he took from the briefcase a small, flat box. ‘This is a bleeper. You have this, I have another. If you think Grandi is going to act smart, all you have to do is to press this little button and my bleeper is activated, and the operation is cancelled, but to my thinking, he can’t afford to be tricky.’
‘Okay,’ Frost said. ‘So you have the signed banker’s order. What happens then?’
‘Lu flies to Zurich and checks the transfer. He gives me the green light when the money has arrived. Then we release the girl. Then when the smoke’s died down, say in a week, we three fly out and join Lu. We each take our share and split up. How do you like it?’
Frost sat still while he thought, then turned to Silk.
‘What happens if one of us dies?’
Silk’s face turned wooden.
‘Who’s talking about dying?’
‘I am,’ Frost said, then leaning forward, staring at Silk, he went on, ‘I want life insurance. There’s nothing to stop any of you three putting a bullet in me as soon as you have the banker’s order. I’m not signing anything unless there’s a clause put in this agreement. I either get it or the deal’s off.’
‘What clause?’ Silk asked.
‘If within one month from the date of Grandi’s order, any one of us doesn’t claim his share, his share goes anonymously to Oxfam.’ Frost smiled at Silk. ‘Don’t think I’m being charitable. It means it won’t be worth your while or your risk to kill me, and it won’t be worth my while or risk to kill you three. Get the idea?’
Silk laughed.
‘Okay.’ He looked at Umney. ‘Fix it the way he wants it, Ross.’
Umney shrugged, then grinned at Frost.
‘I’m getting the idea, Mike, you don’t trust any of us.’
‘You can say that again,’ Frost said, then getting to his feet, he went on, ‘I’m taking a swim. I’ll be back in an hour. Have it fixed by then.’
When he had gone, Goble said, ‘I warned you he is a smart sonofabitch, Lu.’
‘He’s looking after himself,’ Silk said, and smiled his evil smile.
Before returning to the Grandi estate, Frost stopped off at the National Florida Bank and lodged his copy of the agreement in a safe deposit box. He was now reasonably sure that he had covered himself, but he was taking no chances. When dealing with a thug like Silk, one thoughtless slip could be the last.
Two more days to D-Day! he thought as he let himself into his cabin. Everything now depended on Gina. If she changed her mind, if she pressed the wrong button...! He wondered what she was doing right now. As he had driven up to the villa, he had seen Amando, at a table, covered with papers, on the terrace, but there had been no sign of Gina.
He changed into his uniform, then later, walked to the guardroom. The time was now 19.75, and he found Marvin, relaxed, before the monitors.
‘Had a good day, Mike?’ Marvin asked, turning.
‘Building up my tan.’ Frost sat down by his side. ‘Any excitements?’
‘She’s sick,’ Marvin said, lighting a cigarette.
Frost stiffened.
‘Come again?’
‘I didn’t see her around so I asked Old Creepy. He said she was in bed, and not to worry.’
Jesus! Frost thought. It only wants this!
‘Something bad?’
Marvin shrugged indifferently.
‘You know girls... they have troubles. There’s been no doctor, so I guess it’s the usual thing.’
‘Who the hell would want to be a girl?’ Frost said, drawing in a deep breath.
‘Yeah. Anyway, I didn’t have to keep my eye on her.’ Marvin flicked ash, then went on, ‘You know something? Strictly between ourselves, I think the girl’s not right in her head. I think she’s as nutty as a fruit cake.’
Frost became very alert.
‘What makes you say that, Jack?’
‘I’ve seen a lot more of her than you have,’ Marvin said. ‘She doesn’t act like a normal girl. There’s something about her that really bothers me... spooky could be the word.’
Frost thought of Gina’s glittering eyes, the touch of her fingers, her wish that her father was dead. Spooky, he thought, was a good word.
‘You can’t expect any girl living like a caged animal to be normal,’ he said.
‘There’s that.’ Marvin rubbed his jaw, then shrugged. ‘She asked me to give her a gun.’
Frost stared at him.
‘A gun?’
‘She said she would feel safer to have a gun. She told me she was scared of Old Creepy. She said when she was alone with him, she felt he wanted to rape her.’