At present he’s working with other convicts on dredging operations at Red River basin, a mile outside the prison. The convicts arrive at the basin in trucks at eight o’clock in the morning and return to the prison at six. While they are at work there are four guards…’
‘Five,’ Eve put in quickly.
Kile frowned.
‘Four or five,’ he said. ‘There are dogs, too.’
Baird shifted lower in his chair. He looked down at his scuffed shoes, his face expressionless.
‘I’ll have to take a look at the territory,’ he said. ‘But it sounds as if it could be done.’
He saw Eve give a little start and nervously clench her hands. Kile hurriedly put down his glass and sat forward.
‘Don’t forget this man may resist,’ he said, his voice unsteady.
Baird looked up sharply.
‘So what? Don’t you want the job done?’
‘I wouldn’t be offering you ten thousand unless I did,’ Kile snapped, flushing. ‘But it’s only fair to you to know what you’re up against.’
Baird stood up.
‘You don’t have to worry about me,’ he said. ‘I can do that better than anyone. This time next week I’l tel you if I’l do it or not. I’l want a hundred to cover expenses, and I’l want it now.’
Rico put in smoothly as he saw Kile hesitate.
‘As I know Baird, and you don’t, Mr Kile, perhaps you would let me take care of his expenses, and if he proves satisfactory, you could settle with me direct.’
Kile nodded.
‘Very well,’ he said, getting to his feet, ‘we’l leave it like that. If you’re in no hurry, Rico, perhaps you’l remain behind. I know our friend here is anxious to get away.’
Baird smiled jeeringly.
‘If I do the job,’ he said, looking at Kile, ‘I’l expect proof that the money’s there to pay me.’
‘That’s okay,’ Rico said quickly. ‘Mr Kile and me have worked together before. You don’t have to worry about your end, Baird.’
‘Al the same I’m going to worry about it until I get it,’ Baird said. He nodded to Kile, glanced over at Eve and gave her an insolent little smile. She turned away and went back to the window. ‘Be seeing you in a week’s time,’ he went on to Kile, walked across the room, opened the door and went out.
There was a long pause while Kile freshened his drink, and Rico stood staring uneasily at his feet.
‘Your friend’s quite a character,’ Kile said at last as he came back to his chair. ‘I can’t say I like his manner.’
Rico laughed uneasily.
‘Baird’s a hard man,’ he said apologetical y, ‘but he’s a man who gets things done. If the job can be done, he’l do it.’ He fidgeted uneasily while he studied Kile. ‘Where exactly do I fit in in this, Mr Kile.
If you remember, you said…’
‘Once Baird agrees to do the job I’m dropping out of the picture,’ Kile said. ‘I intend to leave the whole thing in your hands. I don’t wish to know how you are going to get this man out of prison or any of the details. I don’t even wish to be consulted. You and Baird must handle the whole thing independently of me. If you think you’l need more help, that’s up to you to arrange and pay for. Do the job and hand the man over to me, and you will receive fifteen and Baird ten thousand. Now do you see where you fit in?’
Rico nodded. He also saw how he could run into a fifteen to twenty years’ sentence. He didn’t like the proposition, but the money drew him like a magnet.
‘This man’s important to you, Mr Kile?’
Kile gave him a hostile look.
‘I’d scarcely pay out twenty-five thousand unless he was,’ he said curtly. ‘I can understand you are wondering why I want him, but I have no intentions of telling you, so don’t ask.’
‘That’s all right,’ Rico said hurriedly. ‘But to kidnap a man from prison! It was something I wasn’t expecting.’
Kile didn’t seem to think that cal ed for a remark. He sipped his highbal and looked away.
After an awkward pause, Rico said, ‘It depends on Baird, then. If he says he’l do the job, I take it you’re satisfied for him to try?’
Kile glanced across at Eve, who nodded silently.
‘Yes,’ he said, ‘but I don’t think I need meet him again. Frankly, I don’t like him. The less I have to do with him the better. If, after he has looked over the ground, he thinks he can succeed, then let him give you his plan, and you can pass it on to me. If I’m satisfied the plan wil succeed, I wil tell you to go ahead, and until the man is brought to me, I don’t want to hear anything more of what you are doing.
Have I made myself quite clear on that point?’
Rico nodded.
‘Before he makes the at empt, Mr Kile, I expect he’l want an advance of some kind: say three or four thousand?’ Rico smiled apologetical y. ‘That could be arranged?’
‘Yes,’ Kile said impatiently. ‘The best thing to do would be for me to give you five thousand, and for you to keep what you think for yourself, and the rest can go to Baird. Then if the job is successful, I’ll pay the balance.’
Rico relaxed.
‘That’s fine, Mr Kile. That’d suit me wel . In the meantime I will finance Baird and keep an account.’
Kile got to his feet.
‘Then this time next week?’
‘Yes,’ Rico said, bowing.
When he had gone, Kile joined Eve at the window. He stood near her, his hand resting on the sill. For some time they stood silent, looking down at the lights of the shipping, then abruptly Kile said, ‘Wel , I hope to God you’re satisfied.’
Eve didn’t say anything. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her shiver slightly.
Kile had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, and the pain under his heart nagged at his frayed nerves. He had a feeling that he was being dragged down into a nightmare situation like a swimmer helplessly caught in a whirlpool.
He felt he must get back to the quiet of his own home, where he could rest and try to forget that in a week’s time this crazy plan might materialise.
‘I’m going home now, Eve,’ he said. ‘I’m feeling tired. There’s nothing more we can do until this fella reports back. Do you think he’l do it?’
Without turning her head, she said in a quiet, flat voice, ‘Yes, he’l do it. A man like that would do anything.’
III
During his week in New York, Baird had thought a lot about Anita Jackson. Up to now he had never been interested in a girl. He had regarded women as a tiresome necessity, using them as a physical convenience and promptly forgetting them as soon as his infrequent desires were satisfied.
But this girl was different. He had spent thirteen days in her room, living in the closest contact with her, watching her prepare meals, seeing her dress and undress, go out to work at half-past seven in the morning and come in again late at night. He had watched her mend and iron her shabby wardrobe. He had lain in bed while she had shampooed her hair or cleaned her teeth or washed her stockings in the small toilet basin, seeing all the small activities that go on in hundreds of rooms rented by hundreds of girls like Anita Jackson, and which no other man was likely to see. It was this intimacy that created in him an interest he had never known with other women. It puzzled him that even though they had lived like this for thirteen days, he hadn’t thought of her in the way he thought of other women. What she had done for him and was doing for him protected her from the brutal urge he felt sometimes towards women. There was something about her that he couldn’t understand that made her untouchable to him.
She had saved his life by letting that fat Wop maul her on the bed. That was something he just couldn’t get over. She had changed the dressings on his wound day and night, and it was due to her care and attention that he was able to get on his feet ten days after the shooting. She wouldn’t explain why she had given him sanctuary, and when he pressed her she had turned on him angrily, saying, ‘Oh, do stop talking about it! I’m doing this to please myself. I don’t want your gratitude or your thanks. I’m not going to discuss it any more!’