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‘Fine. Okay, Sydney, I’ll get back to the shop.’

On the way back, sitting in a taxi, I thought in less than twenty-four hours I would be seeing Rhea.

Six

Soon after 11.00, I pulled up outside the Morgans’ bungalow. The front door stood open, but otherwise there was no sign of life.

Leaving the car, I walked across the rough grass and paused to look into the sitting room.

Rhea was sitting at the table, a newspaper spread out before her. She looked up, her green eyes quizzing.

The sight of her brought back this tormenting lust I had for her. God! I thought, this is a woman! The most exciting, the most devilish, the most desirable woman in the world! She had on the same cheap cotton dress and the same cheap blue beads and she looked the symbol of decadent lust.

‘You?’ She leaned back in the chair. ‘What do you want, Cheapie?’

This insane rage I couldn’t control surged up in me. I took three quick steps forward and slapped her face, sending her jerking back.

‘Don’t call me that!’ I shouted at her, and braced myself, expecting her to jump to her feet and fly at me, but she didn’t. She sat still, her hands against her face, her eyes wide with surprise.

‘Nice work, buster,’ Fel said as he lounged into the room. ‘That’s the way to treat the bitch. I guessed we’d be seeing you before long. Make yourself at home.’

I ignored him, my eyes on Rhea.

‘You ever touch me again and you’ll be sorry,’ she said, but there was no conviction in her voice.

As my rage began to die down, I had a sudden idea that I had been handling her wrongly with my pleading and grovelling. I remembered how her brother had slapped her around. Maybe she respected a man who got tough with her.

‘You call me Cheapie again and you’ll get slapped again,’ I said, pushing by Fel, I sat down in the ruined armchair. ‘I’ve come to talk to you two. Maybe if you have enough guts, we three could steal some diamonds.’

Rhea stared at me as if she thought I was crazy, but Fel burst into a loud laugh.

‘You see? I told you he had spunk, you stupid cow,’ he said to Rhea, ‘and you wouldn’t believe me. I told you he was okay. I know. I can spot ‘em a mile off.’

‘Shut up!’ Rhea snapped at him, still staring at me. ‘Just what do you mean by that?’

‘Although I have some money,’ I said, ‘I haven’t enough... who has? You two want money, so why not team up with me and make some?’

Her eyes glittering, her face set, she leaned forward.

‘How?’

‘You took the trouble to find out who I am,’ I said, ‘so I have taken the trouble to find out who you are. I know you have been in two crappy little holdups and you drew four and four. Small-time stuff. If you and your brother can think big enough and have the nerve, there’s a half a million in it for you.’

Fel drew in his breath with a sharp, hissing sound, while Rhea stiffened, her hands turning into fists.

‘You mean that? Half a million?’ Fel asked, his voice a croak.

‘I’m not here to waste time. I mean it. Half a million to you two: half a million to me.’

‘You don’t con me,’ Rhea said harshly. ‘Just what’s behind this crap? You don’t imagine you can kid me with this baloney, do you? I wasn’t born yesterday! Half a million! Phooey!’

‘Aw, rest your goddamn mouth!’ Fel shouted at her. ‘It’s you who’s a bag of baloney! I tell you this guy’s okay! He’s dealing it off the top deck!’ He turned to me. ‘Tell me more, mister... don’t bother with her. She’s always had a tiny mind. What’s this about half a million? Jesus! Could I use bread like that!’

‘It’s there for the taking,’ I said. ‘All you have to do is to walk in, pick it up and walk out again.’

‘You mean walk into that store of yours and clean it out?’ Fel said, puzzled.

‘Don’t talk like an idiot! If you tried that you’d be in jail so fast you wouldn’t know what had hit you. No... this job is easy, safe and simple.’

‘And what do you do?’ Rhea broke in, her eyes suspicious and cold. ‘Stand on the sidelines while we do the work and if the job turns sour, you duck out of sight?’

‘Nothing can go wrong. It’s simple,’ I said. ‘I organise the job and sell the diamonds. Without me, there’s no money. But if you haven’t the guts to do it, say so now and I’ll find someone else to do it.’

‘Man! Hasn’t this guy changed since last he was here!’ There was a note of awe in Fel’s voice. ‘What’s got into you, mister?’

‘You two have got into me,’ I said. ‘You started me thinking.’ I looked at Rhea. ‘I’ve decided not to wait to become old, fat and stupid. I’ve decided to become rich now.’

Still her eyes were suspicious.

‘So what’s the job?’ she asked, frowning at me, but I knew I had caught heir interest. ‘Don’t talk in circles. What’s it all about?’

I had come prepared. I took from my wallet a photograph of Mrs. P.’s necklace and laid it on the table in front of her.

‘That’s what it’s all about: one million, eight hundred thousand dollars’ worth of diamonds.’

Fel came to lean over his sister’s shoulder. I watched them, and by the sudden greed on their faces I knew I had hooked them as I had hooked Sydney.

Then Rhea looked up at me.

‘We could go away for twenty years if this one turned sour.’

‘Hell!’ Fel exploded. ‘Can’t you stop griping? Must you always try to throw a goddamn spanner in the works? Why don’t you shut up?’

‘I’ve been in jail... you haven’t,’ she said. ‘You talk like the moron you are.’

‘There won’t be any jail,’ I put in. ‘Let me explain.’

I then told them about Mrs. P.’s necklace, showed them the newspaper cuttings and the press photos of her wearing the necklace. I told them how she was in the hole for thousands because of her gambling and how she had to sell the necklace secretly. How my boss had bought it at a knockdown price and how he and I were going to make the diamonds into a collar and sell it at a big profit.

‘The mean sonofabitch is only offering me two percent of the take,’ I concluded, ‘so I’m going to take the necklace. In my position I can sell the stones safely for a million. I’ll split fifty-fifty with you two,’ and using Sydney’s pet phrase, I went on, ‘I can’t be fairer than that, can I?’

Rhea studied me.

‘You’re damned generous, aren’t you?’ Her cold suspicious eyes searched my face. ‘What’s the idea? You know we’d have done it for a tenth of that price. What’s the idea?’

I realised then that I had overplayed my hand. She was right, of course. If I had offered them fifty thousand, they would still have jumped at it, but it was too late now to back track. I had made a slip and now I had to lull her suspicions. Keeping my face expressionless, I met her steady stare with one as steady.

‘The way I see it,’ I said, ‘as you two do the dangerous part of the job and I pay you half, you won’t be dissatisfied and you’ll keep your mouths shut. The last thing I want is for you to try to blackmail me for more money when the job’s done. To take care of that and to safeguard myself, I’m splitting the take down the middle.’

‘This guy thinks ahead... he uses his nut,’ Fel said excitedly. ‘You’re right, mister. With half a million you won’t ever hear from us again!’

‘The dangerous part of the job?’ Rhea was quick to pounce on yet another slip. ‘You said it was simple and easy. So where’s the danger come in?’

‘I should have said the active part of the job, not dangerous, but there’s bound to be tension.’ I was telling myself I had to be more careful with her. Whereas her brother was a gullible fool, she was as tricky as a sack full of rattlesnakes.