“Well, you could do it several ways,” Gerald said. “Naturally you would be allowed to make a series of gifts over a period of years. Then if you wanted to establish a group of trust funds, the income to go.
He went on for several minutes, explaining the thing. Finally the voice at the other end of the wire interrupted him.
“All right, all right,” he said. “Just one more thing. What would it cost me a month to amortize a forty-thousand dollar, twenty-year mortgage at 5 per cent if the mortgage were to carry a life insurance policy for an equal amount and the policy was on an A risk, aged fifty?”
“Roughly five hundred and fifty a month,” Gerald said. “Give me a second and I’ll give you the…”
“Never mind, never mind. Put the other party back on the wire.”
Gerald beckoned to Slaughter.
“If that guy’s a cop,” Steinberg said, “he must be one of them quiz kids. No, he’s in insurance all right. But what’s it all about Fred? What the hell is going on?”
“I’ll call you back later,” Slaughter said. “Sit tight. I think we got our little problem all cleaned up and solved. Just sit tight.”
Once more they returned to the couch where they had first met.
Seated, Slaughter turned and looked closely at his companion.
“All right,” he said, “let’s say for the sake of an argument that you’re on the up and up. That you’re telling me the truth. Let’s say that you do have the stuff. I can believe it. I’ll admit it now-the girl told me you had it. We got that much out of her.”
“The girl told you?”
“The Dunne girl. We picked her up; had an idea she might know something and that there was a chance she was in on some kind of deal. We knew that someone had picked up Vince and taken the stuff off of him. We didn’t know who, of course, but it had to be someone and we figured maybe she knew something.”
Gerald stared at him, saying nothing.
“The thing is,” Slaughter said, “I can’t quite see why we should buy it back from you.”
“I’m not suggesting you buy it back,” Gerald said. “I’m merely suggesting you give me the same split you would have had to give the others-your three boys-if they had been successful in getting the stuff to you. This way you get it, and it costs you no more than it would have anyway. As a matter of fact, you should be damned grateful I’m here to offer you the deal. If I hadn’t shown up just when I did, the police would have found the jewels when they found young Dunne’s body.”
Slaughter looked at him curiously.
“How did you get mixed up in it anyway?” he asked. “Was it the girl? Were you working with her and Vince all along?”
“Don’t be a fool,” Gerald said. “It was the way I’ve told you it was. I never saw the girl in my life before last night. Never saw her brother until he stuck me up and got into my car. But all of that doesn’t matter. I am trying to do business with you. Nobody else matters.”
“In that case, it can’t matter to you what happens to the girl,” Slaughter said. “You see, after you talked with her last night, we picked her up. We sort of felt she might have been double-crossing us, you know. She was Dunne’s sister. She could have been getting cute. But what the hell. As long as she’s out of the picture, doesn’t mean anything to you, we can forget about her.”
There was something about the man’s voice that sent a cold chill down Gerald’s spine. What he said made good sense. It was quite true. The girl was none of his business. She didn’t mean a thing to him.
Suddenly he visualized her pretty, heart-shaped face, her angry azure eyes and the determined line of her fine jaw.
“It happens I do care what happens to her,” he said suddenly, hardly realizing he was speaking the words. “It happens that she means a great deal to me. So much, in fact, that unless you let her go, at once and unharmed, you can just forget all about the Gorden-Frost jewels.”
“You think you are in any position to bargain?” Slaughter asked. “We know who you are now. Maybe the police would like to know.”
“Oh, certainly,” Gerald said, with a slight sneer. “They’d hold me for what? Receiving stolen goods? I’d be out about the time they were turning up the juice for you in Sing Sing.”
“All right, all right. We won’t argue about it,” Slaughter said. “Assuming you got the stuff, I’ll make you one and only one proposition. No bargaining and no second guessing. Take it or leave it. Thirty-five thousand in cash for the jewelry.”
“Thirty-five?”
“Right.”
“And the girl?”
Slaughter shook his head. “The girl will talk,” he said.
“Not if you haven’t hurt her,” Gerald said. “You said that you hadn’t…”
“She’s all right,” Slaughter said. “But she’s bound to spill…”
“Thirty-five thousand and you release the girl,” Gerald interrupted. “I deliver the stuff and guarantee she don’t talk. After all, I have plenty to lose too,” Gerald said. “I have as much interest as you have in keeping her quiet. But you’ll have to let her go. Otherwise-no deal. And-” Gerald hesitated and gave the other man a long look “-and I know now you’ve got the girl. Just in case something should happen to her.”
“If you can keep her quiet, you got a deal,” Slaughter said. “You’re getting a damned good price. That stuff is so hot it sizzles. A fence wouldn’t take it as a gift. The stuff will have to be held for months, maybe years.”
Gerald nodded. “I know,” he said. “All right, about the details.”
“We can go up to my apartment…”
Gerald smiled thinly.
“No,” he said. “Hardly. Not that I don’t trust you, of course. But I think it will be better if we meet on neutral grounds. Suppose we do it this way. Is the Dunne girl somewhere I can see her within the next half hour or so?”
“Maybe.” Slaughter looked at him quizzically.
“All right. Take me to her. Let me talk to her alone, for five minutes. When I finish she’ll agree to do as I ask. Then I’ll leave, without her. I’ll take a room in a midtown hotel. You give me a telephone number where you can be reached and I’ll call you at exactly seven-thirty this evening and let you know where I am located. Give you the hotel and the room number. I’ll have the stuff with me. You come up. Bring the girl with you and the thirty-five thousand. Just you and the girl. We’ll make the switch then.”
“And you mean you want to see the girl first, eh. Then leave?” Slaughter’s voice was heavy with doubt. “What’s to keep you from finding out where she is and then calling cops?”
“Good God, man,” Gerald said. “What’s wrong with you? There’s plenty to keep me from it. Among other things, the thirty-five thousand bucks. Why do you think I’m here in the first place. Because of the girl? Hell, I didn’t even know you had her. No, don’t get me wrong. My first interest is the money. It’s just that I don’t see any reason for the girl to get hurt. You have nothing to lose.”
“You didn’t want to come to my place at first,” Slaughter said. “How come, now you know the girl is there, you’ve changed…”
“I didn’t want to come with the jewels,” Gerald said. “I still don’t want to. That’s why I suggest the hotel deal. But alone-what the hell. You don’t want me-I’m no good unless I have the stuff. Right?”
Slaughter nodded slowly.
“Right,” he said at last. “O.K. Let’s get going. I’ll take you to where you can see her and talk to her. But let me give it to you straight. Get fancy and try anything cute, and you get killed. Very fast you get killed. And after you finish seeing the girl, you’ll have a guy with you for the first half hour after you leave. Long enough to give me a chance to move her. So don’t get any ideas…”