“Who killed Kate Thackera, Evie?”
“I don’t know!” She threw her head from side to side. “I don’t want to know! I know you’re a marvel at finding out these things; and after tomorrow, it won’t matter. But tonight I don’t want anything to upset the balance. That’s all I was trying to do — hit you hard enough to send you to the hospital. Does all this sound crazy to you? But this is sort of a last chance for Marcus. If he loses tomorrow, Larry will take him and squeeze out the rest of his juice. Well, I did my best. Do you want me to get out?”
“Yeah.”
She put her hand on the door handle. “I’m a dyed-in-the-wool moviegoer. It might be a little more… satisfactory if Marcus handled things in the John Wayne fashion, but that’s not the way he functions. Really. Goodnight. I won’t wish you luck.”
She got out of the car and walked quickly toward the taxis.
Chapter 13
Shayne drove slowly south on Biscayne Boulevard, looking for a black, two-door Chrysler. He continued to Third Street, circled the block, and came back. A black car turned into Bay Front Park and stopped.
Shayne blinked his headlights. A woman got out of the car and walked toward him.
She was blonde, with a carefully blank expression and of course a marvelously maintained body. Shayne had heard that Larry Zion was a small man, and this girl must top him by half a foot. In this light, she looked as cold as stone.
She checked him through the window before getting in beside him. “Mr. Michael Shayne. I have heard you described. You have a comforting look, I assure you. I have been frightened half to death.”
Her English was good, with a slight accent. Unlike some of the other women Shayne had met in the last few hours, she would become better looking with the passing of years. She was pale.
“Does Larry know you’re meeting me?” Shayne said.
“I fervently hope not! I was careful; I think nobody followed. Now that I am with you, I finally think there is a chance I will not be killed.”
“Who wants to kill you?”
“People from both sides, it seems.” She gave a low, breathless laugh. “I am considered a danger, and with some reason! I want you to take me somewhere, please. Find a safe place where we can talk… You are not completely disinterested in money? I can show you a way we can both make a great deal. You have a gun?”
“Everybody seems to be carrying guns tonight.”
A heavy car approached on the other side of the street. Swinging suddenly, it cut in ahead of Shayne, its front wheel riding up over the curb.
Shayne had left his engine running. He rammed the shift into reverse before the other car had shuddered to a complete stop and came back hard, knowing without checking the mirror that somebody else had pulled in to block him from the rear. Bumpers clashed. Shayne went back into low, pressing the button that ran up the bullet-proof side windows. His front and rear bumpers had been built to his own design; and unlike factory-built bumpers, they actually gave a degree of protection to the car. He used the Buick like a powerful double-ended bulldozer, battering the front car several feet, then reversing to come back and slam against the rear car.
The girl beside him was talking excitedly in Greek. She was jolted forward, then backward; and the next forward move threw her against the dashboard. Having made room, Shayne cut the wheel hard, broke out of the ambush, and shot south on Biscayne.
Recovering, the girl pressed the muzzle of a small pistol against Shayne’s nearest knee. Her carefully arranged hair had been jarred forward, partially obscuring her face.
“Damn you, you walked on my lines. I rehearsed them so thoroughly. Stop, please, or there will be a bullet in your knee, and that is not a pleasant place to be shot.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to get a little farther away?”
“No, stop at once.”
“You were lying to me about people wanting to kill you. There goes my last illusion.”
He slowed almost to a stop but continued to drift around Biscayne Boulevard Way toward the river.
“There’s no place to turn here. Wait till we cross the bridge. Reach in and get my gun. I’m not trying to win any war. I need that knee.”
He committed the Buick to the Second Avenue Bridge. After a moment, carefully shifting hands, she snaked his.38 out of its holster.
“Who are you working for?” Shayne said.
“You identified me as Larry Zion’s girlfriend, and it is true. Among other things, I keep count while he does his push-ups.”
“How high does he get?”
“One hundred with two hands, forty with one. For someone of his age, that is considered fantastic.”
“I look forward to meeting him. Why all this rigamarole? I’ve destroyed two cars. And all you had to do was ask me.”
She found the light knob and turned up the dashboard lights, still being careful with the little pistol. “He’s been getting calls about the things you’ve been doing. He thought if he asked you, you would say no.”
Shayne laughed shortly. “Why? I’m a stockholder in his company, and one of the things I’m trying to figure is which way I should vote my shares.”
“You are a stockholder?”
“Olson gave me two hundred shares outright and an agreement for a thousand more if various things can be made to happen.”
He swung onto the Dixie Highway, and Alix eased back.
“In that case, I can relax a little; and we won’t go back for my clumsy friends. Just keep going in this direction. They can follow in a taxi. Will you promise not to wrestle me for the gun?”
“I’ll try asking you some questions first.”
“Oh, don’t waste your time or your breath. I am completely unimportant.”
“He seems to trust you with a gun.” He gave her a long, travelling look. “Are you in love with him?”
“We are fond of each other. He has a marvelous, explosive force.”
“How long have you been together?”
“A bit more than a year. Why are you interested in this?”
“Kate Thackera wanted the part he gave you. I don’t know why she thought she could get it, unless you’re on your way out with Larry.”
“Oh, she was a little crazy.”
“She claimed to be. I’ve made a short list of people who would have less to worry about with Kate dead, and you’re on it.”
“Perhaps I will have to shoot you after all.”
“I’m told the director wanted her.”
“She had some odd hold over him.”
“Did he have any connection with Keko Brannon?”
If the question surprised her, she didn’t show it. “He directed her in several pictures, actually. They once had a famous fight in a restaurant. But, you understand, I was still a schoolgirl in Athens at the time.”
“Does Larry ever talk about Keko?”
“He frequently runs her films, but he talks about very little except business.”
The pistol was still pointed at Shayne, but he could tell that he had started her thinking behind it. She might be sharing the same sheets with Larry Zion, but that didn’t mean she was a friend of his.
Shayne waited until they entered the access ramp onto the Palmetto Expressway.
“I don’t understand chicks like you. How much is he paying you for this? You got a movie contract out of going to bed with him, but this is extra. You were taking a hell of a chance for a girl who has to be on the set tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow, I just have some costume fittings.”
“I had the feeling that you really would have put one of those slugs in my knee if I didn’t do what you said. But I’m not supposed to be too impressed with these little guns. I’m not supposed to take orders from girls your age. I have my reputation to think of. And I’m sorry to say I’ve done a certain amount of fighting in the front seat of cars.”