“The line’s been cut.”
The back of my throat was turning dry.
“Cut? I don’t understand that.”
“It’s been cut.”
“Some kid… Kids around here are hell. I’ll get it fixed. I had no idea.”
“Do you usually walk out of your home leaving the front door open?”
I was getting fazed with these questions. I decided it was time to stop him.
“If it doesn’t worry me, why should it worry you?”
Lepski’s face hardened. He became all cop.
“Folk who are that careless make a lot of work for the police. I’m asking you : do you usually walk out of your house and leave the door open?”
“I guess so. We’re miles from anyone. We often sleep with the door open.”
He regarded me, his eyes bleak.
“And the kids around here are hell?”
I didn’t say anything.
“When I got here and found no one,” he went on after a long pause, “I looked around. Did Mrs. Benson take her things with her? I looked in the closets… that’s routine, Mr. Benson. Seemed to me nothing is missing.”
“I appreciate your interest,” I said, “but you don’t have to worry. This was a panic call. We didn’t have much time. My wife took all she wanted for a few days.”
He stroked his nose while he continued to look at me.
“Why isn’t your pupil shooting?”
The sudden shift of ground had me fazed.
“Pupil?”
“The rich guy you are teaching who is taking up all your time.”
“Oh… him.” My mind worked quickly. “He quit yesterday.”
“Is that right? What was his trouble? Another sick friend?”
“No trouble. He just got bored.”
“Is that Weston & Lees rifle in the gun rack his?”
“Yes.” I was beginning to sweat and this annoyed me. “I’m sending it back to him.”
“Why didn’t he take it with him?”
I had to stop this.
“Do you care, Mr. Lepski?”
He grinned.
“I guess not.” The grin went away. “This six hundred milimetre sight and silencer… Who is the planning to assassinate? The President?”
I had left the sight and silencer in the box. He must have been hunting around in earnest to have found them.
Somehow I forced a laugh.
“He’s gadget-minded. You know these guys with more money than sense. Every gun gadget he sees he has to have.”
“Yeah.” Lepski nodded. “So now you have free time? No pupil… no wife. I’ve got free time tomorrow. How about me coming out here for a lesson?”
That was the last thing I wanted.
“Sorry, but I plan to join my wife. I’m shutting the school for a few days.”
“I don’t seem to have any luck. Okay, we have a date on the 29th. Right?”
“That’s it. I haven’t forgotten.”
He thought for a moment, then said, “That’s a nice gun… the best. I’d like to own a gun like that.”
“Me too.”
His expression turned blank as he thought. I watched him, sure when he looked like that he was dangerous.
“You mean he gave up taking lessons even when he had the telescopic sight?”
“He got bored.”
Lepski scratched the side of his face.
“Isn’t money a wonderful thing? I’d liked to be bored.” He took off his straw hat and fanned himself with it. “It’s goddam hot, isn’t it?” Before I could agree that it was hot, he went on, “So you’re joining your wife. Where is she?” This was shot at me, quick and hard like a boxer’s jab.
By now, I was very alert.
“Not all that far. Well, Mr. Lepski, I have things to do. See you on the 29th.”
“Sure. You have things to do.” He hesitated, then he turned on his cop stare. “Keep your house locked in the future. We’re not looking for unnecessary work.”
“I’ll remember.”
“Well, so long, Mr. Benson. See you later.”
We shook hands, then he walked off to his car. I stood in the sun, watching until he had driven out of sight. I went back to the bungalow and cleared up. I packed a bag with enough things to last me a week. Then I found a sheet of paper and in block letters I wrote:
THE SCHOOL OF SHOOTING IS CLOSED UNTIL SEPTEMBER 28th.
I put my bag in the car, went over to the shooting gallery, locked my guns away and collected the Weston & Lees rifle, the sight and the silencer.
I drove down to the double gates, closed them and fixed the notice on the wooden upright, then I drove back to the little white house where I had a rendezvous in five days time with Diaz Savanto.
“I want to talk to Savanto,” I said.
We had just finished a scratch meal. Carlo’s cooking was pretty had and none of us had eaten much. The moon was on the rise and the night was hot. It was very quiet and peaceful with the moon, the sea and the swaying palms, but I wasn’t at peace.
Raimundo regarded me.
“Anything you say, soldier. When do you want to see him?”
“Right now. Where is he?”
“At the Imperial. Do you want me to come along?”
“Yes.”
He looked surprised, but got to his feet and we went down to the Volkswagen.
For the past four hours I had been wandering around, getting the feel of the place and working on the problems that had to be solved before I could even think of the shot. I was aware that I hadn’t much time. I now had the problems lined up and four real tricky ones couldn’t be solved without Savanto’s help. If he couldn’t handle them, we were in trouble.
We found him sitting on the balcony of his hotel suite. He waved me to a chair.
“Sit down, Mr. Benson. You have something on your mind?”
I sat down while Raimundo propped himself against the balcony rail.
“Yes, you could say that.” I told him about Lepski’s two visits. He listened, his eyes a little sleepy, his fingers doing a little dance on his knees.
“This cop is sharp,” I concluded. “Because you tricked me into agreeing to kill Diaz, I have now given him false information he will probably check. Because you lied to me about your son not being allowed to touch a firearm I told him about a rich client who doesn’t exist. Now I have told him about a sick girl friend of my wife who also doesn’t exist. If he checks, I am in trouble.”
“Why should he check, Mr. Benson?”
I moved impatiently.
“Do I have to spell it out? When I kill Diaz Savanto there will he a police inquiry. If I am to shoot him while he is skiing, the police will find out fast enough that he was shot with a high- powered rifle. It won’t take them long to work out from where the gunman was shooting. They will also work out the gunman was using a powerful telescopic sight. Then Lepski will remember the Weston & Lees and the six hundred millimetre sight and the silencer. He will then remember my rich pupil who doesn’t exist and he will remember my wife rushed off to visit a sick friend who doesn’t exist. So he will come to me and ask questions. He…”
Savanto raised his hand, stopping me.
“All this you are telling me presents no problem, Mr. Benson, because the situation won’t arise. The police will not investigate.”
I stared at him.
“What makes you think that?”
“Because they won’t know about the shooting. You haven’t understood the situation. I have given it considerable thought. When I learned that Diaz was planning an adulterous three days with the wife of Edward Willington I saw this was the perfect opportunity. The last thing Nancy Willington will want is for the police, followed by the press, to ask her what Diaz Savanto was doing on her husband’s private estate. Let us consider the situation from her point of view. The two of them are skiing. Mysteriously, because you will be shooting with a silencer, Diaz drops. The boat stops. She finds he has been shot in the head. What does she do? Rush back and call the police? No. She will rely on the negress driving the boat to get the body out of the water. The negress will handle the situation. I assure you, Mr. Benson, we can rely on her. She is being extremely well paid. The body will be taken away by Diaz’s men. The girl has plenty of money and she will be persuaded to pay them well. She would pay anything to avoid such publicity.” Savanto lifted his heavy shoulders. “I assure you the police won’t hear about this.”