Paulette sat on the side of the bed and fished a cigarette out of her purse. “Well, at least they didn’t put it on closed-circuit TV and make us watch. Though I wouldn’t put it past the creepy dingaling.”
He gestured toward the intercom. “The room’s bugged.”
“So let him listen. What difference does it make?” she asked.
“None, now.” If her telephone had been tapped, Kessler already knew they had figured out his identity and they were doomed from the start, in spite of the window dressing of the hoods and masks.
“It’s my fault,” he said. “I blew it from every angle. If I hadn’t shot off my mouth—”
“Will you stop it? None of it is your fault. I was the primary target all along. From the little I overheard, you’re just going to pick up the ransom.”
“How much?”
“Two million.”
He whistled. “How do they expect to get it?”
“I don’t know. They didn’t discuss it much, except one of them suggested they avail themselves of the facilities while they had me there alone with you drugged and knocked out. The other one told him to shut up and attend to business. That’s when the two million was mentioned. You could be swimming in it, he said, in that bracket. Wall-to-wall tail is the elegant way he put it.”
“Then there were just two of them?”
“That’s all I saw.”
“Was one of them Kessler? Or would you be able to recognize his voice?”
“I might. But they were both too big, six feet or over. One had a hush-puppy accent, Texas, I think.”
“So there are three of them, at least.”
She gestured toward the wall. “Plus Hotpants.”
“Did you get a look at their car?”
“No. I think it must have been down the hill in back, at your father’s place. After they slugged you and injected that stuff in your arm, they held me and gave me a shot of it, too. Then the one who seemed to be in charge sent Tex off to get the wheels. Tex was the one who was smitten by my desirability. Or maybe availability is the word. Anyway, the stuff didn’t take effect right away, and I was still with it to some extent when I heard the car pull up in front; but by the time they’d lugged you out there and then come back for me. I was out. I have some kind of vague impression of about half-way waking up somewhere along the line and the two of us were lying on a mattress in the back of what might have been a panel truck. We were stopped, and they seemed to be giving you the needle again. But the whole thing might have been a dream.”
“No. There are two punctures.”
“But why the drugs at all? They could have just tied us up.”
“So we wouldn’t be able even to make a guess which direction we were driven or for how long. We could be twenty miles west of Coleville or four hundred miles south. I think we’re in the Sierra or the foothills, for what that’s worth, which is nothing.”
“Do you suppose they’re going to do the same thing again, send you into the bank for the money the way they did your father?”
“Apparently. It worked the other time, so maybe they think they can get away with it again.”
“But there’s one thing I still don’t understand. His hands were free, of course, so why couldn’t he—”
“Time,” he said. He explained. “He’d have been blown up before he could even start to get out of it.”
“But, Eric, part of the junk must have been somewhere else on him. In his coat, maybe, so there’d have to be interconnection wires he could yank loose.”
“Yeah, I “know—” he began, but at that moment the intercom came to life.
“Of course he could have pulled the circuits apart,” a voice said. “But that was the last thing on earth he wanted. Believe me.”
They looked at each other. The question was obvious in Romstead’s eyes. She shrugged. It could be Kessler, but she wasn’t sure.
Romstead turned toward the intercom. “Why?”
“You know anything about electrical circuits or electronics?” the voice asked.
“Very little,” Romstead said bleakly.
“Well, your old man did. He got it right away when I showed him the circuit.”
“You want me to ask, is that it?”
“I don’t care if you do or not, but I think you ought to understand what you’re up against. The detonator was on the back contact of the relay. Failsafe in reverse.”
“All right, whatever that means.”
“It means, quite simply, that the thing wasn’t intended to be detonated by the radio signal. It was the radio signal that kept it from detonating, if you’re still with me. He was on a leash.”
Romstead got it then, the full horror of it and the helplessness his father must have felt. He couldn’t run, because if he went beyond the range of the transmitter he’d blow up automatically. If the police grabbed Kessler, or if he himself got close enough to grab him or knock him out, the same thing would happen.
“The spark supply was self-contained,” the voice went on. “A bank of charged capacitors. Perfectly harmless as long as the detonating circuit was open, but if the radio circuit failed for any reason, the relay fell open and completed the detonating circuit through the back contact. Neat device.”
Egomaniac, Romstead thought. He was capable of talking himself into the gas chamber just to prove how brilliant he was. But that was of little help here.
“Now we’re all agreed you’re a genius,” Romstead said, “do we have to have the burro?”
“No, we haven’t got another burro. We’ve got some good sixteen millimeter footage of that one, though, if you need convincing.”
Romstead said nothing. The bed was beginning to creak again on the other side of the wall. The voice went on, “Not necessary, anyway. You don’t think we’re stupid enough to try the same thing again in the same way, do you? This is a whole new operation with a different approach. Do you want some breakfast?”
“Oh, God,” the girl said on the other side of the wall. Romstead looked at Paulette Carmody. She shook her head and looked away.
“We appreciate it,” Romstead said, “but not with the present entertainment.”
There was a chuckle from the intercom. “Boy, have you got hangups. Well, we’re going to bring you out in a little while for the pictures we have to have.”
The headboard of the other bed was beginning to bump the wall once more. “Fast turnaround; no down time at all,” Paulette Carmody said. “Or she’s taking them in relays.” She went into the bathroom and closed the door. He heard her flush the toilet and turn on the water in the basin. After the final shriek she came out again.
“And I always loved sex,” she said. “Do you suppose I’ll ever be capable of it again?”
“Sure,” Romstead replied. “Barnyard matings never bothered you before, did they?”
She lighted another cigarette. “It’s a wonder the great genius didn’t put a TV camera in here so they could watch us as well as listen.”
“Oh, we’re being watched.” He gestured toward the front wall. “The mirror’s a phony.”
She looked at it with interest. “You mean like those they’re supposed to have in some of the casinos? How does it work?”
“You just have to have more light on the front side than the back. It’s probably in a closet out there, or there’s a curtain over it.”