"I'm not scared of him," Willie said untruthfully. "I've got something to tell him that'll get me a sack of dough. You'll stop grinning like an ape when you see the car I'm going to buy."
"Got a touch of the sun?" Jacopo asked blankly.
"You wait and see," Willie said darkly. "I keep my eyes and ears open. I've got information that the old man will pay big money for."
"What information?" Jacopo demanded.
"He'll tell you if he wants you to know," Willie said. "Where's the car?"
"Down the lane. What have you got to tell him?"
"Go jump in a lake," Willie said and set off at a run through the trees.
For the first time in his life Willie did not obey an order, and it was to prove fatal to him. Jacopo had said that Alsconi wanted to see him at once. Willie was anxious to make a good impression on Alsconi. He decided to sneak back to his room, have a shave and a wash and put on his best suit. The old man wouldn't know he had spent ten minutes sprucing himself up before reporting to him, and the effect of his new suit might have good results, Willie told himself.
He left the Citroen at the bottom of the drive and made his way through the shrubbery to the back entrance of the palazza. He entered the underground quarters by the concealed door a few seconds before Carlos threw the switch that put the door out of operation. Unaware that the exit was now sealed off, Willie scuttled quickly along the corridor to his room. He was opening the door when Felix appeared.
"The old man wants you," Felix said. "Have you seen him?" "Not yet," Willie said uneasily. "Thought I'd have a wash first. What's up?"
"You'd better get a jerk into it. He wants to see you right away." "I can't go looking like this," Willie whined. "What's he want?"
Felix crowded him into the small, fusty room Willie regarded as his home.
"Nothing to get excited about," Felix said, grimacing at the smell in the room. "It smells like a pig-sty in here."
"I can't smell anything," Willie said, stripping off his coat. He hung his gun holster over the back of a chair, then pulled off his shirt. He ran hot water into the toilet basin. "I'm not in trouble, am I?" He looked anxiously over his skinny shoulder at Felix.
"No. He only wants to know what happened at the villa when Lorelli delivered the letter."
Willie stiffened and the cake of soap slipped out of his hand. The old man was smart, he thought, as he bent to pick up the soap; nothing seemed to escape him.
Felix watching him, saw his start, saw the startled look on his rat-like face and suddenly felt an ice-cold chill creep up his spine.
"You saw Lorelli?" he said, making his voice sound casual.
"I saw and heard her," Willie said and tried unsuccessfully to conceal a leer. He splashed his face with water, and began to lather his prickly stubble.
"She didn't see you?"
"No." Willie hesitated. He was undecided whether to tell Felix what he had overheard. He didn't want to make an enemy of Felix. He would have to work with him long after Lorelli was forgotten, and Felix wouldn't be pleased if Willie told Alsconi the news without first telling him. It wasn't as if Felix could now stop him tilling the old man.
Alsconi was waiting for him, and that would be more than Felix dared do. And since the old man was waiting for him, Felix wouldn't dare get tough with him either. He decided to tell Felix. Two moments of sensation were better than one, he reasoned. In his position of safety he was tempted to see Felix's face when he heard his girl was selling him out. "If she had seen me," he said and leered, "she wouldn't be here now."
Felix's reaction was so quick Willie hadn't a chance to grab his gun. He found himself caught by his throat and slammed against the wall.
"What the hell do you mean?" Felix snarled, his face livid with rage and fear.
Willie caught hold of Felix's wrists and tried to lever his hands from his throat. His grotesque face covered with white lather turned purple as the steely fingers sank into his windpipe. Felix shook him, then slackened his grip.
"What do you mean?" he repeated.
Willie drew in a long, shuddering breath.
"Let go of me!" he gasped. "I'll tell the boss. Get away from me!"
Felix slapped his face very hard with his open hand. The lather flew in an explosion of wet whiteness and splashed the wall.
"Why shouldn't she be here?" he demanded. "Come on; spill it before I knock your teeth down your throat."
"She's double-crossed us," Willie panted, tears of pain starting from his eyes. "She's sold us out."
Felix lifted his clenched fist, then stopped. His face had turned the colour of snow.
"You lying rat!" he said viciously.
"I heard her," Willie gasped, trying to grind himself into the wall to get away from Felix. "She said she wanted to quit the organization. She wanted money. She said she would get Micklem out for two hundred and fifty grand."
Felix remembered what Lorelli had said: You and I have to get out of this racket before it's too late. Sooner or later the police are going to get on to us. We've got to get out!
The crazy little fool! She was committing suicide.
He stepped away from Willie.
"You heard her say that?"
Willie put his hand to his face and wiped off the lather.
"Yes. You've got no right to hit me..."
"Shut up!" Felix snapped. "Let's have it. Every scrap of it."
Willie told him how he had seen Lorelli enter the villa and how he had gone after her in case she ran into trouble.
"I did what you told me," he said, his voice snivelling. "There were three of them in the room: the guy who got away the other night, a fat old bloke they called Cherry and this girl Rigby. She said she would go to New York right away.
Then Lorelli said she was going to tell them something she wasn't supposed to tell them. She said Micklem would never be released and we were after all his dough. She said if they promised to pay her two hundred and fifty grand, she would get him out."
"Did they agree?" Felix asked.
"Of course they did, but it's my bet she'll never see the dough. She said she would work out a plan how to get him out.
She's going to see them again Thursday night. She's going to show them where the alarms are and tell them about the guards."
Felix leaned forward. There was sweat on his face.
"Listen, Willie, if you're lying, I'll kill you," he said in a low vicious voice.
Willie flinched and cringed back.
"I'm giving it to you straight'," he whined.
Felix took out his handkerchief and wiped his face.
"What are they going to do - tell the police?"
"No. Lorelli made them promise to keep the police out of it."
Felix moved away from Willie.
"You haven't told anyone about this?" he asked.
"No," Willie said.
"You didn't tell Jacopo?"
"Of course I didn't. It's not his business." Willie began to feel a little more sure of himself now that Felix seemed to have got over the shock. He picked up his safety razor and began to scrape the stubble off his chin. "The old man ought to be pleased when I tell him. I'm going to ask him for a raise. He ought to come across."
Felix scarcely heard him. This was the end of Lorelli, he thought. Alsconi would hand her over to Englemann. The thought turned him sick. He suddenly realized just how much Lorelli meant to him; the realization came as a shock.
This might be his end too. Alsconi might not believe he hadn't anything to do with it. He might even think he had put Lorelli up to asking for the money. Fie glanced over at Willie who was now washing his face. There was nothing he could offer Willie that would make him hold his tongue. He knew that. Willie was a rat, and he'd be mad to trust him.
He would take everything he was offered, and still go to Alsconi. If he was to save Lorelli, Willie had to be fixed, and he was suddenly determined to save her.
As Willie began to diy his face on a grubby towel, he said, "What do you think will happen to her? Think Englemann will work on her?"