“Mrs. Moon, are you having an affair with Paul Thorne?”
Lines like brackets appeared around her mouth. “Exactly what do you mean by that?”
“Does that mean the answer’s no?”
“Damn right the answer’s no! You’d do better to put that question to Claire. I admire the man’s looks, but I would no more let him-Have you ever looked at his fingernails? He has too much of a horse smell for my taste.”
Shayne finished his drink impassively.
She put both hands on the table and said quietly, “All right. But will you please not tell Larry? That was a rather low blow, my friend. I shouldn’t have sounded quite so horrified. It’s nothing important, but if Larry heard about it, it would offend his esthetic taste, as it offends mine, in a way. I’ve been a friend of Larry’s since before he married Claire. As soon as they break up, I intend to take a very cold aim and see if I can bring him down. That’s no secret. I’ve given him fair warning. You can go now. I’ll pay for the drinks.”
“They’re on me,” Shayne said with a grin.
“You could be quite nice if you weren’t such a bastard. I really looked bad on that one, didn’t I?”
The crowd was drifting back from the betting machines. Shayne spotted Domaine, at a circular table with his back to the track, studying a program. Claire, beside him, was smoking one of her little cigars, looking coldly elegant, untouched by the common passion of the people around her. Shayne stood still, which set up a slight eddy. It caught her attention. He moved his head toward the door. She frowned and nodded, then laid her half-smoked cigar in an ashtray and spoke to her husband.
Shayne returned to the betting gallery, which was feverishly lighted by the great neon signs: CASHIERS, SELLERS, $1 °COMBINATION, $2 STRAIGHT. Would-be bettors at the ends of the lines ducked from one line to another, trying to find one that was moving fast enough so they could get their money down before the bell clanged. Claire sauntered out after him, not hurrying. Faint lines around her mouth showed her tension.
“Is Tim Rourke all right?” she said urgently. “I called the hospital and they acted very strangely. They said they couldn’t give out any information. Why? What’s happened?”
“They probably couldn’t find him. As a matter of fact, he’s here. He doesn’t feel so hot, but not because of the pills you gave him. Can you get away for awhile?”
“Away?”
“Yeah. I need some help. It’s too complicated to go into. What about the Moon horse in the ninth? Has that made any change in your plans?”
“No. Larry thinks she’s trying to be funny. Paul knows the horse well and says there’s nothing to worry about. How long would I have to be gone?”
“Maybe an hour.”
She thought and nodded. “I’ll tell him I ran into some friends, and they want me to watch the next few races with them. We’re getting on each other’s nerves. I’ve done everything there is to do. Larry’s going to buy the tickets.”
“Is it OK for him to buy them himself?”
“For the first half. Other people are lined up to make the exchange before the eighth and collect when it’s over, if all goes well.” She held up her crossed fingers. “Mike, at dinner all of a sudden Larry started talking about things we did together when we first knew each other. He actually seemed quite sentimental, and I don’t know how to explain it. He’s taken a half-humorous tone with me for a long time, as though I’m a barely competent actress he’s watching on the stage. At one point he took my hand. He doesn’t do that kind of thing when we’re by ourselves, let alone in a public restaurant. Molly Moon turned several different shades of pink. She has designs on my husband, I believe. Probably she’d be a better wife for him than I am. And the really surprising thing-don’t ask me to explain it-is that he’s started worrying about letting me meet Paul alone at the motel after the races for the payoff. Why don’t we put the money in the mail? Well, for one thing it’s riskier. Paul would yell bloody murder if we made a change in plans this late. He’d suspect something.”
“Sure. He’s got that loan shark on his neck. That was probably a twenty-four-hour loan.”
“Larry doesn’t know about that. Why should he suddenly decide that Paul’s too flakey and unpredictable to deal with face to face? It didn’t bother him last night or this afternoon.”
Shayne worried his earlobe. “Let’s see how it develops. Do your best to look casual.”
When they returned to the clubhouse, the horses in the third race were scrambling for positions on the rail at the first turn. Mrs. Moon was back at the bar, working at a new drink. Everybody else was watching the horses, but she watched Shayne, her eyes hard, her mouth unsmiling. Larry Domaine took his binoculars down for an instant to smile at Claire when she slid in beside him. When the race was over, she said something to him and he nodded.
“I got quite a meaningful look from Molly Moon,” Claire told Shayne when she joined him. “She doesn’t like me, I fear. Where are we going?”
“Now don’t jump. To the Golden Crest Motel. I’ll explain on the way.”
They went down the long ramp and along the apron in front of the stands, passing in front of Rourke. Win Thorne was pushing off from the paddock rail as they came past. She looked from Shayne to Claire, who had briefly dazzled her husband in spite of being so thin. She made some comment under her breath.
“I’ll tell you what I’m planning to do,” Shayne said after helping Claire into her husband’s Cadillac. “It won’t work if Domaine insists on making the payoff by mail, but let’s go ahead with it anyway. You may have to tell him there’s a loan shark involved, and Paul’s insisting on getting the money tonight. I’ve still got a key to room 17. We’re going to plant a mike under the bed in your room and run a wire through to a recorder, so when you and Thorne start talking we can get the dialogue on tape. I want to work out your end of it beforehand, so we’ll get the kind of statement we want.”
“Mike, do you think Paul killed Joey?”
“I think it’s possible.”
He turned toward Fort Lauderdale, and they drove for a time in silence. She glanced at him, starting to speak, then turned abruptly to look out the rear window.
“Mike,” she said excitedly, “somebody’s following us!”
CHAPTER 16
Adjusting the mirror, Shayne picked up a pair of headlights. He put a cigarette in his mouth and lit it with the dashboard lighter, watching the headlights and the speedometer as well as the road ahead. There wasn’t much traffic, and in a moment he was doing eighty, without strain. The headlights behind him stayed the same size in the mirror. He zoomed past a slower car; the headlights followed. He slackened speed, and the car behind him kept the interval.
“Let’s not worry about it,” he said. “We have the speed to lose him, but we don’t want any trouble with the troopers. I’ll take him through town.”
“It’s a cab,” she said, peering back. “A Yellow Cab. That’s good, isn’t it? You’ll be able to tell when he’s not there.”
“An experienced cabdriver can be a hard man to shake. Turn around, Claire, and let me handle it.”
He made the turn toward the ocean. Instead of continuing across Route 1, he turned north again and led the taxi into Pompano Beach. He drifted up to a green light, then accelerated hard as the light changed and went through on the yellow. At the next corner he cut through a gas station, sliding past a car drawn up at the pumps, shot into a parking area in front of a shopping center, down a lane between parked cars and out by a different exit.
“I think that does it,” he said, watching the mirror.
He turned another corner, tires squealing, then another, and slipped into the first open parking space. He cut his lights and waited.