"Nick?"
"Yes."
"I am not afraid now."
"Good. Good night."
"Good night."
She was sound asleep at least two hours before he was.
Seven
The bribe is useful all over the world. When one knows how to use it and can find someone susceptible to it, the options are unlimited.
That was why Lily was needed for Carter's operation to penetrate Pepe. Anyone who was brokering killers in the Bluebeard class could be expected to have someone inside the newspaper offices who would tip him off when a certain ad was placed.
It would be just as easy for him to obtain the location of a phone number, whether it be private or a phone booth.
For that reason, Carter stood just inside the high wall on the third tier of the Ganay Stadium. To the east, south, and north were the open areas of the parking lots for the stadium, Chanot Park, and the Palais des Expositions. To the east were the wide boulevards of the Marguerite district, with their sidewalk cafés, restaurants, bistros, and chic women's wear shops.
From his perch on the soccer stadium wall, Carter could see nearly a mile in every direction. Right now, through a pair of high-powered binoculars, he could see Lily calmly sipping coffee in a café at the corner of Place Michelet and Boulevard Leon. She wore a bright red skirt and a thin white summer sweater that could be spotted easily from any distance.
At the edge of the sidewalk, four paces from her table, was a phone booth. The number of the booth was the number Carter had placed in the ad.
It was five minutes to five, and Pepe's boys were already in place. They sat just across the square from Lily in a dark gray Cortina.
Carter could see them talking to one another without ever shifting their eyes from Lily. They spoke like a pair of old cons, their lips barely moving.
Carter guessed that was exactly what they were.
The black limousine was nowhere in sight, but Carter didn't figure it would be. Pepe or Marc LeClerc would not risk being spotted by Bluebeard twice without knowing what the killer's intentions were.
Carter saw a flash of red in the corner of the glasses, and he shifted back to Lily. She was on her feet and moving toward the booth.
Farther down the block, short and pudgy started the Cortina.
Carter waited until Lily was finished on the phone and was back at her table before sprinting down the three levels of stone stairs to the stadium entrance.
He was pretty sure the men in the Cortina would eventually make a try for Lily, but not while she was in the crowded café.
His heels had barely touched the cement of the first level when the phone near the entrance started ringing.
Carter was in the booth in three strides. He yanked the instrument from its cradle and took a deep breath. Now came the moment of truth. Had Carstocus — as Bluebeard — ever made contact directly with Pepe, or had it always been through Pomroy?
And if that contact had been made, would Pepe recognize Carstocus's voice?
"Bluebeard here."
"This is Pepe. What are you trying to pull?"
Carter relaxed. "I'm being safe. I don't know you, and Pomroy has disappeared."
"We think he is dead. Why haven't you delivered on the contract?"
Again Carter tensed. Now came the second shot in the dark.
"I never received the vitals."
"You what?"
"Just what I said," Carter replied, confidence flowing now like a fast river through his body. "I never got the particulars or the target from Nels."
"Damnit, you received the money!"
True, and I'm willing to fulfill the contract. Give me a number where I can reach you. We'll set up a meet."
"You must be insane! Part of our arrangement was that we never meet… no faces, no names."
"That was your arrangement with Pomroy. Now it's a new deal."
"Impossible!"
"Then no deal."
There was a long pause on the other end of the line. Carter guessed that a hand was being held over the receiver because he could distinguish muffled voices in the background.
Then Pepe was back.
"I take it you still want the contract?"
"Yes, on my terms."
"We are not a wealthy organization. We have given you a great deal of money. If we can't come to an agreement, what happens to the half you have already received?"
"It stays in my Swiss accounts."
Another pause with more background voices.
"Very well. Do you have a pencil?"
"I have a good memory."
Pepe rattled off a number. "What time will you call?"
"I don't know. Just stay by the phone."
Pepe was cursing in a mixture of French and Spanish as Carter broke the connection. He quickly dropped the required coins into the slot and waited for Lily to answer.
"Yes?"
"It's me. Everything's right on schedule. Wait ten minutes and then take off. And do exactly as I told you. Okay?"
"Okay," she replied with only a hint of fear in her voice.
"Don't worry, luv, it's almost all over."
He replaced the instrument and jogged back up the stairs.
There was anger and frustration all over the two faces in the Cortina. Lily was visibly nervous, but she was holding fast at the table, her eyes darting to the watch on her wrist every few seconds.
"Just do it like I wrote it, honey," Carter whispered, his eyes watering a bit behind the glasses.
Then she was up and moving across the square, the Cortina crawling along about two blocks back.
For the next hour Lily wandered along the fringes of the park. She bought a newspaper, sat on a bench and played at reading it, and even fed some ducks in a small pond.
Then, at precisely 5:50, with the sun starting to dip, she crossed Boulevard Michelct and entered the narrow streets and alleyways that would eventually lead her to the promenade along the docks.
Short and pudgy left the Cortina to keep track of her on foot, and his buddy slid over into the driver's seat.
They were good, Carter mused, following them with the glasses until they were out of sight: good but predictable.
Carter moved down to the street and hailed a cab.
"Nouvelle Plage."
"Out, monsieur."
It would take Lily, walking, about thirty minutes to cover the distance the cab did in five.
"Stop here," Carter said when they reached the point on the promenade he had already staked earlier that day. "Do you see that alley there that runs alongside the racetrack?"
"Oui, monsieur."
"In twenty minutes, a woman will come out of there wearing a white sweater and a red skirt. Pick her up and take her where she wants to go."
"Twenty minutes it is."
Carter fluttered the torn half of a five-hundred-franc note in the driver's face. "She will have the other half of this."
Carter looked over his shoulder and saw a beaming smile on the cab driver's face.
As he jogged across the promenade, he entered the maze of alleys that adjoined the racetrack, passed the paddocks, and broke into a run across the wide walkway to Baraly Park.
He could see Lily just entering the park on the opposite side. Short and pudgy was about a block behind her, and the Cortina was about twenty yards behind him. Both of them were closing fast.
Carter had guessed right.
They knew the city and had picked the best spot to take her: a narrow lane between two hedgerows about halfway through the park.
Carter made the lane first and moved into one of the many alcoves in the hedge that housed benches and statuary. A few hours from now, under cover of complete darkness, the alcove would become a meeting place for a pair of young lovers.
Right now Carter had a very different use for it.
He could hear Lily's heels clicking on the narrow walk. getting louder and louder, until she flashed past. She did not glance into the alcove, but then she would not know which one he had chosen, and in the pea jacket and dark sweater he was almost invisible.