“Bullshit!” he exploded.
“Think about it. Where would I lay my hands on more than a hundred kilos of horse?”
It took a moment for that to sink in. Slowly, disbelief registered on his face. “A hundred kilos?”
“One hundred and two, to be exact. That’s what it added up to when they picked up Maxie Klein and Solly Webber—”
“—they picked up Maxie?” he interrupted.
“Tonight. Around ten o’clock. Along with fifteen kilos of the stuff.”
Stocelli didn’t bother to ask for the details. He was like a man stunned.
“Keep talking,” he said
“They’ve put out a contract on you.”
I let the words fall on him, but the only reaction I could see was a tightening of Stocelli’s jaw muscles under his heavy jowls. Nothing else showed on his face.
“Who?” he demanded. “Who put out the contract?”
“Cleveland.”
“Donati? Hugo Donati put out a contract on me? What the hell for?”
“They think you’re trying to take over the whole East Coast. They think you set up your friends.”
“Come on!” growled Stocelli, angrily. “What kind of shit is this?” He glared at me, and then he saw I wasn’t joking with him. His tone changed. “You serious? You really serious?”
“It’s the truth.”
Stocelli rubbed one thick hand across the rough bristles on his jaw.
“Goddamn it! It still don’t make sense. I know it wasn’t me.”
“Then you’ve got another headache,” I told him bluntly. “You could be the next on the list to be set up.”
“Me?” Stocelli was incredulous.
“You. Why not? If you’re not behind what’s going on, then someone else is trying to take over. And he’s going to have to get rid of you, Stocelli. Who would it be?”
Stocelli continued to rub his jowls with an angry gesture. His mouth twisted in a grimace of irritation. He lit a cigarette. He poured himself another cup of coffee. Finally, he said, grudgingly, “Okay, then. I’m gonna sit it out here. I took the penthouse. All four suites. Nobody comes in or goes out, except my boys. They can send down anybody they want, but I’m protected as long as I park my ass up here. I can stay for months if I have to.”
“And what happens in the meantime?” I asked.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Suspicion beetled his brows.
“While you sit here, Donati’ll be trying to take over your organization in New York. You’ll sweat out every day, wondering if Donati got to one of your button men here to set you up for a hit. You’ll live with a gun in your hand. You won’t eat because they might poison your food. You won’t sleep. You’ll he awake wondering if someone hasn’t planted a stick of dynamite in the rooms below you. No, Stocelli, face it. You can’t stay here safely. Not for long.”
Stocelli listened to me without saying a word. His swarthy face was gravely impassive. He didn’t move his little black eyes from mine. When I was through, he nodded his round head somberly.
Then he put down his coffee cup and suddenly grinned at me. It was like being smiled at by a fat vulture, his thin lips in his round face twisting themselves into a humorless parody of friendliness.
“I just hired you,” he announced, pleased with himself.
“You just what?”
“What’s the matter? You didn’t hear me? I said I just hired you,” Stocelli repeated. “You. You’re gonna get me off the hook with the Commission and with Donati. And you’re gonna prove to them that I didn’t have nothing to do with what happened.”
We glared at each other.
“Why should I do you a favor like that?”
“Because”—again Stocelli grinned at me—”I’m gonna make a deal with you. You get me off the hook with Donati, and I leave Gregorius alone.”
He leaned forward toward me, the thin, humorless smile sliding off his face.
“You know how many millions I can make on those gambling casinos in Gregorius’ projects? You ever stop to figure it out? Well, that’s what it’s worth to me for you to do this job?”
“What’s to stop me from letting the Commission take care of you?” I asked him, bluntly. “You wouldn’t be around to bother Gregorius then.”
“Because I send my boys after him if I don’t get my deal with you. I don’t think he’d like that.”
Stocelli paused, his little black button eyes boring into me.
“Quit screwing around, Carter. Is it a deal?”
I nodded. “It’s a deal.”
“Okay,” Stocelli growled, leaning back on the couch. He gestured rudely with his thumb. “On your way. Get going.”
“Not just yet.” I went over to the desk and found a pad of hotel stationery and a ballpoint pen. I sat down again.
“I want some information,” I said and began to make notes while Stocelli talked.
Back in my own room, I picked up the telephone and, after arguing with the hotel operator and then the long-distance operator, I finally-got Denver on the line.
Without preamble, I asked, “How quickly can you get me a check on half a dozen airline passenger manifest lists?”
“How old are they?”
“Not more than a couple of weeks. Some just the other day.”
“Domestic or international flights?”
“Both.”
“Give us a day or two.”
“I need them sooner than that.”
I could hear Denver sigh unhappily. “We’ll do our best. What is it you want?”
I told him. “Stocelli was on the following flights. Air France from JFK to Orly on the twentieth of last month. Air France, Orly to Marseille on the same date. TWA from Orly to JFK on the twenty-sixth. National Airlines, New York to Miami on the twenty-eighth—”
“Hold on a second. You know how many flights a day they run?”
“I’m just interested in the one that Stocelli was on. The same goes for Air Canada, New York to Montreal on the fourth, Eastern to New York on the fifth, and Aeromexico to Acapulco the same day.”
“Just the flights Stocelli was on?”
“That’s right. It shouldn’t be too hard. I’d also like you to get the passenger manifest of the flight Duttoit was on from Montreal to New York.”
“It would save us a lot of time if we had the flight numbers.”
“You’ve got most of them if your men were tailing him,” I pointed out.
“You want copies of these manifests sent to you?”
“I don’t think so,” I said, reflectively. “Your computers can do the job faster than I can. I want the lists checked out to see if there’s any name that comes up on two or more of those flights. Especially on the international runs. You’ve got to show a passport or tourist permit on them, so it’s more difficult to get away with using a false name.”
“Let me see if I have those flights correctly.”
“Pick it up from the tape,” I told him. I was becoming tired and impatient. “You’ve been recording me, I hope?”
“Right,” said Denver.
“I’d appreciate getting the information as fast as you can dig it up. And one other thing — if you do run across a name that’s been on more than one of these flights with Stocelli, I want a complete rundown on who the man is. Everything you can find out about him. The full treatment. Put as many men on it as you have to. And keep feeding me the information as it comes in. Don’t wait to get it all together.”
“Will do,” said Denver. “Anything else?”
I thought a moment. “I guess not,” I said, and hung up. I stretched out on the bed, and in a moment I was fast asleep in spite of my throbbing head and my aching shoulder.
CHAPTER SIX
I slept late. When I awoke, my mouth was dry from having smoked too much the night before. I showered and put on swim trunks and a lightweight beach shirt. I donned a pair of dark glasses and went down to the pool, carrying a camera slung around my neck and an equipment bag hanging from my shoulder.