“Hold me for the best interests of what, damn you?”
“You are news, Mrs. Harkinson. Big, gaudy, melodramatic news. You are bright enough to figure it out. What’s their approach? Infatuated youth slays only survivor of the Muñeca disaster to protect blonde mystery woman from unwanted attentions. Future minister a suicide after slaying rival for favors of ex-mistress of deceased State Senator. Heartbroken mother says Akard boy was a model boy until blonde twice his age started taking sailing lessons.”
“Do you characters peddle that crap to the reporters?”
“Mrs. Harkinson, when we identified Staniker, it took these two men an hour and a half to follow the trail right to you. There are perhaps a hundred people from the papers, television, radio and the wires services jamming up the place downstairs, dreaming up cute tricks to be the first ones to get to you. It’s even too late now to have someone drive you back to your house to pick up what you’d need in the way of clothes and toilet articles. You can make a list and explain to a matron where she can find things, and we’ll send her to your place to pick them up.”
“My maid knows where my things...”
“She has been advised to leave the premises after locking the place up. We have men posted there now to keep people from breaking in.”
“What are you trying to do to me?”
“Protect your constitutional rights, Mrs. Harkinson, and protect your person not only from the news media but also from what is usually referred to as an aroused populace.”
She pressed her fists against her eyes, shuddered and said, “I think I’ll take that free phone call, mister.”
Just as Lobwohl got up and turned on the lights in his office, Tuck came to the doorway and said, “They got the kid’s car finally. Coast Guard chopper spotted it. Deserted spot on the bay shore maybe two miles below the Harkinson place.”
“News out yet?”
“No, sir.”
“I want the top lab team on it. Harv and his people, and I want them to comb the area. Keep it sealed until they’ve got daylight, and then they can impound the car when they’re done.”
“They’re still on the Harkinson place.”
“Move them off it. They can go back to it. And where the hell is that maid?”
“Bert and Barney are on it. They’ll find her and bring her in.”
“I know, but when?”
“Who did Lady Harkinson get hold of?”
“Palmer Haas.”
Tuck whistled. “She went to the right place. Feisty little bastard. Miserable as he is, you got to give him credit.”
“He’s making all the motions, but he knows damn well the worst thing we could do for her right now is release her.”
Tuck grinned. “He listening to what we got?”
“Avidly.”
“Funny, isn’t it. A very cagey broad like that being half smart. She should have screamed for Palmy before she was brought in.”
“It’s the big myth. Innocent people don’t need counsel, they think. Asking for one makes a bad impression, they think.”
“But we still came up empty. Remember that.”
Chapter Twenty-four
Raoul Kelly’s car was parked beside Sam Boylston’s rental car at the motel. Sam walked the couple through the soft night to the car. Raoul unlocked it and held the door for ’Cisca. The trunk was full, the back seat stacked with luggage.
Raoul came around the car and opened the door on the driver’s side. “Around Biloxi or a little ways this side of it we’ll hole up,” Raoul said. He moved away from the car, drawing Sam with him. “How are you going to handle it?”
“I’ll wait and see if they unravel it without help. When I lost her Friday night, it’s obvious she was going to meet Staniker. He told her where the money is. Once she knew that, she could sick the kid on him. That poor damned kid. If he hadn’t been rocked so bad he killed himself afterwards, and if he’d been charged with murder, I think he was too infatuated to tell them it was in any way her idea. And even if he did break, I don’t believe she would have left him with any kind of direct specific quote he could remember. It’s obvious she expected it to happen Sunday night. That’s why she wanted verification she was home.”
“But if it looks as if she’s going to be cleared, Sam?”
They could see the lighted pool beyond a corner of the building. Sam watched The Chunk race off the high board, kicking and yelping on the way down, a rangy boy in close pursuit.
“I’m not as civilized an animal as I thought I was,” Sam said. “The instinct is to find a way to move in on her and let her think she’s conning me. Simple Sam Boylston. Crissy baby, this has been a wretched experience for both of us. I’d like to lease a boat and go back over there and take a look at the area where it actually happened. Keep me company, Crissy baby. Just the two of us. Raoul, that water is so fantastically clear. I can’t reach Staniker. He left the party. She’s the last one left now. That water is too beautiful to drown in. But Leila is down there somewhere. I dreamed about the Muñeca last night, or rather this morning after I got back here. I was in a little boat in the sunshine. I had one of those glass bottom buckets they use. I was looking straight down. It was all lighted up. I saw every one of them down there. They walked around in that slow funny way of people underwater. Carolyn’s hair and Leila’s hair floated. I could see their mouths move but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. I knew my boat was drifting away from the spot, and looking down at them was like saying goodby because I knew somehow I could never find that exact same spot again, or tell anyone how to find it. I made some kind of noise that woke me up. I was sweaty.”
“My friend. My good friend...”
“Very, very nice, I think, to let her get her hands on the money. She should have that thrill. Then do you know the best way to do it? What you do is hit her right on the button. Nice short little right hand punch, just slightly overhand. Then you wire her ankles together. You find about ten feet of water. When she wakes up, you talk about the nice money and you talk about how smart she is, and then you roll her off the boat into the pretty water. She’d last a long time I think. If it was going to be over too soon, you could give a little assist with a boat hook. You could watch it all.”
“Could you?”
“I don’t know. That’s the part I don’t know. I talked about the money to Staniker in the hospital. He’d tell her I visited him. What I’ll do is give you enough running room, then I’ll go in and do some dickering. Accept the Francisca tapes as is, boys, and I’ll play you some other tapes.”
“Information you withheld?”
“Because, boys, there wasn’t enough motive to make sense. Does a man who wants to shed his wife take five other people along?”
“More than that, on airplanes.”
“But the bomb is remote. It’s almost abstract. The nut doesn’t know the names, see the faces, let the eyes see him. The nut is in a bed someplace with his heart pumping and the radio on. Boys, it was just today I heard there was a fat basket of cash on that boat, so I came running. And damned if I know what’s on the Francisca tape because my Spanish isn’t that good.”
“Kayd is on there. So why didn’t I come running?”
“That’s one you won’t have to answer. But you and I know the answer. Better roll it, Raoul Kelly.”
Before Kelly got in, Sam bent and looked across at the girl beyond the steering wheel. “Bien viaje. Buena suerte,” he said.
“Mil gracias,” she answered, smiling. “Adios, Señor.”