I hesitated, not because it mattered to me, but because it seemed a little out of character for her-at least out of the character I'd built for her. I was surprised that she'd conspire with me to evade her own organization's health rules, dedicated as she was to upholding all laws and regulations.
I said, "Your secret is safe with me, Charlie. Sneeze and strangle all you want to. Your people won't hear a word about it from me."
"Thanks," she said. "Thank you very much. I mean it."
"Sure," I said. "Anytime."
"Matt."
"Yes?"
"It wasn't fair. What you said. We do care about people as well as laws. We do!"
I grinned. "Well, in that case you'll be interested to know that some people are going to break some narcotics laws-your specialty, I believe-in a village up the coast called Bernardo, apparently little more than an overgrown trailer court. The time is tonight. Your friend Warfel is expected to join the party briefly, at least long enough to pick up the first shipment of the laboratory's product, which will then be concealed in a toilet on his boat, the Fleetwind, ready to be pumped out the plumbing at the first sign of trouble. He will return innocently to his home port north of the border and await developments. If none develop within a few days. and the coast seems perfectly clear, he will bring his cargo ashore and, presumably, put it on the market."
She was looking at me, wide-eyed. "Matt! How did you learn all this?"
I grimaced. "That's the big catch. doll. The information was fed to me deliberately by some Cosa Nostra characters-well, they called it the corporation, talking among themselves-who thought they were being very ingenious. Maybe they were."
Her face registered disappointment. "Oh. You mean it's just a phony lead? Were they Warfel's men?"
"I didn't say it was necessarily a phony lead; and they weren't Warfel's men." I told her what had happened since I'd seen her last. She was a little shocked by the Beverly Blame part of the recital, particularly the end of it. She also made it clear that she didn't think much of the way I'd let a blonde trick me into a trap. I had a hunch she didn't really believe I'd done it intentionally, in spite of the information it had gained us. "So you see," I said, "the syndicate, whatever you want to call it. is trying to clean house. The questions are: Just what do they expect us to do with what they told me, and what are they planning to do that they didn't tell me about?"
"You mean," she said, "you think they're trying to trick us into helping-"
"Sure," I said. "Hell, in a way they want the same thing you do. They want this dope project stopped. The difference is, they want to keep Warfel's part in it quiet, and you want to make it as public as you can. So let's figure out why they'd go to a lot of trouble to hand me all this poop while pretending to have gotten me in there to question me about something altogether different-not that I don't think they'd have liked to get answers to their questions, but they were willing to settle without them. Anyway, I have a hunch that what they let me hear was the straight stuff, at least up to a point."
"But why would they want you to know it?"
"Because they know I'm working with you, and they know who you are," I said. "Because they figure I'll tell you, as I'm now doing, and you'll get the Mexican authorities to close down that Bernardo heroin-manufacturing installation, thereby saving the brotherhood, or whatever they call themselves-the corporation-a lot of trouble in a foreign country where their connections may not be quite as strong as back in the U.S. They don't care who hits the laboratory as long as it's hit. They just want it out of business, like you do. They know Warfel wouldn't be fool enough to have anything there that'll connect it with him."
"But what about Warfel himself. We know he took the boat out yesterday, but-"
"That," I said, "is the big problem. They certainly don't intend to let you get your hands on Frankie in U.S. waters with a big shipment of heroin on board; that's exactly what they're trying to prevent. They may have told me the truth about what Warfel is planning to do, or what they think he's planning to do, but you can be damn sure they intend to alter his plans in some fairly drastic way. But they have to get you thinking you know exactly where and how to arrest him, because obviously you won't raid the lab they want raided until you're sure of catching Mr. Warfel red-handed-maybe I should say white-handed-with a substantial sample of the goods."
"I see," she said slowly. "So you figure they hope I'll take care of the laboratory for them with Mexican help, and then-believing their information-hurry north and sit waiting for Frankie to appear with a boatload of heroin, only it won't happen."
"That's right," I said. "And it won't happen because Frankie will be taking a long, long dive with an anchor or a chunk of ballast tied around his neck-if they catch him before you do, and they must have some reason to think they can. And the Fleetwind will either sink, burn, blow up, or be found adrift and deserted, another mystery of the sea."
She hesitated, and looked at me uncertainly. "Matt, please don't think I'm ungrateful for your help, but actually you're just guessing, aren't you?"
I said, "An educated guess, sweetheart, by a guy with a criminal turn of mind. Don't quote me, but I've had the job of removing a too-greedy character or two, myself, in the interest of company public relations. I know what I'd do if I were in the shoes of Tillery, Jake, and Sapio."
"I see." Her eyes were steady on my face. "You're not really a very nice man, are you?"
I said dryly, "You can find yourself a very nice man later, to date and to marry, if you look hard enough, I'm quite sure. Right now, you need a nasty, experienced bastard like me to work with. I'm a pro, Charlie. I'm giving you the benefit of my professional judgment."
"I know. I'm sorry." She sighed. "So that's what you'd do if you were in the shoes of those Mafia characters. What would you do if you were in my shoes?"
"Hell, I'd clean the mud off them," I said. I grinned at her quick, downward glance; then I stopped grinning and said, "Obviously, you've got to take out those three and give friend Warfel a clear run home with the dope, much as it hurts to help that creep in any way."
"Take them out? You mean-"
"I mean take them out," I said. "Whether you use three separate bullets, a single hand grenade, or a Mexican jail, doesn't really matter. As a matter of fact-"
"What?"
I rubbed my sore diaphragm thoughtfully. "Well, it's strictly none of my business, and as I said, we hold no grudges in this racket, but I do have a kind of personal interest in those three gents. If you'll handle the Bernardo end, I'll see what I can do about the Tillery-Jake-Sapio axis. Just remember, if I give you a guy named Warfel, you owe me a guy named Nicholas."
Charlie frowned quickly. "Why, I thought you said that girl was Nicholas, the one who… who died."
"I said she said she was Nicholas. It's not quite the same thing."
"You mean you think she'd lie when she was about to kill herself?"
"How else could she strike back at me?" I shrugged. "Hell, one way or another she was through, finished, and she knew it, and it was my fault. The least she could do by way of retaliation was leave me with a misleading lie and hope it would louse me up badly, with her compliments. I'm not saying that's what happened; but I've damn well got to make sure it isn't."
The tall girl with the glasses was studying me warily. "I see. So you're not really helping me entirely out of the kindness of your heart, Matt. You've still got an ax of your own to grind."