"Em ...? Is Em ... there ...?" said a man's voice, sounding as through a seashell. "Who is ... this ...?"
"Jess," I said, "Smithson. I'm renting this place for a week. It belongs to some lady. I don't know her name."
"Tell her ... Percy's ... called."
"I don't know that I'll see her. But is there any message?"
"Just that ... I'll be ... coming."
There was a click, and the echoes went away.
I went to the bathroom door and knocked gently.
"You had a phone call," I said. The water stopped running.
"What?"
At that moment, the doorbell rang. I rushed to the kitchen window and looked out. I couldn't see who was there, but there was a car parked up the street and it was blue.
I returned to the bathroom door.
"They're here," I said.
"Go to the bedroom," she said. "Get in the closet. Don't come out until I tell you."
"What are you going to do?" The doorbell rang again.
"Do it!"
So I did. She seemed to have something in mind and I didn't.
Among garments in the darkness, I listened. Her voice and a harsh masculine one. They talked for about half a minute. It sounded as if he had come in. Suddenly there was a scream – his - cut short in a matter of seconds, followed by a crash.
I was out of the closet and heading for the bedroom door.
"Stay in there." Her voice came steady. "Until I tell you to come out."
I backed up, almost against my will. There was a lot of authority in her voice.
"Okay," she said, a little later. "Come out, and bring my raincoat." I returned to the closet.
When I entered the living room, there was a still figure on the floor beside her. It was covered by the serape. She wore nothing but a towel about her head and the glasses. She took the coat and pulled it on.
"You'd said 'they.' How many are there?" she asked.
"There were two. I thought I'd left them in Atlanta."
"There's a car out there?"
"Yes."
"Would the other one be in it, or out prowling around?"
"Probably prowling."
"Go back to your closet."
"Now wait a minute! I'm not going to have a woman ..."
"Do it!"
Again that compulsion as she glared at me, and a return of that strange tingling along my spine. I did as she told me.
I heard her go out. After maybe five minutes, I left the closet and returned to the front room. I raised the serape for a look.
Another five minutes, perhaps, and she returned. I was smoking one of her cigars and had a drink in my hand.
"Make mine wine," she said. "The other one ...?"
"... will not bother you."
"What did you do to them?"
"Don't ask me. I did you a favor, didn't I?"
"Yes."
"Get me a glass of wine."
I went and poured it. I took it to her.
"If we take them down to the dock ... Your friend won't mind losing some dead weight at sea, will he?" she asked.
"No."
She took a large swallow.
"I'll finish in the bathroom now," she said, "and then we'll get them into the car. We may have to hang around awhile before we can unload them."
"Yes."
Later, after I had disposed of the blue Fury, we got them into her car and she drove slowly to the place I told her. It was after midnight before we were able to unload them and stow them on the boat.
I turned toward her then, in the shadow of a piling.
"You've been very good to me," I said. She smiled.