Doc Welch put the blanket back over Pat, keeping her arms outside and making it all look neat. “Nothing to worry about, Benny. She’ll wake up with a headache. Just give her another of these,” and he gave Benny a pill. Doc Welch closed his bag. “Now the other matter. The way you described it, she’s definitely moving on. Let’s have that syringe.” Benny pulled it out of his pocket and handed it over. “You see these graduations? Increase the dose from here to here. Same time interval. You have enough solution left?”
“That doesn’t matter. When it’s gone, it’s gone. She’s through with that stuff.”
Doc Welch just raised his eyebrows, then shrugged. Benny put the syringe back in his pocket. “She’s off it. I’m seeing to that. Things are different now.”
“I gather this is all your idea?”
“And hers.”
“If you say so.” Doc Welch reached for his hat. “You know anything about the cure?”
“It’s rough, I know.”
Doc Welch laughed. “It’s useless. No amateur can swing it.” He went to the door.
“Doc. You got a better way?”
“I don’t know, but it’s more scientific.” He laughed again.
“Doc, listen. Can you do it for us? Help her get off the horse?”
“Sure, Benny. The fee’s the same.” Doc Welch closed the door.
Benny went to the kitchen and had a cup of coffee. The house was very quiet, as if exhausted. Benny finished his coffee and went up to bed.
He woke late. The house was quiet again, big and empty, but it wasn’t the quiet of the night before. It was more like a wait, like holding the breath for the next big effort. Only there wasn’t a thing for Benny to do, not a thing but wait.
Alverato was gone, and so was Birdie. The rest of the guys had their stations in town and at points down the coast. This was the day for the pickup.
There was a radio man on Alverato’s yacht who was going to talk to a man on shore, and that man had a phone open to the place in Westchester, where Benny was going to listen to the pickup. That way nothing was out of hand, everything was tied up and prepared for the shipment.
Benny walked through the empty house, from the room with Alverato’s desk and the phones down the hall to the paneled bar. There was a boar’s head hanging on the wall, and two dumb eyes, made of glass, looked across the room to the door.
Benny walked back again.
It was twelve-fifteen. Back to the bar and maybe have a drink. He didn’t. He turned to go upstairs. The glass eyes showed a glint now, because the sun had shifted.
Pat was at the piano, staring across the room without seeing. “Pat,” he said. “How is it?”
“O.K.”
Benny went across the room and touched her arm. “One more day, Pat, and we’re free.”
She turned her head to see him. “It’s time,” she said. “It’s past twelve.” She pulled the sleeve of her sweater up, exposing the fine skin on her arm.
“Later, Patty.” He smiled at her and slowly pulled the sleeve back down. “It isn’t bad now, is it?”
“It’s time.”
“You got that pill, Patty. You’re all right now, aren’t you?”
The light from the window seemed to hurt her eyes. She turned away.
“Lie down a little. I’ll be back later. You don’t need it now, Patty, you’re fine.”
“Fine,” she said.
For the moment he had forgotten about the day and the phones and the waiting, but he saw the clock on the mantel now and went to the door. “You’re fine now, Patty. Wait for me here.”
“Fine,” she said again.
When he closed the door she said something else, but he didn’t hear it.
Twelve-thirty.
With a switch of attention that was almost automatic, he was alone again. Time shrank, but not the waiting. The dead pig on the wall looked at him and then past his shoulder. He turned, walked back.
One o’clock.
He had left the door to the bar open, so the glass eyes were on him halfway down the hall. That goddamn pig was getting on his nerves, and he veered to walk close to the wall. That goddamn pig didn’t let go till he was halfway into the bar.
One-twenty.
Perhaps Pat should have a small one just for safety’s sake; he’d be busy for a while.
Then he saw her through the glass of the front door, on the steps to the driveway.
“Pat!”
She turned, watching him come.
“You all right, Pat?”
“I got a headache. Benny, it’s time. Over an hour now.”
“A little later, Pat Go upstairs now.”
“You said you’d help me.”
“Go upstairs. You’re all right now, aren’t you?”
“You won’t let me have it?”
“Pat, listen to me. Later. I’m busy now and you’re fine.”
“Fine,” she said.
One-thirty-five.
“Pat, I gotta run. I-”
“Fine, fine,” she said, and then he turned to go back inside. So he didn’t see her hand come up, plucking her ear lobe with an unconscious gesture.
One-forty. The phones now. No, too early. The bar. The glass eyes and the glass bottles looked dim again because the sun had shifted. Benny wanted a drink. He rarely did, but he wanted one now. Any old bottle, one of the bottles under the dry-looking head of the pig up there. The drink was sharp, feeling hot. He started to pour again but stopped.
One-forty-five.
The phone rang. He was out of breath, hoarse even, but the other end was talking already. “This is Mick. That you, Benny?”
“Sure, sure, let’s have it. Everything going?”
“Just heard from the radio man and it looks O.K. Hey, you should see the setup, Benny. One ear under the headset and the other one listening to you. I look like a-”
“Never mind that. Where are they?”
“Right on the button, same place like on the map. Christ, you should see the fog out here, Benny. I can’t even-”
“Fog! They got fog yet?”
“That’s right, he never said. Hold on, Benny, I’ll ask. Kip! Hey, Kip! This is Mickey How’s the weather out there?… Huh?”
“Mick, what’s he say?”
“Shut up a minute, Benny. I can’t listen with both ears, for-Huh?”
Benny waited. He shook a cigarette out of his pack and held it.
“Benny? They got beautiful sunshine, he says.”
“Did they find the spot, Mick? Ask him if they found the spot.”
“O.K., hold on… He don’t know, Benny. He just sees water from the radio room. Hold it… You’re what, Kip?… Coming about what?… Oh. Benny, they turned the ship around or something and took it out of gear. I guess they-”
“Don’t guess, you jerk! Ask him what’s going on!”
“Not so loud, Benny. Say that again, Kip… Oh…”
“Mickey, what’s he saying, for Chrissakes?”
“O.K., Kip. Benny? He says they’re looking around. I guess they’re looking for that yellow stain now.”
“O.K., O.K., I know what they’re looking for.”
It was two-fifteen and nothing was happening. Benny held the phone close to his ear and switched hands. His palms were sweating. The noise in the earpiece was a rhythmic crack and crunch. Benny thought he was going to jump out of his skin. “Mickey! Mick, will you stop chewing that goddamn gum?”
Mickey stopped and started to whistle instead. There wasn’t any news from the radio man on the yacht, only that they were looking around.
Benny got up and stretched. Through the window he saw the long garage in the back, all the stalls empty. They had taken all the cars except the Mercury at the end of the oval. Alverato’s Cadillac, Birdie’s Jaguar, the two Dodges. The convertible wasn’t there, either. They hadn’t needed the convertible, but it wasn’t there.
“Mick, listen to me. Sit tight while I put the phone down for a minute. I got to put it down and check.”
“Go ahead, Benny. I ain’t leaving.” Mick started to whistle again.
Pat was nowhere. The man who worked in the kitchen helped look all over the house, and then Benny thought of calling the gate.
“She came through here with that yellow convertible a while back,” the man said.
Benny clicked down the wall phone and ran back to the desk. “Mick, anything new?”
“Hi, Benny. Well, they just heaved again, Kip says. Maybe they seen something.”
“Heaved? What in hell-”
“Heaved the ship around, I guess.”
“O.K. Hold it now, Mick. I gotta make another call.”
He picked up the other phone and dialed. “Scotty? Tapkow. Listen close now. The kid’s gone. Pat. In the yellow convertible. Call the Bradys and get them started in town. She headed for town. Then get the guys at Alverato’s club, they’re just sitting there on their cans, and tell them to fan out over the city. Tell them to hit every parkway, Pendleton’s place on Sutton, and every viper joint. Get going and find that girl. I want her back here, get that?”
When he picked up the other receiver he could hear Mickey saying, “-beeline for it right now.”
“Mick, what, what-”
“You wasn’t listening? Alverato and Birdie took the launch and are going out there. They found the spot. Great news, huh, Benny?”
“Great, great. What now? What are they doing now?”
“Hold on, Benny. Kip? What are they doing now?”
Benny’s eyes kept jumping to the other phone, back and forth. He blinked. A sharp headache had started to spread over the side of his head.
“Benny. They’re simply chugging along there, he says.”
“Mick, can Kip see the spot? Ask him.”
“Kip, can you see the spot?… Yeah? How’s it look?… Yeah? Benny? He can see it It’s yellow, he says. He says he can-”
“Mick, shut up a minute. Fix it so I can hear Kip direct. Put the phone to the speaker or something. I’m going nuts listening to that goddamn gum chewing.”
“I can’t fix it so you can talk to him. I can-”
“Forget that part. I just want to hear him, you jerk!”
Then came a steady humming, a gritty noise that growled behind Kip’s voice: “-into the wind now. Birdie’s got a stick with a hook. The dragnet’s in the stern. They’re going to try the hook first. Alverato must have cut the motor because-”
The other phone rang.
“Scotty here. Tapkow? I did like you said. They’re all out now, but nothing yet.”
“Call back every fifteen minutes, Scotty.” He hung up, unable to wait any longer to pick up the other phone.
“-stopped dipping it in. Alverato is in the back with the net I think-I don’t know, he’s turning the other way, pointing. They’re looking up. There must be-” Kip’s metallic voice was drowned in the strong static.
Benny was frantic. He couldn’t hear, he couldn’t see, he couldn’t talk to Mick, who was holding the phone to the radio speaker. But then Mick came through. He’d heard the static and the voice fading and he was talking to Kip. “Mickey to Kip, Mickey to Kip. Can’t read you, can’t read you.” He took up the phone. “Benny? I’m trying to raise him. There’s interference.”
“Goddamnit, I know there’s interference! What’s interfering? Turn a knob or something.”
“It’s not the set, Benny. Could be a plane, though I wouldn’t know why a plane-He’s coming through again, Benny. Here he is.”
“-hands over their eyes,” Kip’s voice said. “Can’t tell from here what they’re doing. They must be-Wait!” Kip’s mechanical drone picked up speed and sharpened, sounding almost like a human voice. “By God, it’s a helicopter! The damn thing just hangs there. No, it’s starting to sag down to the launch. They-” The other phone rang again.
“Scotty, talk fast. What-wrong car? So keep them looking. I don’t care how long it takes!”
Benny was like a hunted man in a dream, trying to run and crashing from one pitfall into the next It was hard to make out Kip’s voice and Benny strained into the earpiece, his eyes on the other phone, glued there like the glass eyes of the dead pig.
“-scrambling into the front. They’re both watching the thing drop from the helicopter. Looked small, puffing. Christ, a fat cloud in the stern now. Birdie is diving for it, he-yeah, he’s got the bomb, throwing it over the side. Burned his hand, though. Keeps shaking it and dropped his gun. Al must have ducked below. I only see Birdie now. He’s grabbing the stick and swinging at the heli-Christ, that thing is low! Here’s Al coming up with a Tommy gun, and Birdie’s hauling out with that stick again. They’re so close now-My God! He can’t get the stick around. Al’s falling, Al’s got the-The goddamn hook’s into Al and won’t come out! It looks-” Kip stopped. He spoke once more, saying, “Coast Guard launch,” and then the radio went dead.
“Did you hear that, Benny? Hey, Benny! Cheeze, I’m gonna blow,” and then the phone went dead too.
The wait was over. Benny never even thought of the other phone. He could only think of Pendleton then; Pendleton, who was dead, but not without one more double-cross. He had given the tip-off. He was dead and there was nothing to be done about it.