The Melting Man rc-4 Read online

  'No tricks, honey. I like you a lot and any time you say the word we'll shack up some place with a big bed and make the springs work double time. But first Najib must have his parcel. Okay?'

  'Okay.'

  I moved out of the water, but she stopped me after the first two feet.

  'No more. Just toss it over.'

  Somewhere up to our left Najib shouted. Panda shouted back. I looked down at the parcel in my hand, and remembered a lot of routines I'd been through in Miggs's gymnasium. Somewhere or other I guessed that Panda had been through even more routines, and she could give me inches in height, seconds in speed, and probably just as much in muscle, and she had a knife.

  'Come on, honey. Flip it over. After that it's no hard feelings and loving kindness all round. Najib likes you and, what's more important, I like you and that spells a rosy future somewhere.'

  Giving myself time to think, I said, 'Great help you've been — keeping Max on ice for me.'

  'That? Honey, that was just for laughs. Come on, goose-pimples — give!'

  I gave. I tossed the parcel to her and I deliberately threw it a little wide and a little short. It landed on the ground a foot in front of her and to her left. She flexed her gorgeous legs and bent, reaching for it with her free hand, her ample breasts sagging against the wet stuff of her white bra, and her eyes never left me except for the split second when eyes and hand had to coordinate to locate and pick up the parcel. It was the moment I wanted. I already had my hand on my trunks covering the bulge of the rubber torch inside. I had it out and jumped for her as her eyes came back to me. She made a good try. In fact she gave me a three-inch slash on my left arm but it was too hurried to be serious, just messy. It hit her as hard as I could just at the side of the right temple, really hard, and to hell with chivalry, and she went over on her back and stayed there.

  I grabbed the parcel and ran, away round the lake in the opposite direction from which Najib's calling voice was coming. I didn't run for long, not in bare feet. But I kept going, hobbling fast, and luck was with me. I struck a small path, coated with dry pine needles and finally came back round to the grassy plateau.

  Najib's Thunderbird was parked alongside my Mercedes. He'd left the ignition keys in so I took them and chucked them into the water. Then, without waiting to get dressed, I drove away, turning the heater up full blast. I couldn't wait to get to the nearest hot coffee and lace it with cognac.

  As I drove down the track in the woods, and when I was almost in sight of the main road, a beaten-up yellow Citroen pulled suddenly out of the trees on to the track ahead of me and stopped. I braked to a halt about ten yards from it. Through the back window of the Citroen I could see a woman at the wheel. I waited for her to move on and while I did so, reached back for my shirt and trousers. I had them in my hand when the beaming, bespectacled face of Tony Collard appeared in the window across from me. He opened the door and got in, and, with a smoothness that astonished me, picked up the parcel from the seat and stuffed it inside his Windbreaker, reached back and got the shotgun, broke it and checked that there were no shells in it, and then, drawing a gun from his belt, said amiably, 'Just follow Mimi.'

  He reached over and pressed the horn. The car ahead started to move. He prodded me in the ribs with the gun and I followed.

  I said, 'If we've got far to go I'm not dressed for it.'

  'We'll keep the heater going.' He looked admiringly at me and said, 'I had a bet with Mimi you'd make it. Five hundred francs. Great little gambler that girl. This is the thing there's all the fuss about?'

  He held up the parcel.

  I nodded.

  'That's what your boss really wanted — not the car?'

  'I wouldn't lie to you.'

  'Course not, you're a buono raggazzo. But don't worry, Tony will take care of you and everything. You're my friend, in a sense.'

  'What sense?'

  'That I got respect for you. My old man always said if you want to succeed with people you got to work with their natures, not against them. How was Otto?'

  'No complaints.'

  'Good. Mind you, Otto had his points. The master mind — that's what he used to think he was, and he was to some extent. Do a job in France and scoot back to Italy. Do a job in Italy and scoot back to France. That's where we're going. A little hiding place we had this side of the border. Old mill, not working now, of course. Orchard with medlars and pears… lovely place for a kid to play. And a stream. Course, now Otto's gone that makes me the master mind. I can tell you, I had trouble with Mimi about it at first, but she's come round to my way. Did you have to rub out either of those two up there?'

  We were out on the main road now and heading east. 'I was a bit rough with the girl.'

  'Fix their car?'

  'Yes.'

  'Good. Then we can all relax.' He leaned back and lit a cigarette and began to hum to himself. After a while, he said, 'I don't mind being pushed around strictly in the way of business. Got to expect it now and then. Don't mind if anyone pushes Mimi around a bit, come to that. But' — he gave me a big smile and chuckled to himself — 'I'm dead against any bastards that could push a little baby around. That long-legged, dark number just chucked the feed bottle out of the window. It takes a woman, you know, to be really cruel to a little baby. You can see that's why I had to talk.'

  'Absolutely.'

  I knew it was no good trying to hurry him or force him to put events in order, and anyway, I was dog-tired and longing for something hot and fiery to be burning my gullet. I knew that I was going to have to deal with him but it wasn't the moment and I wasn't in the mood. His master brain had dreamed up some scheme but until I was dressed and in my right mind it would have to wait.

  'My old man used to say,' he said, 'that a black child develops mentally faster than a white up to the age of twelve, and then it stops. They can't get beyond twelve. Something in it, I think, or that dark number must have thought I was an idiot. If he'd come down the road first I was going to take him. But I'm genuinely glad it was you.' He began to laugh. 'God, I'd like to see their faces now.'

  Ahead of me, Mimi turned off the main road on to a B number.

  Tony said, 'Make a lot of money in your job?'

  'Enough.'

  'Somebody asks you to do something, like, and you do it — no questions asked?'

  'Sort of.'

  'Must be interesting.'

  'There's always something happening. Like now.'

  That tickled him but he overlaughed it as usual.

  Recovered, he said, 'I'd have liked working with someone like you instead of Otto. He was a randy, rotten runt. If you don't have nothing else in this life, my old man used to say, you've got to have respect for women. That's what he used to say, but he never acted like it. Some ways he was worse than Otto. Mimi's going to turn left up ahead. You'll have to get into low gear. Like the side of a house.'

  I followed Mimi for a couple of miles up a steep, winding hill, and then we came out on to a wide plateau, fringed on three sides by woods. As Tony had said, there was an orchard, full of moss-covered fruit trees, a small paddock and a tall mill-house standing at the side of a stream. Attached to the mill-house was a low cottage with a paved yard in front of it.

  I drew the Mercedes up behind Mimi's car in the yard. Ahead of us she got out, reached into the car and brought out a carry-cot, and then went into the house.

  Tony said, 'If you don't try any tricks we'll get on well. Nothing's going to happen to you and your boss won't be able to blame you.' He grinned, winked at me, and added, 'Let's face it, we've all got to have our failures.'

  He got out and, gun in hand, marshalled me into the cottage. The main room was large, stone-flagged, and with a kitchen range against one wall. Mimi sat on a chair, gave me a nod, and then opened her blouse and started to feed the baby.

  'There's not much here, Tony,' she said. 'With all the upset. Get the fire going and warm some up. But you'll have to do something with him first. The baby food's in t
he case in the car.'

  Tony went over to her, kissed the top of her head and kept his eyes on me all the time. Then he went to a door at the far side of the room, drew back bolts and opened it, motioning me to him.

  'I think they wintered the goat or cows in here once. Kind of central heating for the house.' He chuckled. He waved me in.

  The room was stone built with one window about six inches square high up at one end. There was a broken-down wheelbarrow in it, a pile of old straw in a corner, an iron bed without a mattress against the wall, and a row of cobweb-draped rabbit hutches along the other wall. He shut me in, but was back again after a few minutes carrying my clothes and a bottle. Behind him Mimi came to the door, baby crooked in her arm, its wet mouth searching for her nipple, Tony's gun in her hand to cover me.

  Tony said, 'Make yourself comfortable. Ring if you want anything.' He laughed, dropped my clothes on the floor and put the bottle in the wheelbarrow.

  I said, 'Is it a boy or a girl?'

  'Boy,' said Tony proudly. 'Two months. Fair-sized little pecker on him already, Gabriel we're calling him. Like it?'

  'Heavenly,' I said and reached with one hand for my trousers and with the other for the bottle.

  They left me alone and I dressed and drank. Then I pulled some of the straw out of the corner and spread it across the wire-spring frame of the bed and flopped down on it. A cloud of dust, smelling of cowdung, rose around me, but I didn't care much.

  I just lay there, bottle handy at the side of the bed and stared at the ceiling. I've stared at a great many ceilings in my time, and mostly in the same kind of mood, feeling debilitated and incapable of sustained thought. I knew enough about the mood to realize that there was nothing to be done but to wait for it to pass.

  From the other room I heard the sounds of Mimi and Tony and the baby… the clanking of pans, the wail of the child, and Tony's big laugh and Mimi's occasional chuckle. After a time the baby stopped crying, and there was only the low murmur of their voices and then, suddenly, I heard Mimi give a loud exclamation and Tony began to roar with laughter.

  I took another drink and went to sleep, but just before I went off I thought I heard the sound of a car starting up.

  * * *

  I woke late in the afternoon to find Tony in the room and with him a good smell of coffee and fried bacon. He'd put a plank across the wheelbarrow and there was a tray on it. He kicked an old box towards the barrow for me to sit on and then went and stood by the door, one hand inside his Windbreaker. I didn't have to be told what he was holding. He was friendly, but he wasn't going to take any chances with me.

  He said, 'Keep your voice down. Don't want to wake the baby.'

  I said, 'I'm not doing any speaking. That's up to you.'

  I began to attack the coffee and fried bacon.

  He gave it to me then, in his own laughter-punctuated, highly involuted way.

  When he had come to visit me at the chalet, he had brought Mimi and the baby with him, leaving them parked in his car well down the road. He had brought Mimi, he explained, largely because they were inseparable and also because if there had been trouble it was easier to pass the frontier with a woman and a child in the car. Anyway, Panda and Najib had jumped him as he came back to the car. Najib had got into Tony's car, and Tony had to drive off with Panda bringing Mimi and the baby along in their car. Somewhere the other side of St Bonnet they had pulled up and the conference had begun. Najib had wanted to know what he had been doing at the chalet and who had been there.

  'Honest, I tried to stall. Like I said, I got respect for you. He wanted to know everything — and he seemed already to know a lot — and then there was the baby. Mimi nearly went out of her head. Fact, I'm surprised she's got any milk left at all. That black tart was the worst, telling us what would happen. You can see, I didn't have any choice, and then on top of that he said he'd make it worth my while. Not that that by itself—'

  'So in the end you told them about the Mercedes being in the lake?'

  'Had to — and we had to take them there. Me with him, and Mimi coming behind with her. But I was thinking of you all the time. I wanted to give you a chance like, give you time to get there ahead. So I led him a dance, took the wrong roads and the long way round. You know once,' he chuckled, 'I took him round in a big circle and he never noticed it. You can see I tried to protect you, can't you?'

  'I'm touched, Tony.'

  'Well, I like you. You got a nice way. Still, I couldn't stall for ever, 'cause I knew Mimi would be fussing about the kid's feed, so I finally took him to the bottom of the lake road, and then he pays me off and tells me to get the hell out of it.' He chuckled. 'Which I pretended to do of course, but I didn't, and let me tell you if I could have got my hands on the gun Mimi had in the kid's carry-cot I would have blown their black heads off. Coloureds I always thought were crazy about kids. Anyway, I'd been doing a lot of thinking. Mimi and me wanted all the money we could for emigrating. Nice touch we had from that bank, and a bit more from the sale of the garage, but why not more? So I thought, what's in that car they're all crazy about? Not just the car — so I decided to hang around. First lot down the road will have it, whatever it is, and whatever it is it's worth money and I'm going to have it.

  So there it is. It was you — and I was real happy it was you. With them I'd have had to be real rough in order to please Mimi.'

  I finished the coffee and said, 'Don't go on, you're breaking my heart. Just tell me what cock-eyed plan you've got now.'

  'Nothing that will hurt you. Your boss will see that you tried and you failed — on his behalf. He can't grumble.' He pulled the gun from his Windbreaker. 'After all, what could you do? I'll explain it to him when he comes.'

  'When he comes?'

  'To collect the parcel. Mimi's gone off for him now. Be back tomorrow. Why you looking surprised?'

  'Wouldn't you — if you saw a man jump into a bear-pit for a friendly game of tag? My boss will tear you apart. Tony, my friend, he's not the kind of man you can shake down. As your dear old father would have said, you're good but you're not in his class.'

  Tony grinned. 'You're trying to frighten me. I can handle him. He's got to come alone. Mimi knows the terms.'

  'Listen,' I said. 'He's eight feet tall, four feet wide, and he's got a fat touch of the Irish. He'll eat you.'

  'Will he? Then he'll have to polish this off as a starter first.' He joggled the gun. Then he gave me a kindly shake of his head. 'Don't you worry. You did your best. More can't be asked of any man. You'll get your pay from him. You could sue him if not. And Mimi and I will get our price for the parcel. You know what's in it?'

  'No.'

  'And a good thing for you, too.' He started to laugh. 'You ain't old enough yet. You should have seen Mimi's face. She's a first-class mother and wife, but that's not to say she hasn't been around — but she was shocked. She didn't even want to take the little bit of film I clipped off to show him, but I said she must. He's got to know we're genuine sellers. Anyway, it's all wrapped up again out there, just as it was, and you don't have to bother your head about it. And he's getting it cheap, five thousand dollars, used notes, and no fear of the police about it or he wouldn't have hired you.'

  I gave him a look and went back to the bed. I picked up the bottle and took a deep pull, swallowed, breathed hard and said, 'Wake me when he comes. I wouldn't miss the show for anything.'

  'I will. You'll be right out there so he can see it weren't any of your fault. As my old man used to say, you take advantage of someone, particularly someone you like, then the least you can do is make sure they don't get more than their proper share of the blame. You just got outsmarted. I want him to know that. Then he can't hold anything against you.'

  I didn't tell him that I was deeply moved — not for me, but for him. He and Mimi were a couple of Babes in the Wood, and O'Dowda would enjoy every minute he spent in this house.

  I said, 'Did Otto ever tell you why he quit working for O'Dowda?'

&n
bsp; 'Sure. He'd accumulated some capital and wanted to get back to his own line of business.'

  'How did he get the capital?'

  Tony laughed and winked. 'Never asked him. Like my father used to say — never ask questions you know won't be answered.'

  He went out, chuckling to himself.

  I lay on the bed, later, and stared at the little patch of window. Through it a few stars were showing and now and again a brown owl screamed in the orchard just to keep the voles on their toes. It wasn't all that way from here to Evian. Mimi should be back sometime in the morning, and with her would be O'Dowda, alone. Mimi would insist on that, and O'Dowda would play ball. He would bluster and bully to begin with, threaten her with the police and so on, but in the end he would come, alone, and with the money because he wanted the parcel and he wanted it without any police interference. He probably knew already that the police, or Interpol, wanted to get their hands on it. Najib wanted it, Interpol wanted it, and O'Dowda wanted it. What did I want? Well, I had to be frank. I wanted it, too. But, in the first place, out of sheer curiosity to see what was in it. After I knew that, I could decide what to do with it. Ethically, of course, I should — if I ever got it — hand it to O'Dowda. He was my employer. But he'd only employed me to find the car, not to recover a parcel. And ethically, before allowing me to take his commission, there was a lot he should have put me wise to for the sake of my own personal safety, and personal safety was something by which I set a very high store. For the moment, ethics apart, I was prepared to be taken along by circumstances — in fact I had no choice — until I got a chance to dictate the running again.

  I went to sleep, deep, complete, dreamless sleep, and woke to daylight and the fact that Tony was sitting hard and square on my shoulders, had my hands drawn back behind me, and was cording up my wrists. If I had been one of those people who come fast out of sleep, brain clear, ready for action, I might have been able to take advantage of him. The truth was he had me trussed almost before I was awake. He got off me, rolled me over, and I yawned in his face. Outside the birds were singing and a shaft of sunlight came through the window.