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“It’s the thought that counts,” said Johnny. “See, I don’t even have to go on the balcony to know that the balcony is there and Icould go on the balcony if I wanted to go on the balcony, which I don’t. But knowing that that balcony is out there just gives me the—”

“Shut up, Johnny. I’ll do the talking.”

“Sure, Jer.”

“Look, we don’t want to swap rooms,” said Wim, who had had enough of this pointless conversation with two guys who were obviously morons. “So buzz off, will you?”

“What my cousin means to say is,” said Suppo, plastering a polite smile onto his mug, “that you should ask reception for a different room if you’re not happy with yours.”

“But we asked, and they said they got no more rooms available,” said Johnny.

“Well, I guess there’s nothing we can do about that,” said Wim.

“But…” Johnny said.

If Wim would have had a neck, the veins in that neck probably would have stood out at this point. Instead, he raised his voice and repeated,“Nothing we can do about it.”

“But we…” Jerry began. But before he could say anything the door was slammed in his face.

“Stupid people with their stupid ideas,” Wim muttered, shaking his head.

“Best to stay polite,” Suppo admonished him. “We don’t want to get in trouble with the neighbors.”

“I’m not going to stand here and listen to this nonsense about vertigo. If the guy’s got vertigo why did he take a room on the third floor anyway?”

“Let’s not get into this,” Suppo suggested. “Instead let’s go over the plan once more.”

“To hell with the plan! I know the plan backward and forward. So let’s just order lunch and get this thing done.”

[Êàðòèíêà: img_3]

Over in the next room, Johnny Carew and Jerry Vale had closed the door and were evaluating their recent performance.

“You just had to go and shoot your mouth off, didn’t you?” Jerry grumbled.

“I just wanted to make sure they understood, Jer.”

The big oaf was standing there looking at that balcony as if it was about to kill him. It kinda pained Jerry just to look at him.

“We gotta switch rooms,” said Jerry. “There’s no way around it.”

“Maybe we can knock em over the head and stuff em in the closet?” Johnny suggested.

“Not a bad idea,” Jerry admitted. But then he decided against it. “Too risky. What if they start raising Cain?” No, they needed to find a better solution.

“We could truss ‘em up, stuff a gag in their mouths and make sure they won’t talk.”

“Still too risky. If we could just make them change their minds. We need that room.”

“I thought the thin one was nice,” said Johnny as he carefully took a seat at the table in front of the window, still darting nervous glances in the direction of that balcony. “The fat one wasn’t nice. He was very rude to you, Jer. I wouldn’t mind knocking his block off.”

“He was pretty suspicious,” Jerry agreed. “If it had just been the thin guy I think he would have gone for it. But that big guy clearly wasn’t willing to play ball.” Jerry thought for a moment. Then, as was his habit, he arrived at one of those sudden reversals. “All right. We’ll do it your way.”

Johnny’s face lit up with a goofy smile. “We will?”

“Sure. But let’s not hit them too hard. We don’t want them to get hurt. Well, maybe a little, just for being rude.”

“I’ll take the fat one, you take the thin one.”

“Deal.”

Sometimes when you wanted to get things done, you just had to improvise.

Chapter 10

Tex glanced into the waiting room and saw that his loyal receptionist had left already. Early lunch, probably. Fortunately there was only one patient left, so he beckoned her in. As the town’s foremost medical doctor, he knew pretty much everyone who lived in Hampton Cove, but this particular patient he’d never seen before. She was a handsome woman in her late twenties or early thirties, with a blond bob and the most striking blue eyes he’d ever seen. He bade her to take a seat and assumed his position of attentiveness on his side of the mahogany desk he’d inherited from the doctor who’d operated this office before he was lucky enough to take it over when the old man retired.

“So what can I do for you, Miss…”

“Mrs. Bezel,” said the woman. “Emma Bezel.”

“I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure of making your acquaintance,” said Tex as his hands inadvertently flew up to his white helmet of hair to make sure everything was in place. He might be a doctor, and as such viewed by most people as some kind of sexless being, but when in the presence ofa gorgeous woman like Emma Bezel he was also a man, eager to make a good impression on Beauty when it happened to drift into his ken.

“No, I only moved to town a couple of months ago,” said the woman with a timid little smile. She’d cast down her eyes and was wringing delicate hands that lay in her lap. She was dressed in a white blouse, a pink ankle-length skirt and white leather mules. The ensemble became her well. “Thething is, Doctor Poole, that you come highly recommended by my sister. Evelina Pytel?”

“Oh, right. I know Evelina, of course. She never mentioned she had a sister.”