Fast Buck

Over the bed was a large framed photograph of the men of his year, sitting bolt upright with arms crossed and chins thrust out: young men looking into the future with aggressive determination. She looked at the photograph, and for a moment she couldn’t find Adam amongst these determined young men, then she spotted him by his shifty expression, and jeering, untrustworthy smile. He was not so thin as he was now, and she noticed with surprise that his hair was thicker, and it came as a shock to realise his hair now was thinning fast, hinting at a premature baldness.

She moved away from the photograph, feeling ashamed as if she had been caught looking through a keyhole. The years that had passed since he had left college had taken a heavy toll. At least, in the photograph, he looked amused, happy and cared-for, but looking at him now, as he stood scowling at her, he looked seedy and disreputable and forsaken.

‘Wel , what is it?’ he asked crossly. ‘Do sit down, can’t you? Must you wander around sticking your nose into everything?’

She sat down, and as she did so she saw something on the floor, half hidden under the bed, and she felt a sense of sick shock as she hurriedly averted her eyes.

‘Oh, I know what you’re thinking,’ he said, sit ing on the window-sill and staring at her. ‘You’re thinking I’ve had a woman up here. Wel , you’re quite wrong. I was sound asleep when you knocked.’

‘It’s nothing to do with me who you have here,’ she said quietly. ‘But you don’t have to lie about it.

She dropped a stocking on the stairs. You’d better give it to her. She didn’t look as if she could afford to lose it.’

Gillis’s face registered surprised blankness.

‘I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re drivel ing about. I’m not the only lodger in this cess-pit. Why, only yesterday I found a pair of panties in the telephone-box,’ and he sniggered, watching her warily.

‘She looked very young,’ Eve said, as if he hadn’t spoken. ‘Almost a child. Adam, do be careful what you’re doing.’

‘Oh, shut up!’ he said furiously. ‘I’ve had enough of this. I tel you no one’s been here. So shut up!’

There was a long silence. Eve sat motionless, her hands folded in her lap, her eyes closed. The sordid room, the knowledge that that vicious little chit of a girl – she couldn’t have been more than sixteen –

had been here, the phoney sophomore atmosphere and the smell of the cheap perfume made her feel physically ill.

Adam said impatiently, ‘Well, I don’t suppose you came here to admire the scenery. What is it?’

Without opening her eyes she said, ‘Rico brought Baird to see Preston tonight. They’ve just gone.’

‘Baird!’ Adam left the window and came over to her. ‘Did you see him?’

She nodded.

‘Is he going to do the job?’

‘I think so. He wants to look the territory over first.’

‘What happened? Tel me everything. I want to know exactly what was said.’

He sat on the bed and listened while she gave him a detailed account of the meeting. When she had finished, he lit a cigarette and smiled at her, his thin, handsome face animated.

‘That’s fine. Of course he’l do it. I knew I wasn’t mistaken in my man. He’s really got something.

What did you think of him, Eve?’

She gave a little shiver.

‘He frightened me. He’s dangerous, Adam. There’s something about him – he – he’s like a wild animal: like a tiger.’

‘He’s a kil er,’ Gil is said admiringly. ‘One of the few genuine killers left. There never were many: Dillinger, Nelson, the Barkers – you can count them on your fingers. Baird’s about the last of them, and he’s just the right man for the job.’

‘Adam, this whole business is worrying me,’ she said, sit ing forward. ‘It’s too dangerous. Even if you succeeded in getting Hater out of prison, what makes you think he’s going to tel you where the jewels are hidden?’

The animation in his face went away, and the shifty expression returned.

‘Of course he’l tel us,’ he said breezily. ‘He’s going to be grateful we’ve got him out, isn’t he?

When I’ve explained to him the Rajah’s wil ing to do a deal with him, he’l only be too glad to tel us.

Without us he can’t do a thing.’

‘But he can!’ Eve said. ‘Do you think I’m an idiot, Adam? You’re not planning to help this man to escape: you’re going to kidnap him. You told me that’s what you’re going to do. You’re expecting him to resist. Of course he’s going to resist. In two years time he’l be released. If he escapes now, he is a fugitive, and if he’s caught, he’l go back to prison for another long term. He’s waited fifteen years: two more are nothing to a man like that. How can you, Adam? Why don’t you wait until he comes out a free man?’

Gillis mashed out his cigarette in the ash-tray on the dusty bedside table. His eyes were hard.