Fast Buck

Dallas drank more coffee, and as he fumbled for a cigarette, he said, ‘He’s watching Kile. At the moment we’ve lost Baird, Rico and Gil is. When I got to the club with Olin, Baird and Rico had skipped. There was no sign of Gillis. I tried to find MacAdam, but his car had gone. I’m hoping he went after Gillis. Olin took the club to pieces, but we didn’t find anything. That guy, Luigi, Rico’s Captain of waiters, talked after Olin got tough with him. He told Olin both Rico and Baird had returned to the club about forty minutes before we got there. Rico said he had to leave town in a hurry. He collected all the cash he could lay his hands on, and went off with Baird in a dark blue Packard. No one knows where he was going. Olin’s thrown out a drag-net, but so far the car hasn’t been seen. While this was going on, I searched around for MacAdam. As soon as Ainsworth reported to me, I sent him down to watch Kile. If Kile slips through our fingers, we’ve lost the lot of them.’

‘I imagine Baird and Rico have gone to Shreveport,’ Purvis said thoughtfully. ‘I think the balloon’s about to go up.’

‘Yeah,’ Dal as said. ‘Think we should tel Olin what’s cooking? He could set a trap for Baird.’

‘Red River’s not in his territory. By the time he got any action, Baird would be miles away. Besides, we’re losing sight of our objective: we want Baird to take us to the jewels. If Olin barges in now, we’re back where we started.’

‘I don’t like it,’ Dallas said. ‘The casualties are mounting up. First Burns, now Zoe: maybe it’ll be me next.’

Purvis didn’t look particularly worried.

‘I’ve been working fifteen years on this case,’ he said. ‘I’m in sight of pul ing it off. I’m not going to bring Olin in to mess it up now.’

Dallas shrugged. He felt too tired to argue. He stared down at his feet, brooding.

Rain continued to patter against the window. A car came grinding up the hill towards Purvis’s house.

Both Purvis and Dallas listened to the sound of the labouring engine. They looked at each other questioningly. The car came nearer, then passed the house and went on up the hill. Both men relaxed again. Then the telephone bell started to ring. Dallas jumped a little and spilt some of his coffee.

Purvis picked up the receiver. He said, Yes, speaking.’ He sat stil , his face expressionless, his long, bony fingers tapping a tune on the arm of his chair. After a while he said, ‘Okay, and thanks. I’l be down in the morning. Brentwood hospital? Yeah, I know how to get there. It’s before you get to Lincoln Falls. Yeah, sure.’ He hung up.

‘Who’s dead now?’ Dallas asked, his hands turning into fists.

‘MacAdam’s been found with a fractured skul ,’ Purvis said slowly. He didn’t look at Dal as. ‘He was picked up in Brentwood’s main street.’

Dallas stubbed out his cigarette.

‘How is he?’

‘He’l be al right,’ Purvis said. ‘Be some time before he gets around again, but he’s not in danger.’

‘That’s swel ,’ Dal as said sarcastical y. ‘Just a fractured skul . Nothing worse than a slight headache.

Baird again, eh?’

‘I guess so. A man answering to Rico’s description used the telephone in a café in Brentwood around two o’clock. A lit le while later MacAdam was found about a couple of hundred yards from the café. At least we now know they’re heading for Red River. There’s an airfield at Lincoln Falls. They could get a plane to Shreveport from there.’

Dallas got slowly to his feet.

‘I’d bet er get over to Kile’s place. If we let him slip through our fingers, we’re sunk.’

‘Rico could have been phoning Kile,’ Purvis said thoughtfully. ‘Looks as if they’re on their way to get Hater out.’

‘I can’t imagine they’re going to Red River to look at the al igators,’ Dal as said sarcastical y. ‘I’m glad I haven’t a wife and children. This job’s get ing dangerous.’

Purvis saw him to the door, and then returned to his study. He listened to Dallas’s car start up. He 78

James Hadley Chase. The Fast Buck. 1952

remained standing, his face expressionless, his eyes thoughtful long after the sound of Dallas’s car had died away.

PART FOUR

I

The slow-moving, mud-coloured Red River wound through a dense undergrowth of saw-grass, duck-weed and sagittaria. The great naked roots of the mangrove trees, anchored in the mud flats, gave the impression of a forest on stilts. An oppressive, tropical heat hung over the river. The only sound Rico could hear was the thump-thump of a diesel engine a long way away, pounding out a monotonous rhythm.

Rico wiped the sweat out of his eyes. He was sitting in the prow of a flat-bottomed boat that seemed to him to be horribly fragile, and likely to tip over if he moved.

Baird sat in the stern and paddled the boat through the slow-moving water, keeping close to the bank.

The Thompson gun, loaded and cocked, lay at his feet. His pale eyes scanned both sides of the bank as they moved slowly upstream.

‘Hear that noise?’ he said suddenly. ‘That’s the dredge. It’s farther away than it sounds. That’s where Hater is.’