I'll Get You For This

  "The cops around here don't rate with me," he said, chewing hard. "That guy Herrick tried to clamp down on our trade. He was a nuisance. I reckon the boys are kind of grateful someone removed him."

  I nodded. "I heard he wasn't popular."

  I cast off and started the engine. I got gas if you ever want it," he called after me.

  I waved.

3

  A moon that looked like a Camembert cheese hung in the cloudiest sky. The nodding palms cast long, spooky shadows. The red glow of the charcoal fire reflected on Miss Wonderly's skin. She lay on her back, her arms crossed behind her head, her knees bent. She wore blue

shorts, a red halter and sandals. Her honey-coloured hair hid one side of her face.

I knelt before the fire, grilling a couple of spareribs. They smelt and looked fine.

  We were tired, but we had the house ship-shape. I was surprised the way Miss Wonderly put her back into cleaning the joint. We had scrubbed and swept and dusted. We had laid coconutmatting down in two rooms and shifted the boat's bunks into one of them. We'd unscrewed the two small arm-chairs from the cabin and dragged them into the house, and we'd taken the table too. With a couple of good paraffin lamps, the place looked almost like home.

  In the cockpit of the boat I had found a Thompson and an automatic rifle and enough ammunition to start a minor war. I brought the automatic rifle to the house, but left the Thompson in the cockpit. I didn't know when we might be cut off suddenly from the house or the boat, and I reckoned a division of weapons wise.

  There was a portable radio on the boat, and we brought that up to the house too.

  It had been a good day's work in spite of the heat, and now we were ready for something solid to eat.

  I divided up the spareribs, the hashed brown potatoes and a couple of Cokes.

  "Here we go," I said, dumping the plate on Miss Wonderly's chest. "Eats."

  She sat up, after putting the plate on the beach wrap she had spread out so she shouldn't get sand in her hair. In the moonlight and the firelight she looked swell.

  "Still scared?" I asked, cutting my meat.

  She shook her head. "No."

  We'd been so busy that we hadn't even thought about Killeano and the rest of them.

  "It doesn't seem like it all happened this morning, does it?" I said. "I guess you've got some talking to do. How do you figure in all this?"

  She sat for a while without saying anything. I didn't rush her, but I had to know.

  "I was a fool," she said suddenly. "I came out here because I was promised a job, and because I was sick of pushing off men who thought showgirls were easy to make. The job sounded good, but it turned out to be just another masher's build up. He didn't want me to work. He wanted me to give him a good time. It wasn't my idea of a good time, so I found, myself stranded here without the means to get back."

  "When will you girls learn?" I said.

  "Speratza came along. He wanted someone to look after the flowers and decorations at the Casino. I got the job."

  "You and flowers go together," I said.

  She nodded. "It was all right for eight months. I liked it, and the money was good. Then suddenly Speratza sent for me. He was in his office with Killeano and Flaggerty. They stared me over, and I didn't like the way they whispered to each other. Killeano said that I'd do, and he and Flaggerty went off. Then Speratza told me to sit down and offered me a thousand dollars to entertain you. I didn't know it was you then. He told me you were an important visitor and said, for reasons I needn't know, I was to entertain you, and if I did the job well he'd give me the money and my ticket home."

  "And what did you think?"

  "I didn't know what to think. It was an awful lot of money, and I wanted to get home, but there was something about the way Speratza talked that warned me not to touch the job. I asked him exactly what I had to do. He said I was to take you around, give you a good time, and then persuade you to take me back to your hotel. He said I was to sleep with you, but you would be doped and you wouldn't bother me. It was important that I should spend the night in your room. I thought it was a divorce frame-up. I didn't like it. and I refused." She gave a little shiver and stared across the moonlit bay. "He tried to persuade me, but the more he talked the surer I was that something was wrong. Then he got up and told me to follow him. We took a trip in his car to the harbour."

  She stopped talking and stared down at her hands. I didn't hurry her, and after a while, she went on.

  "He took me to a house on the waterfront. As soon as I was inside I knew what it was. I could tell by the awful old woman and the girls that peered over the banisters. It was horrible."

  I gave her a cigarette. We smoked in silence for a few minutes.

"He said he'd keep you there if you didn't play. Is that it?" I said.

She nodded. "I was so scared I would have done anything to get out."

"That's all right," I said.