Like A Hole In The Head

     He went down the steps, across the sand dunes and towards the sea.

     I put my hand on the packet of tissue paper, then I unwrapped it and released the soft tresses.

     Stroking the long, blonde hair brought me very close to Lucy.

     The idea of how to solve this nightmare came to me. It suddenly dropped into my mind and I wondered why I had been so dumb not to have thought of it before.

     I looked down at the blonde tresses on the table, then at the Red Dragon brand on my chest.

     Savanto had said to me: How many men have you killed in coldblood? Eighty-two? What is one more life to you?

     I would probably have to kill Diaz.

     Life eighty-three.

     I knew for certain now that I would kill Augusto Savanto. Life eightyfour.

     But that would be a pleasure.

* * *

     I was still sitting on the verandah when Raimundo came back from his swim.

     During the half hour I had been alone, my mind had been active.

     Raimundo looked uneasily at me as he came up the steps. His eyes strayed to the switch of hair lying on the table.

     "Why don't you take a swim?" he said, pausing at the head of the steps. "It's good in there."

     I shook my head, keeping my expression deadpan. I didn't want him to suspect what was going on in my mind.

     "It's too hot right now. Maybe later," I said.

     He nodded and went into the house to change out of his trunks.

     I again touched Lucy's hair, then wrapped the switch in the tissue paper and put it in my hip pocket.

     Then somewhere in the house I heard the telephone bell start up. I heard Raimundo thumping down the stairs to answer it.

     I switched my mind back to Augusto Savanto. I wondered how long he would stay at the Imperial Hotel. He would probably leave after Diaz was dead. I pictured him sitting on the balcony on the fourteenth floor of the hotel which faced the sea. At the end of the boulevard was a twentystorey block of apartments still under construction. The syndicate building it had run out of money, and for the time being construction had stopped although it was nearly finished. Lucy and I, spending a day in Paradise City, had visited the building. We had nothing better to do and a sign over the entrance invited inspection. We had been pop-eyed at the rentals they were asking. The penthouse apartment on the 20th floor had been luxuriously furnished and just for the hell of it, we had taken the elevator up on the long ride to look at it. The agent, showing us round, had spotted we had no money, but as he had nothing better to do he had gone along with us. Standing on the terrace of the penthouse, I remembered, I had had a clear view of the Imperial Hotel.

     If I could get up there with the Weston & Lees, I would have no problem in putting a bullet in the middle of Savanto's evil head. This is what I wanted to do and was now determined to do.

     My thoughts were interrupted as Raimundo came flying out on to the verandah.

     I have become used to seeing frightened faces. When you go into battle the times I have you are often surrounded by faces that telegraph fear. I immediately recognised the signs.

     "Timoteo and your wife have bolted!" His voice was unnaturally loud. "We've got to find them !"

     For a brief moment I couldn't believe what he was saying, then I jumped to my feet, kicking away my chair.

     "Bolted? Where? What the hell are you saying?"

     He gulped, then steadied himself.

     "Nick just phoned. Timoteo and your wife took off for the Cypress swamp! You've got to help me find them !"

     He charged down the steps, bawling for Carlo as he pounded across the sand to the Volkswagen.

     Carlo appeared around the back of the house, running flat footed, his brutish face bewildered.

     Raimundo came to a skidding stop by the car and looked back at me.

     "Come on !" he yelled. "Come on !"

     By the time I reached the car, Carlo was in the back seat and Raimundo had the car on the move. As I slammed the door shut, he took off, skidding over the sand, then he raced the car down the narrow road so we heaved and banged over the bumps while he wrestled with the wheel.

     We finally reached the highway. None of us could speak while we had rushed down the sandy lane. It was as much as we could do to hold ourselves in our seats.

     As the smooth tarmac of the highway slid under the wheels, I said, "How did they get away?"

     "Timoteo went berserk when he saw your wife had lost her hair," Raimundo said savagely. flattened Nick. He tried to get her to the highway but the other guards headed him off.

     They bolted into the Cypress swamp. The guards followed them as far as it was safe, then they turned back, but they have them bottled up. We have to go in there and get them out."