The Vivero Letter

He grunted. 'I'm not prepared to discuss that in front of Halstead. I've been pushed far enough.' He was silent for a moment, then he sighed. 'All right; effectively, I found nothing. I assume that whatever it is will only come to Light when the trays are examined as a pair.' He stood up. 'Now, I've had just about enough of this. A little while ago you told Halstead to put up or shut up -- now I'm putting the same proposition to you. How much money will you take for the tray? Name your price and I'll write you a cheque right now.'

'You haven't enough money to pay my price,' I said, and he blinked in surprise. 'I told you my price might not necessarily be in cash. Sit down and listen to what I've got to say.'

Slowly Fallon lowered himself into his chair, not taking his eyes from me. I looked across at Halstead and at his wife who was almost hidden in the gathering shadows of evening. I said, 'I have three conditions for parting with the tray. All those conditions must be met before I do so. Is that clear?'

Fallon grunted and I accepted that as agreement. Halstead looked tense and then inclined his head stiffly.

'Professor Fallon has a lot of money which will come in useful. He will therefore finance whatever expedition is to be made to find this city of Uaxuanoc. You can't object to that, Fallon; it is something you would do in any event. But I will be a part of the expedition. Agreed?'

Fallon looked at me speculatively. 'I don't know if you could take it,' he said a little scornfully. 'It's not like a stroll on Dartmoor.'

'I'm not giving you a choice,' I said. 'I'm giving you an ultimatum.'

'All right,' he said. 'But it's your skin.'

'The second condition is that you help me as much as possible to find out why my brother was killed.'

'Won't that interfere with your jaunt in Yucatan?' he queried.

'I'm not so certain it will,' I said. 'I think that whoever wanted the tray enough to send a man armed with a sawn-off shotgun also knew that the tray had a secret. Possibly we'll meet him in Yucatan -- who knows?'

'I think you're nuts,' he said. 'But I'll play along with you, I agree.'

'Good,' I said pleasantly, and prepared to harpoon him. 'The third condition is that Halstead comes with us.'

Fallon sat bolt upright and roared, I'll be damned if I'll take the son of a bitch.'

Halstead jumped from his chair. 'That's twice today you've called me that. I ought to knock your -- '

'Belt up!' I yelled. Into the sudden silence that followed I said, 'You two make me sick. All afternoon you've been sniping at each other. You've both done very well in your investigations so far -- you've arrived at the same point at the same time and honours ought to be even. And you've both made identical accusations about each other, so you're square there, too.'

Fallon looked stubborn, so I said, 'Look at it this way. If we two join forces, you know what will happen: Halstead will be hanging around anyway. He's as tenacious as you are and hell follow the trail wherever we lead him. But the point doesn't arise, does it? I said that all three of my conditions must be met and, by God, if you don't agree to this I'll give my tray to Halstead. That way you'll have one each and be on an even footing for the next round of this academic dogfight. Now, do you agree or don't you?'

His face worked and he shook his head sadly. 'I agree,' he said in a whisper.

'Halstead?'

'I agree.'

Then they both said simultaneously, 'Where's the tray?'

Four

Mexico City was hot and frenetic with Olympic Gamesmanship. The hotels were stuffed to bursting, but fortunately Fallon owned a country house just outside the city which we made our headquarters. The Halsteads also had their home in Mexico City but they were more often than not at Fallen's private palace.

I must say that when Fallon decided to move he moved fast. Like a good general, he marshalled his army close to the point of impact; he spent a small fortune on telephone calls and the end result was a concentration of forces in Mexico City. I had a fast decision to make, too; my job was a good one and I hated to give it up unceremoniously, but Fallon was pushing hard. I saw my boss and told him of Bob's death and he was good enough to give me six months' leave of absence. I bore down heavily on the farm management, so I suppose I deceived him in a way, yet I think that going to Yucatan could be construed as looking after Bob's estate.

Fallon also used the resources that only money can buy. 'Big corporations have security problems,' he said. 'So they ran their own security outfits. They're as good as the police any time, and better in most cases. The pay is higher, I'm having Niscemi checked out independently.'

The thought of it made me a bit dizzy. Like most people, I'd thought of millionaires as just people who have a lot of money but I hadn't gone beyond that to the power and influence that money makes possible. That a man was able to lift a telephone and set a private police force in motion made me open my eyes and think again.