This Way for a Shroud

"Frankie, if you'll let me, I'll take care of you. I've got it all figured out. I'll take you away when the trial's over. We can start a new life together. I want you to marry me. No one will know who you are where we'll go. We'll go to England. I have a friend who wants me to sink some money in his farm. He wants me to be his partner. There's a house for us, and no one will know you. Will you let me take care of you? Will you let me build a new future for you?"

She got up abruptly and without looking at him, she went over to the window.

"Future?" she said. "But I haven't a future. I know I haven't." She stared at the red ball of the setting sun as it slowly sank below the horizon, casting a red glow over the sea. "My time's running out, Paul. There's no future for me, only a very immediate present."

II

"It's got to look like an accident, Jack," Gollowitz said. "It's got to. If there's the slightest suspicion of murder, we're finished. A full-scale inquiry would put us out of business. Someone is bound to talk once the pressure's on. It's got to look like an accident."

Maurer sat hunched up over his desk, his small eyes gleaming angrily. For ten days now he had racked his brains for a way to get at Frances, but the solid wall of defence that Conrad had erected baffled him.

"She's got to die!" he snarled. "The only way to get at her is to set fire to the hotel. Then when they bring her out, we'll swarm all over them."

Gollowitz spread out his fat hands pleadingly.

"We've got to think of another way. We can't do it like that. It'd finish us."

Maurer got up and began to pace the floor.

"What other way? Goddamn it! There is no other way! How are we to get at her unless we smoke her out? How the hell can we make it look like an accident?"

Gollowitz wiped his glistening face. The past ten days had been dangerous and difficult for him. It had come as a great relief when Maurer had sent for him and had told him to forget what he had said at their last meeting. He realized now Maurer couldn't do without him. The problem was too big for Maurer to handle himself.

"Ferrari could do it," Gollowitz said. "I'm sure he could."

Maurer paused to stare at Gollowitz.

"Is he still in town?"

Gollowitz, who had expected an explosion, nodded eagerly.

"He's in the bar right now."

"We're admitting failure by using him, Abe," Maurer said. "You realize that?"

"We have failed. I wouldn't have brought him in if we hadn't failed to get Weiner. I know you blame me, but there was no alternative as there is no alternative now. If anyone can get at that girl, Ferrari can."

Maurer came back to his desk and sat down. He stared down at his snowy blotter, his forehead furrowed, his eyes narrowed. He sat like that for some minutes. Then he picked up the receiver.

"Louis? Ask Ferrari to come to my office. He's in the bar."

Gollowitz sat back. It was a moment of triumph for him. He felt vindicated. Maurer was now doing what he had had to do.

"You're playing this right, Jack," he said. "It's the only way."

Maurer looked up.

"You're kidding yourself, Abe," he said softly. "You think I'm playing it your way, but I'm not. Ferrari is going to take care of the girl, then I'll take care of Ferrari. That's the difference between running this organization and letting the organization run you!"

Gollowitz stiffened.

"Take care of Ferrari ? What do you mean ?"

Maurer showed his teeth in a grin that made him look like a wolf.

"Wait and see, Abe."

They sat looking at each other for several long minutes, then the door opened and Ferrari came in. He walked silently across the room, climbed into an armchair, wriggled back until he was comfortable and looked at Maurer with alert bright eyes.

"About this girl," Maurer said. "It's got me beat. Abe says you can handle it. Can you?"

Ferrari lifted his eyebrows.

"Of course. It's my job to handle it."

Maurer's eyes snapped, but his face remained impassive.

"I'll pay ten grand."

Ferrari shook his head.

"Twenty. If it was worth only ten grand you'd be able to do it yourself."

Maurer shrugged.

"Okay, I don't haggle. Twenty, then. What makes you so sure you can handle it?"

"I've never failed, and I don't intend to fail now," Ferrari said. "You look for difficulties, I look for solutions."

"It's got to look like an accident."

Ferrari nodded.

"It will be an accident."

Maurer's face turned a purple red.

"You don't even know where she is! You don't know a thing about the set-up. How the hell can you talk like this?"

Ferrari gave him a sneering little smile.