Kiss and Kill (16 page)

“Me?” said Claire. “What makes you think so? You think I'd tell you anything?”

“Then you do know!” Garner chuckled.

She drove on. The sun had set. The half-moon shed a ghastly light on the boneyard landscape. The two men crowded in beside her were very quiet.

“All right,” said Claire suddenly. “I guess I do.”

Garner was not surprised. I'm way ahead of you, baby, he thought. I'm way ahead of everybody. “Why didn't you tell me before?”

He could feel her fear. “I didn't know what Johnny was actually talking about until something you said … Johnny didn't say it was money. He said that if anything happened to him I should go to a certain place …”

She was talking in a rush. Garner thought she was lying. Of course, she might not be. If Talbot had told anyone, it was more logical that he had told it to the girl he had been sleeping with.

“Tell me where he told you it is,” Garner said. He pressed the muzzle of her .32 against her right ear and said, “Tell me or I'll blow your lovely head off.”

“You'd never get it then!” she burst out.

He studied the delicate profile in the semidarkness and wondered how many millions of years it had taken God to evolve it. And why had he been given such a love for beauty, and such an ugliness that kept it beyond his reach? How good it would feel to blast the flesh of all the beautiful women who had rejected him and all the handsome men who had laughed at him.

He lowered the gun. “I don't believe you know where it is.”

“I could drive straight to it from here.”

“How far?”

“A day, I think. I'd have to be there to know where it was. It was a place where we stopped. I couldn't direct you to it.”

Garner pitied her. It was a good try, but she was only playing for time. He could not blame her. He would have done the same thing himself.

“Slow down,” he said.

She stiffened. “What for?”

“We don't need these two. We don't need my partners, either. We'll drop off the excess baggage. Turn into that gap in the brush there.”

The dirt path was scorched by gullies and booby-trapped with rocks that jolted the car crazily. After a quarter of a mile the track curved under a towering eucalyptus.

“Stop here.”

Claire stopped the car. Their dust enveloped them and moved on. Garner sat thinking: Here was a problem. The two men knew they were going to die. If one saw a chance to get clear, he wouldn't hold back just because the other would die. He might shoot them both in the car, but the second man would make his move the instant the first shot was fired. He could hold the .45 in one hand and the .32 in the other and shoot both simultaneously, but that would make an awful mess in the car. He would be needing it for several days yet. And this time he didn't have Green and Brown to clean it up, as he had made them do after the Mexican.

His eyes drifted to the girl; she was fragrant. He wanted her. And he would have her. He would teach her the joy of kicking it all over, principles, rules, everything.…

“Give me the keys,” Garner said. “Leave your headlights on.”

She handed them to him, and he put them into his pocket. Then he opened the rear door and backed out. He had both guns trained on the car.

“Come out one by one. All through this side. You first, private detective.”

He watched the big man step out. He thought: He's watching my eyes. He'd jump me the minute I looked away.

“Now turn around and put your hands against the hood and get your feet way back. That's fine. Now the faithful husband. Slowly does it. Right beside He-Man; that's it. Now you, little lady. Okay, all of you walk around to the front of the car. Stop there, Claire. You men inch along. One quick move and you get it. That's it. Stop.”

Garner stepped between the headlights. “All right, you men turn around.”

They blinked in the lights. Garner was sure they could not see him against the glare.

“Now Miss English. Turn your back to me.”

“What?” It sounded as if her tongue was glued to the roof of her mouth.

“I've got a job for you. Turn around.”

She turned and stumbled, her heels catching on the rocky ground.

“I know you don't know where the money is,” Garner said to Claire. “But I think you know more than that Tollman woman my partners have. Anyway, we're going to go hunting, just you and I.”

“Hunting?” faltered Claire.

“Hunting. Or would you rather die?”

“No!…”

He walked up behind her. “Here.”

“What?”

“The thirty-two. Hold out your hand.”

In a daze Claire held out her right hand. She felt the warm metal of the .32 against her palm. Instinctively she took a grip on it.

“No, don't turn around.” Garner's voice seemed to be coming from faraway mountains. Absurdly, Claire thought of God. “Now listen to me good. You're going to have a test, Claire. What you might call a life-and-death test. Are you listening?”

“I'm … yes.”

“The thirty-two is loaded and cocked. What I want you to do is shoot these men to death.”

“Oh, my God,” said Claire.

“And we'll be on our way.”

Claire swayed. “No,” she said faintly.

“It's only the first time that's hard.” She felt his hand on hers, forcing it to a level position. She felt the clammy spot at the small of her back begin to spread. His hand left her, and hers fell. “You still don't get it, do you?” Garner said patiently. “They're dead men in any case—I'll shoot them if you don't. The only one it matters to is you, Claire. Now do you understand?”

“No …”

“If you don't shoot them, I'll shoot them and I'll shoot you, too. So you've got a choice. I'm going to start counting. If one of them isn't dead by the time I reach five, you get it in the back with this forty-five. One. Two …”

To her horror she saw the .32 rise with her hand. It steadied, pointed at Ed Tollman.

“No,” Garner said behind her, “the detective first. He's the dangerous one. Three …” and a warm circlet of metal pressed against the back of her neck. “Better make up your mind fast, baby. Four …”

8

Barney launched himself in a flat dive which was calculated to carry him beyond Claire and at the same time bring him into the shadow between the headlights.

He was in midair when the gun went off. He felt the gush of wind against his ear before he struck the ground, rolling, head between his knees. The instant his feet touched he uncoiled himself and sprang into the darkness between the headlights. He slammed into a soft shape. It was Claire, struggling in Garner's embrace. Barney groped for Garner's gun hand. He found it and gripped the wrist as Garner's hand tried to come up. He forced it toward the ground. A second shot crashed, and Barney heard Ed's grunt and the smack of bone on flesh. Garner's arm collapsed. Barney tore the gun from the limp hand as Garner clutched at Claire to hold himself up. Her blouse buttons popped, there was a ripping sound, and Garner fell face down with a thud.

For a moment the three stood breathing hard, looking down at the still figure. Then the cicadas resumed their shrill sonata in the tree overhead, a dog yipped in the distance, and everything was normal again.

Claire was first to move, self-examining, fingering her torn blouse and brassiere. But she did not really know what she was doing. Her lips began quivering. She swayed and fell into Barney's arms, clinging to him as if he were a solidly rooted tree in a flood.

“I kept sending you the mental message: Shoot high, shoot high. Did you get it, Claire?”

“I don't know. All I could think of was that one of us would have to die. When he got to five, I fired automatically. I wasn't aiming at all.” She drew back and looked up into his face, her eyes wide and round. “And you stood there waiting. You trusted me not to kill you.”

“I had to take that risk.”

“Barney, don't ever again. I don't know myself that well.”

“None of us knows till we're faced with the choice.”

Her eyes were shining in the headlights.

“I feel good,” she cried. “Should I?”

“You bet, doll.”

“As if I'd had a bath.”

Then immediacy intruded. Claire stepped back and drew her torn blouse together. Barney walked over to where Ed was kneeling beside the motionless Garner.

“How is he?”

“Still out.”

Barney bent over the psycho. The lower part of Garner's face seemed out of shape. He gripped Garner's chin and moved it, and heard a grating sound.

“You broke his jaw, Ed. Where'd you get the punch?”

Ed Tollman looked down at his fist. “I've been wanting to hit something for a long time, I guess. Ever since they took Liz away from me. I once took boxing lessons. The instructor told me I had a punch like a lily.”

Barney laughed. “Some lily.”

“I suppose I should have pulled it.”

“He'll be able to talk. Claire, bring me the water bottle.”

She brought it from the car and Barney dumped some water on the man's face. He came to, groaning. “My jaw …”

“It's broken,” said Barney. “It's our turn now.”

Garner's eyes moved from one to the other. Then he sighed and seemed to relax.

“Can I have a cigarette first?” His speech was slurred, as if he were drunk.

Barney said, “You get nothing. Not even death.”

Garner's eyes widened.

“Pain is what you get. Hours of it. Days, if necessary. Until you tell me where Mrs. Tollman is.”

“I don't know.”

“You weren't planning to wander all over Mexico without meeting your partners again, were you? They're waiting for you somewhere. Where?”

Garner closed his eyes. There was no sound, not even the gurgle of his breathing.

“He's dead,” said Claire.

“The hell he is. He's holding his breath.”

“Why?”

“Trying to kill himself. It's an old psycho trick. They never learn that it can't be done.”

They kept watching. Garner's face turned dark; the veins stood out, pulsed on his temples. After three minutes he uttered a long slobbering gasp and his eyes jerked open.

“See?” said Barney. “The minute they lose consciousness, the body takes over. It doesn't want to die. Now will you tell?”

“No,” Garner said in his slushy voice. “Kill me. What else can you do?”

Barney tapped his forefinger against Garner's jaw. Garner gasped.

“That's what we can do. Will you talk?”

“No.”

Barney caught the point of Garner's chin between his fingers and moved the jaw gently to and fro. The bones clashed; Garner let out a blubbering moan and fainted.

“More water, Claire,” said Barney calmly.

She stooped over Garner with the bottle. A thin stream splashed on Garner's face.

“This doesn't bother you?” Barney asked Claire.

“Of course, it bothers me! I can even feel sorry for him in spite of everything—after all, if he's psychopathic, he's not responsible. But it has to be done, doesn't it?”

“Yes.”

“I faced a choice a hundred times harder a few minutes ago.”

There was no mercy in Ed Tollman's eyes. “It's like cleaning a chicken. Unpleasant, but necessary.”

Garner's eyes fluttered open.

“Now we start again,” Barney told him. “Here goes.” He tapped the jaw once. Garner yelled.

“Hotel … Playa Hermosa.”

“That's where the others are waiting?”

“Yes.”

“Where is it?”

“San Blas.”

Barney looked over his shoulder at Claire. “Is there such a place?”

“Yes, we stayed there on the tour.”

Barney straightened up. “Ed, find something to tie him up with.”

“No!” cried Garner. “You promised to kill me!”

“I made no such promise, Garner. I need you alive. You'll get a chance to do some good in this world before the law takes care of your future, if any.”

Ed returned to say that there was no rope in the car.

“Look in my suitcase,” said Barney. “A couple of shirts will do the job.”

“Use this,” said Claire, peeling off her silk blouse. “He's ruined it, anyway.”

Barney tested the raw silk. It was impossible to tear with a straight pull. He twisted it into a ropelike strand, and the odor of perfume tickled his nostrils.

“You're a lucky man, Garner,” said Barney as he looped the man's wrists. “Tied up with Chanel Number Five.” He made two tight turns around each wrist, then knotted them together behind Garner's back.

“You've cut off the circulation,” Garner burbled.

“For a man who wants to die you make a hell of a fuss. What do you think dying feels like?” Barney took the shirt Ed brought. “It hurts. I've watched men die. They didn't look happy.”

He bound Garner's ankles together. The psychopath tried to kick, but Barney tapped him on the jaw and he subsided. They carried him to the car and laid him on the floor between the seats.

When Barney was driving south on the coast road, Ed asked him: “What's on the agenda now?”

“I'll go to the hotel and talk to Green and Brown.”

“
Talk
to them?”

“Hell, I can't shoot them. Can't even make loud noises at them till we get Liz away from them.”

“You mentioned using Garner. How can you trust him?”

“I don't have to. The way I figure, Green and Brown have respectable fronts in the States. By now they're probably ready to take their loss and forget the whole thing. Remember, they've got murder-accessory raps hanging over them. My guess is they're ripe for a deal. I'll offer to trade Garner for Liz. They'll kill him, of course.”

“They'll kill you,” Ed said.