THE SQUALL WAS SWIFTLY blowing itself away behind the hills. I folded my trenchcoat into a roll under my arm and carried the hat. It was so dry the rain seemed hardly to have dampened the bare dirt along the edges of the cobbled street. The air had a fresh smell.
I guessed I looked pretty ridiculous. With Marie, either way I went I had to look silly. Nobody in his right mind would turn down a girl that lovely. Instead, me, I had to go and acquire myself another responsibility.
I could afford her plane fare, and a little living money. We’d let Mr. Kronitis pay that. I had several younger friends, girls, in New York. Where she could bunk up for a while. It wasn’t the first time I had done something like this for some kid. It was just the first time any of them had ever had a body like that.
But that wasn’t the whole problem, and I knew it. The whole problem had to do with something else. That was the part I hadn’t wanted to think about, and still didn’t. The whole problem had to do with age. My age. I was having serious difficulty avoiding it. I supposed it was a problem everybody had to face, if he lived long enough. That didn’t help me. I still didn’t like it. And I still didn’t want to think about it.
The rough cobbles under my feet were already bone dry of rain. With the storm past I felt I ought to get back to doing something. But what? Nothing Marie had told me about Kirk had made me feel any different about the murder. I decided to go up and have a look at the Cloud 79 night club tonight.
I walked on home and called Chantal. She was home. She had another one of those dinners of hers on for the evening. I certainly didn’t want to go to that. I told her I might be up to see her late, but that also I might not.
“Is she as good as I am?” she said.
I didn’t answer her.
“I’ll bet there are a couple of things she can’t do as well as I do,” Chantal said.
I expected she was right. There were a couple of things I could think of. Marie certainly couldn’t do them any better.
“I don’t like your social dinners, sweetie,” I said. “And I don’t have to go to them. I’ve made some friends of my own, on my own level, down here in the Port.”
“All of them with long long legs, no doubt.” Her voice sounded sharper.
“I’ll try and get up there late,” I said. “But if I shouldn’t, don’t fret over it. There’s nobody down here who’s looking for an aging private dick as a lover.”
“Well, if I’m not there when you get there,” Chantal said in a lofty Countess voice, “and I may not be, just go right on in and make yourself at home. I’ll get there eventually.” She hung up.
I hung up myself, and walked out on my porch. I’d gone as far as I could with her. I supposed I could have told her I was working for Kronitis. But I had promised Pekouris I wouldn’t tell anybody.
Actually, I intended to get up there if I possibly could. If Chantal was carrying even small bits of H for Kirk among the high-born, the way Marie was among the low-born, it was something I wanted to talk to her about.
On the porch I leaned my hands on the thick stone railing. At the taverna across the vacant lot Pete Gruner and his beard, in another expensive coat, were sitting at a table.
I thought a minute, then went out and down the walk and over to the taverna to join them. I waved at Georgina as I went past her little outdoor living room.
Gruner had clearly seen me coming. I took a table off by myself. He came over and slipped into a chair.
“Okay, what did you want to see me about?”
“What makes you think I wanted to see you?” I said. “I thought you wanted to see me.”
“Because I happened to be sitting at your private taverna here? Sure.”
Strangely enough I was beginning to kind of like him, in a masochistic way. “Well, you don’t generally hang out down here. It’s more your style to hang around up at the Construction with your buddies.”
He grinned. “Well, actually I did want to see you.”
“Let’s take mine first,” I said. “It seems you’ve been going around throwing eggs on me telling people you suspected I was some kind of a Government man.”
“I don’t think I said that.”
“It seems that you did,” I said. “I haven’t thrown any eggs back yet. But I’m all ready to. I’m eager to. Can you tell me anything that might deter me?”
He gave me a snide grin. “I did say something to one person. Jim Kirk. But it wasn’t Government. I said I thought you were down here working for some very big outfit.”
“Big enough to be the U. S. Government,” I said. “He told it that way to at least one other person. One more little piece of gamesmanship like that from you, and I’ll ruin your image good, friend. I haven’t done it yet.”
He grinned. “I knew you were a good guy. Underneath that phony heart-of-gold routine of yours. I’m sorry about that other. I had to do it. If I could tell you why, you’d understand.”
“No, I wouldn’t. And you may find out I’m not the sweet-tempered boy you think I am. Now, what’s your bad news?”
His face took on the flush of a crowing rooster. “I wanted to tell you I’ve got that job I was telling you about. I’m going to work as Mate on the Polaris, I talked to the big man.”
That slowed me. “You saw Kronitis?”
“I talked to him on the phone. I’m to see him in a couple of days. If it works out, I’ll be promoted to run the boat.”
“Where are you meeting him? At his villa?”
“No, in Glauros. At that big hotel. It was easy enough to get hold of him. I just called him up, like this kid Steve did, about his bar.”
I made no comment on any of that. “Why are you coming here telling me all this?”
He grinned. “I just wanted you to know. If anything should ever happen to me, you’ll know where to look. Start looking for what’s left of me on that Polaris boat.”
“I’m not going to go looking for you anywhere, bud,” I said grimly. “I’m not getting paid to. Do you want to tell me why you’re doing it?”
“I’m going into the hashish business. With Kirk. That was why I had to lay a little heavy on you with Kirk. Kirk carries a lot of weight with Kronitis, and I’ll need Kirk to bring in the stuff. Kronitis doesn’t know, of course. I had to promise him I wouldn’t indulge in any hashish smuggling. Kirk and I will split fifty-fifty. Kirk is satisfied, Kronitis is satisfied, and I’m satisfied.”
“That’s not the why,” I said. “That’s the how.”
“It’s the why. Hell, in a year it’ll net me enough to buy me my own boat. And I’ll be all set to live in the Greek islands forever.”
“And I’ll be able to fly over here from New York and charter your boat for years to come,” I said. “Go ahead, con me some more.”
He just grinned. “Maybe someday I’ll be able to tell you a little more, Lobo. About my plans.”
“Sure,” I said. “You can tell me the next time I’m in Washington.”
He shook his head. “Just remember what I told you about the Polaris,” he said, and got up. He threw some bills on the table. He was about the only one who ever paid a tab around there, except for me. That alone made him rare.
“See you,” he said, and winked. He went walking away with that long-waisted athlete’s walk of his, his well-kept long hair swinging.
I just sat and looked after him. I’d sort of hate to see him dead. It was beginning to get a little dark. I moved from my bare table over to one of the tables laid with a cloth for the dinner trade and motioned the waiter.