I HADN’T TELEPHONED AHEAD, and Chantal’s place was battened down for the night. I didn’t mind. It was only a little after midnight. I was sure Chantal wasn’t home yet. I banged on the garden door and hollered.
The whole thing was falling into place. I didn’t have all the threads yet, but I had enough to see the shape of the tapestry. I didn’t have my murderer yet, was all.
In a few minutes the fat, middle-aged Greek maid of twenty-four came waddling down the patio steps. I listened to her putting the chain on the door inside, before she opened it.
I didn’t have to say who I was. The minute she saw me she started to simper and slipped the chain. She locked the door behind me and led me up, turning on lights as she went. She had thrown a dingy robe over her enormous udders in her flimsy nightgown and her hair hung in a thick rope over one shoulder. I had only seen her maybe twice, but she knew me. She knew me well enough to know I was Madame’s new lover.
That was how she treated me. She simpered and offered to make me coffee or something to eat, and when I said no, left me in the living room with the bar.
I couldn’t stand it in there. I was too highed up from the boat, and following Kirk, and the villa. I got myself a drink and went outside and sat in the overhead swing in the shadows on the patio.
That was where I still was when Chantal came in and locked the garden door.
Her eyes widened when she saw me sitting in the shadows. I guessed I was a formidable figure. I felt formidable.
I didn’t beat around any bushes. I told her I knew all about the heroin ring that was operating out of Tsatsos. Her eyes widened again.
“I know more than that,” I said grimly. “I know where the ring headquarters are. I know Kirk and the Agoraphobe are involved. I know Girgis with the Polaris was the pick-up man for the operation. I know Kronitis is the money man. Or they wouldn’t be using ‘his’ villa. Now. What else have you got to tell me?”
She put her purse down on the outdoor table, and sat down on an outdoor chair. “There isn’t any more to tell, I guess.”
“Oh, yes there is,” I said. “There’s a lot more. Let’s start with where you are in it.”
“I’m not in it,” she said in a low voice.
“You’ve got to be,” I said. “All right; later. Who’s the boss? The big boss? Who’s the general?”
She didn’t answer.
“Maybe you’d like for me to get you a drink first?” I said.
“I would like a drink.” She was lovely in her evening make-up.
“I’ll get us both one,” I said. “If you’ll promise on your Scout’s Honor not to run off somewhere. I’d hate to come back and find you gone.”
Her eyebrows fishhooked, and her eyes flashed anger. “You don’t have to be nasty.”
I didn’t answer that. If I went into why I thought I had a right to be nasty, it might take a very long time. I went and got the drinks and brought them back.
“I want to know, first off, who the boss is.”
“I suppose Jim is the real boss,” she said.
“No, he’s not. Kirk may be the field general. But he’s not the big boss.”
“Then I suppose it’s Leonid. But he doesn’t do anything.”
“Oh, yes he does,” I said. “He arranges to have shipments of over 150 pounds of morphine base dropped off Tsatsos by Turkish freighters. He pays for that. He puts his old villa, owned by some dummy corporation, at the ring’s disposal for a lab and drop-off place. He arranges, I assume, to get the H the lab makes out of the morphine base to Europe, or to America. I would say he does a lot.”
Chantal didn’t say anything, and drank. “Would you get me another drink, please?”
I went and got it. “What about the hashish operation? Did Kronitis know about that?”
“No. He knew nothing about it at all. He was shocked when you told him about it.”
“So whose idea was it?”
“Girgis’s. He wasn’t satisfied with what he was making from the heroin thing. He wanted more. He opened up the hashish running on his own.”
“And you went along with it?”
“Yes.”
“And Kirk went along with it?”
“Yes. It was money. It was there. The hippies were there. The market was there. If we didn’t do it, someone else would have.”
“And you were greedy,” I said.
“Leonid was terribly angry when he found out from you. He called Jim in and made him swear he wouldn’t do anything like that again. Jim lied to Leonid and put all the blame on Girgis, and said he had nothing to do with it. Leonid never suspected me.”
“He was absolutely right, Kronitis,” I said. “The police were bound to come around eventually, looking into the hashish racket. And if they did, they might stumble onto the much bigger heroin deal by accident. I’m surprised they haven’t been around before. Where does Pekouris fit into it?”
She looked up. “Pekouris? I don’t know anything about Pekouris.”
“All right,” I said. “Forget that. What about the heroin for the Ambassador?”
“That was Jim’s idea. He approached the Ambassador himself.”
“He was stealing the heroin from the stock at the villa,” I said.
She nodded. “Yes. Later, he came to me and asked me to carry it for him, as a favor. He didn’t want to be seen too much with the Ambassador.”
“And you did it.”
Again her eyebrows fishhooked at me. “I only did it as a favor to the Ambassador. Jim said he would stop otherwise. I didn’t take any money for it.”
“And Girgis threatened to tell Kronitis about the heroin?” I said.
“No. I don’t know he did that.”
“He was blackmailing you, wasn’t he?”
“Not about that. He was threatening to tell people I was working for him.”
“There was bad blood between Kirk and Girgis, wasn’t there?”
“Yes. Jim wanted a bigger share of the hashish money.”
“And he’s preparing to go right back into it, as soon as the heat is off.”
She shrugged. “Yes.”
“What a lovely trio,” I said. “The three of you. Even your own crooked boss couldn’t trust you.”
She looked up and shook her head. “But he wouldn’t do something like that. Kill him and—and cut off his head.” She shook her head again.
“You think so,” I said. “Let’s get back to where you are in it.”
“I told you,” she began but I interrupted.
“Don’t lie to me. One more lie to me from you and I’ll lump your pretty jaw. You’ve got to be involved in it. You know too much, and you’re too close to it all.”
She hung her head and looked down at the stone flags of the patio floor.
“I carry it for them to Europe. To Paris.”
I almost yelped. “What! You what?”
She nodded and looked up at me timorously. “That was how I got involved with Girgis and the hashish in the first place. That’s how I got to know him.”
“How did you get involved?”
“Leonid came to me.” She shrugged. “About two years ago. He asked me if I would carry something to Paris.”
“Who did?” I said. “Who came to you?”
“Well,” she said, and swallowed. “Leonid.”
That was some kind of a lie. But I couldn’t tell what about. “And he didn’t tell you what it was you’d be carrying. Is that it?”
“Oh, yes. He told me. He showed it to me. He had had some special Vuitton luggage made with false bottoms. In Rome. He bought the luggage in Paris and took it to Rome somewhere and had it remade. I was to carry those. That was all I did. He handled all the details himself. I just delivered the bags to an address. They were sent back to me later at the hotel. He said I’d make a great carrier for him. With my title, and my style, and my social contacts. I thought it was a great lark. And he paid me handsomely.”
“By God,” I said. “You’ve got nerve. So you’re the European delivery boy.” I still could barely believe it. “Do you have any idea what would happen to you if you got caught? How many years you’d be in jail? How did you get yourself mixed up in this?”
She gave me a pale smile. “Money. It’s really very simple: Just money. All I really have is this house here on Tsatsos, and barely enough money to run it. He knew my situation. He knew that I had no money to winter in Paris; would have to live on Tsatsos year round, unless I had extra money. So he arranged for me to earn it. Can you imagine what it would be like, living here in winter alone, with everyone gone?”
Incredible. “Your social life,” I said.
She didn’t answer. “I love my social life.”
“What about the rich ex-husband? The Count? What about all the expensive alimony?”
“Nothing,” she said. “All his money goes to transporting handsome young boys around the capitals of Europe. He’s spent his entire fortune on it and is swiftly spending everything he has left. All I really have is just barely enough to run this house he gave me. Why do you think I told you I couldn’t afford your fees?”
“Couldn’t you take him to court?”
“And have him exposed as a homosexual?” Chantal said. She smiled. It was a very European smile. “Anyway, a court probably wouldn’t award me additional money. To winter in Paris every year.”
“So it all comes out,” I said, and grinned. “The dirt. For money. Like everyone else, it comes down to the money. You rich people ain’t much better than us lower classes, are you? When you haven’t got the money?”
“In a way I’m glad you’ve found it all out. I’ve been trying to quit, but they wouldn’t let me. It’s not fun any more. Not now, with all the publicity about dope. And all these damned American agents running around all over Europe.
“But I could never quite bring myself to tell you. And it was never that overt. They never tried to threaten me. They were too polite. But when I said I wanted to stop, they always talked me out of it. And I always let them.”
“Sure. Meantime two people have been killed.”
“Do you think I haven’t lain awake thinking about it?”
“No. I don’t think you have. Not much.
“But I don’t understand how you could let them run you like that.” I thought a minute. “They. You keep saying they. Did you have an affair with Kirk?”
“Good heavens, no. Jim? I’d never have an affair with him. Jim thinks he’s a ladies’ man. Kirk loves them and leaves them. He’s an oaf.”
“He’s back with Jane Duval now,” I said, and watched her face.
“Oh, her. She’s had affairs with half the people on the island. She even had an affair with your Sweet Marie.”
“I know all about that,” I said.
“Jim had an affair with your Sweet Marie, too,” Chantal smiled. “Did you know that?”
I looked at her blankly. Something had touched at my mind.
“He did?” I said, vaguely.
A fading echo, a lost laugh, a piece of burnt newsprint browning in a fire. I reached down in and fished around for it, and it slithered away from me. Had Marie ever mentioned an affair with Kirk to me?
I remembered her telling me, guiltily, about the affair with Jane Duval. Very clearly.
I leaned against the swing support. I could suddenly see Marie’s face in front of me as real as if it were there, clear blue eyes, wide mouth, blonde down on the always tremulous lip. “Did you know I had an affair with Jane Duval? Hand me those pants.” Had she ever mentioned Kirk?
“What’s the matter with you?” Chantal said. “What happened?”
“Nothing. I’ve just thought of something,” I said. “Something very important. Listen, I’ve got to go.”
I didn’t remember whether she said good night or not.
Outside the garden door I stopped and leaned back against the wall a while and looked up at the clear star-freckled, star-marked sky.
It didn’t take it long to come. Quite suddenly, like a brick dropped on the top of my head, it all fell into place. And I remembered that Marie hadn’t mentioned Kirk.
It had been there all along, plain as the nose on my face, and as close in front of me, all the time I was suspecting that poor crazy dumb kid, Chuck. I wondered if Pekouris had ever suspected it.
I pushed away from the wall and started down the hill to the harbor and the house.
But now that I had the son of a bitch, how was I going to prove it? How was I going to catch the son of a bitch out and prove it?
That was going to take some thinking.