A Tan and Sandy Silence Page 2

  “And the top of my head.”

  “That’s what popped the knuckles. Look. This knuckle is still sort of sunk in. How many times did you hit me? Do you know?”

  “Sure I know. Twice.”

  “Twice,” he said dolefully. “Oh, shit.”

  “I waited until you ran out of steam, Harry. I waited until you got arm weary.”

  He looked at me in an appraising way. “I wish I’d done more good.”

  “I had a pair of sore arms. You bruised me up, Harry. And a three-day headache.”

  “I guess I had to get it out of my system. Do you understand it’s still pretty hard for me to come to you to ask for anything?”

  “I suppose it might be.”

  “Mary kept telling me to grow up. Okay. I’m trying to grow up. I’m trying to be a mature, rational human being. Like they say, I’ve been examining my priorities and my options.”

  “Good for you. But where do I fit in?”

  “Here’s what I want you to tell Mary.”

  “But I—”

  “Give me a chance. Okay? Tell her that as soon as the SeaGate project is all set up, I think we ought to get away, just the two of us. A cruise or fly over to Spain, whatever. And tell her that the Canadian girl didn’t mean a damn thing to me, that I didn’t bring her back down here or ask her down, that she came on her own. And tell her to please get in touch with me so we can talk.”

  “Hold it! I don’t know where Mary is.”

  His face turned red. “Don’t give me such crap. You willing to let me search this houseboat?”

  “She isn’t here, you damn fool.”

  “I’ll find something of hers. Clothes, lipstick, something.”

  “Harry. Jesus. Look around all you want.”

  He settled back in the chair. “Okay. You and Mary knew I’d come here sooner or later. So you haven’t been having your fun aboard this boat.”

  “That’s called paranoia, old buddy. When did she leave you?”

  “January fifth.”

  I stared at him in disbelief. “This is the fourteenth day of April. You have a slow reaction time.”

  “I’ve been hoping she’d come back or get in touch. Tell her how much I’ve been hoping. She caught me dead to rights. She went around the house with a face like a stone for nearly two weeks, then when I got home that Tuesday, she’d packed and left. No note, even. I went down the list of her friends and called them. It was humiliating for me.”

  “I bet.”

  “Now just one damn minute—”

  “What makes you think she’d come to me?”

  “I thought about it. I mean, back in January. It seemed like the most likely thing for her to do. I spent a whole weekend hanging around here. You had … another friend. So I decided if Mary had come here, she’d found you were busy, gone someplace else.”

  “She didn’t come here, Harry.”

  “Not right away.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  He leaned forward. “Okay. Where were you at ten o’clock on Friday morning, April second?”

  “I haven’t the faintest idea.”

  “You and Mary came off this houseboat at ten that morning, and you went out to the parking lot and got into a white Ford LTD convertible with rental plates. A friend of mine happened to be here and happened to see the two of you get in and drive off. This friend followed you. You went over to the Parkway and turned south toward Miami, and he came back, and he phoned me about it.”

  “Are you willing to listen a minute? Are you willing to try to listen?”

  “All I know is my wife left me and she’s sleeping with you, McGee, and I’d like to see you dead.”

  “The woman I was with is about Mary’s height, and her figure is just as good, at least as good as Mary’s used to be. Her hair is dark like Mary’s. The woman is an old friend. That’s her rental convertible, and it’s still out there on the lot. With her hair in a scarf and dark glasses, she was all prepared for a trip in an open car. She’s here aboard her boat. Her name is Jillian Brent-Archer. I haven’t seen Mary since the wedding. Not once, Broll. And that was better than three years ago.”

  He looked at me. “You’re real cute, McGee. Jesus, you’re cute. Most of the damn fools in this world would believe you. Are you going to tell Mary what I told you to tell her, what I’ve begged you to tell her?”

  “How can I, when I don’t even know …”

  And the dumb little weapon came out from under his clothes somewhere, maybe from the waist area, wedged between the belt and the flab. A dumb little automatic pistol in blued steel, half-swallowed in his big, pale, meaty fist. His staring eyes were wet with tears, and his mouth was twisted downward at the corners. The muzzle was making a ragged little circle, and a remote part of my mind identified it as .25 or .32 caliber, there not being all that much difference between a quarter of an inch diameter and a third of an inch. There was a sour laugh back in another compartment of my skull. This could very possibly be the end of it, a long-odds chance of a mortal wound at the hand of a jealous husband wielding something just a little bit better than a cap gun. The ragged circle took in my heart, brain, and certain essential viscera. And I was slouched deep in a chair facing him, just a little too far away to try to kick his wrist. He was going to talk or shoot. I saw his finger getting whiter, so I knew it was shoot.

  I shoved with my heels and went over backward in the chair. The weapon made a noise like somebody slapping shingles together. My left heel went numb. I rolled to my right, knocked over a small table, fielded the chunky glass ashtray on the first bounce, rolled up onto my knees, and slung it underhand at his head as he came up out of the depths of the yellow couch. I missed him shamefully, and was caught there too close to him as he aimed at the middle of my face from five feet away and tried to pull the trigger. But the slide was all the way back, the clip empty.

  I got slowly up onto very wobbly knees as Harry Broll lowered the gun to his side, relaxed his hand, let it fall. My heel tingled. A slug had grooved the hard leather on the bottom of the heel. The lounge smelled like the Fourth of July.

  Harry’s big face wrinkled like a slapped baby, and he took a half step toward me, arms half reaching out for comfort and forgiveness, and then he plumped back down on the couch and bellowed once, a walrus on a lonely strand.

  My drink was gone, spilling when the table went over. I moved cautiously, checking myself for any area that might feel dead and damp. That is the bullet feel, dead, damp, and strange, before the torn nerves and muscles catch up and begin screaming. No such areas. I made tall careful steps into the galley, made a new drink. I went back in. Harry Broll sat with face in hands, snuffling drearily. The paper had kept me aware of him over the years. Broll plans new condominium complex. Broll given zoning board exception. Broll unveils shopping plaza concept. Chamber lauds Broll.

  I sat opposite him again after putting the chair back on its legs. Looking around, I could count five ejected cartridge cases.

  “How old are you, Harry?”

  He sighed and mumbled it into his hands. “Thirty-five.”

  “You look fifty.”

  “Get off my back.”

  “You’re too soft and too heavy. You sweat a lot, and you’re short of breath, and your teeth need cleaning.”

  He lifted his mottled face and stared at me. “Why are you saying these things?”

  “Maybe if you hadn’t gotten so sloppy, Mary could have given you a second chance. Or maybe it was already a second chance.”

  “Oh, no. I don’t play around. Jesus, I haven’t had the time or the energy. This was the first time, I swear.”

  “You don’t play around, and you don’t go around killing people.”

  “You pushed me too far and—”

  “You always carry that thing?”

  “No, I—”

  “You brought it along in case you felt like killing me?”

  “Thank God, I missed you. I’m not thinking right
lately. Everything would have gone down the drain. Everything.”

  “It would sort of spoil my day, too.”

  “You know, when a man takes a good look at himself, he begins to wonder why. You know? I’ve been pushing myself hard. Drinking too much, smoking too much. Late nights. Conferences. For what? Damned if I know. For the sake of winning? How did that get to seem so important? But you shouldn’t have tried to lie to me, McGee.”

  “Your friend is an idiot. Mary never came near me. She hasn’t phoned me or written me. I didn’t know she’d left you. Look, I knew her a long time ago. She was at one of those crisis points in her life. She’d never met you, Harry. Never seen you, never heard your name, never knew she’d marry you. We were friends. We took a cruise down through the Keys and up the west coast, and she got things sorted out. We made love. Not for the first two weeks of the cruise. That wasn’t the purpose of it. Once all the knots and springs began to loosen up, then it seemed like a natural thing to have happen. It made pleasure. It was a way of saying hello. Nobody was a victim. She was a very sweet lady, and what I remember best is that we laughed a lot.”

  “I … I have to talk to her before the thirtieth.”

  “Why the deadline?”

  “It’s a business thing. Some things to sign. To protect my interest in SeaGate. Of course, if I’d shot you, what difference would it make whether I kept my share of SeaGate or not?”

  “Will it make a lot of difference when I sign the complaint against you?”

  “Complaint?”

  “Assault with a deadly weapon. Attempted homicide?”

  “You wouldn’t!”

  “What’s to stop me? My undying affection for you?”

  He pulled himself together visibly. He wrapped up the emotions and put them on a high shelf. I could almost see the nimble brain of the entrepreneur take over. “We’ll both have versions of what happened here, McGee. I’m essentially a salesman. I think I can sell my version far easier than you can sell yours.”

  “What’s your version?”

  “I’ll let that come as a surprise to you.”

  I could think of several variations that could leave him looking pretty good. And, of course, there was the usual problem of believability. Does one believe Harry Broll, pillar of the business community, or a certain Travis McGee, who seems to have no visible means of support, gentlemen?

  “A man as shrewd as you, Harry, should realize that the guy who gave you the bad information made an honest mistake.”

  “I know Mary. She’d get in touch with you.”

  “Would that she had.”

  “What?”

  “A troubled friend is a friend in trouble. I’m right here. She could have come around, but she didn’t.”

  “She made you promise not to tell where she is.”

  I shook my head. “Broll, come with me. I will show you that rental convertible, and I will show you the lady who rented it and who went to Miami with me and came back with me.”

  “It’s a nice try. You’ve got a lot of friends. They’d all lie for you. Every one. Think it over. Tell her what I said. She has to get in touch with me.”

  We stood up. I picked up his little automatic, released the catch and eased the slide forward and handed it to him. He took it and looked at it, bounced it on his big hand, and slipped it into his side pocket. “I better get rid of it,” he said.

  “If you think you might get any more quaint ideas, you better.”

  “I was going to scare you. That’s all.”

  I looked him over. “Harry. You did.”

  “Tell her to call the office. I’m not living at home. It was too empty there.”

  “If after all these years I should happen to see your wife, I’ll tell her.”

  Two

  Meyer came aboard the Busted Flush at twenty minutes to six, five minutes after Harry Broll left. He was dressed for the small festival at six o’clock aboard Jillian’s great big motor-sailer trimaran. He wore pants in a carnival awning pattern and a pink shirt that matched one of the myriad stripes in the awning.

  “Goodness gracious,” I said.

  He put a hand on a bulky hip and made a slow 360-degree turn. “Plumage,” he said. “And have you noticed it’s spring?”

  “If you’d carry a camera around your neck and walk fifty feet ahead of me, nobody would know we were together.”

  “Faw,” he said. “And tush.” He went toward the bottle department, saying, “About Mr. Harry Broll …?”

  “Who? Oh, yes. Of course. Mr. Broll.”

  “McGee, don’t try me, please.”

  “You are supposed to walk in here, and instead of giving me a fashion show, you are supposed to snuff the air, look about with darting glances. Then you are supposed to find those six cartridge cases in that ashtray and snuff at them. Then you prowl around and find where all six hit, including the one that’s hard to find. It hit right smack in the middle of my model 18 Marantz and killed it as dead as Harry tried to kill me.”

  Meyer backed to the nearest chair and lowered himself into it. “Six shots?”

  “Six.”

  “With serious intent?”

  “Damn well told.”

  I explained the situation. Meyer listened, looking very troubled.

  “Don’t sit there looking like an old beagle,” I told him. “Harry won’t be back.”

  “Maybe somebody else will.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Travis, are you just a littler slower than you were a few years ago? Half a step, maybe?”

  “I don’t know. Probably.”

  “Why should you get slower and get careless at the same time?”

  “Careless?”

  “Don’t try to kid yourself. You would have stumbled against him or spilled something on him and brushed it off. You would have checked him out and located the gun and taken it away from him.”

  “This was just old Harry Broll.”

  “And you are just old T. McGee, trying to pretend you don’t know what I’m saying. You could be on the floor with a leaking hole in your skull.”

  “I can’t go around acting as if everybody was going to—”

  “You used to. And you are alive. What has given you this illusion of immortality of late?”

  “Lay off, Meyer.”

  “Staleness? People are very good at things they are very interested in. If you lose interest, you are dead. If a Harry Broll can damn near kill you, Travis, what about somebody with a more professional attitude and background?”

  “Wouldn’t I be more alert?”

  “Don’t some of them look and act as innocuous as Harry Broll?”

  “What are you getting at?”

  “If you just go through the motions, Travis, maybe it’s time to give the whole thing up. What good is a way of life if it turns out to be fatal?”

  “Are you going to support me?”

  “Not a chance. Anyway, isn’t Jillian first in line?”

  “Come on!”

  “There are worse ways to live.”

  “Several hundred thousand worse ways, Meyer, but just because Harry Broll.… Consider this. Six shots in a very confined space. What’s the matter with my reaction time?”

  “The trouble is that they were fired at all. He came here once to try to beat your face flat. So two years later he comes around again, and you invite him in to try his luck with a gun. What are you going to dodge next time? A satchel charge?”

  “I have to depend on instinct. I did not sense any kind of murderous intent on his—”

  “Then your instincts are stale. Listen. I don’t want to lose a friend. Go where I can visit once in a while. Exchange Christmas cards. Better than putting a pebble on your gravestone.”

  “Just because—”

  “Don’t talk. Think a little. And we should be going.”

  I shrugged and sighed. When he gets into one of those moods, there is nothing one can do with him. He smells doom. I button
ed up the Flush, making certain my little security devices were in operation. The sun was low enough to make a yellow-orange glow across all the white gleam and brightwork of a vulgar multimillion dollars’ worth of seagoing toys. Hundreds of millions, in truth. As we walked over I saw the sixty-plus feet of a big new Bertram, grumbling, bubbling, sliding elegantly into a slip. Six thousand dollars a foot. It doesn’t take too many of those, too many Matthews, Burgers, Trumpys, Huckins, Rybovitches, and Strikers, to make a row of zeros to stun the mind.

  I stopped and leaned my crossed arms atop a cement piling and looked down at a rainbow sheen of oil on twilight waters.

  “What’s the matter now?” asked Meyer.

  “Harry is right, you know.”

  “To try to kill you?”

  “Very funny. He’s right about Mary getting in touch. I get the feeling she would. Emotional logic. The last time her world ruptured, I helped her walk it off, talk it off, think it off.”

  “So maybe she had enough and said the hell with it.”

  “She is one stubborn lady. Harry is no prize. She married him a little too fast. But she would really bust a gut to make the marriage work. She wouldn’t quit. She wouldn’t run.”

  “Unless he did something that she just couldn’t take. Maybe it got to her gag reflex. Wouldn’t she run then?”

  “Yes. I guess so. And maybe she’s a stronger person than she was back when I knew her. All Harry said was that he had gotten mixed up with some Canadian girl, a first offense. I know that wouldn’t make Mary give any ringing cheers. But I think she’s human enough to know it wouldn’t be the end of the world or the marriage. Well, he has to locate her before the end of April, or he has big business problems.”

  “Hmm?”

  “Something about signing something so he can keep his interest in SeaGate, whatever the hell that is.”

  “It’s a planned community up in the northeast corner of Martin County, above Hobe Sound where there’s no A-1-A running along the beach. It’s a syndicate thing, way too big for anybody like Broll to swing by himself.”