Caught Dead

THREE

Michael Shayne and the girl had spent the day fishing off the Keys, had returned to the city late and were among the last diners in the restaurant. This was Shayne’s favorite restaurant in the area, an unpretentious seafood place in downtown Miami.

“I have a feeling they want to kick us out,” the girl said.

“What makes you think that?” Shayne said. “Just because he keeps hovering around winding his watch-” He grinned up at the waiter. “All right, Lou, stop giving us hints. Let’s have the check.”

“Take your time, Mike. Are you sure you don’t want another brandy?”

The manager came over from the cash counter, bringing a phone. “A call for you, Mike.”

He set the phone on the table and plugged it in. Shayne said hello.

Over a crackle of static and the sound of an operator completing another call, Tim Rourke’s voice said: “Mike. Listen carefully.”

There was a thump and the line went dead.

“Tim?” Shayne said, sitting forward.

He heard nothing but a slow crackle, a woman’s voice saying something faintly in Spanish. An instant before, Shayne’s rangy, well-muscled athlete’s body had been totally relaxed. Now he crouched forward, lines of concentration forming at the corners of his eyes.

“Tim, can you hear me?”

“Is that Tim Rourke?” the girl said as he clicked for the operator. “Isn’t he off somewhere in the Bahamas?”

“Trinidad, the last I knew,” Shayne said. “Drinking rum punches and talking about going snorkeling. He actually did some skindiving one afternoon about six years ago.”

He continued to rattle the disconnect bar. A moment passed before he could get the operator’s attention.

“Give me the supervisor,” he said curtly.

When that woman was on, he had her check her long-distance lines. She reported in a moment that Rourke had been calling person-to-person from Caracas, Venezuela. Shayne’s answering service had passed the call along to the restaurant. They had lost the connection, but if Shayne would hang up, undoubtedly his party would place the call again.

“No, let’s do it this way,” Shayne said. “The Caracas operator must have a record of the call. Ask her to check the number he was calling from, and get back to me. Can you do that? I believe it may be important.”

He hung up, frowning. “You never know when Tim’s after a story. If anybody gets in his way he tries to run over them, and you know Tim-he’s no bulldozer. All he said was, ‘Listen carefully,’ and we were cut off.”

“‘Listen carefully,’” she repeated.

“The connection was lousy. I don’t know, but it seemed to me he sounded”-he hesitated-“as though the roof was about to fall in. And God knows that kind of thing has been known to happen to Tim.”

“Venezuela. I think I read about some kind of trouble down there.”

Shayne shrugged. He had just come off a hard case and hadn’t looked at a paper or television for five days. He ordered another round of cognac and paid for it when it came, dismissing the waiter.

The phone rang. “On that Caracas call,” the supervisor said. “It was placed from a public phone, and the instrument appears to be out of order. The operator gets a busy signal. She’s cut into the line, but no one is talking on it.”

“O.K. If it’s an inside phone see if you can get the location. Maybe there’s somebody there who can tell us something.”

Shayne had time to finish his cognac before she came back.

“It’s a hotel, Mr. Shayne. They’re ringing.”

In a moment a desk clerk answered and he and Shayne had a puzzling, inconclusive exchange. Like most hotel employees in Latin America, the Venezuelan spoke English, but he couldn’t seem to put his mind on what Shayne was saying. There was a babble of voices around him.

“What’s going on?” Shayne said. “What’s all the excitement?”

“It is difficult to know, Senor. Pardon me. I must-”

He clicked off.

Becoming more alarmed, Shayne dialed the number of Rourke’s paper and asked for the night editor, a veteran newspaperman named Caldwell, who had frequently covered for Rourke when the reporter’s unorthodox methods made the management unhappy. Rourke had been in Caracas several days, he told Shayne, and had filed his first dispatch that afternoon. It would appear in the next day’s paper.

“Nothing new in the piece,” Caldwell said. “The dictator down there just got the boot-you probably read about it. Tim wrote it like a crime story. The capos didn’t like the way the boss was cutting up the melon, so they withdrew their respect. That made it an automatic hit and a contract was issued. But before the button men could reach him he tried to lam, cracked up, and the fuzz got him. It’s a typical Tim Rourke story and we’re giving it a good play.”

“It’s probably going to offend a few people down there.”

Caldwell laughed. “He’ll be out of the country before they see it. He’s due back in the morning.”

“Do you know how to reach him?”

“He’s probably staying at the Hilton. We’ve got a due bill there. Why?”

“He called a few minutes ago, but somebody pulled us out before he could say anything.”

“Let me try him from here.”

Shayne held on, drumming his fingers on the table until Caldwell reported that Rourke was indeed registered at the Hilton, but his room phone didn’t answer.

“What did he say to you, exactly?”

“‘Listen carefully.’ That’s all. I could hardly hear him. That could mean almost anything, but now the son of a bitch has got me worrying.”

“Listen carefully. I’m in a corner and need help. Or-listen carefully, I’ve just met a chick and you won’t believe these measurements. With Tim, it’s a tossup. But if somebody’s chasing him in Caracas, what can you do about it in Miami? I left word at the hotel for him to call the paper. If we haven’t heard from him by morning there are various things we can do.”

“Do something else for me,” Shayne said. “Watch the teletype, and if anything out of the ordinary comes in, let me know.”

The phone rang a little after two. Shayne was awake, smoking in the darkness.

He was still bothered by the odd little episode, although he had had many equally strange calls from Rourke, from stranger places. Having filed his story, Rourke would be out on the town. After a certain number of drinks, he always had a strong desire to telephone people.

On an impulse-obviously he wasn’t rushing off to Latin America on the strength of two words as innocuous as listen carefully — Shayne had phoned the Miami International Airport to check on flights to Venezuela. Plane service had been resumed, and the first was at nine in the morning. By that time Caldwell would have heard something.

Now he turned on the tight-focus lamp on the bedside table and spoke softly into the phone, trying not to awaken the sleeping girl beside him.

“Shayne.”

Caldwell’s voice was tight. “Well, he’s been busted, Mike, and needless to say, not for anything minor. Alvares and a couple of others have been assassinated, including an American, a UPI man. Tim had something to do with planting the bomb.”

Shayne swung out of bed. “Read it to me.”

“That’s the flash. The follow-up’s just beginning to come in.”

Shayne shook out another cigarette and lit it from the stub of the one he had been smoking.

“Larry Howe,” Caldwell said, “interviewing the ex-president in La Vega prison. Bomb exploded. Terrific force. Center of prison torn apart, killing Alvares, Howe, and a government official named Menendez. Calderistas demonstrating in downtown Caracas. Army mobilized. Students have taken over university. New junta seen endangered.”

The girl sat up in bed, pushing back her hair. “What is it, Mike?”

He shrugged and waited.

Caldwell continued. “General round-up of left-wing opposition. Yeah, here it comes. American reporter Timothy Rourke accused of smuggling bomb into prison inside cigarette carton. Slugged a cop, attempted to escape. Recaptured after automobile chase through downtown Caracas. That’s our Tim.”

“Is the News plane available?”

“As far as I know. I’ll find out.”

“If the paper wants to retain me to go down there and see what happened I can leave right away. It would help to represent somebody.”

“I know we’ll go along with that, Mike, but it may take a while to make it official. I’ll have to wake up a few people. The front office hasn’t been too enthused about Tim lately, but what choice do they have? He’s on our payroll, after all. ‘Listen carefully.’ I wish he’d finished that sentence. What do you think, Mike? Do you think he really had anything to do with this bomb thing?”

“Hell, no. He has romantic ideas about guerrilla movements, but not to the extent of helping them blow up people. He had to be conned, which means there’s a girl involved. See how much cash you can scrape up. I’ll need to buy some help after I get there.”

“How well do you know Caracas?”

“Not at all. I’ve never been there. And I don’t speak Spanish. So I want to be carrying plenty of cash.”

He dressed quickly. The girl was sitting up watching him, but the look on his face kept her from asking questions. He packed a small bag, including a fifth of cognac, a. 38 revolver and a box of ammunition. After some hunting, he located his passport.

“You’ll need somebody who can translate for you,” she said finally. “Why not take me?”

Without replying, Shayne dialed the Washington, D.C., area code, and followed it with the unlisted phone number of one of the two Florida Senators, who had won re-election partly as a result of some last-minute help from Shayne.

The Senator’s wife answered.

“This is Michael Shayne. I’m sorry about the hour, but I need to talk to him.”

“Mike, damn it, he had trouble getting to sleep, and if you could wait till morning-”

The Senator took the phone. “At two-thirty I know it’s got to be important, Mike. What can I do?”

Shayne gave him a quick summary of the news from Caracas.

“Tim Rourke!” the Senator exclaimed. “Mixed up in an assassination? They must have the wrong man.”

“This was just the bulletin-there probably won’t be any more hard news till morning. If he’s in jail, here’s the problem. He doesn’t believe in telling cops anything but his name and address and sometimes not even that. But I know him well enough so that if I can get in to see him he may be able to pass on something. And then what do I do with it? All I can say in the Spanish language is ‘thanks’ and ‘how are you?’ Are you with me this far, Senator?”

“I think so. I’d say you have your work cut out for you.”

“But everybody will figure he told me something important, whether he actually did or not. That’s going to open up possibilities. What I want to get from you is the name of somebody in the Embassy who can give me some background without making a big official thing out of it.”

“I see,” the Senator said slowly. “Who can find out what the police are thinking, and can put you onto angles he can’t do anything about himself-”

“That’s it. Tim’s an American citizen, but they’ll want to know whether he’s innocent or guilty before they stick their necks out for him. I’m hoping to use the News plane. I can call you from the airport. If you can ask somebody in the State Department-”

“I can give you a name right now. It’s Felix Frost. I’ve read reports by him, and the man seems to be absolutely first class. He’s on the Embassy payroll, but I’m assuming he represents the intelligence community, in one way or another. Be discreet about that aspect, of course. He has good pipelines into all the various political groups and his connections with the new junta seem to be very good.”

“Will he cooperate?”

“I’ll suggest it to him, and inasmuch as I’m a member of the Armed Services Committee, I believe he’ll cooperate with enthusiasm. I’m not saying you can trust him fully. These fellows seem to get more devious year by year. But I know I don’t have to give you that warning.”

Shayne thanked him, and the Senator offered to do anything else he could to help.

“I like Tim, but don’t take too many chances, Mike. You know it’s no longer possible to send the Marines down after you. Those days are past, and on the whole I think it’s a good thing. Well, back to sleep, perhaps.”

Shayne hung up and told the girl, “Make a call for me. The man’s name is Felix Frost, in Caracas, and it may take a little time to get his home phone. Mention the Senator and ask him to have somebody meet me at the airport.”

“Mike, I really can speak Spanish. I could sit in a hotel room and take your phone calls.”

Leaning down, he kissed her forehead. “I’ll call you when I get back.”

“Get back in one piece, Mike, please?”