1970 - There's a Hippie on the Highway Read online

  ‘She said we weren’t to wake her until we get to Miami,’ Harry reminded him. ‘If she wants to sleep, let her sleep.’

  ‘Did you get a look at her?’

  ‘No more than you did.’

  ‘She could be dishy.’

  ‘So why should you care, freak?’

  Randy laughed.

  ‘That’s the great thing about Solo’s place. It’s alive with dolls. As a lifeguard you’ll have all you can handle. Working behind the bar puts a crimp in my style. I don’t get the opportunities you’ll get. Solo advertises swimming lessons and you’ll handle that Boy! Wouldn’t I like that job! Cuddling a lush babe in the sea is my idea of good living!’

  ‘You’re still a bit of a kid, aren’t you?’ Harry said with a friendly grin.

  ‘So what’s wrong with being a kid?’

  ‘Nothing. Maybe I’m envying you.’

  ‘Hey you sound as if you were my father! You’re not telling me you don’t dig for dolls?’

  Harry thought of his wife lying in the bath with her wrists slashed. He thought of Nhan smeared in a bloody mess against a brick wall. The other women in his life too were uneasy ghosts. He couldn’t think of one of them that he could remember with pleasure.

  ‘I wouldn’t want to be your father,’ he said, sidestepping the question.

  Randy laughed and began to eat a doughnut.

  ‘While we are talking about dolls,’ he said with his mouth full, I’ll give you the photo about Nina.

  Harry glanced into the wing mirror. The headlights of the car behind him remained at its half-mile distance.

  ‘Nina?’

  ‘Yes . . . Solo’s daughter. Maybe I should tell you about Solo first. Twenty years back, Solo was the best peterman in the business. There wasn’t a safe he couldn’t open if he wanted to. The Cops finally caught up with him and he went away for fifteen years. While he was doing his time Nina was born and Mrs. Solo died. When he came out he decided to retire from the racket and he set up this restaurant in Paradise City. He is still considered the best peterman in the game and from time to time he gets propositioned to come out of retirement, but nothing will shift him. He has a good business: he makes a decent profit, and he has Nina.’ Randy paused while he rummaged in the depleted parcel and found the second doughnut. ‘You must treat Solo carefully.

  Although he’s over fifty, he’s real tough, mean and rough when he’s in the mood. He acts as his own bouncer, and if a drunk looks for trouble. Solo handles him. I’ve seen Solo handle three punks who got too close to Nina and those three punks landed in the hospital. But Solo is broad minded. He doesn’t mind the staff playing the dolls so long as the dolls are pleased too, but no one and that includes you and me, tries to get close to Nina.’ Randy paused to bite into the doughnut. He munched for a moment, then went on, ‘I’m telling you this because I don’t want you to run into trouble. Nina is something pretty special. You have to see her to understand just how special she is. When I first saw her, I didn’t sleep for a couple of nights. I guess I couldn’t keep my eyes off her and Manuel - he’s the Captain of Waiters - warned me. He said Nina was strictly for the birds. If I started something with her, Solo would finish it for me, and when I say finish, I mean just that.’

  Harry moved impatiently.

  ‘Look, Randy,’ he said, ‘I appreciate what you are telling me, but another thing the Army taught me was not to do it on my own doorstep. If I work for Solo, then his daughter will be just another sun umbrella to me.’

  Randy wiped the sugar off his mouth with the back of his hand.

  ‘Don’t be that sure. You haven’t seen her yet.’

  ‘That’s right: I haven’t seen her, but I’m about four years older than you and that makes a difference. When I need a woman I find one without complications. I’m old enough not to get involved with a woman who could make complications.’

  ‘Boy! You sound worse than my old man who was always talking like that,’ Randy said. ‘Anyway, I thought it had better come from me than from Manuel You mightn’t like him. He isn’t your type. He isn’t my type either. If he can make trouble for a guy, he makes it. But you don’t have to worry about him. You’ll be an outside man, directly under Solo. It’s my bet Manuel will take one look at you and leave you alone.’

  ‘What does the daughter do?’ Harry asked.

  ‘She handles the office, the reservations and the accounts. In the evening she circulates in the bar and the restaurant. Solo does the marketing and the cooking. It’s one of the three top restaurants in the City and that’s saying something. The competition is fierce, but it doesn’t faze Solo. He really knows his job.’

  Ahead, Harry saw a big flashing sign that spelt out in red and yellow lettering: Snacks – Twenty-Four Hour Service.

  ‘This is the place,’ Randy said. ‘Best coffee this side of Paradise City.’

  ‘We’ll stop then,’ Harry said. ‘Then you can drive and I’ll eat.’

  ‘Sure. Think we should wake the doll?’

  ‘Let her be.’

  Harry slowed the Mustang as they approached the brightly lit cafe. In the layby were four big trucks and several dusty cars.

  Harry found room and manoeuvred the Mustang and the caravan into a space between two trucks.

  ‘Don’t let’s waste time,’ he said and slid out of the car. He paused for a moment to look back along the highway. The headlights of the car that had been behind them were rapidly approaching. Randy was already at the door of the cafe and Harry joined him They entered the big room where four burly truckers were sitting up at the counter, eating and drinking coffee. A few men, obviously from the cars, were at the tables scattered around the room: most of them looked like tired salesmen. Some of them were checking through papers while they drank coffee: a few were eating the night special which Harry saw was a sticky looking goulash.

  He and Randy went to the bar and ordered coffee. Harry offered his Camels and they lit up. The truckers eyed Randy. Harry could tell by their expressions none of them had time for a guy who wore his hair that long.

  Harry heard a car arrive and stop. He glanced out of the window near him. He could see a white Mercedes SL 180 and he wondered if it was the car that had been behind him. He stepped closer to the window, but the car was already on the move again.

  He just had time to see the man at the wheel was wearing a slouch hat, but it was too dark to see his features. With a powerful purr of the engine, the Mercedes went shooting off into the darkness.

  ‘How’s this for coffee?’ Randy asked.

  Harry sipped from his cup and nodded. Any coffee tasted fine after Army coffee. He bought two packs of Camels and asked the counter hand if he could let him have a pint carton of coffee to take on the road.

  Five minutes later, they were back in the Mustang with Randy at the wheel.

  Still puzzled about the girl driver, Harry opened the glove compartment and examined for himself the Hertz rental contract. As Randy had told him the car was rented to Joel Blach of

  Cleveland. The contract had been issued at Vero Beach, dated two days ago. Again he checked the mileage . . . a mere 240 miles. Why had the girl told him she had been driving for eighteen hours? Harry considered this a blatant lie. The only reason he could think of was that it offered an excuse to turn the driving over to him. But why? Had she some reason to keep out of sight? Was the car stolen? He thought that was unlikely since she was travelling with them and if the police stopped him, she too would be in trouble.

  ‘Are you still doing a Marlow act?’ Randy asked, glancing at Harry’s thoughtful expression, lit by the map lamp. Harry shrugged and put the Hertz papers back in the glove compartment.

  ‘I don’t like anything that puzzles me,’ he said. ‘And this setup puzzles me.’

  ‘Why not ask her to explain when she wakes up? Why batter your brains when she can tell you?’

  ‘Yeah.’ Harry began opening the parcel Morelli had given him. The coffee had made him hungry.

>   ‘If you don’t want the second doughnut, I’ll help out,’ Randy said hopefully.

  ‘I do want it. You’ve had enough already.’

  ‘My pal!’ Randy said with mock bitterness. ‘You’re not planning to eat all that chicken, are you?’

  ‘I’m going to have a damn good try!’

  Randy shook his head incredulously.

  ‘Didn’t the army teach you among other things to share and share alike?’

  ‘Why should you care? Harry said and bit into a chicken leg.

  * * *

  ‘Hey, wake up!’

  Harry stirred, yawned and opened his eyes. He stared through the dusty windshield at the yellow, red and pearl grey sky and at the palm trees that flashed by as the Mustang swept along the highway.

  ‘We’ve just gone through Fort Lauderdale,’ Randy told him. ‘We’ll be in Miami in twenty minutes.’

  Harry rubbed his hand over his face, feeling the stubble of his beard. He hated sleeping in his clothes although during his time in the Army it was an accepted thing but he had never got used to it. He longed for a shave, a cold shower and coffee.

  ‘Let’s stop at the first cafe. We’ll wake the girl up and see where in Miami she wants to drop us.’

  ‘I’m going to miss this car,’ Randy said regretfully. ‘There’s a cafe coming up now.’

  The small wooden building with its glaring neon sign was just off the highway. Lights showed in the windows. As Randy slowed, Harry glanced at his watch. The time was 05.15 hours.

  He grimaced. A hell of a time, he thought, to wake up.

  As Randy pulled up, Harry opened the door.

  ‘I’ll get a couple of cartons of coffee. You wake her up.’

  Randy smirked.

  ‘It’ll be my pleasure. You know something? I really think you don’t dig for dolls.’

  ‘Oh, shut up!’ Harry snapped. He wasn’t in the mood for Randy’s corny humour. He went into the cafe.

  A sleepy looking negro was behind the counter. He regarded Harry without enthusiasm.

  ‘Two cartons of strong coffee,’ Harry said, coming to rest at the counter. ‘Black, and lots of sugar.’

  ‘You want doughnuts?’

  Harry didn’t, but he thought the girl might and he was sure Randy would.

  ‘Four, please.’

  He watched the negro pour coffee into the wax containers.

  The smell of the coffee made his nose twitch. He lit a cigarette, coughed as the smoke bit at the back of his throat.

  The negro put four doughnuts into a paper sack.

  ‘Ain’t you afraid of lung cancer, mister?’ he asked as he pushed the sack across the counter.

  ‘Does it scare you?’ Harry asked, taking a dollar from his billfold.

  ‘I don’t smoke.’

  Harry stared at him,

  ‘So why should you care about me?’

  The negro blinked, shrugged and took the dollar.

  ‘And thirty cents.’

  Harry added the money and as he picked up the two cartons, he heard the horn of the Mustang give two sharp bleeps. He frowned picked up the sack of doughnuts and walked quickly to the door.

  Randy was sitting behind the driving wheel. As soon as he saw Harry, he made an urgent gesture to hurry.

  Harry crossed to the car and stared at Randy through the open window. One look at Randy’s pallid, sweating face told him something bad had happened. He didn’t wait to ask questions. He opened the car door and slid into the passenger’s seat and slammed the door.

  Randy sent the Mustang racing along the highway. He was practically standing on the gas pedal.

  ‘What is it?’ Harry asked quietly, ‘and cut your speed. Do you imagine you’re on a racetrack. Cut your speed!’

  Randy shivered. He passed his hand over his sweating face, but Harry’s quiet firm voice steadied him. He eased the speed down to 65 m.p.h.

  ‘She’s dead,’ he said, his voice quivering. ‘There’s blood on the blanket and she’s as stiff as a board.’

  Harry felt a little jolt inside him: a small, controlled explosion of shock. The first sight he had of Randy’s face had told him it would be bad, but he hadn’t expected it to be this bad.

  ‘Where do you think you’re going?’ he said, his voice even and quiet. ‘Pull up! I’ll take a look.’

  ‘We don’t stop on this highway,’ Randy said wildly. ‘The cops start patrolling any time now! I’m not going to be caught with a body! They’ll think we killed her!’

  Harry’s face tightened. He hadn’t thought of that possibility. Yes . . . if a cop stopped them and found . . . He stamped down on a tiny spark of panic and extinguished it.

  ‘You’re sure she’s dead?’

  ‘I’m sure. I knocked on the door and there was no answer so I tried the door and it opened,’ Randy gulped, swallowed, then went on. ‘She was on the lower berth, covered with a blanket. There was a smell in there that turned me over. Then I saw a smear of blood on the blanket. I nearly flipped. I called to her, then leaned in and took hold of her arm. That was enough for me. It was like catching hold of a lump of wood.’

  Ahead of them, Harry saw a turning with a signpost that read: ‘Beach. Safe Swimming.’

  ‘Turn off here,’ he said, ‘and cut your speed.’ He looked into the wing mirror. The highway was deserted.

  Randy slowed and steered the car and caravan down the dirt road. They drove in tense silence for about half a mile. The road opened out onto a vast stretch of golden sand, surrounded by shrubs and hillocks. Some two hundred yards beyond the hillocks was the sea.

  ‘Pull up here,’ Harry said. ‘The caravan will explain what we are doing. Anyone seeing us will think we’ve spent the night here.’

  Randy stopped the car by a grass-covered sand dune. He began to shake as soon as he tinned the engine off.

  ‘Get hold of yourself,’ Harry said sharply. He thrust a carton of coffee into Randy’s shakes hand. ‘Drink some of this!’

  ‘I can’t. I’ll throw up!’ Randy moaned.

  ‘Come on!’

  Randy stared with revulsion at the carton. Losing patience Harry slid out of the car.

  ‘Stay here. I’ll take a look.’

  He walked over the soft sand to the rear of the caravan. He paused to look right and left. The two miles of beach was deserted except for a few gulls walking by the surf. The grey had gone out of the sky now and the yellow and red were dissolving into a soft blue as the sun began to rise.

  He took out his handkerchief, put it over the handle of the caravan door and turned it, pulling the door open. The smell of death he had lived with for the past three years came out of the caravan making him grimace. He could see a huddled form, completely covered by a grey blanket, lying on the lower berth. There was a long smear of dried blood on the lower end of the blanket as Randy had described.

  Harry stepped into the caravan and lifted the blanket, drawing it back and letting it drop.

  He looked down at the face of a man well into his fifties in spite of a thick thatch of dark brown hair: a thin, sun burned face with a small beaky nose, a mean lipless mouth and ice grey eyes that stared up at Harry in a terror that remained in spite of death.

  The right side of the face carried a livid bruise. The sharp, yellowing teeth revealed by the lips drawn back were bloodstained and gave to the dead face a snarling, animal defiance.

  Harry shifted his eyes and looked quickly around the caravan and then into the top bunk. The dead man was the only occupant.

  ‘She’s dead, isn’t she?’ Randy quavered. He had come around to the back of the caravan, but was standing well away from it, watching Harry with sick, scared eyes.

  Harry stepped out of the caravan and fumbled for his pack of Camels. He lit a cigarette, noting his hands were rock steady. But then, he thought, he had lived with dead, stinking bodies for so long: another was merely a problem.

  ‘She’s gone . . . it’s a man,’ he said and drew in a deep lungful of smoke.r />
  A light breeze that sprang up to herald the sun, wafted the smell of death to Randy. He paled, turned away and began to vomit. Harry walked to the Mustang, found the carton of coffee and drank deeply. The lukewarm coffee cleared the taste in his mouth. He leaned against the side of the car, holding the carton, his mind busy.

  From the moment he had caught the girl in the lie that she had been driving eighteen hours, he had been uneasy. He should have trusted his instinct and have tackled her as soon as he knew she was lying.

  Shrugging, he went to where Randy was now sitting on the sand, holding his head in his hands and stood over him.

  ‘Did you stop any time while I was asleep?’

  Randy looked up.

  ‘No. I kept moving the whole time. Has she gone?’

  Harry squatted down beside him.

  ‘Yes, she’s gone. This guy has been dead some time . . . forty-eight hours: could be more than that. It’s my bet he was in the caravan when she picked us up. She must have sneaked out of the caravan when we were at that cafe.’ He suddenly remembered the white Mercedes. ‘The Mercedes that was following us! It stopped for a few moments outside the cafe. That’s it! He was behind us all the time, waiting for us to stop. When we did stop, she switched to the Mercedes.’ He stared at the sea, frowning. ‘It could be this dead man is Joel Blach who hired the car from Hertz.’

  Randy got hurriedly to his feet. There was panic in his eyes.

  ‘Let’s get the hell away from here!’

  Harry stared up at him.

  ‘Sit down!’ The snap in his voice got obedience from Randy who sat down again. ‘You don’t seem to realise the jam we’re in,’ Harry went on. ‘When the police find the caravan and what’s in it, they’ll start asking questions. You can bet someone has seen us with the Mustang. Once the police get a description of us, it won’t take them long to pick us up. Can you imagine how they will react when we tell them what happened? They’ll think this dead guy gave us a ride and we knocked him off for the car and his money . . . that’s the way they always think, and that’s what this girl wants them to think.’ He paused, frowning. ‘It was a deliberate plant. She was on the highway to dump the Mustang and the caravan on the first likely hitchhiker she came across. That explains why neither of us got a look at her. With those goggles and that head scarf she is a non-existent woman.’