Cargo for the Styx by Louis Trimble Page B

been anybody else.” She sipped her drink. “You don’t have to believe that, but it’s true.”
    I found a chair big enough for my weight. I sat down. I said, “I’ll believe it. Now let’s skip your sex life.”
    She set the glass she was carrying down on the dresser. She opened a closet door and pulled out a dress. She pulled it on and smoothed it down over her hips. She didn’t bother with anything else, just the dress.
    She said, “All right, so you watched a man being blown up. Why come crying to me about it?”
    I said, “You’re trying to be hard. You aren’t. You’re scared simple.”
    She pushed her feet into a pair of white sandals. “All right, I’m scared. Now what do we play?”
    I poured my drink down myself. I put the empty glass on the floor. “We talk,” I said. “We talk about you and Aggie and a couple of goons named Vann and Otho. We talk about Jaspar Clift and the
Temoc
. And we talk about a poor, scared guy named Blimey.”
    She said quickly, “What about Blimey?”
    I said, “Where is he? The police couldn’t find any pieces, so they figure he’s still alive.”
    She let herself drop to the edge of her canopied bed. “What are you talking about? Pieces of what?”
    I said, “Pieces of Blimey. Where in hell have you been all afternoon?”
    She wasn’t trying to hide her fear now. It showed in the whiteness at the corners of her mouth and nostrils. It showed in the way she stared at me.
    She whispered, “I really was a little drunk this afternoon. I went to sleep.”
    I said, “Then you slept through an explosion.” I told her what had happened to Blimey’s Shack. I told her about his phone call that was supposed to take me to the Shack in time to get a free launching into orbit. All the time I talked, she just stared at me.
    She said finally, “And because Blimey’s my friend, you thought I put him up to making that call.”
    I said, “That was the idea.”
    She said simply, “No.” She stood up. “What else do you think about me—and Aggie?”
    I said, “Before Clarence got a free ride on my refrigerator door, he talked. He talked about Vann and about Jaspar.” I told her about Vann and Jaspar. I didn’t mention Irma. I didn’t want to believe that part of Clarence’s story. Not after last night.
    I said, “So Vann wants to use the
Temoc
to collect his eighty thousand off Jaspar. But Vann is a gambler, not a con artist. I don’t think he’d know how to beat out an insurance company.”
    Bonnie said, “So you’ve elected Aggie as a kind of advisor to this Vann? He’s supposed to tell Vann how to take Marine Mutual for a hundred thousand dollars?”
    I said, “That’s how I see it.”
    She said, “And I helped Aggie by trying to find out what you’d learned about the set-up.”
    “You’re doing fine,” I said.
    She said, “Did you ever know Aggie to use muscle, Zane? To kill anyone?”
    “There’s always a first time for everything,” I said.
    She sat down heavily. “I guess that’s the way it’s supposed to look. Aggie is the goat. Aggie killed poor little Prebble and tried to kill you. With his reputation, he’s a natural.”
    I said, “Can you make it look any different?”
    She said, “I can try. Why do you think I came to see you last night, for kicks?”
    “To help Aggie,” I reminded her.
    “You’re damn right, to help him,” she said. “But not the way you have it figured out. Remember, Aggie came to you to find out what I was up to. And that was on the level.”
    She stood up abruptly. “Let’s have another drink, Zane.”
    I didn’t want another drink, but I went with her into the living room. I watched her make herself a stiff one. I said, “Where’s Aggie?”
    “I wish I knew,” she said. She took a chair and perched on the edge. “I thought I could handle this by myself. I was wrong, wasn’t I? All I’ve done is mess things up.”
    I said, “You lost me back aways.”
    She held her full glass in both hands. She