The Golden Keel / The Vivero Letter. Desmond Bagley

my …’ she hesitated for a word, ‘… my more unsavoury friends I would willingly commit to this affair. I told you they are adventurous and they are not old men – no older than you, Mr Halloran,’ she ended sweetly.

      ‘A hundred of them?’

      She thought a little. ‘Fifty, then,’ she compromised. ‘My father’s hill fighters will be more than a match for those dockland gangsters.’

      I had no doubt about that – if they fought man to man. But Metcalfe and Torloni could probably whip up every thug in Italy, and would do for a stake as large as this.

      I said, ‘I want further guarantees. How do I know we won’t be double-crossed?’

      ‘You don’t,’ she said meagrely.

      I decided to go in for some melodramatics. ‘I want you to swear that you won’t double-cross us.’

      She raised her hand. ‘I swear that I, Francesca di Estrenoli, promise faithfully not to trick, in any way, Mr Halloran of South Africa.’ She smiled at me. ‘Is that good enough?’

      I shook my head. ‘No, it isn’t enough. You said yourself that you were a dishonourable woman. No, I want you to swear on your father’s name and honour.’

      Pink anger spots burned on her cheeks and I thought for a moment that she was going to slap my face. I said gently, ‘Do you swear?’

      She dropped her eyes. ‘I swear,’ she said in a low voice.

      ‘On your father’s name and honour,’ I persisted.

      ‘On my father’s name and on his honour,’ she said, and looked up. ‘Now I hope you are satisfied.’ There were tears in her eyes again.

      I relaxed. It wasn’t much but it was the best I could do and I hoped it would hold her.

      The man from behind the counter came over to the table slowly. He looked at me with dislike and said to Francesca, ‘Is everything all right, madame?’

      ‘Yes, Giuseppi, everything is all right.’ She smiled at him. ‘Nothing is wrong.’

      Giuseppi smiled back at her, gave me a hard look and returned to the counter. I felt a prickle at the back of my neck. I had the feeling that if Francesca had said that everything was not all right I would have been a candidate for a watery dockside grave before the week was out.

      I cocked my thumb at the counter. ‘One of your soldier friends?’

      She nodded. ‘He saw you had hurt me, so he came over to see what he could do.’

      ‘I didn’t mean to hurt you,’ I said.

      ‘You shouldn’t have come here. You shouldn’t have come to Italy. What is it to you? I can understand Coertze and Walker; they fought the Germans, they buried the gold. But I cannot understand you.’

      I said gently, ‘I fought the Germans, too, in Holland, and Germany.’

      ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I shouldn’t have said that.’

      ‘That’s all right. As for the rest …’ I shrugged. ‘Somebody had to plan – Coertze and Walker couldn’t do it. Walker is an alcoholic and Coertze is all beef and no – subtlety. They needed someone to get behind and push.’

      ‘But why is it you who has to push?’

      ‘I had a reason once,’ I said shortly. ‘Forget it. Let’s get some things straightened out. What about the split?’

      ‘The split?’

      ‘How do we divide the loot?’

      ‘I hadn’t thought of that – it will need some thinking about.’

      ‘It will,’ I agreed. ‘Now, there’s the three of us, there’s you and there’s fifty of your friends – fifty-four in all. If you’re thinking along the lines of fifty-four equal shares you can forget about it. We won’t have it.’

      ‘I can’t see how we can work this out when we don’t know how much money will be involved.’

      ‘We work it on a percentage basis,’ I said impatiently. ‘This is how I see it – one share each for the three of us, one share for you and one share to be divided among your friends.’

      ‘No,’ she said firmly. ‘That’s not fair. You have done nothing about this, at all. You are just a plunderer.’

      ‘I thought you’d take that attitude,’ I said. ‘Now, listen, and listen damned carefully because I’m not going to repeat this. Coertze and Walker are entitled to a share each. They fought for the gold and they disposed of it carefully. Besides, they are the only people who know where it is. Right?’

      She nodded agreement.

      I smiled grimly. ‘Now we come to me whom you seem to despise.’ She made a sudden gesture with her hand and I waved her down. ‘I’m the brains behind this. I know a way of getting the stuff out of Italy and I’ve arranged a sale for it. Without me this whole plan would flop, and I’ve invested a lot of time and money in it. Therefore I think I’m entitled to an equal share.’

      I stabbed my finger at her. ‘And now you come along and blackmail us. Yes, blackmail,’ I said as she opened her mouth to protest. ‘You’ve done nothing constructive towards the plan and you complain about getting an equal share. As for your friends, as far as I’m concerned, they are hired muscle to be paid for. If you don’t think they’re being paid enough with one-fifth between them you can supplement it out of your own share.’

      ‘But it will be so little for them,’ she said.

      ‘Little!’ I said, and was shocked into speechlessness. I recovered my breath. ‘Do you know how much is involved?’

      ‘Not exactly,’ she said cautiously.

      I threw discretion to the winds. ‘There’s over £1,500,000 in gold alone – and there’s probably an equal amount in cut gem-stones. The gold alone means £300,000 for a fifth share and that’s £6,000 each for your friends. If you count the jewels you can double those figures.’

      Her eyes widened as she mentally computed this into lire. It was an astronomical calculation and took her some time. ‘So much,’ she whispered.

      ‘So much,’ I said. I had just had an idea. The gems had been worrying me because they would be hot – in the criminal sense. They would need recutting and disguising and the whole thing would be risky. Now I saw the chance of doing an advantageous deal.

      ‘Look here,’ I said generously. ‘I’ve just offered you and your friends two-fifths of the take. Supposing the jewels are worth more than two-fifths – and I reckon they are – then you can take the lot of them, leaving the disposal of the gold to the three of us. After all, gems are more portable and easily hidden.’

      She fell for it. ‘I know a jeweller who was with us during the war; he could do the valuation. Yes, that seems reasonable.’

      It seemed reasonable to me, also, since I had been taking only the gold into my calculations all the time. Coertze, Walker and myself would still come out with half a million each.

      ‘There’s one other thing,’ I said.

      ‘What’s that?’

      ‘There’s a lot of paper money in this hoard – lire, francs, dollars and so on. Nobody takes any of that – there’ll be records of the numbers lodged with every bank in the world. You’ll have to control your friends when it comes to that.’

      ‘I can control them,’ she said loftily. She smiled and held out her hand. ‘It’s a deal, then, as the Americans say.’

      I looked at her hand but didn’t touch it. I shook my head. ‘Not yet. I still have to discuss it with Coertze and Walker.