Recoil

“For twenty bucks you can do a little better than that, old man.” Frank held the bill up a yard from the messenger’s nose.

“Well he was kind of dark, I remember that. Not Negro, a white man but he had dark hair, dark clothes.”

Ezio said, “Black suit?”

“Maybe. I guess it was. Young man, dark hair, that’s it. Not very big. No bigger than me.”

“What kind of voice did he have? How did he sound?”

“Ordinary. Nothing special. He wasn’t no foreigner or anything.”

Ezio said, “Sounds like the same guy.”

Frank pushed the twenty-dollar bill into the old man’s hand and Cestone ushered him out.

They opened the parcel on the pool table. There were two enclosures: a cassette of recording tape and a small gold ring. Frank held the ring up and squinted at the tiny inscription engraved inside it. “A

“Got a recorder to play this tape on?”

“The kids have them. I’ll be right back.”

While Frank was gone Ezio examined the cassette. On Side One it had the words Frank Pastor printed in block letters in pencil. There was nothing written on Side Two. It was an ordinary half-hour cassette; you could buy the brand in any electronics shop.

Frank came into the study carrying a small recorder. They plugged the cassette in and Ezio punched the “start” button. The tape ran silently for a bit; then there was a click and a hollow noise as if the microphone had banged against something when it was picked up.

Ezio clenched his fists and prepared to listen.

3

“This is for Frank Pastor’s ears only. And I suppose Ezio Martin’s if it’s unavoidable.”

Ezio looked up. He couldn’t read Frank’s face.

“I’m sure you recognize my voice, although it’s been a long time since you’ve heard it.”

“I recognize it, Merle.”

“… We’ve invited Mrs. Pastor to spend a vacation with us. She’s a little run-down, I think she needs a holiday.”

“Vicious bastard,” Frank said. He swung roughly away but not before Ezio saw the moisture in his eyes.

“We have a few requests to make of you. They’re simple and you shouldn’t have any trouble following them. You may have thought that your wife had been kidnapped, but that’s not true. She’s taking a vacation, that’s all. Nobody is asking for ransom money or anything of the kind.”

Ezio said, “That’s in case we brought a few friendly cops in.”

Frank said irritably, “Shut up,” and because they’d missed a few words he pushed the “stop” button and rewound the tape slightly. Then he started the machine again.

“… vacation, that’s all. Nobody is asking for ransom money or anything of the kind. Your wife is in perfectly good health, she’s just a little tired. The rest should do her good. The only thing that could endanger her health, and the health of the baby, would be an attack on her or the place where she’s resting. I’m sure you understand what that means.

“We don’t know yet how long A

“She doesn’t want you to worry, but I think you should. We’ll be in touch at fairly regular intervals. Expect to hear from us again in a week or so. In the meantime, as I said before, we have a few simple requests and recommendations.

“First, it would be unwise for you to issue an alarm. Mrs. Pastor doesn’t need excitement right now. It could be injurious to her. Please don’t make any efforts to find her, or to find us. We’d hear about them and we’d act accordingly.

“Second, we’d like you to equip yourself with a motion-picture projector. It should be a sixteen millimeter sound-on-film projector, the standard kind that uses magnetic sound-reproduction and has a single row of sprockets rather than a double row. You’ll need this equipment in the next week or two because Mrs. Pastor will be sending you some movie film.

“Third, Mrs. Pastor feels that you should stop hunting for me and for Mr. Benson, Mr. Fusco and Mr. Draper. She said that unless you call off the search immediately, you may not see her again. Ever. She’s quite serious about this.

“Fourth, all communications from Mrs. Pastor and from me and my associates will be in the form of messenger-delivered tapes and films. Therefore there is no need for you to install expensive taps and tracing equipment on your telephones. We won’t be using telephones.

“Possibly this experience will be good for you. It may teach you what it’s like to be frantically concerned for the life and well-being of your wife and your child.”

4

Ezio expected him to explode but Frank only ran the tape back to the begi

Ezio said, “The guy’s gone psycho.”

“Looks like it.”

“What do you want to do, Frank?”

“Think.”

“You want me to go?”

“No.”

Ezio rewound the tape and stood awkwardly with his hands in his pockets waiting for Frank to speak.

After a while Frank said, “Well we can call off those people in San Diego County, at least.”

“It’s for sure he’s not down there,” Ezio agreed. “What about the other three?”

“He’s trying to make us think the four of them are in this together. I’m having a little trouble swallowing that. I think he just wants to make himself look more formidable than he is.”

“Formidable enough. He’s got A

“He won’t keep her forever. And he won’t kill her because if he did that he’d know nothing would stop us pulling him apart a hair at a time.” Frank examined his fingernails bleakly. “The movie projector thing, that’s what worries me. What kind of home movies does this nut want to show us?”

“I don’t know, Frank.”

“He’s got her someplace around here. Maybe right here in the city. He didn’t have time, to take her very far, and he’s got at least one guy with him who decoyed Belmont yesterday and delivered this tape to the messenger this morning. They’re right around here someplace.”

“Fifteen million people right around here, Frank.”

“You don’t have to give me population figures.”

Ezio said, “What about the Virginia operation? Those guys are already down there casing it. Do we call the whole thing off on account of this business with A

“Hell no. We don’t call anything off except San Diego.”

“He’s acting like he’s got co

“All right. For the time being. Call them off.”

“You want to set anything up to start looking for A

“No. I don’t want to take the chance of him getting wind of anything like that.”

“He’s gone nutty, Frank. How can we trust him to keep her alive?”

“He may be nutty but he was never stupid. He knows if he kills her he kills himself.”

“Maybe he’s aiming for that. Maybe he doesn’t mind going down if he can hurt you doing it.”

“He’d have killed her already if it was that way.”

“Maybe he has.”

“I don’t think so. If he had, why string us along with tapes and movie projectors?”

“To buy himself time to get away.”

“There wouldn’t be any point in it, Ezio. He’s not that crazy. If he was just out to kill A

“Me neither. But what are you going to do right now?”

“Nothing,” Frank said. “Sit it out. Wait for the next one. What the hell else can we do? He’s got us over a barrel right now. It won’t last forever but that’s the way it is right now.” Frank pushed the button again.