Night Over Water - Ken Follett [162]
“Won’t hurt,” the captain said noncommittally; but he looked relieved, as if he had wanted to propose a double-check but had been reluctant to.
“I’m going to get a breath of air,” Eddie said, and he went out.
He found Tom Luther outside the Pan American building, standing with his hands in his pockets, moodily watching the cows in the field. “I’ll take you to the telegraph office,” Eddie said. He led the way up the hill at a brisk pace. Luther lagged behind. “Set fire, you,” Eddie said. “I have to get back.” Luther walked faster. He looked like he did not want to make Eddie angry. Maybe it was not surprising, after Eddie almost threw him out of the plane.
They nodded to two passengers who appeared to be coming back from the telegraph office: Mr. Lovesey and Mrs. Lenehan, the couple who had got on at Foynes. The guy wore a flying jacket. Distracted though he was, Eddie noticed that they seemed happy together. People always said he and Carol-Ann looked happy together, he recalled, and he felt a stab of pain.
They reached the office and Luther placed the call. He wrote the number he wanted on a piece of paper: he did not want Eddie to hear him say it. They went into a small private room with a phone on a table and a couple of chairs, and waited impatiently for the call to go through. This early in the morning the lines should not be too busy, but there were probably a lot of connections between here and Maine.
Eddie felt confident that Luther would tell his men to bring Carol-Ann to the rendezvous. That was a big step forward: it meant he would be free to act the moment the rescue was over, instead of continuing to worry about his wife. But what exactly could he do? The obvious thing would be to radio the police immediately; but Luther was sure to think of that, and he would probably smash up the Clipper’s radio. Nobody would be able to do anything until help turned up. By then Gordino and Luther would be on land, in a car, speeding away—and no one would even know which country they were in, Canada or the U.S.A. Eddie racked his brains for some way to make it easier for the police to trace Gordino, but he could not think of anything. And if he were to give the warning beforehand, there was a danger the police would blunder in too early and endanger Carol-Ann—the one risk Eddie was not prepared to take. He began to wonder whether he had achieved anything after all.
After a while the phone rang and Luther picked up the earpiece. “It’s me,” he said. “There’s going to be a change of plan. You have to bring the woman on the launch.” There was a pause, then he said: “The engineer wants it this way, and he says he won’t do it any other way, and I believe him, so just bring the woman, okay?” After another pause he looked at Eddie. “They want to talk to you.”
Eddie’s heart sank. So far Luther had acted like the man in charge. Now it sounded as if he might not have the power to order Carol-Ann brought to the rendezvous. Eddie said edgily: “Are you telling me this is your boss?”
“I’m the boss,” Luther said uneasily. “But I have partners.”
Clearly the partners did not like the idea of bringing Carol-Ann to the rendezvous. Eddie cursed. Should he give them the chance to talk him out of it? Was there anything at all to be gained by speaking to them? He thought not. They might bring Carol-Ann to the phone and make her scream, to weaken his resolve.... “Tell them to fuck off,” Eddie said. The phone was on the table and he spoke loudly, hoping they could hear him at the other end of the line.
Luther looked scared. “You can’t talk that way to these people!” he said in a high voice.
Eddie wondered if he should be scared, too. Maybe he had misread the situation. If Luther was one of the gangsters, what was he frightened of? But there was no time to reassess the position right now. He had to stick to his plan. “I just want a yes or no,” he said. “I don’t need to talk to the shitheel.”
“Oh, my God.” Luther picked up the phone and said: “He won’t come to the phone—I told you he was difficult.” There was a pause. “Yes, good