Free Case File - a Collection of Nameless Detective Stories by Bill Pronzini

first one in line and asked the driver if he spoke English. He said, "A little bit, senor," and I said, "Good enough," and got into the back seat and told him where I wanted to go.
    It was pretty hot for October; we rode with the windows rolled down — automobile air conditioning was probably a luxury few people could afford over here—and I took in the sights like any other tourist. Palma Nova was some twenty-five kilometers from the airport, on the western end of the Bahia de Palma. Traffic was heavy, but the Spaniards seemed to drive with a certain amount of disregard for life and limb, and my driver was no exception. We made it out there in about twenty minutes.
    It was an attractive if touristy village: streets and galleries lined with expensive souvenir and curio shops, a couple of discos, a profusion of sidewalk bars and cafés, and a dozen or so hotels similar to the ones in Palma. On the left was the beach, long and narrow and jammed with near-naked humanity ranging in skin tones from pure white to an almost gold-black.
    Near the cutout circle that served as the village center, we turned off to the right and climbed up into low brown hills overlooking the sea. The driver made a couple more turns, then swung onto a short, graveled dead-end street. At its end, a small tile-roofed villa, its facade covered with purple bougainvillea, sat partially hidden behind a high stone wall. There was a gate in the wall off to one side, and a silver MG roadster sitting on the drive inside, pointed toward the Street; Millard Frost had told me Dale had bought the MG in England and brought it to Spain on the Southampton-Bilbao car ferry.
    I paid the taxi driver a couple of hundred pesetas, added another fifty for a tip and went in through the gate. On the porch, I rang the bell. The door opened right away, and I was looking at a tall, thin youth wearing a mod-design shirt and a pair of flared slacks with a wide and ornate leather belt. His black hair was long and a little unkempt. Eyes like a pair of Spanish olives flicked over me, over the briefcase in my left hand.
    I said, "Dale Frost?"
    "Yes. You're from my father?"
    "That's right." I introduced myself, set down my suitcase and gave him my hand. He took it, released it almost immediately and stepped back a little.
    "Did you bring the money?"
    "I brought it. Do you mind if I come in?"
    "Why?"
    "I'd like to talk to you for a minute."
    "I've got things to do," he said. "I don't have time to talk."
    "Come on, Dale. I won't take up much of your time. And I'll need you to sign a release for the money, to prove that I delivered it."
    He hesitated. Then he said, "All right, come in, then," without any enthusiasm for the idea.
    Inside, it was dark and a little cooler. The furnishings were sparse; a long refectory table took up most of one-half of the room lengthwise. Through an archway I could see a terrace, and beyond it in the distance the sparkling blue of the Mediterranean. I said, "You wouldn't happen to have a beer, would you? I could sure use one."
    "Sorry, no."
    "Well, I'll take anything you've got that's tall and cold."
    "I don't have a thing, I'm sorry." He wiped the palms of his hands on his slacks. "Look, mister, I don't mean to be rude or anything, but I really have got things to do. Can we get this over with? You can get a beer or something in one of the cafés down on the strip."
    I studied him for several seconds without speaking, watching his eyes; he kept avoiding my gaze. He's not only nervous, I thought, he's scared. "Your father's worried about you, Dale," I said. "He thinks you might be in some kind of trouble."
    "I'm not in any trouble."
    "Why do you need ten thousand dollars so badly?"
    "That's none of your business."
    "No," I said, "but it is your father's business."
    "I'll discuss it with him when the time comes."
    "I think he'd like you to discuss it with me."
    "Is that what he said?"
    "He wants to be sure everything is all right."
    "I told you,