Free 1974 - So What Happens to Me by James Hadley Chase

shifted uneasily.
    “You just said a quarter of a million was nice money.”
    “That doesn’t answer my question.”
    “I don’t know how much Kendrick will collect: could be a lot less than five.”
    I shook my head.
    ‘No. I’ve met him: he’s all shark. He’ll probably get seven. He’s gyping you.”
    Olson shrugged. There was again that weary, cynical look in his eyes that gave me no confidence in him.
    “I’ll settle for a million. With that kind of money Jack, I could set up an air taxi service in Mexico. You could come into it too.”
    I finished my lukewarm coffee.
    “Suppose we talk to Kendrick. He could be squeezed. Suppose you got two and I got one. That would be better, wouldn’t it?”
    “Kendrick holds the cards Jack. He has the client. I don’t know who he is. Without the client we would be whistling in the wind.” He stared at me. “And another thing, I don’t think Kendrick can be squeezed.”
    “Suppose I try? After all who is taking the risk?”
    “Well, maybe, but I’ll have to discuss this with Pam and Harry.”
    “Your copilot?”
    He nodded.
    “Tell me about him.”
    “Harry Erskine: he’s been my copilot for the past nine months. Young: around twenty-four, tough, a good pilot, not easy to get along with, but he’s okay.”
    “What made him come into this set-up?”
    “Mrs. Essex dangled herself and he fell for it and then she cut him down to size. That’s her speciality: turning it on, making a guy think he’s going to get into her bed, then telling him he isn’t.” Olson looked hard at me. “I don’t know how far she’s got with you Jack, but watch it. She’s a copper plated bitch. Now Harry hates her and has joined us.”
    I filed that bit of information away in my mind as I said, “So how do you plan to steal a ten million dollar plane?”
    “We have time to work out the details. The plane will be delivered on November 1st—two months from now. Harry and I will collect it and fly it down here. The plane will have to be flight tested. Essex travels a lot and often wants to be flown at night. There’ll be no problem about doing a night test flight. So, you, Harry, Pam and I take off on a night flight. We fly out to sea then I’ll radio the port engines are on fire. The Air Controller then hears nothing. It’ll take him some minutes to get out an alert. By that time we’ll be heading for Yucatan, flying wave high to cut radar. Kendrick’s client has a runway outside Merida. It’s in the bush and jungle. We land there. The details have still to be worked out, but that’s the plan.”
    I thought about it.
    “Sounds good,” I said finally. “The theory being the plane crashed into the sea and sank without trace?”
    “That’s it?”
    “You have no idea who the client is?”
    “No.” He must be quite someone to construct a runway.”
    “Yes.”
    “So. . . we’re dead people once we have radio silence.”
    “That’s right.”
    “We get the money and we settle in Mexico?”
    He nodded.
    “Each one of us takes a risk if we go back?”
    “We can’t go back? If we go back and if any of us is spotted, the operation explodes. As you said . . . we’re dead people the moment we go of the air.”
    “You’re sold on this Bernie?”
    “Yes. It’s big money and I need big money. I want to feel secure.” I remembered that fat queer with his ridiculous orange wig talking about security. “With the money I can start an air taxi service. I’ve already got that lined up. If you would sink some of your cut into it. we could work together. There’s a big demand for air taxi services in Mexico.” He regarded me. “Well Jack, you now know as much as I do about the set-up. What do you say? Are you in or aren’t you?”
    “I like it.” I got to my feet, “but I want to meet Erskine. Let’s all get together, huh?”
    Bernie stared uneasily at me.
    “Harry’s tricky. You may not dig for him.”
    “What’s that mean?”
    “I’m telling you: I need