I was working on the second sandwich when an olive-green Dodge limousine came tearing down the road. I didn’t have to look twice to see it was the same olive-green Dodge and the same big tough driving it.
I wormed myself down in the seat to be out of sight.
“That’s the guy who’s been tailing me,” I said to Paula. “Keep an eye on him and see where he goes.”
“He’s stopped outside Eudora’s place, and he’s getting out,” she told me.
Cautiously I lifted my head until my eyes were level with the windshield. The Dodge had stopped as Paula had said outside the blue and white cabin. The big tough got out, slammed the door with so much force he nearly knocked the car on its side, and went pounding down the path to the front door. He didn’t knock, but turned the handle and marched in: a man in a hurry.
“And that, bright eyes, is called a hunch,” I said to Paula. “I thought she would either go out or telephone. Well, she telephoned. Big Boy has arrived for a consultation. It certainly looks as if I’ve tipped my hand. What happens from now on should be interesting.”
“What will you do when he leaves?”
“I’ll go in and tell her I couldn’t raise five hundred. Then we’ll see how she plays it.”
I had finished the sandwich and was just starting on the whisky when the front door of the cabin opened and Big Boy came out. He had been inside eleven and a half minutes by the clock on the dashboard. He looked to right and left, scowled at Paula’s parked car, but was too far away to see who was in it, walked leisurely up the path, vaulted over the gate, climbed into the Dodge and drove quietly away.
“Well, that didn’t take long,” I said. “If everyone transacted business as fast as that there’d be an awful lot more work done. Come on, honey, we may as well make the call. At least, you drive me over and wait outside. I wouldn’t like her to get nervous.”