He watched her plunge into the water and swim with powerful strokes after the other two.
“Wad the hell are yuh playin’ at?” a voice snarled near him.
Pete stiffened and his heart skipped a beat. He looked quickly round.
Moe was sitting on his haunches, staring at Frances’s bobbing head as she swam farther out to sea. He looked an incongruous figure in his black suit, his hand-painted tie and his pointed white shoes with black explosions, among the half-naked sun-bathers sprawling around him.
“The man came to the door,” Pete said, speaking rapidly and trying to keep his voice steady. “Then the two girls came out. They mistook me for someone else. I hadn’t a chance to get going, so I went with them, and I’m waiting now to get her alone.”
“That’s wad happens when yuh don’t case the joint,” Moe said, his small eyes bright with suspicion. “I told that bum Louis.” He looked at his wrist-watch. “The cops will be at her place by now. Yuh got to hit her quick, Pete.”
“Amongst this lot?” Pete said sarcastically.
Moe turned his head and looked at the Big Wheel as it carried the little cars far into the sky.
“Get her on the Big Wheel,” he said. “Yuh can be nice an’ private in one of those cars. Hit her when yuh get to the top and shove her under the seat. They won’t spot her before yuh get away.”
Pete suddenly felt sick.