The Singapore Wink

Once again father and daughter exchanged glances and nods and raised eyebrows and this time the daughter spoke. “We are familiar with my husband’s operations, Mr. Dangerfield.” She paused for a moment “All of them; there are no secrets.”

“Now that’s just fine,” Dangerfield said. “Because you’re going to have to make a decision in about two minutes and it’s going to be a decision that you can’t check with Angelo so I sure hope that you’ve got the sense to make the right one.”

“What decision?” Toh said.

“If I don’t get that stuff on Joe Lozupone, then I’m going to cut off Angelo’s source of money.”

“I don’t believe you,” the woman said.

I sat there and watched Dangerfield operate and I was glad that it was them and not me. He ran a hand over his large white dome, brushed a few thick strands of hair into place, and grinned at Mrs. Sacchetti.

“Well, I’m going to tell you what I’m going to do unless I get that stuff, and then you can make up your mind about believing me. Unless I get the information that Angelo’s been using on Lozupone, I’m going to get word to Joe Lozupone that Charles Cole has been an FBI informer for years. Now once I get that word to Joe, Charles Cole is going to have about two days of living left and Angelo’s going to have a hell of a hard time blackmailing a dead man.”

It was the Dangerfield Plan, the one that the rumpled man with the red bulb of a nose had thought up in the hotel in Washington, and its merit lay in its implacable simplicity. It didn’t take Toh long to decide. “Get it,” he said.

“How do we know—” she started to say, but her father interrupted. “Get it,” he said again. The woman rose and crossed to an indifferent oil painting of Singapore’s harbor. The sky was too blue and the sea was too green. She swung the painting open and there was a small safe. She spun the dial on the combination, opened the safe, and took out a small yellow box, not as large as a cigarette package. She closed the safe, spun the dial on the combination, and swung the painting back into place. She crossed the room to her father and handed the yellow cardboard box to him.

“Microfilm,” Dangerfield said.

“Yes, microfilm,” Toh said.

“I suppose there are other copies,” Dangerfield said.

“But it doesn’t matter, does it?” Toh said.

“Not really. Not to me, anyhow, and very soon it won’t matter to anyone.”

“I take it, Mr. Dangerfield, that you are some sort of a policeman.”

“It shows that much, huh?”

“It’s quite evident. And I also take it that you will use this information,” and Toh made a slight gesture with the yellow box, “to indict this Lozupone person.”

“What do you care what I do with it?” Dangerfield said.

Toh smiled for the first time since we had arrived. “You have a curious mind, a cunning one, even devious. Such a mind could easily find other uses for such information.”

“What you’re saying is that I might use it to blackmail Lozupone; that I might cut myself in on all the money we’ve been talking about.”

“That occurred to me,” Toh said.

“Do you really care?”

“Not really. I just want to make sure that Mr. Cole will continue to have a source of income. Some of the funds that he has transferred to my son-in-law have gone for most worthwhile causes.”

“I don’t want anything to happen to Charlie Cole,” Dangerfield said.

“But you do want something to happen to the Lozupone person. You want it to happen so badly that you would sacrifice Cole, if necessary.”

“That’s right,” Dangerfield said. “Now you can give me the box.”

I rose and walked over to Toh and took the box out of his hand and put it into the pocket of my slacks. “I’ll keep it, Sam.”

Dangerfield was on his feet. “What do you mean, you’ll keep it?”

“Just what I said. I’ll keep it. I need some insurance.”

“Look, kid, give me the—”

“Shut up,” I said. “I’ve been sitting here for half an hour listening to you three. You’ve made your deal and everyone’s happy. Sacchetti can keep the money coming in from Cole, and Toh can keep on making the payments on his house and buy gasoline for the Rolls, and beer for the Singapore version of the Red Guard. You’re happy to trade the evidence on Lozupone for that, aren’t you, Toh? And what about Dangerfield? He got what he came for, what he sent me for. The Dangerfield Plan worked, didn’t it, Sam, and now you’re happy. In fact, everybody’s happy but me.”

“Okay, kid, what do you want? Your fifty thousand from Cole?”

“What I came for. I want to see Angelo.”

“What the hell difference would it make?” Dangerfield said. “Just because you get the nasties every night when Angelo falls overboard and gives you the big wink. You think just seeing him’s going to cure that? You’re crazier than I thought, Cauthorne.”

“You’re forgetting one thing,” I said.

Dangerfield shook his head. “You’re really nuts, kid.”