Syndicate games

Two: Never underestimate the greed of a woman

PRELUDE (2)

The Major checked his third step and then went limp. Joe twisted the knife, to make sure, and then pulled it out. He then pushed the limp body into the room below.

He quickly searched the dead body and found what he wanted. He was looking for the emeralds.

They were contained in a rectangular box inside the dead man's jacket. He opened the box and whistled quietly to himself.

Joe was no precious stones expert but, even to him, at only seven hundred and fifty U.S dollars, the Major had been robbing himself blind. One and a half million dollars would have come close to the mark.

Putting the box in his hip pocket, he closed the door and went back to the bar where Judy was waiting with barely concealed anxiety.

''How did it go?'' she asked anxiously.

''How else could it have gone? The poor man stood no chance - he never even knew what hit him,'' he said sarcastically.

He threw the box containing the emeralds at her. '' I hope that you are happy,'' he added.

''Don't be nasty, Joe dear. We are in this together- remember?'' she said as she opened the box.

''In this together indeed! When the alarm goes out, the syndicate will be looking for me and not for you. Though, of course, as my lover, they won't hesitate to break your ankles, if that helps them to find my whereabouts,'' he said tightly.

''Please, let us not quarrel now, Joe dear. Having killed the Major, you must realize that there is no going back. You cannot afford to. Either way, your goose is cooked, Joe dear,'' she said with a firmness he had never suspected was in her.

''If you take those to Botswana or South Africa, you can make anything over one and half million U. S dollars wholesale price.''

The swinging open of the front door interrupted their conversation. An expensive-looking woman, wearing a green suit and large sunglasses walked into the bar.

Joe noticed that although she was trying into the room as if it belonged to her, she was nervous.

''Good morning, ma'am. What would you like to drink?'' Joe asked going behind the counter.

Meanwhile, Judy quietly slipped back to the kitchen - with her emeralds.

''A Bloody- Mary, please,'' as she went about the motions of sitting down, Joe brought her the drink.

She took a sip of her drink and looked around the bar before landing her eyes on him as she put her drink down.

''I am looking for Joe Pondani.''

''Then you have found him, ma'am.''

''Are you the Joe Pondani am looking for?''

''I said so.''

''Did you, now?'' she asked skeptically.

''Joseph Pondani at your service, ma'am,'' Joe said cheerfully.

With her drink halfway to her mouth, the lady looked at Joe quizzically as though trying to judge his sanity. Joe could see that she was not very pleased with what she was seeing - and that if it was entirely up to her, scum like him would not be involved in serious transactions of this nature.

''I have a massage; an appointment, rather. You are supposed to introduce me to someone. Do you know what I am talking about?''

''But of course, ma'am.''

''Well?''

''You are Pauline and you are supposed to meet a certain Major Ndlovu, right?''

''Right. Has he already arrived?''

''Yes, Please follow me.''

As he moved away, Pauline put down the glass gracefully, picked up the green handbag, and followed him. Outside the back storeroom, he again opened the picture-painted wall, as before, without looking back if she was following, he started to descend the steps.

He was halfway down the stairs when he abruptly turned back as if he had forgotten something behind. The woman was completely unprepared for this move and walked right into him.

''Shit!'' she rubbed her forehead.

She was about to add something nasty to the idiotic barman when his thick, short fingers shot for her delicate neck and started to crush her throat. The unexpected attack knocked her off her rockers and she started dying before she even realized what he was up to.

Suddenly, her body became limp and Joe pushed it down the stairs where she unceremoniously landed on top of the stiffening body of the late Major Andrew Ndlovu ( retired).

***

Joe knelt to pick up the green handbag from where the dead woman lay, her legs obscenely flung, exposing her bottom.

''Leave the handbag alone Joe, will you?''

It was a quiet command, not a request at all. It was Judy speaking. She stood at the top of the stairs in the open doorway.

For the second time that evening, he detected a firmness in her voice that he had never suspected she possessed all those months that she had been his mistress.

As he turned to look at her, he stared incredulity at a .22 revolver pointing at his face.

''What...what the hell Judy? You can't mean this surely? After all, all this was your idea; your brainchild right from the start. What now...,'' he began to say, breaking into a sweat.

''Shut up -and keep those deft hands of yours where I can see them,'' she commanded firmly.

She was standing in the doorway with ten steps between them. He had to look up to speak to her - definitely at a positional disadvantage. Even if he wanted to try any heroics, there was no way he was going to fly upwards to grab the hand holding the gun.

As he moved backward, his hand to within six inches of his hunting knife - but even that was not good enough. At least, he thought gloomily, it's something.

''This is where I take over, Joe boy. You have saved your purpose well. But from now on, I won't need you, as you have said, one and a half million U. S dollars' worth of dollars; not, of course, to mention seven hundred and fifty thousand U.S dollars cold cash, which you were just about to pick there in the handbag the woman came with.''

''Call it off Judy. Practical jokes of this nature are not good for a man's heart.''

''So who is joking? Don't you see, you are of no earthly use to me now - dead or alive. Therefore, you may as well be dead; and I prefer it this way,'' she said calmly.

''You can't get away with this, Judy dear,'' he began persuasively. ''As soon as the syndicate starts missing that woman who is lying there, they will start missing her in a matter of an hour or so, and when they do they will come here to investigate. Then your goose will be cooked. Can't you see? Our only hope of survival is to stick together, Judy dear.''

''That's where you are getting it wrong Joe. When the alarm is sounded, the syndicate -- assuming they are half as efficient as you claim - will be looking for YOU and not me. Do you see now? So as soon as I shoot you, I will lock the door to this room. When they find no trace of that woman, Pauline, and the Major, the syndicate will naturally assume that YOU have killed them and dumped their bodies into some river somewhere; most likely, they don't even know anything about this underground room here.''

''So you see,'' she continued after a pause, '' When I disappear, I will be safe from your so-called efficient organization because they won't be looking for ME at all.'' She finished sarcastically.

Joe knew that she was right. And that he was licked. Desperately, his hand dived for the hunting knife in his belt.
As he grasped the hilt of his knife, she very calmly shot him three times between the eyes.

''So long sucker; never underestimate the greed of a woman,'' she said quietly to his falling body.