"Sorry, then. You'll have to move along. Nobody but guests allowed to stop
here, right now. Strict orders."
"But I have a privilege card."
The girl showed the card, and the officer read it. He checked her driver's
license, to make sure that she was Margo Lane, whose name appeared on both cards.
Margo watched him read the back of the privilege card, which stated that
it applied to use of beach and swimming pool. She reached for an overnight bag
behind the driver's seat, and opened it as the policeman raised his head.
"I'm going for a swim in the pool," said Margo. "I've brought my bathing
things along. See?"
The officer saw. He compared Margo's proportions with those of the bathing
suit, and nodded.
"All right," he said. "But I'll be watching to make sure you take that
swim."
Margo was fuming as she went through the lobby of the Equator and out by
the front veranda, to a cabana. He'd be watching, that cop would. What he
needed was a transfer to beach duty, so he could see all the bathing beauties
he wanted. Right now, he was counting upon Margo as the sole attraction in that
line, which meant he'd have an eye on the pool.
It didn't fit with Margo's plans at all. She hadn't intended to change to
bathing attire, let alone be under surveillance. Her chances of learning
anything more about the Durez crowd had gone absolutely nil, and any
opportunity to meet up with Cranston would be very slight, since he probably
wouldn't come anywhere near the swimming pool.
She was balking at the whole idea when she reached the cabana, until she
convinced herself that a half hour in a swimming pool would be better than a
night in jail. Stalling a cop whose mind was made up could prove bad policy.
So Margo decided to hurry through with the swim. She got out of her
clothes and into the bathing suit as fast as she could. She put on a pair of
bathing slippers, threw a light robe across her arm, and came from the cabana
carrying a bathing cap. She strolled past the hedge, to make sure that the cop
was still there. He was, lounging by the largest space that he could find.
Reaching the deep end of the pool, Margo sat down on a marble bench, laid
the robe aside, and nonchalantly began to adjust her bathing cap. As she did,
she looked up and saw above the hedge. Her gaze was riveted by third-floor
windows at the rear of the hotel, above an extension which formed a garage.
Those windows were lighted, and through one of them Margo saw Colonel Jose
Durez in ardent conversation with a portly American who looked like a banker.
Other faces passed the next window and Margo recognized members of the Durez
party. She'd located the suite where they were staying, and had also learned
that their business, as mentioned by Durez, had begun!
MARGO found a pack of cigarettes in the pocket of her robe and lighted one
since she could no longer stall with the bathing cap. Her idea, now, was to
linger, not to hurry, and she found plenty of chances to glance up toward those
windows. She calculated that the suite went the whole width of the hotel,
because the rear wing was comparatively narrow.
She saw the edge of a balcony, jutting at the rear, and remembered that it
went the whole width, which supported her conclusion. Moreover, she was
