Fast Buck (5 page)

He supposed a girl with her looks could find out anything if she made the effort. Someone must have talked: someone possibly at his bank.

She had surprised him horribly one night by saying in her quiet, cool voice, ‘What’s the matter with you, Preston? Why are you drifting like this? You could be making piles of money instead of loafing here with me. Have you lost your ambition, or what is it?’

Startled, he had told her abruptly he had no need to work.

‘I have all the money I want,’ he had said sharply. ‘I’ve retired from business. Besides, so long as I give you what you want, I really can’t see it’s any business of yours what I do.’

But that hadn’t touched her. She had gone right on confounding him.

‘Why do you lie to me?’ she had asked; her big blue eyes seemed able to see right inside his mind.

‘You don’t have to pretend with me. I want to help you.’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he said irritably. ‘I don’t need anyone’s help.’

‘You’re broke,’ she said calmly, and put her hand on his. ‘Already the tradesmen are talking about you. You owe thousands. Whatever money you did have, you’ve spent. Isn’t it time you did something about it?’

He had been so shocked that he had said nothing for some moments. True, he had immediately begun to bluster, but the expression in her eyes told him she was sure of her ground, and the bluster died sourly in his mouth. Instead, he tried to defend himself, though why he should make excuses to her he couldn’t imagine. After all, it was no business of hers. He could have told her to pack up and get out if she didn’t like him as she found him. But deep down, tucked away in his innermost being, Kile was afraid. He knew he was slipping. He knew unless a miracle happened, the slip would turn into a slide, and he would go down and down to the final crash where a revolver bullet would be his only way out.

There was something about this girl – not yet twenty-five, very beautiful to look at, detached and quietly determined – that gave him a sudden feeling of hope: something he hadn’t had for the past two years: not since they had told him to get out of the Stock Market or they’d prosecute.

He told her he hadn’t been feeling wel .

‘It’s not that I’m a young man,’ he said lamely. ‘Perhaps I’ve lived too hard. I’m burned out, Eve. Not for long, but right now, I’m tired and disillusioned. In a lit le while I’l begin again. I just want to rest.’

He could see at once she didn’t believe him, although she gave him a sympathetic smile.

‘I think I can help you,’ she said. ‘Something I happened to overhear…’

That was how he had been committed to this Rajah business. At first he had thought she was joking.

‘My dear girl,’ he had said, pat ing her long, sleek leg as she lay across his lap, her head against his shoulder, ‘I’ve never heard of such a thing. It’s fantastic, and there’s nothing I could possibly do about it. Even if I could, I don’t think I’d care to dabble in such a venture. It’s quite out of the question.

Besides, this Rajah wouldn’t want me to interfere.’

‘He might,’ she had said thoughtful y. ‘I think I’l ask him.’

Kile didn’t believe for a moment she would approach the Rajah. He had dismissed the whole thing from his mind, and he was startled when she told him a few days later that the Rajah would see them at his hotel that evening.

Immediately he had refused to go, but she had persuaded him.

‘At least let’s hear what he has to say,’ she had said, her face against his, holding his hand over her breast. ‘He may not agree. He may not offer enough. Even if he does agree and offers something reasonable, we don’t have to go through with it if we don’t want to. We can always say it wasn’t possible.’

Reassured by this argument, and a little flattered to be received by a Rajah, Preston allowed himself to be persuaded. The meeting had turned out far easier than he had expected.

It was pretty obvious that Eve had already laid a solid foundation for the interview. The Rajah said he would be delighted if they could help him recover the jewels. They were, he said, heirlooms of the utmost value. If they found them and returned them to him he would pay the sum of half a million dollars and their expenses; the only condition being the deal must be secret.

Kile realised the Rajah was out to gyp the insurance companies, but that didn’t worry him unduly. If he had the chance he wouldn’t hesitate to gyp any insurance company himself. He considered them fair game. But five hundred thousand! Why, with such a sum he could make a new start; he could even get back on to the Stock Market.

Those were the immediate thoughts that had chased through his mind when the Rajah had casually mentioned the sum, but as the Rajah went on talking, Kile’s latent shrewdness and caution asserted themselves. The undertaking was impossible. The Rajah was only offering this sum because he knew he would never be called upon to pay it. The whole thing was an absurd pipe-dream that no one in his right mind could or would take seriously.

Eve had apparently convinced the Rajah that if anyone could get the jewels, Kile could. How she had done it, what arguments she had used, Kile couldn’t think, but it was obvious the Rajah was impressed by him, even before they met.

‘I don’t expect miracles,’ the Rajah had said, holding Eve’s hand and looking at Kile as they stood at the door at the end of the interview. I’m afraid you are setting yourself a very difficult task. But I believe in supporting the long chance. I will pay up to five thousand to cover the expenses of – shall we say – an examination of the prospects. Naturally you will require help, and you will have to pay well. I think five thousand should be enough to start with. The amount will be paid into your bank tomorrow.’

Kile had recoiled, like a man seeing the ground suddenly open before his feet. If once he accepted the money, he would be seriously committed to this fantastic plan. He wasn’t fool enough to imagine the Rajah would give him such a sum without extracting full value for his money.

But Eve hadn’t given him a chance to refuse. She had told the Rajah the name of Kile’s bank, prevented Kile from breaking into the conversation, and got him out of the Rajah’s suite before he could gather his startled wits together.

On his way down to the hotel lobby, he had protested, but again she had reassured him.

‘We needn’t spend it,’ she had said. ‘If we can’t think of a plan we can return it to him. It won’t do any harm, Preston, for your bank to get that money; even if it is only a loan.’

When they had got back to Eve’s apartment, Kile had patiently pointed out the impossibility of such a task.

‘The jewels have been missing for fifteen years,’ he had said. ‘The trail’s cold. Every detective in the country has been searching for them, and as far as I know, is still searching for them. What chance have we got?’

‘That’s something we have to think about,’ she had said briskly. ‘I’m going to take a bath. I think better lying in hot water. Sit down and think, too, Preston. It’s worth five hundred thousand, and that’s a lot of money.’

He hadn’t thought. The whole thing was absurd and fantastic. Admittedly the money would be a life saver, but he couldn’t search the whole country like a damned detective. He hadn’t the faintest idea where the jewels might be.

He had finished his second whisky and was pouring a third when Eve came out of the bathroom. She was wearing a lilac-coloured silk wrap that suited her and emphasised the gold in her hair and the blue in her eyes. She went over to the dressing-table and sat down.

‘Is that your third or fourth?’ she asked, beginning to brush her hair.

He was immediately furious with her. What right had she to say such a thing to him?

‘Oh, be quiet!’ he shouted, banging his fist on the table. ‘God damn it! I won’t be questioned like this! I’l drink as much as I like!’

She went on brushing her hair, her face thoughtful, her eyes serious.

‘We’re going to talk to Rico tonight,’ she said. ‘It’s important that you shouldn’t be drunk, Preston.’

Kile set down his glass, took hold of Eve by her arms and pulled her to her feet. He gave her a hard, little shake. His face was red and congested, and his bloodshot eyes gleamed furiously.

‘I won’t be spoken to like this!’ he said in a loud bul ying voice. ‘I’m master here, and you’d bet er remember it! I’m not seeing Rico tonight. And if I want to get drunk, I’l get drunk!’

‘You’re hurting me, Preston,’ she said, and her steady, quiet look was like a douche of cold water in his face.

He released her with an impatient exclamation, turned and walked heavily across the room to stand with his back to her, his hands thrust deep in his trouser pockets.

‘Don’t be like this, Preston,’ she said patiently. ‘I only want to help you. You know as well as I do if you don’t take yourself in hand the crash is bound to come. This is your chance. Five hundred thousand!

It’s a tremendous sum. Think what you could do with it!’

He turned.

‘What’s the use of talking like that?’ he snapped. ‘It’s impossible to find those jewels. It’s ridiculous to think about it. Why do you imagine he offered such a sum? He knows perfectly well he won’t have to pay out.’

‘He said it was a long chance. Well, he’s not the only one who’s wil ing to back a long chance. I know it won’t be easy, but it’s not impossible.’ While she was speaking, Eve had got up and walked over to sit on the bed. She began to pull on her stockings, and Kile watched her, fascinated by her beauty and her swift movements. ‘I have an idea. We must see Rico tonight. We’ve got to have someone to do the dangerous work. He might know of someone who would do it.’

Kile came over and sat on the bed by her side. He was thinking that of all the women he had had in this apartment she was by far the most beautiful.

‘Dangerous work?’ he repeated, frowning. ‘What dangerous work?’

She stood up and undid her wrap.

‘Let me get dressed, darling, and on the way to the club I’l tel you my idea. It’s get ing late, and we must talk to Rico.’

She slipped out of the wrap and reached for a flimsy underthing. Kile’s eyes dwelt on her naked loveliness. He reached out and caught her arm, pulling her down beside him.

‘You’re too beautiful to bother your head about such things,’ he said, his heart beginning to beat violently and jerkily. ‘I’m not going out tonight: nor are you.’

She made a quick, impatient movement to break free, but immediately checked it. Instead, she slipped her arms around his neck and hid her face against his silken lapel, so he couldn’t see her expression of loathing and revulsion.

V

Although it was after nine-twenty, a light still showed through the glass panel of the door leading to the inner office of the International Detective Agency. That meant Harmon Purvis hadn’t yet gone home.

Ed Dallas pushed open the door and looked into the large airy office.

Purvis, a tall stick of a man, sat behind a desk, busy with a pile of papers, a pencil held between his teeth. He glanced up, nodded briefly, laid down his papers and took the pencil out of his mouth.

‘Come in,’ he said, waving to a chair by the desk. ‘I guessed you’d be in so I waited for you.’

Dallas sat down, laid his hat on the floor, and ran his fingers through his crew-cut brown hair.

‘I might have something with those two,’ he said. ‘The guy’s Preston Kile. Ever heard of him?’

Purvis thought a moment, then nodded.

‘That’s the San Francisco market manipulator,’ he said, putting his finger-tips together and staring up at the ceiling. ‘About two years ago he pul ed a very shady deal. A bunch of brokers decided to chip in and cover him rather than scare the market with a scandal. They forced him to get out of the market and stay out. He came here…’

‘I know, I know,’ Dal as interrupted. ‘I thought I was going to tell you. I got the dope from Favell.’

It never ceased to surprise him how much Purvis seemed to know. There wasn’t anyone in town who was connected in some way or the other with shady deals or crime that Purvis didn’t know the details about. He could trot out his information as easily as the most complicated card index system, and as fast.

‘I hope you didn’t pay Favell anything,’ Purvis said anxiously. ‘That vampire is sucking up all my profits.’

‘Wel , I had to give him something. How was I to know you had the information?’ Dal as said wearily. ‘Two tens won’t break us.’

Purvis winced.

‘The trouble with you…’ he began, but Dallas broke in hurriedly, ‘I know, I know. My mother told me the same thing. Want to hear about the girl – Eve Gillis?’

‘I know about her,’ Purvis said coldly. ‘She won a five-thousand-dollar beauty prize a couple of years ago. She persuaded the Follies to give her a chance, got top billing after a year, and has been a hit ever since. She has a brother – a twin if I remember rightly – who’s been in India for the past three years. I believe he’s back now. This Gillis girl suddenly chucked the Follies about a couple of months ago and became Kile’s mistress. Why she should have done that I can’t imagine. It’s not as if Kile can do anything for her. He’s going broke fast, and isn’t expected to last the year. I should have thought she would have found that out before giving up the Follies. They were paying her pretty well from all accounts.’

Dallas groaned.

‘It beats me why you employ me when you know so much,’ he said a little irritably. ‘I’ve been walking my legs off…’

Purvis looked smug. He was childishly pleased with his phenomenal memory, and was inclined to ram its efficiency down Dallas’s throat.

‘I don’t pay you to find out about the past. I pay you to keep tabs on the present,’ he said. ‘We can’t all keep facts in our minds. I just happen to be gifted that way. So these two have talked with the Rajah?’

‘They have. They were with him about an hour.’

Purvis slid lower in his chair. He placed his finger-tips along the edge of the desk and began to play an imaginary piano; a trick of his that irritated Dallas almost beyond endurance. Dallas considered the habit to be the height of affectation.

‘Now I wonder why,’ Purvis said, executing a tril . He then commenced a complicated movement that ended in a showy crossing of hands.