Miner's Daughter (24 page)

Really, Tiny was much more amiable than, say,
Mrs. Glenfelder’s dachshund, who tried to murder Tiny every time
they met. Mari had thought for a long time now that it was a very
good thing Tiny had a sense of humor, or Mrs. Glenfelder’s dog
would have been lunch by this time.

“We’re not sure,” Tony said, still frowning
in thought. “Somebody might have climbed through my window. He left
a jacket behind.” He lifted the jacket up and showed it to the new
arrivals.

Martin looked grave. “I don’t recognize it.
Do you know who it belongs to?”

“No.”

“Did he take anything?”

“Haven’t looked yet. I’ll do that now.” As
Tony started with bureau drawers, he said, “I think Tiny scared him
off before he could do anything.”

“Oh!” said Mari, having had another thought.
“What about footprints in the hall?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you go look?”

So, as Tony opened the door to the room’s
small closet, she excused herself to the men and went out into the
hall again. She didn’t notice any footprints on the carpeting and
was disappointed until she spotted something a couple of yards down
the hall in the direction opposite that of the stairway. When she
went to investigate, she saw a small shiny object lying against the
wall. She picked it up and carried it back to Tony’s room.

When she reentered the room, she guessed Tony
hadn’t found anything missing, because he was standing there
shaking his head. He looked up when she entered. “What did you
find?”

“I don’t know. It looks like a token or a
coin or something.” She held it out for general inspection.

The four men gazed down at the gold-colored
object in her palm, then Tony picked it up, narrowed his eyes, and
peered at it closely. “It’s Canadian,” he announced after a moment.
“It’s old and worn, but it’s definitely Canadian. We see a lot of
these in New York and up north, closer to the border.”

“Canadian? Honest?” Mari reached for the coin
again. “May I look at it? I’ve never seen a Canadian coin
before.”

“No, I don’t suppose you have. You’re more
likely to get Mexican coins in this part of the country.”

She shrugged. “Haven’t seen any of those,
either. I expect Canadians are richer than Mexicans.” It was
supposed to have been a joke, but nobody laughed. She didn’t care,
but squinted hard at the coin. “Oh, yes, I see it now. Oh, my! Is
that Queen Victoria?”

“I expect it is.”

She looked up sharply because she’d detected
amusement in Tony’s voice, and she’d be darned if she’d let him
laugh at her. He might not find anything interesting in a coin with
a queen on it, but she did. Heck, she’d dreamed for years about
visiting England and seeing how royalty ran things. “Do you mind if
I keep it?”

“Not at all.” He stopped grinning and frowned
again. “I don’t suppose we can be sure if our intruder dropped
it.”

“I suppose not” Mari wished she’d unearthed
some more telling clue than this. Still, at least she now possessed
a Canadian coin, which was something of an oddity. She dropped it
into her pocket. “You didn’t discover anything, I suppose.”

“No. Thank God nothing’s missing, but whoever
it was also didn’t leave anything behind by which to identify
him.”

“Too bad,” Mari muttered.

“Do you think this has anything to do with
the cameras?” Martin asked in a voice tight with worry.

Tony shook his head. “Who can tell? This
whole thing is getting very mysterious.”

“It sure is.”

“How can you secure things?” Mari asked. The
men all turned to stare at her, and she got embarrassed. She
persisted though, because it was important. “I mean, you can’t
always have Tiny in your room in case somebody’s out to steal stuff
or interfere with the making of the picture. For one thing, there’s
not enough of him to go around.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Tony muttered,
eyeing Tiny without favor.

“Don’t you dare say anything bad about my
dog,” Mari told him, lavishing pats upon Tiny. “He saved the day,
don’t forget.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re right. Good boy.” Tony
gave Tiny’s head a perfunctory pat. Tiny, who had no discretion
whatever, wagged his tail as if Tony had fed him a steak bone.

“Stupid dog,” Mari whispered, hugging Tiny
hard. She loved her dog, even if he wasn’t the brightest candle in
the box.

“You know, Mari has a good point,” Martin
murmured. “We’re going to have to do something about securing our
rooms if there’s a thief around, even if he isn’t out to undermine
the picture. I’m sure no one wants to return to his room after a
hard day’s filming and discover he’s been robbed.”

“I’ll be happy to talk to Mr. and Mrs.
Nelson,” Mari offered. “They’re good friends of mine.”

“Thanks, Mari.” Martin beamed at her. “That
would be very good of you. Please let them know that I’ll pay for
any added security measures they take. Like, locks on the window
and so forth.”

She grinned at him. “That’ll make them
happy.”

“Are you going to do that now?” Tony asked
her. “I’ll go with you. That’ll make it look more official.”

Mari looked up at him, wondering what his
game was. “Why does it need to look official? Or is it that you
don’t trust me to carry out my mission?”

“For goodness’ sake! Of course, I trust you.
So does Martin. I just thought you might like someone to tackle the
Nelsons with you. You know, to give you some support.”

He scowled at her, but the expression looked
to Mari as if it were meant to cover something else, something he
didn’t want to acknowledge openly. She didn’t understand what it
could be, unless he really didn’t trust her, and that possibility
rankled. And it hurt.

As if something had suddenly inspired him,
Tony added, “Besides, I’m the one who suggested you leave that dog
in my room. I don’t want you to catch any blame for that.”

“The Nelsons know me, Tony. They won’t blame
me for anything. They’ll probably be grateful to Tiny for
preventing a burglary.” She frowned. “Or whatever that intrusion
was meant to be.”

“I’m going with you.” His voice had gone
louder and, harder. “And I don’t intend to entertain any more
arguments.”

She threw up her hands in defeat. “Okay. I’m
not arguing. If you want to come with me, fine.” And if she ever
learned that he’d done so because he didn’t believe her capable of
getting her message across coherently, all by herself; she’d let
him know what she thought about that. More, if he was tagging along
because he believed her to be somehow connected with whatever had
happened in his room, she’d scratch his eyes out.

“I’ll look after Tiny if you’d like me to,”
Martin offered.

Mari said in something of a huff, “Don’t be
silly. Tiny comes to town with me all the time. The Nelsons know
him and like him.” She cast a so-there glare at Tony, who frowned
back.

As Mari stomped off down the hall to the
Nelsons’ quarters, she grumbled, “I hope we aren’t going to be
waking them up.” She only said it to be perverse; she knew good and
well that the Nelsons couldn’t have slept through the uproar Tiny’d
set up. In fact, she was rather surprised they hadn’t come upstairs
to find out what all the excitement was about.

Tony made a point of pulling his watch out of
his pocket and checking the time. “For God’s sake, it’s only
nine-thirty. Nobody goes to bed at nine-thirty.”

“People who have to work for a living do,”
she snapped back. “We aren’t all blessed with lives that allow us
to sleep until all hours and then fritter our time away.”

He didn’t speak at once. Mari suspected he
was using the time to think up a cutting remark to fling back at
her. She was, therefore, surprised when he laughed.

“Very well, Mari, I give up. You win. I’m an
idle wastrel who fritters away my time on frivolous
enterprises.”

Now she felt stupid. “I didn’t mean it that
way,” she grumbled.

“Sure, you did. And I guess you’re right.
Personally, I really do think the pictures are a waste of
time.”

“You do? I didn’t know that. How come you’re
working on this one?”

“You already know the answer to that. I’m
supervising the spending of my father’s money. Also, Martin and I
are old friends from college. We just have different notions about
the pictures, is all. I’m really happy to be helping him make a
success of Peerless.”

“Oh.” She’d be darned if she’d tell him she
thought that was nice of him, even though she did.

“Besides,” Tony continued, “maybe he’s right
and I’m wrong. Maybe the pictures are the conduit to world
understanding and peace. I suppose it’s possible that once folks
get to know each other, worldwide harmony will break out. I doubt
it, but you never know.”

“Hmmm. I suppose so.” It seemed more likely
to her that the pictures would seduce people away from their
rightful jobs and useful work and create a nation or a world of
idlers, but what did she know?

They continued on their way to the Nelsons,
and Tony began whistling. The tune was again “Beautiful Dreamer,”
and Mari wondered if the song held any particular significance for
him. She was on the verge of asking, when she decided not to. For
all she knew, the song reminded him of a girl he’d left behind in
New York.

It occurred to her that for all she knew Tony
Ewing was engaged to be married to some aristocrat back East. The
idea settled into her heart and burned there. She was pretty
depressed by the time they reached the Nelsons’ small suite of
rooms at the back of the hotel.

She did her duty, however, and Mr. Nelson
agreed to install security locks on all windows and doors,
beginning tomorrow. He also offered to rent Martin a room in which
to store Peerless’s expensive equipment.

Tony was impressed by the way Mari expressed
herself to Nelson. She was an articulate little baggage,
considering she’d had no exposure to life’s finer things.

He wished he could get over this absurd and
insistent impulse to lavish gifts upon her. It had been dogging him
ever since they’d gone to Los Angeles, when he’d bought her those
clothes and compelled her to accept them.

Ever since their sojourn on Olvera Street,
he’d been plagued by the mad desire to see her clad in diamonds and
emeralds and satins and silks. He wanted to buy her a roadster and
watch her tooling down the avenue clad in driving gloves, goggles,
and a long, flowing scarf. She’d be elegant. Superb. Tony imagined
young girls watching her breathlessly and wishing they could be
just like her

Especially if she had a handsome fellow like
him at her side. The image of the two of them, carefree, gay, and
laughing, appeared in his mind’s eye like one of those modern
cigarette advertisements one saw in periodicals that pandered to
young people.

Good God, whatever was he thinking? He shook
his head to dislodge the errant images and, as they walked away
from the Nelsons’ door, said, “I’ll take you home as soon as I
place a long-distance call to my father, Mari.”

“You don’t have to do that, but thanks “

Dammit, why did she always have to argue with
him? “I know I don’t have to do it, but I’m going to. It’s
pitch-dark outside. Besides, it’ll take less time in the
motorcar.”

“It won’t, either,” she said tartly. “You’ll
blow a tire because you won’t be able to see where you’re going.
Besides, I’m used to it.”

“Damnation, Mari, don’t you understand yet
that there are bad people hanging around here?” He hadn’t meant to
yell and lowered his voice. “I’d be worse than a cad to allow you
to walk home alone under these circumstances, and you’d be a damned
fool to do it.”

In an icy voice, Mari said, “Tiny will be
with me. Nobody will dare bother me as long as Tiny’s there to
protect me.”

“Protect you? Ha! He’d be more likely to
invite a crook into your house for tea and crumpets.”

Her laugh sounded both spontaneous and
reluctant. “Stop being silly. I’m fine. Especially with Tiny along.
He scares strangers, even if he isn’t very ferocious, and anybody
who’d be likely to want to do me harm would have to be a
stranger.”

“You don’t know that, and neither do I.”

“Fiddlesticks. I know everyone in town.”

“That doesn’t make any difference, and you
know it. For all we know, Edison’s bribed the whole town to prevent
Peerless from making this picture.”

From the expression on her face, Tony judged
she wasn’t buying that one any more than he did. But she only said,
“That’s silly.”

Bother. He hated it when she was right He
wasn’t going to give in on this issue, though “I’m going. If you
won’t let me drive you, I’ll walk with you.”

“But then you’ll have to walk back to the
hotel alone, and that might be dangerous for you. You don’t know
the landscape like I do.”

“I,” Tony said stiffly, “am a man. I’ll have
a lantern with me, and nobody would dare attack me. I’m strong
enough to fight back.” Especially with the revolver he carried in
his pocket. He didn’t mention it, because he sensed Mari wouldn’t
approve. He was a damned good shot, though, even if he did say so
himself.

She huffed. “I can take care of myself, too.
I’ve been doing it for years now.”

“I thought your father died only a few months
ago.”

She hesitated before she said, “Well, yes,
but—” She broke off abruptly, and Tony feared he’d prodded an
unhealed wound.

“Say, Mari, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring
up your father. I know you and he were close.” No matter how much
Tony thought Mr. Pottersby had been a stinky father to her.

Another moment’s pause ensued then she said,
“No, it’s not that. It’s only—” Again, her words broke off, making
Tony picture a guy with an ax lopping off the ends of her
sentences.