The Girl, The Gold Watch And Everything Part 16

"Indeed?"

"Just suppose a goodly chunk of that money did get stashed. Where I can get to it. And suppose I have the idea you people are a little crude."

"Crude?" she said thinly, shocked.

"Ransacking all Uncle Omar's little hideouts."

She studied him for a long time. "So you're a good actor too. I think that makes you twice as dangerous as cleverness alone, you know. When the stakes are high enough, it's worth making a direct move sometimes. It could have worked. Then who would need you?"

"But it turns out you do."

She tilted her head. "And why the aw shucks, gee whiz, Huckleberry Finn reactions to my little, attentions, Kirby?"

"I like to be disarming."

"Dear Jesus, you are! So what makes you immune? Is Farnham that good?"

"Probably."

She got up to pace slowly, frowning. He noticed she had lost some of her accent in the past few minutes. "Very nice," she said. "Set the mark up and when you get to the kill, he second-cards you to death. I suppose you are thinking in terms of a partners.h.i.+p." "Not particularly."

"Is it in the same place the money is?" "Is what?" She stamped her foot. "Don't be so d.a.m.ned coy! Certainly you know we could have done it the other way at any time. You drank whatever I handed you. And we could have gotten you to a place where screaming wouldn't matter. Joseph hasn't got the stomach for it, but I have, friend. I have. I find it very interesting."

He swallowed a sudden obstruction in his throat. "So I guess that must mean it wouldn't have done you any good." "It wouldn't do you any good, dear." "I guess you have to a.s.sume I know what I'm doing." She nodded, reluctantly. "I'm beginning to think so. But what the h.e.l.l was your uncle thinking of? He must have realized this would happen."

"If this is the way he planned it."

She gestured toward the newspaper. "If you brought this down on yourself, you must have a lot of confidence, Kirby."

"I didn't make any public statement." He went over to the phone. He looked at his watch. "I want to see if I can get Grumby at home by now."

"Better let me place the call for you. Knowing where you are would be worth money to the girl on the switchboard."

He looked up the number. Charla placed the call. When she had Grumby on the line, she handed the phone to Kirby. "Interesting press conference you held, Mr. Grumby." "Ah, Winter! You must understand that we have to protect ourselves."

"Then you'll understand my statement when I make it." "I don't think I follow."

"All I can say is that I was an underling. Uncle Omar certainly didn't leave me anything. All I can say is that O.K. Devices was some sort of tricky corporate thing I never quite understood. It never made sense to me, using all that money to buy property and securities abroad and then putting the deeds and certificates and a lot of cash into Swiss banks in your name and the names of your a.s.sociates. But I did it because I was paid to do it. And I can tell them that Miss Farnham is baffled too, because she burned the records at your request"

There was a long silence. In a rather rusty voice, Grumby asked, "What is the purpose of all this, Mr. Winter?"

"I am going to try to avoid making any statement at all." "A statement like that, fict.i.tious one might destroy us all." "In the absence of any doc.u.mentation, it could get sticky for everybody. I'm just suggesting that you don't try to get any cuter." "We may have seriously underestimated you, Mr. Winter." "You can't retract the statement. But you can avoid making any more. I have all the trouble I need right now." He hung up.

Charla looked at him approvingly. "You can be quite a serpent."

"At heart I'm a ninny."

"It's an effective disguise. Omar did look like such a sweet, baffled old man. We should have a.s.sumed you'd take after him."

The phone rang and she answered it. "Who? Oh, yes, of course. What is that? Oh, no, my dear. My brother and I hardly know the young man. Seen with him? You must be mistaken. Not that I would mind, you understand. It's really quite exciting being in the same hotel, actually. Even the same floor, I understand. He must be a very interesting chap. All that money. My word! I'm sorry my brother and I have to leave this evening. It would be amusing to stay here and watch the fun. No, of course not. You're very welcome."

She hung up. "A bright girl, that one. Playing percentages, bribing the help, I imagine. Possibly the bellhops who carried you upstairs last night. I tried to stay well out of it, but those boys are quite observant. Well, darling, you might as well bring your suitcases in here and we'll leave it up to Joseph to plan a good way to get you out of here tonight and onto the Glorianna. She'll be refueled by now. And it's just what you need, you know. The dramatic, mysterious disappearance."

"That's all I need."

"We'll do our bargaining at sea, Kirby."

"Will we?"

"Dear boy, give me credit for some intelligence. If you weren't interested in making a deal, you wouldn't be hanging about, would you?"

"I guess not. I, uh, think I'll shower and change."

"Take your time, dear. We won't be out of this for hours and hours. Want your back scrubbed?"

"No thanks."

"Don't look so severe. Any other little service you can think of?"

"Not right now. I'll let you know."

"I'm sure you will, you lovely serpent."

When he was back in his room with the door bolted, he went and listened at the corridor door. He could hear a murmur of voices in the hall, and some laughter. He walked back and forth, biting his lip, smacking his fist into his palm. He remembered her words, "a place where screaming wouldn't matter." It made him feel sweaty and chilled.

At seven-thirty he stood on the exposed landing with the green eye looking out of the porthole in the bright door at him, shadowed by the dusk.

"It's me," he said in a squeaky, m.u.f.fled, breathless voice. "Me!"

Betsy opened the door and let him in. "Dear Lord," she said softly. "Anybody follow you here? No, I guess they wouldn't."

He undid the jacket and belt of the hotel uniform and took the hotel pillow out. He pulled the wads of tissue out of his cheeks. He collapsed into a chair and said, "They sent up a fat one."

"A fat what?"

"A fat waiter. I called from the honeymooner's room."

"From the whose room?"

"I haven't hit anybody since I was thirteen years old. He put the tray down and turned around and, Pow. I left a fifty-dollar bill in his hand. Then I walked right through all of them."

"All of who?"

"Why would they have uniforms this color? Salmon and emerald?"

"Kirby, I heard all about you on television, on the six o'clock news, and I could guess that the thundering herd is after you, but really, you'd better start at the beginning. Unless you start somewhere near the beginning, I am going to all of a sudden start screaming."

"She said something about screaming, and it was very nasty."