James Chase: Fast Buck

Gillis shrugged.

‘You’re a funny girl,’ he said, blowing smoke to the ceiling. ‘We could have snapped our fingers at the world with half a million in our pockets. You don’t seem to realise what you’ve lost.’

‘I think I do, but I’ve gained much more.’

‘Nice to have such a placid philosophy. Well, I wasn’t wrong about Baird. I told you he could do anything if he put his mind to it.’

‘Eight men lost their lives through him. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?’

‘Should it?’ he said, mildly surprised. ‘It’s what they were paid for. If a man’s mug enough to be a prison guard, he must expect to run risks.’

‘What do you think has happened to Hater?’ she asked, turning away so he shouldn’t see her disgust.

‘I imagine Baird’s hanging on to him,’ Gillis said, frowning. ‘There was always the possibility that Baird would deal direct with the Rajah. I’m afraid that’s what he’s going to do. It won’t be easy for him.

The police are hunting for him for Zoe Norton’s murder. But if he can get to the Rajah, the Rajah will do a deal with him.’

‘When you found out that Baird had tricked you,’ Eve said quietly, ‘I suppose you decided Preston was of no further use, and you gave him away to the police?’

Gillis looked at her, his eyes cynically amused.

‘Do you real y want to know, pet? Wouldn’t your silly conscience be happier if you didn’t know?’

‘I want to know.’

‘Then you shall. You’re quite right. You’ve said all along you want to be rid of Kile. I phoned Olin and told him he’d find Jean Bruce’s bracelet in Kile’s safe. He went along and found it. So now you don’t have to worry about Kile any more.’

‘So I’m to blame, real y?’

‘Well, I suppose you are,’ Gil is said, and laughed. ‘I certainly wouldn’t have bothered to phone Olin if you were still anxious to remain Kale’s mistress. But as you aren’t, I thought I’d better do something about it. After all, Eve, you’ve helped me in the past. The least I could do was to help you when the opportunity arose.’

‘Are you sure it wasn’t because Baird tricked you?’ Eve said quietly. ‘Are you sure you didn’t round on Kile in a moment of spite because you had to work off your temper on someone, and he was the least likely to hit back?’

For a moment Gillis’s face hardened, but he quickly controlled himself, and burst out laughing.

‘You certainly know me, don’t you, Eve? You’re absolutely right I was livid at the time. Everything was going so well. Yes, I under-estimated that sonofabitch. I thought he was a gun-happy thug without any brains. But he beat me to it. I admit it. He even got paid to get Hater out of the swamp, and then he calmly walked off with him, and will probably do a deal with the Rajah and pocket the half million.

Well, I’ve got over it now. I’ve other ideas: not quite so lucrative, but definitely more promising.’

It had always been the same, Eve thought bitterly. He was forever working on some new idea to get rich quickly. Nothing discouraged him. As soon as one idea petered out, he began working on another.

He would go to endless trouble to try to make money out of his crack-pot schemes, although he wouldn’t stir a finger to get himself a job that would bring him in a legitimate income.

‘I think I’ll go to bed now,’ she said abruptly. ‘I’m tired. You can stay here for the night if you want to.’ ‘I was going to suggest it,’ he said, smiling. ‘But don’t run away just yet. I want to talk to you about my new idea. By the way, pet, how are you off for money?’

‘How much do you want?’

He sat up, his face suddenly ugly with rage.

‘Don’t keep assuming I’m going to sponge on you, damn you!’ he said. ‘I’m asking you how much longer you can keep this apartment on now you haven’t Kile to pay the bil s?’

‘I shall go back to the Follies,’ she said. ‘I shan’t stay here. If you want any money, I can let you have fifty dollars.’

‘I don’t want your money,’ he said shortly. ‘Now look, let’s be sensible about this. There’s no point in going back to the Follies. Besides, you don’t know if they’l have you back.’ He got up and poured himself another whisky. ‘As a matter of fact, the Rajah has taken a fancy to you.’

Eve stood motionless, looking at Gillis.

‘What did you say?’

‘The Rajah’s taken a fancy to you,’ Gil is said, his smile becoming fixed. ‘He would like you to go back with him to Chittabad. I promised to talk it over with you.’

Eve went a shade paler.

‘I don’t understand. Do you know him? How did you come to meet him?’

Gillis waved an airy hand.

‘Why, of course I know him. I met him in India. As a matter of fact, I did him one or two little services: nothing very grand, but he was impressed by my usefulness.’

‘You mean you introduced him to some white women who were accommodating?’

Gillis lost his smile.

‘There’s no need to be sarcastic,’ he said curtly. ‘I just happened to be useful. I forget what I did. We became friendly and he told me about the collection. Between us we engineered the plan to get hold of Hater.’

‘Oh, I see. Then why did you bring Preston and me into it? I always thought it was odd the Rajah saw me so easily. You had arranged all that before you told me to go and see him?’

‘Of course,’ Gil is said, poured whisky into his glass and sipped it. ‘We decided it would be safer to have a stooge in case things went sour on us. That’s why we picked on Kile. We were just safeguarding ourselves. That’s all.’

‘I see.’ She began to move around the room again. ‘You didn’t bother about what would happen to me if things went sour, as you call it.’

‘Oh, rot! Nothing was likely to happen to you. We knew that. The police wouldn’t be interested in you.’

‘If Preston had told them it was my idea — as he thought it was — they might have been,’ Eve said, going to the window and pushing back the curtain to look down at the rain-soaked street.

‘I knew Kile was too much of a gentleman to implicate you,’ Gil is said easily. ‘I had it all planned pretty neatly. It was just bad luck it flopped. Anyway, that’s all ancient history now. You’ve got your future to think of. The Rajah will make you a settlement.’

She didn’t say anything or look round.

‘Did you hear what I said?’ Gil is demanded, raising his voice.

‘Yes.’

‘I’ve persuaded him to be pretty generous. Of course he’s not as rich as he was, and this Hater business has rather put a spoke in his wheel, but he’s still got plenty,’ Gil is went on. ‘You’l like the life out there. Of course women don’t get quite so much freedom as here, but there are other compensations.

He’s got a magnificent palace, and he still owns a lot of diamonds and jewelery. He’ll want you to wear them.’

‘I was under the impression he was married,’ Eve said, still with her back turned.

Gillis laughed.

‘Well, you know what these Rajahs are,’ he said. ‘It won’t make any difference to you. They look on these things differently out there. There’s nothing for you to worry about. Anyway, his present wife’s not a patch on you.’

She didn’t say anything.

‘He’s going to stay here for one more week in the hope Baird’ll get in touch with him. He’ll be sailing on the 30th. We’ll travel with him. You’ll enjoy it, Eve. Everything first class, and he’ll give you a pretty substantial cheque for an outfit. He likes his women to look smart.’

‘He is giving you a job, then, Adam?’

‘Well , of course. I’m going to be his confidential secretary. The pickings should be pretty good.