James Chase - What's Better Than Money

This was our big chance to break into Big-time and we weren’t taking any chances.

Finally, the pressure got so tough, I asked Sarita to come into the office to handle the typing so Clara could spend her time on the calculating machine, getting out figures for us.

The four of us slaved.

At the end of thirty days we had the estimates and the plan of operation ready.

I went around to Mathison and handed the document over. He said he would let me know, and that was that.

We waited three long, nerve-racking months, then he telephoned me and told me to come over.

‘It’s okay, boy,’ he said, coming over to shake me by the hand. ‘The job’s yours. I’m not saying I didn’t have a fight to convince some of them, but your figures were right, and you had half the committee on your side to start with. You can go right ahead. Talk to Webb. There’l be another meeting tomorrow. I want you and Osborne to be there.’

That happened exactly ten years, eleven months and two weeks since last I saw Rima.

I hadn’t considered what the building of a six mil ion dol ar bridge would mean until Joe Creedy, the City’s Public Relations Officer, breezed into our office and told me.

We had celebrated of course: just our own private celebration with Sarita, Jack, Clara and myself. We had gone to the best restaurant in Holland City and had had a champagne dinner. As far as I was concerned the celebrations were over and we had now to get down to the business of building the bridge, but Creedy had other ideas.

Creedy was a big, broad-shouldered man with a heavy, serious face and a likeable manner. He paced the office while Jack and I sat at our desks and listened to him.

‘There’ll be a civic banquet on Saturday,’ he told us. ‘You two wil be guests of honour. One of you will have to make a speech.’

Jack grinned broadly and jerked his thumb at me.

‘You’re the boy, Jeff. I wouldn’t know how to make a speech.’

‘I’ll write it,’ Creedy said. ‘I don’t care who delivers it so long as it gets delivered. On Sunday at three o’clock I’ve fixed it for you two to appear on television. I’l pick you up here and take you over to the studio.’

‘Television?’ I said and I felt a little stab of uneasiness. ‘What do we want to be on television for?’

Creedy smiled patiently at me.

‘We’re spending six mil ion dol ars of this city’s money,’ he said. ‘The public are entitled to see the two guys who are spending their money. There’s nothing to it. I’l ask the usual corny questions and you’l give me the usual corny answers. We’l have a scale model of the bridge prepared and you’l explain how you’re going to build it.’

I was now beginning to get even more uneasy. My past was beginning to come alive in my mind. I told myself not to panic. After all, the television hook-up covered the county: we were a long way from Los Angeles.

‘I’m trying to get Life to do an article about the bridge,’ Creedy went on. ‘They’re biting. It would be a fine thing for the city to get a coverage from Life .’

My uneasiness sparked into panic. Coverage in Life was world wide. I would have to make sure there would be no photograph of me in the magazine.

Jack said happily, ‘Sounds as if we have become a couple of famous people, Jeff. It’s about time.

We’ve worked hard enough.’

Creedy took out his notebook.

‘You’re famous al right. Let’s have some dope about yourselves. I want to prepare the TV interview.

Let’s get the basic facts: where you were born, who your parents were, what your training was, your war service, what you’ve done since the war, your future plans: that kind of junk.’

Jack gave him the information, and while I listened I began to sweat. I had to cover up on the time I had spent in Los Angeles.

When it came my turn, it was easy until I came to my return home from hospital.

Creedy said, ‘You began your studies again, and then you suddenly quit: is that right?’

‘Yes.’ I didn’t want to tel him any lies so I picked my way careful y. ‘I couldn’t set le to work. I left college after three months, and for a while I just kicked around.’

‘Is that so.’ He showed interest. ‘Where did you get to?’

‘Al over. I just loafed around and did nothing.’

He looked sharply at me.

‘How did you earn a living?’

‘I did a job here: a job there.’

Jack was now looking interested.

‘You never told me,’ he said. ‘I thought you had been in the engineering racket al the time.’

‘For a year or so I bummed around.’

‘This could make for colour,’ Creedy said. ‘Where did you get to? What kind of jobs did you do?’

This was now dangerous. I had to kill it.

‘I’d rather not go into that. Suppose we skip it if it’s al the same to you.’

Creedy stared at me, then shrugged.

‘Sure. What are you going to do with the money you’l make out of the bridge?’

I relaxed. That was an easy one.

‘Buy a house I guess. I might even build one.’

Creedy closed his notebook.

‘Wel , I guess that’ll hold it for the moment. Don’t forget the banquet on Saturday.’

When he had gone, we got down to work again. There was so much to do, I didn’t have time to think about this unexpected publicity until I was driving home.

Then I began to worry.

I now began to think of Rima not as someone in the dim past, but someone who could come into my present and my future.

Suppose she spotted my photograph in the newspapers and recognised me? What would she do? It depended on the state she was in. Maybe by now she had had a cure and was living a decent, normal life.

Maybe she was no longer alive. I told myself to quit worrying. She was in the past, and with any luck she would remain in the past.

Sarita had dinner waiting for me when I walked into our three-room apartment.

The sight of her waiting by a roaring fire, a shaker of dry Martinis on the table, and an atmosphere in the room that can only come from a woman who really cares for her man, quieted my uneasiness.

I held her close to me, my face against hers, and I was thankful she was mine.

‘You look tired, Jeff. How has it been going?’

‘Pret y hectic. There’s still an awful lot to do.’ I kissed her and then dropped into the lounging chair.

‘It’s good to be home. There’s to be a banquet on Saturday night in our honour, and Jack and I have to go on television on Sunday.’

She poured two cocktails.

‘Seems I have married a famous man.’

‘So it seems, but I know I have you to thank for it.’ I raised my glass to her. ‘You began the bridge.’

‘No — it was Chopin.’

After dinner we sat by the fire. I was in the armchair and Sarita on the floor, her head against my knee.

‘Pretty soon,’ I said, ‘we’re going to have some money to burn. Creedy asked me what I was going to do with it. I said maybe I’d build a house. Would that be an idea?’

‘We wouldn’t have to build it, Jeff. I’ve seen a place that is exactly what we want.’

‘You’ve seen it? Where?’

‘It’s that lit le cot age up on Simeon’s Hil . It’s owned by Mr. Terrel . Last year he and his wife invited me out there for dinner. Oh, Jeff! It has everything, and it’s not too big.’

‘What makes you think it’s in the market?’

‘I met Mr. Terrell yesterday. He is taking his wife to live in Miami. She needs the sun. Of course it is for you to decide, but you must see it. I’m sure you’l love it.’

‘If it’s good enough for you, it’s good enough for me. You don’t know what he wants for it?’