Fletcher Flora - The First Golden Age of Mystery & Crime MEGAPACK™ - 26 Stories by Fletcher Flora

“Darling,” she said, “if only you weren’t so dreadfully poor.”

“Excuse me,” he said. “I know it’s depressing.”

“It’s just that it would be so wonderful if you weren’t.”

“Everyone can’t be as rich as Hugo.”

“That’s true. Hardly anyone can be as rich as Hugo, but it is hardly necessary. Not for you, darling. With you as a bonus, I’d be willing to settle for less.”

“How much less?”

“It could be a great deal less and still be enough. There is no advantage in having far more money than one can spend.”

“I’m happy to know that you’re prepared to be reasonable.”

“Darling, I am almost entirely free from avarice. All I require is enough to supply the simple necessities.”

“Did you say necessities or luxuries?”

“Darling, for me they are the same thing.”

“Well, let’s get down to specifications. How much, would you say, would be enough to supply the simple necessities for a person who is almost entirely free from avarice? Name a figure.”

“Make me an offer.”

“Would one hundred G’s be enough?”

“I should think that would do very well for quite a while. Do you happen to have that much?”

“No.”

“I didn’t think so. Darling, you mustn’t imagine that you can trick me or anything like that. I’m very shrewd in such matters.”

“Perhaps I could get it, however.”

“You mustn’t indulge in fantasies, either, darling. It’s hard on the mind.”

“I could get it tonight. By nine o’clock, say. One hundred thousand in large bills.”

“That’s the way I like it. Large bills is absolutely the nicest way that money comes. Darling, you are so charming when you dream. So small-boyish. If you will come down here beside me, I think I would like to kiss you.”

He came down beside her, as directed, and they kissed each other, as it turned out. It did not turn out, however, to be the kind of kiss a woman gives a small boy, nor on the other hand the kind a small boy gives a woman. It was too long and too ardent. When it was over, she rolled back onto her tummy and sucked again on the clear plastic straw and looked at him sidewise from smoky eyes.

“If only you really could,” she said.

“I can.”

“No, no. You mustn’t torment yourself and me with delusions, darling. You are charming and lovable and exciting, but you are simply not the type to acquire that much money tonight or any other night or ever at all.”

“If I can get the money tonight, will you go away with me before Hugo gets back?”

“Permanently?”

“Yes.”

“Certainly, darling.

“Then you had better be prepared to go, because I know just where it is, and I’ll get it.”

She had been watching him closely sidewise all the while, and now she rolled over suddenly and sat up, hugging her knees in her arms and staring at him intently over them. In her eyes, behind the smoke, there was a new glitter of excitement.

“I do believe you’re serious.”

“You’d better believe it. I’ll simply take it.”

“Steal it?”

“Yes, if you want to put it that way.”

“Darling, there is no good in speaking in euphemisms. We may as well be candid.”

“Would you object to spending stolen money?”

“Not at all. I would only object if you were caught stealing it.”

“I won’t be caught.”

“Where is all this money? Just lying somewhere waiting for you to pick it up?”

“That’s right. Just lying there waiting.”

“Waiting where?”

“In Hugo’s safe at the casino.”

“Steal from Hugo! Darling, are you insane?”

“No, I’m not.”

“He would certainly have you killed. Me, too.”

“He would have to find us first.”

“I must confess that I didn’t dream you could have the nerve. Perhaps you won’t, when it comes down to it.”

“You’ll see.”

“How do you know the money is in the safe? Did you see it?”

“Hugo told me. You know he likes me. Sometimes he invites me into his office for a cigarette and a drink of private stock. The night before he left town, I was in there, and he had this package, just a brown paper package tied with heavy twine, lying on his desk. He was in an expansive mood, a little tight, and he asked me if I knew what was in the package, and I said no, and he said one hundred thousand dollars in large bills. Then he said, as a joke, that I had better watch over things closely while he was gone, because he was leaving the package in the office safe until he returned from wherever he was going.”

“That’s a lot of money for someone just to leave in an office safe. Even Hugo. Is it his personal money?”

“He said so, but I have a notion, if the truth were known, that the internal revenue boys might think differently. Chances are, Hugo would never report the theft of it to the police.”

“He wouldn’t need to. He has men of his own to take care of such things.”

“Are you afraid?”

“No, darling. Not for one hundred grand and a bonus. You are much more daring and exciting than I knew, and I can’t imagine how I underestimated you so.”

“In that case, we had better make some plans.”

She had been much more easily persuaded than he had hoped or expected, and they sat on the floor like childish conspirators and made all the arrangements, which were very simple, and her excitement had grown and grown inside her until her eyes were shining with such a bright light that they gave the effect of blindness, and her breath was drawn and released with labor between moist pink lips.

“I’ll get the money early,” he said. “As shortly after eight as possible. The office is locked, but that won’t be any problem. The safe will be a slightly greater problem, but I can manage it all right. It won’t take longer than ten minutes to open it. I’ve always had sensitive fingers. There’s an alarm, of course, but I know where it is and how to shut it off. I will simply take the money and leave the office and walk directly down the back stairs to the alley door. The door is barred on the inside, and that’s where you will have to help me. The only thing you will have to do is wait there to bar the door after me, for if it were discovered unbarred, it might touch off an investigation before we were ready for it.”

“That leaves me on the inside and you on the outside, darling. Where will I meet you later?”

“I don’t think you had better come with me immediately. There is a little town I know about three hundred miles in the direction I want to go. I’ll stop there and take a room in the hotel. You follow tomorrow and take a room, too. You will have to ride a bus, for there’s no train or air service, and we won’t want a second car on our hands. You’d better travel light, but don’t forget your jewels. In the places we are going we may need a little extra money.”

“What is the name of the town?”

He told her the name of the town and the name he would use there instead of his own, and all the plans were simply made and perfectly executed, everything going exactly right, and everything was still going right, according to plan, for the telephone was ringing in his room in the hotel in the small town, and he got up and answered it.

“Hello, darling,” she said. “How’s my bonus boy?”

“I’m fine,” he said. “What room are you in?”

“Never mind. I’ll come to yours. I want to see my base pay, and my bonus together, if you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind. We’re both in room 306, and we’ll be waiting for you. We both sort of missed you.”

“Darling, I’ll be right there.”

While waiting the last two minutes, which were what she took in coming, he went over to the open bag and took a silver flask from it and a large swallow of scotch from the flask. He did not drink much, hardly ever alone, and he wasn’t nervous or afraid, not needing the drink especially, and he took it simply because he was satisfied and excited and felt like having a drink of scotch to what had been committed and done and would be done hereafter. He capped the flask and dropped it into the bag. There was a knock on the door, and he went over and opened it.