Fast Buck (27 page)

He entered the cosy sitting-room and took off his hat and coat.

‘I’m afraid I’m going to make a bit of a mess,’ he said apologetical y. ‘Shal I take these things into the bathroom?’

‘I don’t think you’d bet er, Adam. I’m expecting Preston,’ Eve said uneasily. ‘He phoned this evening to say he was coming. I thought it was he when you rang.’

Gillis smiled.

‘You don’t have to worry about Preston. He won’t be coming. He has a much more pressing appointment.’ He crossed the room to the door leading to the bathroom. ‘I think I’ll take a bath. I don’t want to catch cold.’

‘How do you know Preston won’t come?’ Eve asked sharply.

‘I’ll tel you al about it when I’ve had a bath,’ Gil is said. ‘There’s plenty of time.’

He went into the bathroom and locked himself in. He took a bath, lying in the hot water for some time, enjoying the luxury of it. Then he shaved, using Kile’s razor, and put on the dark blue quilted dressing-gown that Eve had left outside the door, and re-entered the sitting-room.

‘That’s much bet er,’ he said, going over to the electric fire Eve had turned on. He sat in an easy chair before the fire. ‘A whisky and soda would be welcome if you can run to it.’

Eve brought him the drink and sat opposite him. Her face was white and strained, and she looked searchingly at him.

‘What has happened to Preston?’ she asked.

‘I’m afraid he’s in trouble,’ Gil is said. He drank some of the whisky. ‘Good stuff this.’ He leaned forward to read the label on the bottle. ‘I must get some for myself.’

‘Adam! What has happened to Preston?’

He looked at her, smiling.

‘I told you: he’s in trouble. I think it’s very unlikely you’l be bothered with him again.’

‘But what happened?’ Her voice was sharp-edged as she leaned forward. ‘Why is he in trouble?’

‘The police found out about the bracelet,’ he said, shrugging. ‘They arrested him about half an hour ago.’

‘Adam! You told them about it!’

‘As a matter of fact, I didn’t,’ Gil is lied. ‘I must admit I’ve been tempted to do so several times, but in view of what’s just happened, I’m glad I didn’t.’

‘What wil they do with him?’

‘I imagine he’l get ten years. Why should you care? He’ll be out of the way for some time,’ Gillis said, finished his drink and offered the glass to her. ‘Would you like to mix me another? And if you have a cigarette?’

She made another drink, gave it to him, and put a box of cigarettes where he could reach them. He lit up, stretched out his long legs and sighed contentedly.

‘This is the life, pet,’ he said. You’re lucky. You may not believe it, but I often wish I had been a girl.

I’d have enjoyed being some old fool’s kept darling.’

Eve shuddered, but she didn’t say anything.

‘By the way, did Preston tell you what happened at the shooting-lodge?’ Gil is asked, after a long pause.

‘He didn’t go into details,’ Eve said, looking down at her hands. ‘He said he hadn’t been successful.’

‘That’s rather an understatement,’ Gil is said. ‘The whole thing was a complete flop.’

She didn’t say anything or look at him,

‘You don’t seem particularly concerned,’ Gillis said, watching her narrowly. ‘After al , you’ve lost a quarter of a million, haven’t you?’

‘Have I?’ she asked, and looked up to meet his eyes. ‘I didn’t count on getting it, Adam. Come to that, you don’t seem particularly concerned, either.’

‘You wouldn’t have said that the night before last,’ Gillis said, and laughed. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever been in such a rage. I had everything so well worked out, Preston was marching up and down outside the lodge in a perfect fever, and I was crouching behind a bush, also in a fever. We waited hours, and nothing happened. Then Preston turned on the radio, and we heard the details of the escape. They said Hater had stolen a police launch. We waited and waited, but Baird didn’t show up. I nearly tore my hair out I was so angry.’

Eve got up and began to move around the room aimlessly. Her silence irritated Gillis.

‘You don’t seem very interested,’ he said sharply. ‘After all, we were working on this together.’

‘We weren’t working together, Adam. I behaved like a weak fool and did what you told me to do. All along I thought the idea was crazy, and I’m glad it didn’t come off.’

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 wil 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 shal . You’re quite right. You’ve said al 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 bet er 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 mat er of fact, I did him one or two lit le 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 al .’

‘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 al 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 pret y 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 stil 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 stil owns a lot of diamonds and jewel ery. He’l want you to wear them.’

‘I was under the impression he was married,’ Eve said, stil 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’l get in touch with him. He’ll be sailing on the 30th. We’l travel with him. You’l enjoy it, Eve. Everything first class, and he’l give you a pretty substantial cheque for an outfit. He likes his women to look smart.’

‘He is giving you a job, then, Adam?’

‘Wel , of course. I’m going to be his confidential secretary. The pickings should be pret y good.

You’l find that out, too. Of course it won’t be a permanent thing. I don’t think the chap wil last much more than five or six years at the rate he’s spending his money. But you and I wil be able to feather our nests pretty well by then.’

‘I’m glad you’ve got a job, Adam. I hope you’l be very successful, and have a lot of pickings.’

He looked at her slim back suspiciously.

‘I’ll take good care I am successful,’ he said shortly. ‘But never mind about me. I told him you’d cal at his hotel tomorrow and have lunch with him. Naturally he’s anxious to get to know you as soon as possible.’

‘I’m sorry to disappoint him, but I won’t be able to go,’ Eve said, stil with her back turned.

‘But you can’t have anything more important to do than to see him,’ Gil is said sharply. ‘You must go.’

She turned then, and he was startled to see how white she was, and how her eyes glittered.

‘Do you realise what you are suggesting?’ she asked, in a cold, level ed voice. ‘Do you realise this man’s coloured?’

‘Now, please don’t be ridiculous,’ Gil is said. ‘The Rajah’s a high-born gentleman. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge.’

‘That doesn’t make the slightest difference to me. Anyway, even if he wasn’t coloured, the answer’s still no. I’m going back to the Fol ies. I’ve had enough of this kind of life.’

‘My dear girl, I doubt if the Follies would have you. There’l be a hel of a scandal when the press hear Kile’s been arrested. I can’t imagine the Follies will want the discarded mistress of a jail-bird decorating their theatre.’

She looked away, biting her lip, her hands clenched into tight fists.

‘Now, look, do be sensible, Eve,’ Gil is said, pressing his advantage. ‘See the Rajah tomorrow. He’s got a lot of charm. He won’t rush you. Maybe on the boat you’l be expected to do your job, but certainly not until you get on the boat.’

‘You’d bet er go, Adam,’ she said, without looking at him.

He stared at her, startled.

‘What do you mean?’

‘What I say. I don’t want to see you again. I’ve been trying to make up my mind to end our sordid association for weeks, but I’ve never had the courage. But I have now. There was a time, Adam, when I loved you. I was ready to do anything for you, but you’ve killed al that. Looking at you now, I can’t understand why I have been such an utter fool. Well, I’m glad you’ve got a job. I’m glad you’re going to India. We needn’t meet again. I sincerely hope we don’t.’ She turned back to the window. ‘Please go now.’