it.
“I shan’t want you to carry that. Nothing of that sort at all. This is a purely business transaction.”
“I hardly ever shoot anybody,” I said. “A matter of blackmail?”
He frowned. “Certainly not. I’m not in the habit of giving people grounds for blackmail.”
“It happens to the nicest people. I might say particularly to the nicest people.”
He waved his cigarette. His aquamarine eyes had a faintly thoughtful expression, but his lips smiled. The kind of smile that goes with a silk noose.
He blew some more smoke and tilted his head back. This accentuated the soft firm lines of his throat. His eyes came down slowly and studied me.
“I’m meeting these men — most probably — in a rather lonely place. I don’t know where yet. I expect a call giving me the particulars. I have to be ready to leave at once. It won’t be very far away from here. That’s the understanding.”
“You’ve been making this deal some time?”
“Three or four days, as a matter of fact.”
“You left your bodyguard problem until pretty late.”
He thought that over. He snicked some dark ash from his cigarette. “That’s true. I had some difficulty making my mind up. It would be better for me to go alone, although nothing has been said definitely about my having someone with me. On the other hand I’m not much of a hero.”
“They know you by sight, of course?”
“I — I’m not sure. I shall be carrying a large amount of money and it is not my money. I’m acting for a friend. I shouldn’t feel justified in letting it out of my possession, of course.”
I snubbed out my cigarette and leaned back in the pink chair and twiddled my thumbs. “How much money — and what for?”
“Well, really — “ it was a fairly nice smile now, but I still didn’t like it. “I can’t go into that.”
“You just want me to go along and hold your hat?”
His hand jerked again and some ash fell off on his white cuff. He shook it off and stared down at the place where it had been.
“I’m afraid I don’t like your manner,” he said, using the edge of his voice.
“I’ve had complaints about it,” I said. “But nothing seems to do any good. Let’s look at this job a little. You want a bodyguard, but he can’t wear a gun. You want a helper, but he isn’t supposed to know what he’s supposed to do. You want me to risk my neck without knowing why or what for or what the risk is. What are you offering for all this?”
“I hadn’t really got around to thinking about it.” His cheekbones were dusky red.
“Do you suppose you could get around to thinking about it?”
He leaned forward gracefully and smiled between his teeth. “How would you like a swift punch on the nose?”
I grinned and stood up and put my hat on. I started across the carpet towards the front door, but not very fast.
His voice snapped at my back. “I’m offering you a hundred dollars for a few hours of your time. If that isn’t enough, say so. There’s no risk. Some jewels were taken from a friend of mine in a holdup — and I’m buying them back. Sit down and don’t be so touchy.”
I went back to the pink chair and sat down again.
“All right,” I said. “Let’s hear about it.”
We stared at each other for all of ten seconds. “Have you ever heard of Fei Tsui jade?” he asked slowly, and lit another of his dark cigarettes.
“No.”
“It’s the only really valuable kind. Other kinds are valuable to some extent for the material, but chiefly for the workmanship on them. Fei Tsui is valuable in itself. All known deposits were exhausted hundreds of years ago. A friend of mine owns a necklace of sixty beads of about six carats each, intricately carved. Worth eighty or ninety thousand dollars. The Chinese government has a very slightly larger one valued at a hundred and twenty-five thousand. My friend’s necklace was taken in a holdup a few nights ago. I was present, but quite helpless. I had driven my friend to an evening party and later to the Trocadero and we were on our way back to her home from there. A car brushed the left front fender and stopped, as I thought, to apologize. Instead of that it was a very quick and very neat holdup. Either three or four men, I really saw only two, but I’m sure another stayed in the car behind the wheel, and I thought I saw a glimpse of still a fourth at the rear window. My friend was wearing the jade necklace. They took that and two rings and a bracelet. The one who seemed to be the leader looked the things over without any apparent hurry under a small flashlight. Then he handed one of the rings back and said that would give us an idea what kind of people we were dealing with and to wait for a phone call before reporting to the police or the insurance company. So we obeyed their instructions. There’s plenty of that sort of thing going on, of course. You keep the affair to yourself and pay ransom, or you never see your jewels again. If they’re fully insured, perhaps you don’t mind, but if they happen to be rare pieces, you would rather pay ransom.”
I nodded. “And this jade necklace is something that can’t be picked up every day.”
He slid a finger along the polished surface of the piano with a dreamy expression, as if touching smooth things pleased him.
“Very much so. It’s irreplaceable. She shouldn’t have worn it out — ever. But she’s a reckless sort of woman. The other things were good but ordinary.”
“Uh-huh. How much are you paying?”
“Eight thousand dollars. It’s dirt cheap. But if my friend couldn’t get another like it, these thugs couldn’t very easily dispose of it either. It’s probably known to every one in the trade, all over the country.”
“This friend of yours — does she have a name?”
“I’d prefer not to mention it at the moment.”
“What are the arrangements?”
He looked at me along his pale eyes. I thought he seemed a bit scared, but I didn’t know him very well. Maybe it was a hangover. The hand that held the dark cigarette couldn’t keep still.
“We have been negotiating by telephone for several days — through me. Everything is settled except the time and place of meeting. It is to be sometime tonight. I shall presently be getting a call to tell me of that. It will not be very far away, they say, and I must be prepared to leave at once. I suppose that is so that no plant could be arranged. With the police, I mean.”
“Uh-huh. Is the money marked? I suppose it is money?”
“Currency, of course. Twenty dollar bills. No, why should it be marked?”
“It can be done so that it takes black light to detect it. No reason — except that the cops like to break up these gangs — if they can get any co-operation. Some of the money might turn up on some lad with a record.”
He wrinkled his brow thoughtfully. “I’m afraid I don’t know what black light is.”
“Ultra-violet It makes certain metallic inks glisten in the dark. I could get it done for you.”
“I’m afraid there isn’t time for that now,” he said shortly.
“That’s one of the things that worries me.”
“Why?”
“Why you only called me this afternoon. Why you picked on me. Who told you about me?”
He laughed. His laugh was rather boyish, but not a very young boy. “Well, as a matter of fact I’ll have to confess I merely picked your name at random out of the phone book. You see I hadn’t intended to have anyone go with me. Then this afternoon I got to thinking why not.”
I lit another of my squashed cigarettes and watched his throat muscles. “What’s the plan?”
He spread his hands. “Simply to go where I am told, hand over the package of money, and receive back the jade necklace.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You seem fond of that expression.”
“What expression?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Where will I be — in the back of the car?”
