But then again, with all his money, he might be able to buy his way out of his punishment and spend the rest of his years sunning himself on the French Riviera.
It made very little difference to me.
CHAPTER XXXII
On the flight back to the States, I considered the two jobs I had to do. One was fairly pleasant and the other was distinctly unpleasant.
I had to stop off in Miami and deliver the gift from Hoag to his girlfriend. A token of affection. People still had clandestine affairs. People could still feel emotions. Maybe the present would make her happy.
Then I had to inform the Czarina that she wasn't going to get the money under Roderick's will. That would make her unhappy. She'd get back the ransom money, but that was simply a return of her own principal and wouldn't even be a small fraction of what she'd been expecting. In the United States, she'd have had a decent chance of contesting the will, but in Latin America she was considered little more than chattel and her legal recourses were few. A dead man's emotions would change the life of a woman who ran a small lingerie store in a shopping mall and make her a very rich woman.
Fortune's wheel had turned once more.
It was too late for lunch and too early for dinner.
I was tired. I didn't feel like having a drink so I closed my eyes and took a long nap.
THE END
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