The Big Bite
Page 15
He told her and she came. She looked cool and rested in a white sleeveless dress. She carried a bottle of Irish in one hand and two letters in the other. She handed the letters to Knox and began pouring drinks from the bottle.
The first envelope held a brief scrawl: Sorry you missed the wedding. Meridee and I on way to San Francisco via the Rockies. Curtis.
Knox said, “I’ll be damned.” He opened the second envelope. This was from Nat. He recognized her faint perfume, her childish handwriting:
Dear Paul, I had the most awful urge to go to Tangier. Kurath is a very good seaman, so we are taking the cruiser. Do look me up when you get leave. I love you in spite of your conscience. Nat.
Knox dropped the letter. Adele put a glass into his hand. He drank deeply. “Tangier, eh?”
Adele smiled faintly. “They couldn’t think of anywhere else to get rid of the gold, and they did have that lovely boat all stocked.”
“What gold?” Knox emptied the glass.
Adele refilled it for him. “Why, the gold they had left over when they took out some bars to make room for the time bombs they made. Nat said there was quite a bit, especially after they found some nice, heavy lead bars in one of the ships’ lockers, and it seemed a shame to just let it stay there on the island.”
Knox was breathing hoarsely. “Time bombs?”
“Yes, they made them from some of the grenades and electrical equipment they found on the cruiser. Nat did it. She seems very clever that way.”
“Very clever,” Knox admitted. “How much gold?”
“About a million and a half, she thought.”
Knox finished his drink and set the glass aside.
“Cuba should give her a medal,” he said. He shut his eyes, trying to imagine what Nat would do with that much money. Probably start another organization in the fashion of her father.
Adele said, “She got rid of a lot of revolutionaries, didn’t she, Paul?”
“Let’s not think about it,” Knox said. “Let’s think about you.”
She came and sat on the arm of his chair. “Why, how sweet.”
“About your problem,” Knox said.
“Oh,” Adele said. “Nat figured that out. She said for me to tell you to tell everyone that you hired me to work for you undercover and that anything I might have written—like letters—or any information on me the Curtain boys have was all done in the line of duty.”
“Oh, my God,” Knox said.
“Would World Circle object?”
Knox said honestly, “Not if you become an operative. There are lots of—of different types in the organization. Most of them have pasts.”
“You see, Nat fixed everything.”
“Yes,” Knox agreed, “Nat fixed everything.” He got up, stretching. “Thanks for the drink. It put life back in me.”
Outside, it had grown dark. Inside, it was very dim and Adele looked very nice with her tanned skin standing out against her white dress.
“Now what do you do, Paul?”
“I’m going to wire for a leave,” he said.
“And go to Tangier and see Nat?”
“Hardly,” Knox said. “I wouldn’t be crude enough to get there before she gets rid of all that gold. No, I thought of driving you home—by way of the Rocky Mountains. I haven’t seen them for years.”
Adele went to the windows and drew the draperies. Now the night lights of the city no longer gave light to the room. She walked across to where Knox stood, waiting.
“I’d love to see the Rockies, Paul.”
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Copyright © 1957 by Louis Trimble.
Copyright © renewed 1985 by Louis Trimble.
Published by arrangement with Golden West Literary Agency.
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, corporations, institutions, organizations, events, or locales in this novel are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously. The resemblance of any character to actual persons (living or dead) is entirely coincidental.
eISBN 10: 1-4405-4201-5
eISBN 13: 978-1-4405-4201-5
Cover art © 123RF/Olga Ekaterincheva