by Jack Lynch
“But when they were splitting us up for the trip out, a very odd thing occurred. An American chap, a captain of Marines named Hendley, went about hand-choosing a group of us to accompany his party. We all were experienced people, of course, but Hendley seemed to want a particular lot. The captain himself was an old China hand from prewar days. I suppose that’s how he got wind of it in the first place. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
“We were in an area I’d been through many times, in earlier years. I imagine that’s why the captain chose me. And that was where we all came together for the first time. Buddy Polaski and Henry Catlin, both Marines. Both fierce, uncaring men in battle. Strong as oxen. And Battersea, the Australian, and his little countryman, the abo. More animal than man. Best scout in the outfit. The only man the captain hadn’t planned on was Harry Shank. He was the pool reporter the news services had sent on the deep raid. He was never much to look at, Harry, but he was a tenacious bugger. The people who planned the raid were thinking of the tremendous propaganda value of kidnaping the Jap general, and having a professional along to give an eyewitness account of it. Harry kept up pretty well through it all, except he had this terrible habit of dropping back. Harry’s big thing was his curiosity. Fighting wasn’t really his game at all, even though he did a little of that too, breaking all sorts of international codes and all.
“So whenever we’d come upon an encampment of natives who could speak a little pigeon English, Harry would fall behind, plying them with questions, asking them about this and that, what today I suppose you would call their lifestyle. He got lost more than once doing that, and it was a continual problem sending people back to find him. And when the strike force was broken into smaller units, Harry became separated from the people he was supposed to accompany and instead stumbled in with our group. I thought the captain was going to shoot him on the spot, he was so angry. Queer, that, when you thought about it later.
“But to continue. It turned out we were the last of the original force to make it back through enemy lines, because Captain Hendley had his own ideas on how to finish the mission. He had a personal quest. He was in no hurry to leave there, whatsoever. We seemed to keep hiking back and forth through this one district, as if we were on maneuvers. The captain would interrogate any natives we encountered by himself. Then we’d all strike off for another patch of the world. Finally, after one morning interrogation, his blood seemed to rise. We set straight off to a provincial village on the edge of a great rubber plantation run by the Dutch before the war. It was in Japanese hands then, and we had to be quite careful. We holed up for a day or two in the little compound of the chap who seemed to be the chief native in those parts. He and the captain would go off on little reconnaissance missions of their own. Some of the chaps were getting a bit impatient to get back out, by now, but the locals were friendly and nobody was wanting for anything. We even had several chess players among us, and the village chief had this queer clumsy chess set they would play with. It seemed to be carved out of little blocks of wood, all covered with some sort of sticky goop.”
Bowman leaned forward in the chair now, his eyes gleaming. “Only they weren’t little blocks of wood. And that, Mr. Bragg, is what all of this is about.”
“What is?”
“That chess set. Beneath the tape it was gold and silver and diamonds and God knows what else. A veritable treasure. When we first saw it, none of us had any way of knowing. It had been quite effectively disguised by somebody who had wrapped the individual chessmen in friction tape. Black and sticky. And with the passage of time in that heat and humidity, the pieces took on a dull skin tone of their own. That is why nobody knew what it was we carried out of the jungle on our backs.”
“But where did it come from? Who made it?”
“Who is to say? I think Harry had some clues he’d dug up since learning of its existence a few months back. But nobody had an inkling back then. Least of all the captain. He’d been searching for a treasure chess set that looked like a treasure, not those dull clumps we played with. Shows you what a good job a bit of friction tape will do to muck up things. He got himself killed on that last foray, the captain did. The village chieftain came racing back with Japanese soldiers hot on his heels. We had to scramble out of there then. There was a chess game in progress at the time, wouldn’t you know. Don’t even recall who was playing at the time, but I remember somebody shouting, ‘Save the set!’ to those of us standing around and we all grabbed up some of the pieces to jam into our packs before we fled.
“Well, without the captain to detain us any longer we were back to our own lines within four days, after killing a few more of the enemy. That effectively was the end of the set, until about six months ago when something put Harry onto the trail of it. I gather he dredged up the few pieces he’d grabbed back then and learned the extraordinary prize we’d all tumbled onto. Then he did a very capable job of discreetly getting hold of the rest of us and trying to make arrangements to amass the complete set. He guessed quite correctly that the value of the completed set should far surpass the sum of the individual pieces at least fourfold.”
“If the proper buyer were found,” murmured the Duchess.
“Of course, my dear. There is that.” Bowman drained his glass and looked up at me. “And that’s pretty much the lot of it. Harry told us he’d finally tracked down all the pieces. As the enormity of what we had became apparent, the bickering started, we all being human beings. A certain enmity had come to divide the old group. I can’t stand Catlin, for one. The man is completely dishonorable. Vicious and unfeeling. Worse, actually, but that is another story.”
“How many of you are there?” I asked. “In possession of these things.”
“Five of us originally. Afraid that number’s been whittled down since.”
“You, Polaski, Catlin. Who else? Harry Shank?”
“Yes, Harry had some, then one of the Australian fellows I told you about, Malcolm Battersea.”
“Where is he?”
“He’s on his way here from Australia, last we heard. Brandi here is his daughter. Malcolm and I represent the minority team so to speak. Gretchen and I bargained with Harry Shank on behalf of Malcolm and myself. We demanded a million dollars for our share.”
I tried to whistle but only blew air.
“Come, Mr. Bragg,” said the Duchess. “It is little enough. The completed set will be worth several times that.”
“I know, to the right buyer. But I’m wondering how many people are walking the street with that sort of pocket change to invest in a chess set.”
“You’d be surprised,” said Bowman softly. “With the world as our marketplace, there are plenty of people with the money. It is just one who has the money and the proper passion to possess the set we had to find.”
“Maybe you know more about those things than I do. What’s Brandi doing here?”
“She’s been living in Canada,” said Bowman. “When Malcolm knew he would be coming here on this chess set matter, he asked her to come down and meet him.”
“Been years since we saw each other,” the girl told me. “He and Mum split up soon after I was born. She followed a seaman back to Canada and took me along. Mum died when I was still in my teens, and I went out on my own soon after. I never did get on well with the sailor gent when he was around. Got worse when I filled out some. For the past year or so I’ve been a cocktail waitress at one of the hotels in Vancouver, Mr. Bowman says I shouldn’t have to do any more of that once Dad comes into his share of the money.”
“Yeah, I guess that sort of money could change the lives of a lot of people. Already changed Buddy Polaski’s and Harry Shank’s.”
“It’s a ruthless business,” conceded the Duchess.
“But no more than I’ve been mucked up in half my life,” said Bowman. “They can’t scare us off this time.”
“You haven’t met all the players yet,” I reminded them. “Why did Buddy Polaski figure it was necessary to steal from the mob to help buy o
ut you people? He must have known the sort of trouble that could lead to.”
“We have no knowledge of that,” said Bowman. “Buddy Polaski and I were never close. You know what I think of Catlin. Only Harry Shank and I managed to maintain a relationship over the years, cautious as it was.”
“I suppose whatever it was that set you people at each other’s throats in the first place is another dark secret.”
“Dark enough,” said Bowman, “and secret it shall remain, if you don’t mind.”
“Oh, I don’t mind,” I told them, swinging away from the table and crossing to pour some more of the counselors’ bourbon into my glass. “Only it seems to me that with a couple of bohunks like the Polaski killers still shouldering their way into things you might think about trying to patch up old quarrels. Clear the decks, sort of, to finish putting together the deal you’re all into and go your merry ways.”
“Some quarrels don’t patch,” said Bowman flatly. “But look here, Bragg. You could pull things together for us. For all of us, I mean. You’re already wedged into things, after a fashion. I think Harry Shank must have trusted you. His wife must, or she wouldn’t have sent you to find Catlin. And I think I can speak for all of us,” he said, glancing at his companions, “that we feel you are competent. And reliable.”
“Right on,” murmured the girl, looking me square in the eye.
“I can’t speak for Catlin,” said Bowman, “he probably doesn’t trust anybody. But I think Mrs. Shank is running that end of the show now, if I’m not mistaken.”
“It seemed that way to me too,” I told them. “And I had to wonder some about it. How much of the set did Harry have?”
“Not a large portion, but there’s another link there that you might not be aware of,” said Bowman.
“Catlin and Erica? I mean Mrs. Shank?”
“Not quite. But Catlin and Polaski remained close through the years, I understand. At least they remained in contact. They soldiered together, you see. All through the war. They were in the same Marine outfit. Both were chosen for the snatch team. And since Polaski’s death, I think it is generally felt she represents his interest now as well as her dead husband’s.”
“Why is that?”
“Because Mrs. Shank is Buddy Polaski’s sister.”
ELEVEN
I sat back on the edge of the table. “Now why do you suppose she or old Harry didn’t tell me that?”
“It might not even have occurred to them,” said Gretchen Zane. “I don’t mean to be an apologist for the woman,” she continued, “but she sustained rather a severe shock, you know. Losing first her brother then her husband on the same day.”
“That’s not it. She told me she didn’t know the man killed at the airport. And I don’t know how much her brother’s death might have affected her, but somehow I had the impression she wasn’t really going to miss old Harry all that much. The next morning, in my office, she was far more intent on getting her share of the loot and winging off to Paris or someplace than she was lamenting her late husband. But at any rate, this is beginning to give me an idea.”
“About the Polaski money?” Bowman asked.
“And his chess pieces?” added the Duchess.
“Not exactly,” I told them. “I had ideas about both of them earlier in the day. I just haven’t had a chance to run them all down yet. But if Erica Shank is running the other side’s show now, she might accept a way to get these New York killers off everybody’s back so we can go about putting the chess set together. If she can control Catlin.”
“Catlin would have no choice,” said Bowman. “He’s isolated. He knows I never would deal with him. He either does as Harry’s wife says or he’s left high and dry to redeem his own pieces for whatever he can get. What is your plan?”
“It’s not very complicated. Which of you are trying to line up the buyer?”
“We’ve already done that,” said Bowman, a bit smugly. He turned with a large smile to his companion. “That was Gretchen’s work.”
“Grand. That makes it even simpler, then. Having the buyer in your pocket is nearly as important as owning a bunch of the pieces. What I propose—what I’ll propose to Erica if we ever bump into each other again—is that you just return the stolen money to the mob. They’ve already killed the man who stole it. That should satisfy them. Send them on back home with what they came after. That should leave you free for everyone to just toss their pieces into the pot, make the sale to your buyer and divvy up the proceeds, equal shares to all.”
“Catlin wouldn’t stand for it,” said Bowman.
“I’m not so sure of that. Just because he has the greater number of chessmen, it doesn’t follow he should get a disproportionate return. All he’s been doing is sitting up in the mountains of Washington watching the rain come down. While Harry Shank was hustling around organizing things and the Duchess here was lining up a buyer and Buddy Polaski was boldly stealing money from some crime syndicate and paying with his life for it. You’re all crazy if you let him get away with that. What do you say?”
“I say, bravo,” the Duchess replied.
“Very good indeed,” said the girl.
Bowman was looking at me with his face all screwed up again like we’d been speaking too quickly for him. “You say, give back the money, Mr. Bragg. Do you mean to tell us you have that money?”
“Not on me, I don’t. Let’s just say I could put my hands on it in a hurry. But don’t tell those guys from New York that until we’re ready to give it back to them.”
“Did you know that when those two men were beating you?” Brandi asked.
“Yes, but I wasn’t ready to tell them yet. Well, how about it?”
Brandi shook her head and turned to fix herself something at the bar.
“You’ve convinced us,” said Bowman. “And the sooner the better, I say. But I don’t know how successful your reasoning will be with Catlin. Or Mrs. Shank, for that matter.”
“I wouldn’t worry about Mrs. Shank. She sounded ready to pack her bags the last time I talked to her. Catlin might be a problem, but if the rest of you form a united front I think he’ll come around as well.”
“Then let’s try it,” said the Duchess.
“I’ll bet it works,” Brandi added.
“Okay, then all that’s left to talk about is my fee,” I told them, crossing to the bourbon bottle again. I was beginning to feel a good night’s sleep coming on.
“Your fee?” asked Bowman quietly.
Gretchen Zane was staring at me coolly. “I knew it was too good to be true.”
“What sort of fee?” Bowman wanted to know.
“That sort of depends on how things work out,” I told him. “As it stands now I’m just working day rates for Mrs. Shank, getting the same as I would if I were trying to track down a lost heir or find a missing witness. Sometimes I adjust my rates when either the stakes grow or the danger to myself increases, and in this case both have happened. I’m not greedy, but look at it from my standpoint. I’ve patched the holding network back together by finding Catlin and bringing him up to date. I don’t know where he is right now, but he’ll show up, the same as Mrs. Shank will. I can put my hands on the money Buddy Polaski was bringing in, but I’ve proposed a different solution, one that will bring you two and Brandi’s father probably double what you would have gotten under the original deal. That’s assuming the set is worth what everybody seems to think it is. Has anybody checked on that, by the way?”
“I haven’t,” said Bowman, “but Harry said…”
“Forget about Harry, he’s out of the picture. But that’s all right, I have a good stone man up in Chinatown. If anybody’s heard of this chess set he will have. I’ll check on it for you. Then also my proposal would hopefully keep anybody else from ending up in a metal drawer at the coroner’s office.”
“Yes, we appreciate that. But what fee do you propose?”
“One percent of what each of the principals get. How much do you think the c
omplete set is worth?”
The Duchess and Bowman exchanged glances.
“We have been led to believe,” the gray man said quietly, “that on today’s market it might be worth some four million dollars.”
“Okay, if it brings in that much I would get about forty thousand dollars. That sort of fee split four ways among a bunch of millionaires doesn’t seem excessive, to me. For that, along with what I’ve already done for you, I come up with the missing Polaski pieces from the set and act as your agent to nurse this deal along to the end. This all hinges of course on whether or not Catlin goes for the deal and Mrs. Shank goes for it, and they also agree to my working for all of you. Frankly, I think I’m letting myself go too cheap again, but that’s my problem.”
“He does deserve something,” Brandi told the others. “He’s making things work, don’t you see? And he’s, well, brave too.”
Bowman turned toward her with one hand on his knee. “I say there, Brandi, I’m the one who was out in that wretched jungle when this all came about, don’t forget, and your father as well. Dodging the enemy and running here and there.”
“I know, Edward, but you didn’t take the awful drubbing in the stomach Mr. Bragg did here tonight, nor face down those two men earlier at the airport.”
“You tell ’em, honey, and they haven’t even heard about the gun battle I was in up in Washington State. It was four or five against two, up there. I held off the killers while Catlin made his getaway.”
Brandi’s face showed a new concern. “Were you hurt up there as well, Mr. Bragg?”
“No, I had a good vantage place, and please don’t call me Mr. Bragg, it makes me feel ancient.”
The Duchess wasn’t so easily thrown off what was important. “When Catlin made his getaway, did he have his share of the treasure with him?”
“I think so. At least he went to where he told me he kept it, just before he ran off and left me holding the bag.”
“Do you think he’s on his way down here?” asked Bowman.
“I suspect so. I don’t think he wanted to stick around waiting for the law to show up so he could explain about the man he shot dead out on his front porch. I had to do that. So you see, there are a lot of messy little details up and down the coast here being taken care of by me just working my tired old day rates while the rest of you are sitting around out of the rain scheming and making telephone calls and waiting for someone to shake the money tree for you. Like I said, if I pull off the deal for you and can walk away with forty thousand dollars I’ll feel like I was working cheap again. I might spend that much on bullets before this thing is finished.”