Kiss and Kill. Richard Deming

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СКАЧАТЬ nights. If you’re going to feel sorry for marks, you’re in the wrong racket. Want to mail your share of the take back?”

      “Oh, no,” she said quickly. Her expression turned dreamy. “All that nice money. How many things it can buy! Don’t worry about my conscience, Sam. As long as we can make money this easily, I’ll subdue it.”

      “You sure you can?”

      She gave a definite nod. “I promise I’ll never think of the old lady again. Or any other mark, after a job.”

      “What makes you think there will be any more jobs?”

      She gave me an anxious look. “Aren’t you going to keep me with you? You said I did a beautiful job.”

      “You want to form a permanent partnership?” I asked.

      “Oh, yes,” she said eagerly. “I want to stick with you. Can I, Sam?”

      “We’ll see when we get where we’re going,” I said noncommittally.

      We hit Las Vegas at two P.M. I converted the cashier’s check into cash, and then sold my car to a used-car dealer on the off-chance that Mrs. Hollingsworth might remember the license number. Two hours after we arrived in Las Vegas, we were riding a plane toward Denver under assumed names.

      We had dinner on the plane. When we landed, I had a taxi drive us directly to a small hotel on the outskirts of the city.

      En route I glanced at Mavis’s left hand, noted it was bare and asked, “What did you do with that wedding band and engagement ring?”

      “They’re in my bag,” she said. “Why?”

      “Put them on.”

      She gave me a puzzled look, but obeyed.

      At the hotel I registered as Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Kinn of Houston, Texas. Mavis said nothing until the bellhop had deposited our bags in our room and departed. Then she thoughtfully regarded the double bed with which the room was furnished.

      “Don’t I even get asked?” she inquired.

      I pulled a bottle of bourbon from one of my bags, set it on the dresser and phoned room service for soda and ice.

      When I hung up, she said, “Don’t I get answered either?”

      “Sure,” I said. “Didn’t you say you wanted this to be a permanent partnership?”

      “I was thinking of a business partnership.”

      “With me, it’s all the way or not at all,” I told her. “That’s the way it is. You can still walk out.”

      Her lower lip stuck out petulantly. “You could be a little more romantic about it.”

      “I know how to be romantic,” I assured her. “You’ll be treated like a queen. I’m starting us off this way on purpose.”

      “Why?”

      “Because I want you to have no doubt in your mind from the beginning about who’s boss.” I tapped my chest. “This guy is. In business, in bed, everywhere. I give the orders and you take them. You want to stay under my conditions, or take your cut and leave right now?”

      She studied me for a moment more. “Do you have to make it an ultimatum?” she complained. “Couldn’t you at least say you want me because I appeal to you as a woman?”

      “If you didn’t appeal to me as a woman, you’d be registered in another room.” I crooked a finger at her. “Come here.”

      She hesitated, then warily moved toward me.

      Pulling her against my chest, I wound my fingers in her black hair and jerked her head back. She put up a token struggle when I kissed her, but after a moment her arms slid about my neck. Her lips opened under mine and her body strained against me.

      She whispered, “You can be boss, Sam. Everywhere.”

      Picking her up bodily, I tossed her on the bed. Her eyes grew wider and wider as I tossed my coat onto a chair, tossed my tie after it and began to strip off my shirt.

      A knock came at the door. I had completely forgotten ordering ice and soda from room service.

      CHAPTER IV

      THE NEXT MORNING, I bought a nearly-new Mercury sedan, and we headed east. Two days later we hit St. Louis.

      Our headlong flight halfway across the country was the unnecessary sort of blunder I never made in later years. Back then, the minute a deal was closed, I felt impelled to run. But there really had been no reason for haste in leaving Los Angeles. Mrs. Hollingsworth hadn’t the slightest suspicion that she’d been taken. I could have stayed around for several more days, then announced that my vacation was over and I had to return to New York. Assuring the old woman that I’d keep her posted on developments probably would have postponed any suspicion on her part for weeks.

      As it was, my sudden departure without even saying good-by must have aroused her suspicion at once. The wire service report of our bunco dodge reached St. Louis about the same time we did. It only got brief, inside-page coverage that far from Los Angeles, but it gave our descriptions and said we were wanted for fraud.

      We were far enough away now to be reasonably safe, though. The police don’t seem to hunt down bunco artists as relentlessly as they do more violent criminals, such as bank robbers. While it wouldn’t be wise to return to California for some time, we didn’t have to fear that every St. Louis policeman we saw would have our descriptions memorized and was on the lookout for us.

      We checked into the Chase Hotel as Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Doud of Chicago and started to spend our money.

      Mavis had the time of her life. It was the first time she had ever had all the shopping money she wanted. I turned her loose in the stores with instructions to outfit herself from head to toe.

      The result was miraculous. Except for her liking for flashy jewelry, Mavis had excellent taste when she had the money to indulge it. In her new clothes she actually looked like an heiress.

      I wouldn’t let her buy any jewelry, not trusting her taste in that area. But I bought her some myself. I got her a plain, smart-looking wristwatch and a half-carat diamond ring to replace the chip she wore. I also got her a couple of expensive pins and a few sets of earrings. When I gave it all to her, she examined it dubiously.

      “It’s all very nice,” she said. “But isn’t it kind of plain?”

      “That’s the idea,” I told her. “I want you to look like a lady, not a barroom pickup. From here on out you’re never to wear any jewelry I don’t personally select. Understand?”

      “All right, Sam,” she said reluctantly.

      For a whole month we did nothing but play. Mavis made a delightful playmate. She was full of life, eager for new experiences, and as enthusiastic as a child at a circus whenever I took her anywhere. I took her to baseball games, fights, auto races, to Forest Park Highlands, and even to the zoo. We hit every show and every night club in town. We sampled every СКАЧАТЬ