"Miranda didn't have any further use for it," Jeff said.
"I don't know about that/* Spencer said. "All I know is, it was there and I grabbed it and got out. I hotfooted it to the office and shoved it under some papers in my desk drawer/*
Jeff snapped on the dome light and examined the envelope. The return address of Grayson Enterprises had been printed in one comer. The top had been sealed and three strips of Scotch tape had been added for security. A hole had been torn in one side, but this had also been taped shut.
Jeff began to work on the tape. It took him quite a while before he had the envelope open but when he looked inside he could see the packets of orange-colored bills neatly contained by paper bill straps. There were eight of these and he picked up one of them, noting the figure on the
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bill strap and the five-hundred-bolivar bills on top and bottom.
He riffled through that packet, stared, did it again. He sat back, dropping the bills back into the envelope. After a moment he swore softly and Karen Holmes stirred beside him and touched his arm.
nYhat is it, Jeff?" she asked. "Ifs the money, isn't it?"
"Yes," he said. "It's money all right/'
"We are nearly there/' Cordovez said. "We go to Miranda's?*'
"We go to Grayson's."
Cordovez started to turn his head, thought better of it, and resumed his driving, swinging uphill a minute or two later and coming to a stop in the front of the familiar low-slung ranch house.
"You will want me?" Cordovez said.
"We'll all go," Jeff said, and led the way, with Spencer in front of him and Karen by his side.
He did not pay any attention to Cordovez, knowing that he was bringing up the rear. He did not bother to investigate the odd sound that came from behind as the door opened and Dudley Fiske registered his surprise. He saw Fiske move out of the way as Spencer advanced. Karen entered and so did he. Only then did he notice that Fiske had stepped back, that his bespectacled eyes held a startled look. By the time he turned to look behind him Carl Webb had the situation well in hand.
"Into the living-room," he said. "All of you."
Julio Cordovez had stopped just across the threshold. His chin had sagged and his expression was sheepish and embarrassed. His raised hands testified to the gun in his tack, and as Jeff watched, Webb reached under the detective's coat and removed the revolver, He gave Cordovez a forward push and shouldered the door shut.
"O. K, little man/' lie said, "Find a chair somewhere and behave yourself."
21
DIANA GRAYSON had been sitting on the divan and she remained that way as her startled gaze assessed her callers and she began to understand what had happened. Fiske, still watching Webb, backed up and eased down beside her. Karen Holmes took a near-by chair and Jeff stood beside it, conscious now of the gun in his pocket and the envelope in his hand. Only Cordovez seemed utterly disconsolate as he watched Webb empty the shells from his revolver, snap the cylinder in place, and put it down on the table. When he put the shells beside it his hard-jawed face twisted in a grin.
"That makes us even, little man/' he said. "You can collect it later/*
Cordovez remained crushed. <e l do not see him," he said to Jeff. "He must be in the bushes by the door. All 1 know" —he snapped his fingers—"I have this gun in my back. 931
"Forget it," Jeff said.
"Yeah," Webb added. "Let's have a look at that envelope, Lane. Maybe this will turn out to be my lucky day after all."
Jeff passed over the envelope and watched Webb back away to put it beside the empty gun.
"How come you were outside?" he asked.
"I couldn't figure out where the money could be," Webb
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said. "I thought I'd hang around here awhile and maybe case the joint. Who had it?"
"Spencer." Jeff glanced at the reporter, who had dropped sideways onto the arm of an overstuffed chair and now presented an expression of acute melancholia. "We picked him up at the airport/'
"Nice going," Webb glanced inside the envelope, grinned, and tucked it under his arm.
"You figure you can get out of the country with that?" Jeff asked.
"I can try. I haven't got too much to lose."
''Hadn't you better count It first?"
"Count It?" Webb eyed him suspiciously. He considered the others in the room. Then, to make certain he had not been the victim of some hoax, lib held the envelope by one end and dumped the contents on the table. He picked up one packet, turned it over to reveal the five-hundred-bolivar note on either side. He inspected the figures on the bill strap.
^ "Eight bundles o£ fifty thousand B's each," he said. "That's fifteen grand U.S. Eight times fifteen is-"
"Take another look."
By that time Webb's irritation was showing and he did not hesitate. He bent the orange-colored top bill back and stared at the blue-green bill beneath. The figure on it was 10. He tried again; then riffled the rest of the money expertly. Satisfied now that he had a packet of ten-bolivar bills except for the five-hundred-bolivar notes on top and bottom, he looked up, his jaw rigid and his mouth ugly.
"What the heH is this?"
He grabbed a second packet and again discovered that it contained ten-bolivar bills except for the two five-hundred bills which covered them.
"Somebody pulled a switch," he said savagely. "Who? Come on, goddam it, who did it?"
Jeff had been watching the others. He saw the looks of surprise on Karen's face, on Cordovez's. Spencer was staring openmouthed and incredulous. Only Fiske and Diana Grayson presented the same stony-eyed calm.
"Ask Fiske," Jeff said. "He ought to know."
Webb advanced a step toward Fiske and the muzzle of the gun came up.
"Where's the rest of It?"
"In the bank." Fiske folded his arms, his bespectacled gaze steady, his voice controlled as he asserted his newfound maleness in front of the woman he loved. "And waving that gun isn't going to get it out, either/' he said. "It's Diana's money, and unless you can crack the bank, it's going to stay there."
Webb's gun was steady and he still looked dangerous. Because Jeff wasn't sure what he might do, he stalled for time.
"How?" he said to Fiske. "How did you manage it? You knew Grayson had the cash. You knew he was going to pay off but—"
"Sure we knew." Fiske glanced at the woman. 'Tour stepbrother was the kind to brag about things like that. He raised the cash and he was pulling out. Diana could have the house for her share but that was all
"He came back from the bank the day before yesterday with eight packs of five-hundred-bolivar bills—a hundred bills in each. He dumped them out on his desk. He wasn't worried about me. He never figured I had any guts—and he was right. He packed the bills in this company envelope, sealed it, fixed it up with Scotch tape, and locked it in his desk. What he forgot was that the key to my desk also fitted his."
He paused, not boasting, not even sounding proud of what he had done. He was simply reciting a tale that he himself found hard to believe even now.
"I don't know where I got the nerve/' he said. "But when I thought about Diana'—he reached out to touch her hand—"and what Arnold was doing to her, I made up my mind I wasn't going to let him get away with it. I sent the girl out after he left, took the envelope and another like it and some Scotch tape, and went back to the bank. I had an account there and I got a lot of ten-B bills. I asked for some of those paper bill straps and then I went to one of those little rooms in the safe-deposit department and locked myself in.