“Possibly. I don’t think Burt would live to be sentenced. And I can think of several ways I might avoid a sentence. It’s a chance I believe I’m willing to take.”
Danny watched Paul Verney. It was impossible to tell whether the man was bluffing. “What’s the counter offer?”
“Patience. Let us go ahead with the marketing the way we planned it. We will move slowly but safely. In that way we can hope to obtain full face value. That means a cash profit of two hundred and sixty-two thousand. You will be cut in for a full third, or a bit more than eighty-seven thousand. That is a good deal of money, Mr. Bronson. It may, in fact, be more than you will realize if you should take the entire amount and attempt a sale at a discount. You will remember that we purchased the entire amount for only sixty-five thousand. Frankly, I believe this is a generous offer, and I advise you to accept it.”
“Wouldn’t that be a little stupid of me? Once you market it, where am I? What can I prove?”
“During the interim, you will be in possession of a detailed confession signed both by Mr. Catton and myself. You will, of course, relinquish this when you receive your share. In addition, Mr. Bronson, may I point out that as far as you know, the money may be out of reach already. What would prevent me from burning it, for example? Wouldn’t that be preferable to a jail sentence?”
“I’ll tell you just why we’re going to play my way, Verney. And why there’s no other way I will play it. First, I’m wanted. I took a risk going into town. I’m not going in again. I’m wanted for violation of parole. I owe the state over seven years. Bronson is my right name. Danny Bronson. I’ll tell you that because there’s not a damn thing you can do with it. Second, I’ve got it all planned out. I’ve got a contact in Chicago. I can get a very nice passport and get it fast. And I know exactly where to go. I’ll fly and I’ll go to Turkey, and I’ll take the money with me. I won’t have to market it. I can use it there at face value. There’s no such a thing as extradition from Turkey.”
“I’m aware of that. Are you aware of the fact you’ve improved my bargaining position?”
Danny saw Verney smile for the first time. It was a broad smile. It was as cold as the underside of a frog. “What do you mean?”
“I won’t accept ruin. I refuse to accept that. I swear this. I swear it before all I hold sacred, Daniel Bronson. Either make your demand reasonable, or I shall destroy every trace of that money. Then you can serve your seven years, and Catton can die, and I can slowly but certainly work my way out of indebtedness. You can not and will not frighten me. I decided that the moment I hung up the phone after your call.”
Danny looked directly into the deepset eyes. “Burn it up, Verney. Get rid of it. You know exactly how hot that money is. It’s been the hottest money in the country for better than three years. All I have to do is let the word out to the F.B.I. They’ll bring in a flock of guys. They’ll backtrack you to wherever you got it. They’ll prove you got hold of it. Don’t think they won’t. And then it won’t matter a damn whether you burned it or not. Want to keep playing this game?”
Verney leaned back. His voice was slightly weak as he said, “You’re a very difficult man, Bronson.”
“We’ve both played a lot of poker. But I can see the hole you’re in, and I don’t want you doing anything damn foolish, and I don’t want Catton doing anything stupid. I can see that I’ve got to leave you some bait. I’ll go this far. I want two hundred thousand. A hundred and ninety-five can be the hot stuff, but I want five I can use anywhere, in small stuff. That will leave you... let me see... a hundred and thirty-two thousand of the hot stuff. You can get rid of it through your channels and still double your investment.”
“That isn’t going to be enough.”
“You’re going to have to get along with it. Hell, if you’re really in the bag, why not screw Catton, take all that’s left and do like I’m going to do? You can live good, they tell me.”
“It isn’t enough.”
“I’m giving you a break and you better take it.”
Verney raised one heavy eyebrow. “Or else?”
“Or else. That’s it. Or else you get smashed no matter what happens to me. I can do seven standing on my head. You bring it out here Wednesday. I can wait until then. Then bring it, and don’t be short. Don’t be a dime short. And you can’t afford to get any fancy ideas because, as I told you before, it’s all written down and in a safe place.”
Verney looked down at his big-knuckled hands for a long time. At last he nodded.
“All right.”
“Wednesday?”
“Wednesday afternoon.”
“I won’t stay around long after that.”
“Is Mrs. Catton going with you?”
“She thinks so.”
He stood up. “She is a stupid, shallow woman.”
Danny watched the Dodge drive away, down the gravel road and around the bend and out of sight behind the trees. He went into the house, put two ice cubes in a glass and covered them with bourbon. He walked into the bedroom, grinned into the largest mirror and silently toasted himself.
Chapter Five
Paul Verney
Though Verney knew that the trouble had started only a year ago, it seemed to him that things had been going wrong all of his life. Each cumulative disaster required a more desperate counter measure. In the past he had been able to depend on Burt Catton, on Burt’s extroverted optimism, his nimble unscrupulous mind.
But now Burt was gone and in his place there was a grave, withered, apprehensive little man, subject to tears of weakness and moods of dark depression. How could Burt have been such a fool as to tell Drusilla? Everything had been handled so carefully.
He drove sedately back toward Hancock, and he remembered how proud he had been of the extreme care he had used. There was no one who could prove definitely that he had driven to Tulsa, and that he had returned with the money locked in the trunk of this same car. For three years and more the nation had wondered what had happened to the money in the Rovere case. He had followed the news reports at the time it had happened. He would have been both very frightened and most indignant if anyone had told him at that time he would ever have that money in his possession.
Calvin Rovere had been a wealthy resident of Houston, a man who had made many millions in oil, ranch land and trucking lines, a big hearty man who had married in his early forties, married a very pretty girl from Fort Worth. A little over a year after their marriage twin sons were born, and, two years later, a daughter. Rovere maintained a summer place in the hill country north of San Antonio, a large but otherwise unpretentious house on fifteen acres of land in a bend of the Guadalupe River near Bandera. He had a good airstrip put in, and during the hot months he commuted. On a Wednesday in August his wife flew down to Houston with him one morning and spent the day shopping, leaving the children at the summer place, along with a cook, a maid, a foreman and three hands. The twin boys were nine, the daughter seven.
Some time during the afternoon the twin boys disappeared. One man reported that he had seen a battered station wagon stop on one of the side roads bordering the place at about two o’clock. He could not tell the make. It was too far away to see how many people were in it. He forgot the incident and did not remember it until midnight when, under the stress of direct questioning by a captain of the Rangers, he recalled the incident. In the morning a piece of brown wrapping paper weighed down by a stone was found inside the fence line where the station wagon had stopped. On it was printed in pencil, If you want to see your kids alive get together a half million dollars in small unmarked bills and wait till you hear from us.