“Yes. A woman he said he loved.”
Krissie shook her head sadly.
"What a pity," she said. "That he couldn't work it out. If it was true.
That he loved this woman, and t work it out.”
“Yes," Hawes said.
Memorial day.
Just what Marilyn needed.
A national holiday.
The banks closed, her stockbroker's office closed, and two hoods from Argentina expecting answers at three-thirty this afternoon. She looked at her watch.
Five minutes past two. And ticking.
One of the men she'd known before she started Willis was an attorney named Charles Ingersol Endicott, Jr., a man in his late riffle carried as a holdover from his prep school nickname "Chip". as if life did not have burdens. She dialed his number now and wasn't out on a boat for the weekend; sailin Chip's passion. The phone rang four times, She was about to hang up when ... "Hello?”
“Chip?" she said. "It's me. Marilyn.”
She had not spoken to him in months wondered suddenly, and with an odd sense of whether he would even remember her. And voice boomed onto the line, deep and welcoming "Marilyn, my God, how are and she visualized at once the good friend whom she'd shared so many wonderful hours city where good friends and good men were "I'm fine, Chip, how are you, I hope interrupting anything," remembering his handsome face and intelligent brown eyes, a l thirty-one years older than she was, the father never known perhaps "Is something wrong?" he asked at once.
"No, no," she said, "I was just thinking about' and...”
She could not lie to him. He'd been too friend, and she hoped he was still a friend now. either way, she could not lie to someone who'd meant so much to her.
"I need advice," she said.
"Legal advice?”
"Not quite.”
"Okay," he said, but now he sounded puzzled.
"Chip... what do you think I could get for a cond mortgage on my house?”
"Why? What's the trouble?”
"No trouble. I need some money, is all.”
"How much money?”
"A lot. I wouldn't be bothering you with this, but the banks are closed today, and this is somewhat "nt.”
"You're alarming me, Marilyn.”
"I don't mean to. I'm simply trying to get an estimate...”
"How much did the house cost?”
All business now.
"Seven-fifty.”
"How much is the present mortgage?”
"Five hundred.”
"You could expect something like a hundred and thirty-five thousand.
That would be about eighty percent of the value.”
"How long would it take to get it?" she asked.
"Usually a full month. How soon do you need it?”
“Yesterday," she said.
"Marilyn, I don't want to know what this is, truly.
But if you need money, you don't have to go to a bank. I can lend you however much you want.”
"Thank you, Chip, but...”
"I'm serious.”
"Have got two million bucks lying aro you she asked, and thought it amazing that she coult smile.
There was a silence on the line.
"What is it?" he said.
"An old debt came up.”
"Gambling?”
"No.”
"Then what?”
"A former time, a former life.”
"Something you'd like to talk about?”
"No, Chip, I don't think so.”
“I can go to five hundred thousand," he said.”
me back whenever you can.”
"Chip...”
"No interest, no strings.”
"I couldn't.”
"You'll never know how much you meant to n he said. "Come to my office tomorrow, I'll arranl transfer of funds.”
"I can't, Chip. But thank you, anyway.”
"If you change your mind...”
"I don't think I will.”
"We were such good friends," he said sudde his voice catching.
"Yes," she said.
"I miss you, Marilyn.”
“I miss you, too," she said, and realized that meant it.
"Marilyn, I'm serious," he said. "If you want call me. It's here. And so am I. Call me, you? I'd like to talk to you every now and n. That's permitted, isn't it?”
"It is, Chip.”
“Good," he said. "Stay well, darling," and hung She lowered the receiver gently onto its cradle.
Her stockbroker was a man named Hadley Fields, there was no sense calling him at the office and she did not have his home number. She to the file cabinets in the study on the second .oor of the house, and from the file marked "TOCKS (she believed in generic labeling) she dug out the most recent statements. A glance at the last in the Market Value column showed that as of the last quarterly statement on March 31, the assets her account totaled $496,394. Of this total, $443,036 was invested in equities, and the remainder was a cash equivalent of a bit more than $50,000 invested in what was called a short term income fund paying 8.6% interest. She began going down the list of stocks she owned:
500 Abbott Laboratories, bought in June two years ago at $45.125 per share for a total cost of $22,793. Now worth $54.75 per share or $27,435 up almost $5000...
300 Walt Disney Co, bought at $57.00 a share in April two years ago, now worth $78.50 a share for a total increase of $6,270...
500 Morton Thiokol Inc, bought in February of last year at $40.625 per share, now selling $44.375 for a total gain of $1,657...
There were losers, too:
1,000 Republic New York Corp purchase, $46,058 a year and a half ago, now worth $44. for a loss of $1,308...
500 Sprague Technologies Inc. Purchased $7872, now worth $5812 for a loss of a bit more $2000...
but overall, the investments she'd made coming to this city had increased in value by than $60,000. Hadley Fields had been doing a job for her; she would not be selling at a loss. that it made any difference. The proceeds woult be going to her. They would be going Argentina.
Tomorrow morning, she would call Hadley advise him to sell everything she owned and to a wire transfer of the proceeds to her bank Meanwhile, she had to place another call to Russell.
The man Willis spoke to at the Identification Secfi office that Memorial Day afternoon was fluent/ Spanish, having been born of parents who'd ma their way to the city from Puerto Rico back in days when newcomers from that island were called Marine Tigers. This was because the ship thi had carried them to mainland America was called Tiger, Harold. Sergeant Miguel Florentino was called Mike by the rest of the staff. He ,d Willis to call him Mike now. This was nice of in that sergeants in this city outranked even detectives. Willis was but a mere third.
Morente looked over the records that had been by Vidoz, remarked as how the one named os Ortega was perhaps the ugliest human being :'d ever seen in his life (but perhaps it was a bad and then reeled off for Willis all the crimes a and Castaneda had committed in tandem over past twelve years. Willis, who'd already been .lied in by Portoles, listened politely but patiently. The list of crimes - Assault and Battery, Armed Robbery, Rape, Homicide and such only raised his anxiety level. These were the people Marilyn was dealing with. These were the ones who wanted money from her.
"What I'm really interested in, Mike," he said politely, "is whether or not we've got anything on them here.”
"In this city, do you mean?”
“Or even in this country," Willis said.
"These are common names," Morente said. "In Spanish. Very common.
Castaneda? Ortega? Very common. If you'd of given me something like Hoyas de Carranza, or Palomar de las Heras, or...”
"Yes, but these are their names," Willis said.
"Oh, sure. I'm only saying. The computer's gonna have a ball with these names. You're gonna have four thousand Ortegas the first time you wait and see.”
There were in fact only eighty-three lisl Ortega, Carlos, in the citywide Felony file, and forty-seven for Castaneda, Ramon. with the records from Buenos Aires, Morente knew the birth dates of both men, also had information concerning height, color of hair, color of eyes, scars, tattoos and which he punched into the computer as amazingly the odds had to be what, ten one? he came up with records for two men Carlos Ortega who had been born on the day and who seemed to be just as ugly as the Ortega who'd presumably followed Marilyn Argentina. There were no Ramon Castanedas pedigrees matched the handsome one in the "You better call B.A., ask them to Fed Ex good set of prints," Morente said. "'Cause I you right off, we're not gonna get a match fax, no way.”