1963 - One Bright Summer Morning by James Hadley Chase Read Free Book Online

him.”
    Moe flinched and sat back in his chair, staring at Kramer.
    “Yeah,” Kramer went on. “He put me in the hole for four million bucks. This is between you and me, Moe. Helene doesn't know, and I don't want her to know.” He grinned mirthlessly. “I guess you have more dollars right now than I have cents.”
    Moe was so stunned that he could think of nothing to say. He just stared at Kramer. Big Jim . . . taken for four million bucks! It was unbelievable!
    “I've got to make myself another lump of money,” Kramer went on. “It can be done, but I'll need help. You're the first guy I thought of. You and I have always worked well together. We can still pull off a big job.”
    Still Moe could find nothing to say.
    “I have an idea,” Kramer said, after a pause. “It's worth a heap of dough if we play it right. I'll organize and handle it, but I need you. Don't look so scared, Moe. I'll tell you this: there's no risk! I promise you that! No risk . . . understand?” He looked searchingly at Moe. “I wouldn't have called you in, Moe, if there was any chance of trouble. I know how tough San Quentin must have been. Listen . . . I give you my word you'll never go back there if you work with me. There's no risk in this job, otherwise, at my age, I wouldn't be sticking my neck out or risking yours.”
    Moe suddenly lost all his fears. If Big Jim said he could make him a quarter of a million dollars with no risk, incredible as it sounded, that's what Big Jim would do.
    During the fifteen years that Moe had worked with Kramer, he had never had any fear of trouble. He still had utter faith in Kramer: when Kramer promised something with that bleak look in his eyes . . . it was a promise.
    “What's the deal then?” Moe asked, excitement showing on his face.
    Kramer stretched his long legs and blew a cloud of rich smelling smoke towards the ceiling.
    “Have you ever heard of John Van Wylie?”
    Looking bewildered, Moe shook his head.
    “He is a Texas oilman. You may not believe this, for it is hard to believe, but he is worth more than a billion dollars.”
    Moe blinked.
    “No guy can be worth that much,” he said. “A billion dollars! How can a guy be worth all that dough?”
    “His father struck oil back in the nineties,” Kramer said. “The old man bought acres of land in Texas in the pioneer days for a song. Wherever he probed for oil, he found it. He never once hit a dry hole . . . imagine that! His son took over when the old man died, and he was a much smarter businessman than his father. For every dollar his father made, John Van Wylie had the touch to turn that dollar into ten dollars. I tell you, now he is worth more than a billion dollars.”
    Moe mopped his sweating face.
    “I've heard of such things happening, but I've never believed it.”
    “I've been keeping tabs on Van Wylie for years,” Kramer said. “The guy fascinates me.” He got to his feet and unlocked a drawer in his desk. He lifted out a file of newspaper clippings. “Every one of these clippings refers to the Van Wylie family. I now know nearly as much about them as they know about themselves.” He dropped the file back into the drawer and returned to his chair and sat down. “Now and then, I amuse myself working out schemes to make big money, but I didn't think I would have to get back into the game again. Well, I have to get back and these ideas of mine are now going to pay off.” He tapped ash off his cigar and then went on, “Van Wylie lost his wife . . . cancer. There is a daughter. She happens to look like her mother. I know for a fact that, she is the one thing in Van Wylie's life that means anything.”
    Kramer gazed for a long moment at the glowing end of his cigar, then he said, “Van Wylie has everything any man needs. He can't possibly spend all the money he has made. He values nothing because if he loses something, he has. the money to replace it.” A long pause, then Kramer said, speaking softly, “but he can't