A Deadly Shade of Gold by John D. MacDonald Read Free Book Online Page B

particular button. I had created something which perhaps I could not control.
    Branks phoned at eleven-fifteen and came by at quarter to twelve.
    She had dressed by then. Her heart said black, but she dressed in pink, a pleated skirt, an angora sweater, a mouth red for polite smiling.
    Just a friend, she said. And it seemed like a kick to go visit him at such a crazy hour. But it was the sort of thing he would do. And Beanie had phoned her because she knew Nora used to run around with the guy sometimes. And McGee was an old friend too. It was just for kicks.
    Welcome home. You know. But, God, who ever thought we'd walk in on anything like that! Oh, yes, I went all to pieces completely. I never saw anything so horrible in my whole life, never.
    Maybe I should have stayed there, but I couldn't, really.
    Branks thanked her and thanked me again. He said that Beanie had said Taggart was alone when she had seen him, eating at the counter. The owner of the cabins, who ran the gas station also, had seen Taggart drive out about seven and when he had closed at nine, Taggart had not returned.
    "We'll find him," Branks said with absolute confidence. "You'll see it in the paper one of these Page 29

    days." As he drove out, Nora's casual smile crumpled. She clung to me, asking if she had done all right. She got a case of hiccups. I patted her and said she had done fine. Just fine, honey.
    Slowly, with a labored effort, she pulled herself together, a nerve at a time. It was a valiant thing to watch.
    "F-Find out about services for him, Trav. All that."
    "Courtesy of the county."
    "No!"
    "Honey, just what difference does it make to Sam now?"
    She lit a cigarette, her hand shaking. "I've been tucking money away, for the time when he'd come back. He came back. What do I do with the money? It doesn't mean anything."
    "What do you want to do? Buy a plot? And bronze handles. Hire a hall? For two mourners?"
    "I just... want it to be nice."
    "All right. We'll do what we can, in a quiet way, Iike a hundred dollar way. On top of the county procedure, so that if Branks should ever wonder or ask, we took up a collection. Flowers, and a lengthy reading at the graveside, and a small marker."
    I stalled her on the other until after the small ceremony. Six of us there, under the beards of Spanish moss blowing wildly in a crisp wind on a day of cloudless blue. Shaj, Nora and me, a pastor and two shovelers. The wind tore the old words out of his mouth and flung them away, inaudible.
    The single floral offering bothered me, a huge spray of white roses, virginal, as a huge bride might carry. Death is the huge bride, and the night of honeyinoon is eternity. The stone would be placed later, one just big enough for his name, date of birth, date of death.
    We took her home, bleached with grief, moving like an arthritic. She was pounds lighter than on the night we had gone to see him. Shaj hastened back to the shop. I set out a gigantic slug of brandy for Nora Gardino. Then I told her everything I knew.
    Her numbness turned slowly to anger. "That is all you know? What does that mean? What can we do about that, for God's sake?"
    "He wanted me to help him, and then because of you he changed his mind and decided to make a deal with them."
    "But you've let me think it was... somebody we could find right here, right now!"
    "There's something to go on."
    "But how far?"
    "I don't know how far. I don't know until I try. If you don't like it, give up right now, Nora. I've gotten into things with less leverage than I have on this one."

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    "I'll never give up!"
    "Do you want it all handed to you, wrapped and tied and labeled?"
    "I didn't say that. You made me believe...."
    "That it would be easy? That doesn't sound like you."
    "But.... "
    "Nora, do you want to play or don't you? It can be long and expensive, and it can all come to nothing, or it could get somebody killed. I have a hunch two will work out better than one on this thing, less conspicuous. I'll pick up my