Fast Buck by James Hadley Chase Read Free Book Online Page A

began to pull on her stockings, and Kile watched her, fascinated by her beauty and her swift movements. ‘I have an idea. We must see Rico tonight. We’ve got to have someone to do the dangerous work. He might know of someone who would do it.’
    Kile came over and sat on the bed by her side. He was thinking that of all the women he had had in this apartment she was by far the most beautiful.
    ‘Dangerous work?’ he repeated, frowning. ‘What dangerous work?’
    She stood up and undid her wrap.
    ‘Let me get dressed, darling, and on the way to the club I’l tel you my idea. It’s get ing late, and we must talk to Rico.’
    She slipped out of the wrap and reached for a flimsy underthing. Kile’s eyes dwelt on her naked loveliness. He reached out and caught her arm, pulling her down beside him.
    ‘You’re too beautiful to bother your head about such things,’ he said, his heart beginning to beat violently and jerkily. ‘I’m not going out tonight: nor are you.’
    She made a quick, impatient movement to break free, but immediately checked it. Instead, she slipped her arms around his neck and hid her face against his silken lapel, so he couldn’t see her expression of loathing and revulsion.

V

    Although it was after nine-twenty, a light still showed through the glass panel of the door leading to the inner office of the International Detective Agency. That meant Harmon Purvis hadn’t yet gone home.
    Ed Dallas pushed open the door and looked into the large airy office.
    Purvis, a tall stick of a man, sat behind a desk, busy with a pile of papers, a pencil held between his teeth. He glanced up, nodded briefly, laid down his papers and took the pencil out of his mouth.
    ‘Come in,’ he said, waving to a chair by the desk. ‘I guessed you’d be in so I waited for you.’
    Dallas sat down, laid his hat on the floor, and ran his fingers through his crew-cut brown hair.
    ‘I might have something with those two,’ he said. ‘The guy’s Preston Kile. Ever heard of him?’
    Purvis thought a moment, then nodded.
    ‘That’s the San Francisco market manipulator,’ he said, putting his finger-tips together and staring up at the ceiling. ‘About two years ago he pul ed a very shady deal. A bunch of brokers decided to chip in and cover him rather than scare the market with a scandal. They forced him to get out of the market and stay out. He came here…’
    ‘I know, I know,’ Dal as interrupted. ‘I thought I was going to tell you. I got the dope from Favell.’
    It never ceased to surprise him how much Purvis seemed to know. There wasn’t anyone in town who was connected in some way or the other with shady deals or crime that Purvis didn’t know the details about. He could trot out his information as easily as the most complicated card index system, and as fast.
    ‘I hope you didn’t pay Favell anything,’ Purvis said anxiously. ‘That vampire is sucking up all my profits.’
    ‘Wel , I had to give him something. How was I to know you had the information?’ Dal as said wearily. ‘Two tens won’t break us.’
    Purvis winced.
    ‘The trouble with you…’ he began, but Dallas broke in hurriedly, ‘I know, I know. My mother told me the same thing. Want to hear about the girl – Eve Gillis?’
    ‘I know about her,’ Purvis said coldly. ‘She won a five-thousand-dollar beauty prize a couple of years ago. She persuaded the Follies to give her a chance, got top billing after a year, and has been a hit ever since. She has a brother – a twin if I remember rightly – who’s been in India for the past three years. I believe he’s back now. This Gillis girl suddenly chucked the Follies about a couple of months ago and became Kile’s mistress. Why she should have done that I can’t imagine. It’s not as if Kile can do anything for her. He’s going broke fast, and isn’t expected to last the year. I should have thought she would have found that out before giving up the Follies. They were paying her