Ringer by Brian M Wiprud Read Free Book Online Page B

wearing a ring, I would have been an idiot not to seek your company for dinner. Yes?”
    Dixie laughed and began a retreat toward East End Avenue. “Enough, Morty! Save those charms for someone else. Where can I reach you?”
    “I will call you tomorrow morning.”
    I watched her retreat with interest, and sighed. How could I compete with Grant, a tycoon? Still, I would have to do better than Nancy.

CHAPTER
    TEN
    A PIZZA DELIVERY VAN IN Midland, Texas, went missing, and was later found in Fort Worth, Texas.
    The same day in Fort Worth, a man was robbed of one hundred and eighty dollars by a Hispanic male wielding a hatchet. This occurred in a Waffle House bathroom.
    Paco was on his way to Memphis.

CHAPTER
    ELEVEN
    THE PICTURE WINDOWS AT MR. LEE’S on Mott Street are filled with large fish tanks glowing with goggle-eyed carp and eels ripe for the menu. You might want to have your cameras focused on the fish and then pull out to see Grant navigating the rain-slicked narrow sidewalk, his golf umbrella towering over the Asian people crowding his way. June had just begun to heat up, which brings late-day thunderstorms to New York.
    Mr. Lee’s was an ideal setting for a conversation about murdering Purity. It was a noisy restaurant, and most of the Asian patrons would not understand English well enough to understand what Robert and Dixie were plotting.
    We find Dixie in a booth in the corner, her shapeliness packed into a blue silk Chinese tunic and her hair piled in place with chopsticks. She was the very image of intrigue. The booth was padded in red vinyl, and lit by a single plastic Chinese lantern rigged with gold plastic dragons. She kissed Grant on the cheek as he slid into the booth across from her.
    “You look gorgeous,” he said, hoping she would keep that outfit on later until he could get her alone.
    Dixie merely smiled and bowed to her man like she’d seen geishas do on TV. Tokyo and Beijing were all the same to her.
    The waiter appeared. “Howyoo?”
    “Very good, thanks. What wine do you have?”
    “Wine? All kind.”
    “What do you have in a white?”
    “White? Vergood. For man?”
    “What Scotch do you have?”
    “Scotch? Vergood.”
    The waiter vanished.
    Robert clasped Dixie’s hands across the table. “So you met the Mexican, the one in the white suit?”
    “I did indeed.”
    “He wasn’t at all what I expected.”
    “I know, Robbie, he’s so … gentlemanly.”
    “I would have thought that he would have looked rougher, a little more like my gardener or something. He doesn’t exactly fly under the radar, does he?”
    “Well, you know, maybe he finds it easier to dress down for what he has to do, so that nobody will recognize him.”
    “But he’s our man?”
    “Definitely.”
    “Wine!” The waiter thunked a tumbler of white in front of Dixie and thunked a tumbler of amber in front of Robert. “Scotch! Take order?”
    Dixie patted her menu. “Give us a few moments, sweetie.”
    The waiter vanished.
    “Are you sure this is a good idea, Dix?”
    “Chinese?”
    “No. The Mexican.”
    She patted him sympathetically on the cheek. “Buttercup, we discussed this over and over. Unless Purity happens to get herself killed—and Lord knows she’s tried—there really is no other way out of your predicament. It’s intolerable. You’ve tried your best, Lord knows. She’s a disgrace and besmirches your good name.”
    “Let’s not forget every time she pulls a stunt Grant Industries stocks dip.”
    “How many times has she been arrested?”
    “Twelve in this country. Four in Europe.”
    “Rehab?”
    “Six.”
    “Worst of all, she’s besmirching the memory of her mother. Does such a soulless being, bereft of remorse or conscience, have a place in God’s world?”
    “When people hear the name Grant, they think of Purity Grant first, not Robert Tyson Grant. Makes me look like a fool.”
    “Well, it just has to be done, for you, for the stockholders, for us. I love you,