The Case of the Kidnapped Angel: A Masao Masuto Mystery (Book Six) by Howard Fast Read Free Book Online

don’t like the smell of what’s happening here, and both of you look like decent men. But please don’t blow it all over town. Joe went to great effort to give Mikey a certain aura. So if this can be just among us?”
    â€œI’ll try,” Masuto agreed. “We’re involved with a crime, so I can’t promise anything. But we’ll try.”
    â€œGood enough. Mikey’s father had a grocery store in Flatbush. That’s in Brooklyn. We knew his father and we knew Mikey as a kid. His name then was Bernstein.”
    â€œYou’re kidding,” Beckman said. “You mean he’s Jewish?”
    â€œWhat’s so strange? You’re Jewish, aren’t you?”
    â€œI look it.”
    â€œNo law says you have to.”
    â€œAnd what about this rumor that his real name was Brannigan and that he came from upstate New York?”
    â€œIf you read Gloria Adams, you’ll find a lot of rumors. When Joe and I were living in Flatbush and trying to make it the hard way, I saw Mikey every day, the sweetest, most willing, most decent kid I ever knew. The only kinkiness in him was that he wanted to be an actor. Then we came out to the Coast and lost touch with him, and then one day, about sixteen years ago, Joe met him at a gas pump. He brought the kid home, and we fed him and made him stay with us. Joe got him a part in a TV film, and he liked what he saw and got him an acting coach. From there on it was step by step, until he became the Mike Barton of today. We love Mikey, so I don’t want to put Joe on a pedestal as Mr. Good Guy, but without Joe he would be another of the ten thousand unemployed actors around town. I don’t say Joe didn’t profit. He made eight films with Mikey, and six were enormous money-makers. But that’s not why he did it.”
    â€œHe had already changed his name to Barton when your husband met him?”
    â€œYes. He wanted it that way, and Joe let it stay. They decided on a mysterious past, and it worked, for what it’s worth.”
    â€œAnd how did he meet Angel?”
    â€œThat’s another well-kept secret—” She hesitated, studying Masuto and Beckman thoughtfully.
    â€œBut you’re going to tell me,” Masuto said deliberately. “You’re not a chatterer, but you’ve decided to tell me a number of things. May I ask why?”
    â€œIs why important?”
    â€œI think so.”
    â€œI’m afraid. There’s something happening here ever since Mikey married her, and it frightens me. He’s changed. A lot of stars and semi-stars in this town cat around like they’re in competition. Mikey wasn’t that way. There were a few girls in his life whom he really cared for, but he didn’t marry until he met Angel. He lived with one lady for five years, and while they were together he never looked at another woman. He has one real weakness—one, maybe a dozen. Who hasn’t? Mikey wouldn’t win any prizes for smarts. He’s sweet and kind, but not too bright. But the one real weakness I’m talking about is gambling. It’s a sickness, and he’s a big loser. He met Angel in Vegas, where she was dealing blackjack, and he fell for her like a ton of bricks. She had been on the job only a few days, and already she had the reputation of wanting nothing to do with any of the studs around the place. She walked off the job with him the next day and they came back to L.A. together and she moved in—and it didn’t work, not one little bit. It was a rotten, screwed-up marriage from the word go.”
    â€œNot according to the media,” Beckman said.
    â€œYou can talk to the media or you can talk to me. The Angel that the fan magazines write about—the sweet, gentle, compassionate creature—doesn’t exist. The real Angel is by no means a sweet, warm woman. She’s a controlled cake of ice.”
    â€œThey say she has a slight foreign