Bird of Paradise Read Online Free PDF

absolutely—”
    “Fascinating?” he asked.
    Hero nodded, slapping an insincere smile on
her face. “Yes! That’s it! He was fascinating. An now, if you’ll
excuse me, I believe the shuttles are leaving for the resort. I’ll
just dash out of your way and allow you to do whatever it was you
were doing secreted away in this room with the customs official.
Ta!”
    “One moment, if you please, Miss North.” The
man’s hand shackled her free wrist as she turned to leave. “I’d
like to see your camera.”
    See it? Hero smiled wanly. “It’s just a
camera, I assure you. Nothing special about it. Has a lens and a
flash and all that.”
    He pulled her toward him gently but firmly.
“I’m afraid I can’t allow you to keep the film in your camera.”
    “It’s a digital camera; it doesn’t have
film,” Hero retorted, beginning to be incensed at his high-handed
manner. He set the cat carrier down and pulled her hand forward
until the camera was between them. “You see? No film. Now please
release me. I have things to do, and they don’t include standing in
a room with a professional cat smuggler!”
    “So you did follow me!” the man said, taking
the camera from her. She snatched at it but he stepped back,
fiddling with the knobs and buttons.
    “That’s mine; you have no right to it! I
must insist that you return it to me immediately!”
    “You’re English,” he said, apropos of
nothing.
    “Yes, I am, as if that makes a difference to
camera ownership. Give me back my property!”
    “One moment.” He frowned, not even looking
at her as he pressed buttons until his image appeared on the small
screen. “There. I’ll just erase this picture—”
    Hero ground an objection between her teeth,
furious that he was deleting her evidence, more determined than
ever to have her revenge on him.
    “It matters little whether I have a photo of
you and that customs man falsifying quarantine documents,” she said
airily as he handed the camera back to her. “I imagine both the
television show producer and the head of customs will be most
interested in what I witnessed here. I’m sure a quick look at your
passport and the false papers for your cat will reveal everything.”
She tucked the camera away in her bag and gave him a bright smile.
“Good day!”
    “Wait a minute; you can’t tell anyone about
Jesus!” The man looked horrified at the thought.
    “Jesus?” Had the man snapped, too?
    “My cat.”
    She blinked in surprise. “You named your cat
Jesus? Isn’t that rather blasphemous?”
    “It’s not intended to be blasphemous; it’s
just the only name he answers to,” the man said, resignation
written all over his face. He squatted down to release the door to
the carrier.
    “He answers to the name
Jesus?”
    “Yes,” the man said, pulling out a huge
gray-and-white cat, attaching a thin leather leash onto his collar.
“I think it’s because when most people see him, they say, ‘Jesus,
that’s a cat?’ Somehow the name just stuck.”
    Hero looked at the huge animal as it hobbled
around. It was approximately the size and shape of a well-fed
bulldog, was missing one eye, and had a pronounced limp. Altogether
it was a very curious animal for a man to feel so strongly about
that he dared risk imprisonment to smuggle it through customs for a
six-week visit. “I begin to see your point,” she murmured watching
the cat as it investigated the nearby crates.
    “Do you know what they’ll do to him if you
turn us in?” the man asked. Hero squatted down when the animal
limped over to her and smelled her shoes. She peered at his
front.
    “Is one of his legs shorter than the
others?”
    “Yes, he lost an inch and a half of bone on
one leg when he was hit by a car. That’s how I found him, as a
matter of fact, a stray lying by the side of the road after some
bastard had mowed him down. The vet was going to take the leg off,
but offered to do reconstructive surgery instead. As you can see,
it wasn’t