Blood Money Read Online Free PDF Page B

pushed it open.
    She stepped in, closed it behind her, and stood still. The two men were standing now, the light still behind them so that they looked like silhouettes. The bigger man’s stance—arms out from his sides and his feet planted at shoulder width—made him seem shocked and disturbed, but he made no attempt to reach for a weapon. The smaller man’s face was difficult to read in the shadows. Now that he was standing, Jane could see that he was much older than he had seemed when he was seated. There was a stoop-shouldered, bent look to him.
    Rita turned to look at Jane. “Jane. I thought you were in here, and I hadn’t heard any noise, and—”
    “I know,” said Jane. “You thought it must be safe.”
    Rita waved her arm toward the two men. “Jane, this is—”
    This time the old man interrupted. “Hello, there. I’m Rita’s grandfather, Ben Shelford.”
    “No, you’re not,” said Jane evenly.
    The old man seemed not to have heard her. “And this is my son, David.” He nodded. “Rita’s uncle.”
    “He’s Danny,” said Jane. The younger man’s head swiveled to look at the older man in alarm.
    The older man went on, unperturbed. “We sometimes call him that, but his real name is David.”
    Jane slowly shook her head. “You’re Bernie Lupus.”
    The old man stepped closer, and Jane could see his small, pale eyes. He didn’t seem angry. He looked intrigued. “How did you come to that?”
    Jane said, “I happened to notice a few minutes ago that you were playing a card game that goes to five hundred without either paying for each hand or writing down the score. Then I went in your room, and looked at your clothes and your trash.”
    The old man said, “Ah,” appreciatively. He nodded his head. “What did they tell you?” He sounded, not like a teacher exactly, but like an examiner, maybe a diagnostician.
    Jane shrugged. “They told me that somebody staying in the room wanted to go all over the country being a tourist.” She realized he was waiting for more. “Everybody wants to go somewhere. The only one who wants to go everywhere is somebody who’s been locked up for a long time.”
    “Or a kid?” he suggested.
    “Or a kid,” she agreed. “There were no clothes in the suitcases for a child. What was in there were clothes that came straight from the store. Everybody likes to have new clothes, but nobody has nothing but new clothes unless he couldn’t take anything at all when he left home.”
    The old man was quiet for only a moment. “You’re an astute girl,” he pronounced.
    The younger man said to Rita, “Who is she?”
    “Nobody you want to know,” said Jane. “And just to make everybody feel more comfortable, it makes no difference to me whether he’s alive or dead. My only interest in this is that his death put Rita in danger.”
    Hearing her name seemed to strike Rita as permission to join the conversation. “She makes people disappear,” she said. “Somebody in Florida told me about her, and so I—”
    Jane interrupted. “Get your things, Rita.” She turned to the two men again. “I’m going to take her with me.”
    The old man stepped a tiny bit closer, then realized that Jane’s body had become tense. He sat down on the bed. His stare was now attentive and intense. “She makes people disappear? Interesting.”
    Jane was watching the bigger man, preparing herself for the possibility that he might be about to move.
    The old man said, “We’re not going to stop you. That was pretty much what we had in mind, too.”
    Jane kept her eyes on Danny. “If you care about her, why didn’t you do something for her?”
    Bernie shrugged. “What could I do? My death was untimely. I wasn’t prepared. Once I had heard about it, there was no way I could stop it. It was too late. Things were in motion, and people would really have gotten killed.”
    Danny looked disapproving, as though Bernie was making a damaging admission. He went to the window and looked out.