The Crocodile's Last Embrace Read Online Free PDF Page A

all a ploy to bring me back here.”
    Avery lit his pipe and puffed at it for a few moments. “Don’t expect me to agree or disagree with you there, Jade. But we were worried about you.”
    “Were?”
    “Fair enough. Still are. For instance, right now you look as though you’ve received your death sentence.” He pointed with his pipe stem to the paper sticking out of her shirt pocket. “I say, how stupid of me. You’ve heard from your family. Bad news?”
    Jade studied her friend from under lowered eyelids. The paper made him nervous.
    He’s hiding something.
    “Not from my family.” She handed the brief note and obituary to Avery and waited while he read them.
    “This must be a hoax. It can’t be—”
    “From David? One wouldn’t think so, but it is his hand.”
    “It’s a foul, dirty joke,” said Avery, anger edging his voice. “Someone’s done a good job of playing the forger, that’s for certain.” He turned the note over, looking for any clue on the back. “Did you see anyone in France? Someone perhaps who was suffering from shell shock?”
    “No.” Jade didn’t tell him she thought she’d seen David. It had to have been a trick of the mind. “You flew in David’s squadron. You would know if any of the other pilots in your group blamed me.”
    “And no one did,” he said. His pipe hung forgotten from his fingers until he raised his hand to stroke his chin. “Blast, it went out,” he said, and relit it. “I would suspect David’s mother, Lilith, was behind this. A retaliation of sorts for breaking up her smuggling ring in Morocco, but there’s been no word of her doing anything from prison.”
    “You haven’t heard from your contact in London?” asked Jade.
    “No, but I asked him to send word only if she did something major: relocated, received a caller. There’s been nothing since that clergyman visited her in August.”
    “What are you talking about?” asked Beverly as she joined them. “Something very serious by the looks on your faces.”
    Avery leaned over and kissed his wife on the cheek. “All through with the Junior Amazon Society, are you?”
    “Yes, so you are safe to come back to the house, my dear. Now, what is going on?”
    Jade handed the note and obituary to Beverly. “This came in today’s mail,” she said.
    Beverly’s eyes widened in surprise, then quickly narrowed in anger. “How dare someone do this to you, Jade. You should take this to the police immediately. Perhaps they can find some fingerprints on it.”
    “Yes, the postal clerk’s and ours,” said Jade. “We’ve all handled it. And it’s hardly likely that Inspector Finch would have any record of prints on file from France. I think Avery was closer to the mark in suggesting this is Lilith’s work. She probably paid one of her confederates to do the job, imitating David’s hand.” Jade took back the letter and shoved it into her trouser pocket.
    “We’ve never been able to find out just how many people she employed in her criminal network,” said Beverly. “You’ve run across some of them, but there must be more.”
    “A feeble attempt to frighten you, made by a caged woman,” said Avery. “If she had anyone close at hand, they would have attempted to harm you by now, I should think. But I’m happy to know you haven’t received bad news from your family.”
    Jade looked at Avery from under hooded eyes. “You knew it wasn’t from Sam, didn’t you? You’ve heard from him, though.”
    “Well . . . it’s only that . . .” Avery coughed. “Oh, blast! It’s been months. Not since he arrived in California, no.”
    “This is all a lot of horrid nonsense,” said Beverly. “And, Jade, you’ve been wound as tightly as a watch spring since you came back from France. It’s high time you told us what happened there.”
    “What makes you think something happened in France?” asked Jade.
    “Because I know you. You’ve had a faraway, haunted look in your eyes ever since your