The Kidnapper Read Online Free PDF Page B

machinery if they wanted to land the contract.
    “So they went to the bank and tried to borrow some more. Warren told them no. Then they went to another bank, but you think that Warren hadn’t gone around and slipped this other bank the word? They’re all in it together, these big shots, thick as thieves. So the second bank said they were sorry, no soap. And Levitt and Cooper’s mortgage ran out, and the bank wouldn’t renew, and Warren took the factory. The minute he got it he bought the bank mortgage, paid it up himself, and shoved some dough into equipment. He got the order, and he was set. He made a fortune out of the war and after. And Levitt went out to Colorado and died of a stroke, and Cooper still works at the factory, some flunky job, while Warren sits up there in his big house and plays God. Tell me that isn’t crooked?”
    “I never knew all that, Steve.”
    “Why do you think Mrs. Warren is running around dripping with diamonds? Because she won a Sunday School medal or something? Do you think she ever did anything to deserve a mink coat, stuff like that? Probably never did a day’s work in her life—but you have to wait on her hand and foot, and all you get is forty-five dollars a week, and she thinks that’s a fortune.”
    “It’s good wages for a maid, Steve. After all, I don’t do much except look after Shirley Mae, and—”
    “Sure. You look after the kid for her, don’t you? You see that she’s dressed warm enough for school, and gets her milk at lunch, and goes to bed on time. And Mrs. Warren horses around wearing diamonds at parties while you sit home and play babysitter. You’re more of a mother to that kid than she is.”
    “Oh, but you’re wrong there, darling. She loves Shirley Mae. They both do. You should see the fuss they make over her! Mrs. Warren can’t have any more children, she had an operation, and they’re so crazy about her.”
    “I know that, too. And that’s what I been thinking about.”
    “I don’t get it, Steve.”
    “Remember when I said there’s two ways to make money? Warren’s way—big business—which is just a lot of cheating and stealing under another name. Ruining guys, making them suffer. Everything legal, but crooked just the same.
    “That’s one way. The other way is my way. That’s to make guys like Warren suffer.”
    “How, Steve?”
    “That’s a good question, Mary. I thought about it a lot. I want a lot of dough in a hurry. I don’t want to harm anyone, hurt them, to get it. And what really counts is to be sure of getting away with the scheme.” I took a deep breath. “Well, I figured out what to do.”
    I looked her straight in the eye. “Mary, you and I could have ourselves a couple of hundred grand, just like that, and clear out of here in a month, if you’d go through with it.”
    “Go through with what?”
    “We could go down to Florida, Cuba, anywhere in the world. We could get married and have our honeymoon in Europe. We could spend the rest of our lives doing whatever we felt like, whenever we felt like it. If you’re willing.”
    “You’re serious, you really mean it?”
    “Mary, I’m talking about you and me, getting married. I wouldn’t kid about a thing like that. We can do it, and we can be set for life, without harming anyone. And it won’t ruin Warren, he can spare the dough.”
    “What do you want to do?”
    “Suppose somebody put the snatch on Shirley Mae? What do you suppose the Warrens would pay to get her back?”
    “Steve, why—that’s kidnapping!”
    She was telling me.
    “You couldn’t do a thing like that, you can’t mean it!”
    “Why not? I’ve got it all figured out. There isn’t a chance in the world for anything to go wrong. And nobody gets hurt, the kid’ll be all right, the whole thing’s clean as a whistle.”
    “No, I don’t believe it, you wouldn’t—”
    “I thought you were so hot to get married?”
    “But Steve, that’s awful! Why, the way I feel about Shirley Mae,