Thefts of Nick Velvet Read Online Free PDF

that can pass through a transparent surface without damaging it. The killer fires the beam through the closed and sealed window, murders the man inside, and yet the room remains completely locked.”
    Fitzpatrick nodded in admiration. “Not bad. Not bad at all, but I think it would go better in print than on the stage. If I were still doing the television series I might give it a try—I’ve always liked wild things like that, the wilder the better.”
    Nick stood up and strolled slowly along the edge of the pool as he talked, and once he managed to slip in a question on the pool’s depth, directed to Mrs. Fitzpatrick. The slanting bottom made it difficult to figure exactly, but he thought the pool probably held close to 19,000 gallons of water. A big job for any thief. He knew it would take days to empty it by ordinary means.
    It was nearly four when they finally left the Fitzpatricks, with Nick shaking hands and promising to keep Sam informed of his progress with the idea. Then he was back in the sports car with Asher, racing through the quiet countryside.
    “What do you think?” she asked. He glanced down at her bare knees and thought of a reply, but then decided to stick to business. “It can be done,” he told her.
    “By the weekend?”
    “By the weekend. I just have to check on one piece of equipment and find a few people to help me. Do you need all the water?”
    She thought about that. “Not every drop, naturally, but most of it. Enough to empty the pool.”
    “I’m interested in why you want it, why it’s so valuable to you.”
    “You’re getting $20,000,” she reminded him. “For that much you can stay curious.”
    “I have a couple of ideas,” he went on. “Once the pool is empty, perhaps those onyx slabs could be pried up and stolen.”
    She glanced at him sideways. “You really think I’m a criminal, don’t you? Those slabs aren’t even real onyx—just a good imitation.”
    “You can’t want the water for itself. It must be the emptiness of the pool that you really want.”
    “I hired you to be a thief, not a detective.”
    “Sometimes the logic demanded by the two professions isn’t that different,” he told her. “What’s your connection with Fitzpatrick and his wife, anyway?”
    “You mean the bit about my being a daughter to him? I suppose it’s true in a way. His first wife was Mary Dumont, my aunt. I spent most of my childhood with them, and they really did treat me like a daughter. My parents both died early, but there was a great deal of money in both branches of the family. I think, really, that Sam resented my aunt’s money. Anyway, a month or so after his first play was a hit, he asserted his independence one night and Aunt Mary left him. That was ten years ago, and nobody’s seen her since—though she occasionally sends me money through a lawyer in California.”
    “Fitzpatrick divorced her?”
    The girl nodded. “On the grounds of desertion. He married Lydia three years ago.”
    “You resent Lydia, don’t you?”
    “Because she took my aunt’s place? Oh, I suppose so.”
    Nick Velvet was thinking of Lydia Fitzpatrick’s poor eyesight, and her swimming habits. Would she come running out to dive into the pool one morning and find only the hard concrete bottom waiting for her? Or did such things only happen in comic strips?
    “One thing,” he said. “Of course, Fitzpatrick’s going to know the water’s being taken. There’s no way of stealing 19,000 gallons of water without his knowing about it.”
    “I want him to know,” she told Nick. “As long as it’s before the holiday weekend.” She steered the sports car like an expert, maneuvering it through the beginnings of the rush-hour traffic. “I still can’t imagine how you’re going to do it, though. If he knows you’re taking it, how are you going to have the time to empty the entire pool?”
    “Leave that to me,” Nick said with a smile. “That’s what you’re paying me for.”
    Friday