Fortune Is a Woman - Elizabeth Adler [182]
“Oh I think not,” he said, still smiling. “Not after what the detective report said.”
She stared at him aghast, her face the color of chalk. “The detective report?”
He patted his pocket, smiling gently. “You must remember to keep your door locked, Maryanne, and not to invite just anybody in without first seeing who they are. You never know, it might be a thief. And your purse was just lying there, so temptingly open….”
Maryanne glanced at her purse and then at him; she closed her eyes, feeling sick. “You bastard,” she said quietly.
“Oh, I don’t know,” he said easily. “I don’t mean any harm. All I want is a little help—from you and Buck. Just a word or two in the right place, that’s all, maybe to your father and the right banker—you know the scene. I have these phosphate mines, you see, down in South America, and I need a little financial backing. Look upon it as an investment, Maryanne. That’s all it is—an investment. Because one day soon this mine will supply the world with phosphates and it’ll earn you a fortune.”
“I already have a fortune,” she told him coldly.
He shrugged as he stood up to leave. “Tell you what, I’ll let you talk to Buck for me,” he said, strolling toward the door. “I’m sure you know what to say to him better than I do. I’ll just leave it in your capable hands, Maryanne.”
She looked murderously at him smiling at her from the door, and he patted his pocket holding the detective’s report meaningfully. She could hear him laughing as he walked down the hallway, as though life were just one big joke. And she knew this time the joke was on her.
Buck was in the lobby waiting for the elevator as Harry stepped out. “Harry,” he said with surprise.
“Sorry I missed you, Buck,” Harry called as he stepped around him on his way to the exit. “I’m in a bit of a rush. But I spoke with Maryanne, she’ll tell you all about it.”
Buck turned to watch him, a puzzled look on his face. “Maryanne?” he said.
Annie hurried across to him. “Oh, Buck, I’m afraid Mr. Harrison’s gone and spoiled your little surprise. Mrs. Wingate told me she thought it would be nice if she joined you. I’ve transferred you to the Knaresborough Suite on the same floor.”
They looked at each other for a moment. Annie had often met Buck with Francie at the ranch. She understood about their affair and she never let the fact that she did not approve affect her liking for him as a man. But they never spoke of it between them.
He nodded as he stepped into the elevator. “Thanks, Annie,” he said wearily. It had been a long day and he was too beat to speculate on just why Maryanne had chosen to join him in San Francisco, or what Harry Harrison wanted.
But Annie suspected why Maryanne was there and she was not in the least bit surprised when Francie’s houseboy, Ah Fong, arrived a short while later with a note marked “private and personal” to be delivered to Senator Wingate when he was alone.
Annie Aysgarth took the note and called Buck on the phone and asked him to please come downstairs to see her.
He wondered what she wanted, but Maryanne bet she knew why. He didn’t come back for hours, and when he did he acted like a crazy man.
She watched him warily as he prowled from room to room; his eyes were blank with pain and she thought, relieved, that she had just been in the nick of time. If only that swine Harry had not seen her, everything would have worked out perfectly. Still, all he wanted was money and her father could always put a good thing or two his way, and Buck need never know. But the look of triumph in his loathsome face had made her uneasy, and with Buck acting like a madman, she had better watch out he didn’t do something stupid. Like go back to Francesca Harrison.
Buck stared out the window; San Francisco was wreathed in one of its sudden white fogs but he scarcely noticed. He felt torn apart inside. When he had read the letter Annie gave him he’d said disbelievingly, “No, it can’t be true.