The Golden Circle (11 page)

"That's funny, you know. Here, with my sort of flighty and impulsive approach to life, I'm a success," said Mimi. 'The only thing I've tried where I have really scored is this ... being a crook."

"What did you plan to be?"

She laughed. "Not a jewel thief obviously. You don't plan on anything like that, or major in it in school," she said. 'I wonder where all those boats are going. Probably nowhere, just out and back. No, I came to New York three years ago to be, like every second girl you meet, an actress. Nobody was having any. Finally, through Sweeney Todd, I got recruited into this outfit. There are a lot worse things I could have become, I suppose."

The Phantom said, "Would you like another crack at the theater?"

"I'm really not sure." She sat up, sipping at the juice"I used to think I'd work at this, this golden arrow business with the sisters, until I had lots of money saved. Then I'd quit and try acting one more time Now, who knows? I sometimes think I'd simply like to go away someplace where it's very, very quiet and peaceful. What about you?"

The Phantom stood. "I have to take care of some things in my room. I'll see you again this afternoon."

"I'm not certain you will, Walker. We're having another big gathering of all the sisters two nights from tonight. I have a lot of little nicknack jobs to take care of before then," she said.

In his room up near the attic of the big rambling old house the Phantom took a stamped envelope and a sheet of paper out of his bureau. Rapidly, listening for sounds from the hall, he wrote a letter. He addressed it to Lt. Colma of the New York Police Department. Even though Long Island wasn't within the lieutenant's jurisdiction, the Phantom had decided it was Colma he'd alert. It seemed fitting, since they'd both encountered the golden arrow for the first time together on the train. The stocky cop could take care of the rest of the details.

The Phantom wrote Lt. Colma that he would find the entire golden arrow gang, and probably a good deal of their loot, in this Victorian house on the Sound. He also listed the names he'd learned from Mara this morning. When he finished he signed the letter Walker, folded it and sealed it.

He could leave the house now, phone his information to the police. But the Phantom wanted to remain here, to keep an eye on things, until the police arrived. He knew he'd still be able to get away then. Previous experience had taught him that.

Now he had to find a way to mail the letter to Lt Colma. Leaving his room, the Phantom went through the house and out to the rickety stairs leading to the

KITCHEN

going somewhere?" asked Beth, from the door of the kitchen.

"Stroll on the beach." The letter was safely concealed in his coat pocket

"I suppose we can trust you to do that," said the gaunt woman through the gray screen door. "Only Stay out of the woods, they're not very safe for roaming."

On each side of the old house were several acres of woodland, birch and maple. This area of Long Island was still sparsely settled, a major reason why the golden arrow circle had picked it

"I'll stay out in the open." the Phantom promised.

The wind on the beach was colder today. It sprinkled fine grains of sand against the dark lenses of his masking glasses. The Phantom knew there was a country club about a mile along the beach. He figured he'd be able to slip in there for a moment and arrange to get his letter mailed.

Tangles of dry seaweed crackled in the wind. The briney water slapped at the sand.

A half mile from the house, on a stretch of otherwise deserted beach, the Phantom encountered a freckled eleven-year-old boy. The boy was engaged in an intense attempt to master the art of fly casting.

When he noticed the Phantom he said, "Hi Do you know anything about this?"

The Phantom did, and he spent fifteen minutes giving the boy some pointers on the use of his fishing pole and gear.

"Hey, I really appreciate this," said the boy.

"You can do me a favor," said the Phantom. "Is there a mailbox near here?"

"Not too near. You have to climb up over there and

walk to the post office, about a mile," the freckled boy said. "I got to pass by there. Can I do something?"

There was no one else near them on the beach. "Sure, you can mail this for me." The Phantom handed him the letter.

"I got to head for home about now anyhow," said the boy as he took the letter. "I think it must be about lunchtime. I can mail this for you on the way."

"Thanks. I appreciate it"

"Maybe I'll see you around here on the beach some other day."

"Maybe," said the Phantom. He watched the boy, go trotting away across the fine yellow sand.

And up in the woods, unknown to the Phantom, someone else watched, too.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The evening of the meeting of the full membership a storm began. Thunder rumbled across the dark sea, lightning crackled in the forest surrounding the old house on the cliff. The windows on the ocean side of the place clattered, a screen door came unfastened and flapped wildly against the side of the house.

The Phantom paced an irregular path across the
nig
in his room. This was the day he'd told the police lo come. "Colma is sure to act on my letter," he said to himself. "He must have it by now."

A tapping sounded on the door.

"Yes, come in."

Nita opened the door. 'You're to come with me. Right now." There was a pistol in her hand.

"Is this any way to treat a fellow member?" he asked, giving the black girl a grin.

She did not respond. "They want you downstairs."

"Meeting about to start? I thought I had a half hour yet."

"Maybe you've got no time at all," she said.

Another girl, a big redhead he'd never seen before, shuffled into the room. "Where does he keep them?" sh
e
asked Nita.

"Frisk him first."

"I get the feeling you've lost your faith in me, Nita,"

the Phantom said. His twin automatics had been returned to him by Mara the day of the Steiner jo He wore one of the guns now in his waistband, th other was in his bureau.

"Here's one of them," grunted the big red-hair girl when she found the one he was wearing.

"Any sign of the other one on him?"

"Naw, he's clean otherwise."

"Stay here, see if you can find the other gun. Ill take him."

"Is this all part of my initiation?" the Phantom asked on the staircase.

"It's part of what they told me to do."

He was taken to the big meeting room. Once again the circle in the center of the room was glaringly lit. This time the desk was occupied. Beth, her bony hands folded, sat behind it. Standing to the rear of her, half in shadow, was Mara. The blonde girl lowered her eyes when the Phantom entered the circle of light

During the days he'd been a guest in the house he'd come to know its layout fairly well. He knew there was another doorway behind Mara. It was something to keep in mind.

"Sisters," began Beth, "you see before you the man you have allowed to join the organization. I needn't remind you that I, alone of all the membership, was opposed to this man from the start. It is evident. . . ."

'1 was coming to the meeting anyway, Beth," cut in the Phantom. "You didn't have to send for me with an armed escort"

"You will remain silent" ordered the gaunt woman. "This is not a court of law, buddy boy. You'll find you have no rights here whatsoever. It's much too late to try to say anything in your defense. Nor will anyone care to listen, I am sure, once they have heard
this!"
From a pocket in her severe black suit jacket Beth produced a letter.

As she slapped it on the bare desk top the Phantom recognized it as the one he'd given to the boy on the

beach two days before.

Beth jerked his letter out of its envelope, snapped

t open. "It begins 'Dear Lt. Colma' and concluded with a name which is now, unfortunately, familiar to us all. It is signed by Walker."

There was a sharp inhalation of breath on the part of many of the girls in the dark tiers of seats.

"And now I'll read, in all its traitorous detail, this let
ter
which Walker saw fit to write to our old friend en the New York Police Department's robbery div...."

The Phantom sprang ahead. He shoved the heavy desk straight into the seated woman. She gasped, tumbled over out of the chair. The gaunt woman fell hack against Mara, knocking the blonde girl off- balance.

The Phantom was running. He sprinted free of the circle of light just as a shot was fired. Nita probably.

The door was where he remembered it. He yanked It open, and catapulted into the dark corridor beyond.

Lightning flashed close outside, illuminating the hallway and showing him where the one window was.

"After him," Beth screamed in the big meeting room. "Stop him, kill him!"

Glass erupted out into the stormy darkness as the Phantom went sailing through the window.

He landed on his side in mud and brush. He pushed himself upright with a thrust of one powerful arm.

Once more lightning flared, filling the forest to his right with glittering white light, The Phantom ran in that direction.

Someone was at the window he'd dived through in his escape, crying, "Stop! Come back here! Or we'll shoot you down!"

A pistol barked twice.

The Phantom kept running.

The rain slammed down through the dark labyrinth which was the night forest. At frequent intervals lightning danced and sizzled through the treetops. Even with the boom of thunder and the roar of the stormy sea below the Phantom could hear his pursuers. At least a dozen women, he judged, had come into the forest after him.

They came trampling through the forest, fanning out, swinging flashlights. "Beating the bush for me sure enough," the Phantom said to himself.

They were urban people, city girls for the most part. They knew little about hunting or tracking. The Phantom was certain not one of them could get within five hundred feet of him without his being aware of it He guessed also that Beth would expect him to head as far away from the old house as possible, as fast as he could.

Grinning, he decided against that course. He would double back, head straight for the cliffside house and then circle behind it and go up through the woods on the other side. The road to town ran a quarter of a mile above the edge of the wood. Once in town he'd call the local police. There wasn't time now to let Lt Colma in on this. With any luck Beth and her hunting party would still be thrashing around in the forest looking for him when the law arrived.

The Phantom eased silently through the corridors of high straight trees, aiming himself back toward the old house. Lightning flashed and he stiffened against the wide tree trunk.

When blackness returned he moved on. There didn't seem to be anyone nearby. Far off, muffled by the thick rain, he heard Beth shouting. "Shoot,
him
on sightl I want that man dead!" But she was a good way from him, heading in the direction she assumed he was going.

The Phantom moved toward the seaward of the

forest, his course paralleling the cliff edge. He stopped suddcnly. A girl was stumbling over fallen branches mid brush not far off.

From a crouching position he saw, when lightning next lit up the night, Mimi walking slowly some fifty feet away. She had on a black raincoat several sizes too large and was carrying a flashlight and a handgun.

When the dark returned he could still keep track of her by the glow of the flashlight tip. She stayed by I ho cliff edge, then stopped to look out in the direction of the sea.