Wanted! Belle Starr! (8 page)

“
Yes, it’s going off now,”
Icke replied, having started to rub at his left leg to lend
confirmation to his excuse. “You know, my dear, I’ve been thinking.
There’s a way I might be able to help your
half-brother.”

“
How, sir?” Darlene-Mae
asked, taking on an appearance of aroused hope mingled with
possible gratitude.

“
I’m not without influence
in Mulrooney, you know,” Icke commenced, then realized there was
something which might tend to detract from the declaration and
lessen the effect he was seeking to create. “Of course, as you
undoubtedly know, I’m staying here at the hotel under an assumed
name. I have to do it, you understand, to avoid unwanted attentions
being directed my way.”

“
Why I can just imagine
that a gentleman of your great talent would have to do nothing
else,” the blonde asserted. “In fact, though I recognized you-all
straight away and wanted to do so from the start, that is why I
didn’t make myself known to you before this afternoon.”

“
And I’d have been
delighted to make an exception in your case, if you had made
yourself known earlier,” Icke stated, barely restraining an impulse
to reach for the blonde’s hand as he realized that to do so
prematurely could spoil his ambitions where she was concerned.
Replacing his watch and adjusting the hang of its chain across his
vest, he continued, “Anyway, I think the best thing I can do is go
to the bank and intercede on behalf of your
half-brother.”

“
Intercede?”

“
Banker Cockburn and I are
old friends and I’m sure he will listen to what I have to say, then
act upon it.”

“
Well, heavens to Betsy,
would you just credit that?” Darlene-Mae gasped. Then she adopted
an attitude which would have won over a man with far more honorable
designs upon her than those of her visitor. “But why would you do
that for Dennis?”

“
While it will help him,
it’s really you I’m doing it for,” Icke corrected, wanting to avoid
leaving any doubt over the direction in which his efforts were
intended. “Of course, I would try to help any young man in
difficulty. But I count it a special honor and privilege to be of
service to you.”

“
My, and they say Yankees
aren’t gallant!” the blonde purred. “You won’t find me ungrateful
for anything you can do, sir.”

“
Then why don’t you call
me ‘David’?”

“
May I?”

“
I wish you would,” Icke
declared, deciding he was achieving his purpose.

“
Then, David, you must
call me, ‘Darlene-Mae’, the blonde authorized and glanced pointedly
at the clock on the wall. “Great heavens, is that the
time?”

“
It is,” Icke confirmed,
having had his thoughts jerked from lechery to the more vitally
important matter under discussion. On the point of crossing to the
door, he was struck by a thought. “Will your half-brother be there
when I arrive?”

“
No,” Darlene-Mae replied.
“I told him that he should send word to Banker Cockburn that he was
suffering from the grippe and must stay away today. I was afraid
that he might say or do something which could betray himself, if he
was to go there under the strain he was suffering. Was I wrong to
give him such advice?”

“
Of course you weren’t
wrong, my dear!” Icke confirmed, being aware of how easily a man
normally honest could betray himself after having behaved in such
an illicit fashion. He was genuinely sincere as he went on, “As a
matter of fact, you gave him just the advice I would have, if I had
know about it earlier. Well, time’s flying and I’d better be
getting along.”

“
You will let me know how
you get on, won’t you, David?” the blonde requested, looking so
pathetically eager she might have softened the heart of a confirmed
misogynist and the man she was addressing was far from that. “If
you come straight back to me on your return, unless you think this
too forward of me, I will have a bottle of brandy waiting to toast
your success and our continued friendship.”

“
I’ll do just that,” Icke
promised and, despite his anxiety over realizing that he had
allowed more time to slip by than he intended before taking his
departure, he felt sure that coming back with the ‘news’ he would
deliver was going to prove worthwhile.

“
Goodbye for now, David. May
you soon return,” Darlene-Mae purred. “And the very best of
luck!”

Telling himself the ‘very best of luck’ he
could have had under the circumstances was to have met Darlene-Mae
Abernathy and learned in time of the trouble which was coming to
the National Trust Bank, in which he had deposited a large sum of
money for safekeeping, David Icke wasted no time on leaving her
room. Having no need to go to his own quarters, further along the
passage, he hurried downstairs. Crossing the reception lobby, for
once he was relieved by receiving a negative shake of the head from
the clerk at the desk. The last thing he required at that moment
was to be informed that the message he was expecting had arrived.
It was imperative that nothing further delayed him before he set
out to retrieve the fifteen thousand dollars, not even the arrival
of the criminals for whom it was intended.

There had been a very good reason for the
agitation Icke had displayed on being informed by the blonde of her
half-brother’s peculations at the bank!

Although having acquired a certain fame as
an author, a playwright and a politician of radical views, Icke was
only moderately successful at any of them. Certainly he did not
maintain his far from meager standard of living on his earnings
from all three sources. His main income was acquired by having
invested money accrued some years earlier by less than legal means
and becoming, in complete secrecy, one of the major receivers of
stolen property anywhere in the United States of America. He was,
in fact, the biggest ‘fence’ on the Atlantic seaboard.

Having had a proposal reach him to purchase
a quantity of very valuable jewelry, looted further west from a
hunting party of European aristocrats, Icke had put aside his
reluctance to travel beyond the Mississippi River and come to
Mulrooney. One of the stipulations of the deal was that he must be
prepared to hand over the fifteen thousand dollars, quoted as the
price for the illicit merchandise, in cash when it was delivered to
him. He had been warned that, should the sum not be immediately
forthcoming, the loot would be taken elsewhere. As the stolen
property was worth far more and, in fact, could be returned to its
owners at a very good profit, without any questions being asked, he
had known it would present no problems for the thieves to find
another fence ready, willing and eager to negotiate. They would not
hesitate before going to somebody else.

Considering it could prove the most
lucrative single deal in which he had ever participated, Icke had
done as instructed. Because of wishing to avoid arousing suspicions
with regards to possessing finances far beyond anything produced
through his literary and political activities, he kept only a small
bank account in his own name. However, having had no desire to
leave a trail which might be traced back to him, he had been
unwilling to make use of one of the accounts he maintained under
various aliases. Therefore, he had brought the money with him. It
had not come from any of his accounts, but was in bills he had
acquired following a robbery in New York, bills which were still
too ‘hot’ to be passed through any legitimate outlet. Nevertheless,
provided they were unaware of this which he considered likely to be
the case he was hoping they would be accepted by the unsuspecting
Western outlaws.

Always wary, Icke was disinclined to keep
such a large sum of even ‘clean’ money upon his person, hidden in
his room, or leave it in the safe of the manager of the Railroad
House Hotel. To avoid relying upon any of these methods, he had
secreted the fifteen thousand dollars in a safety deposit box at
the National Trust Bank. As yet, there had not been any word from
the outlaws and he had seen no need to withdraw it.

The situation, the receiver realized, had
changed with dramatic suddenness due to the information he had
received!

Once the Federal bank examiners found the
deficit created by Dennis Hobert’s peculations, Icke was certain he
would not be able to retrieve his property from the safety deposit
box until the matter had been settled. Nor was this the worst of
the situation. Should the investigations of the examiners require
it, they were empowered to open and check the contents of the
safety deposit boxes. If this happened, it was possible the true
source of the money he had left would be discovered. He was all too
aware of the consequences for him to regard the contingency with
equanimity.

Yet another matter had caused perturbation
to Icke as he heard the news. Past experience had taught him that
criminals, who rarely trusted any fence too far, were disinclined
to wait for payment to be forthcoming. In fact, he had already been
warned by the present gang that such would prove the case.
Therefore he had been alarmed by the thought that the peculations
of the teller could be endangering the most potentially lucrative
negotiations of their kind in which he had ever been engaged.

On leaving the hotel, the receiver found
himself wishing the two bodyguards he had hired were with him!

Being disinclined to trust the outlaws from
whom he was expecting to purchase the jewelry, the receiver had had
a contact in Kansas engage Stephen Forey and Lee Potter as
bodyguards. However, he had found reason to require their
assistance even sooner than anticipated. Discovering he was being
followed by a young man with reasons to hate him bitterly, he had
decided to take precautions. The trap he had laid did not produce
the required results. Despite the failure of the two hard-cases to
kill Geoffrey Crayne, which they had attributed to a large and very
aggressive Irishwoman having mistaken their proposed victim for
somebody with whom she had a close acquaintance, he had not
disposed of their services. Being in an unfamiliar region, his
previous period west of the Mississippi River having been confined
to Oklahoma, he had no personal knowledge of where he might be able
to procure replacements. Nor did he wish to be without some form of
protection.

Having guessed why Crayne was following him,
wearing a disguise, Icke had believed there would continue to be a
threat to his life from that source and, if possible, wanted to
have it removed before returning to his usual stamping grounds.
While the termination could be arranged in the east, he considered
it advisable to happen in Mulrooney without, ostensibly, it having
any connection with him. However, although there had been no trace
of the young Bostonian since the abortive attempt, he was
disinclined to take the chance that the quest for vengeance was
called off due to the other being frightened from Mulrooney by the
narrow escape he had had. He felt sure Crayne would not give up so
easily.

Notwithstanding the desire for protection
against the young Bostonian and, perhaps, the outlaws with whom he
would be dealing, the parsimonious nature of the receiver would not
cover the cost of having his bodyguard take rooms at the hotel he
was using. Instead, they were staying and paying for their own
accommodation elsewhere, reporting to him for orders every morning.
Having had neither the reason nor the inclination to go out that
day, regardless of how he had been dressed on coming from his room,
he had told them to continue their search for Crayne when he last
saw them. He had no idea where they might now be looking, so he was
unable to send a message demanding their attendance.

Now, due to the unanticipated turn of eve ms
which he had been fortunate enough to discover, Icke was wishing he
had the pair readily available to act as escort until he had
retrieved his money and secured it in the safe at the hotel.
However, he took what comfort he could from the thought that the
bank was only a short distance away from his temporary
accommodation and both were in an area far more adequately
protected by the local peace officers than the district with the
shipping pens for cattle into which he had lured Crayne two days
earlier.

Hurrying to the bank, the receiver was alert
for any sign that the secret of the peculations by Hobert had
become public knowledge. With relief, he saw nothing to suggest
this might be the case. Certainly there was no crowd of worried
depositors outside, either waiting patiently or clamoring to
withdraw savings before it was too late to save them from being
impounded.

On entering the building, Icke found it was
devoid of clients and on the point of being closed. The only
employees present were one of the guards, standing by the main
entrance, and a solitary teller, who was no longer young, behind
the counter. Nevertheless, although the actual conversation was
inaudible, voices could be heard from beyond the door inscribed,
‘CYRUS B. COCKBURN Private’.

Suspecting the books were being inspected,
prior to the forthcoming visit by the Federal bank examiners, the
receiver decided there was still an urgent need to regain
possession of his money. Being a man of integrity, Cockburn would
consider it his duty on discovering the deficit caused by Hobert to
wit hold all the assets pending an official investigation. There
was no telling how long this state of affairs might continue. Nor
did Icke wish to go through the formalities required to bring a
similar sum from one of his bank accounts in the East despite
having more than sufficient resources to do so. For one thing, this
would cause him to pay with honest rather than ‘hot’ money and
still leave the problem of disposing of the latter.