Comes the Dark Stranger by Jack Higgins Page A

took my Luger. I sat down and thought about it real hard, and I remembered that only two people knew I had it. You and Reggie Steele. It couldn’t possibly have been you, so I decided I’d better have a word with Reggie.’
    Her voice was still calm, but her hand shook slightly when she dipped her brush into the paint. ‘And what did he have to say?’
    Shane shook his head and said softly, ‘I didn’t get a chance to talk to him. He was deeply engaged in conversation with someone else when I got there.’
    There was a moment of silence, and she still kept on painting. Sudden anger lifted inside Shane, and he grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her round. ‘You told me you’d never met Reggie Steele,’ he said, his fingers biting into her flesh. ‘You lied to me. I want to know why.’
    There was a sudden, frenzied growling as the Dobermann hurled itself across the room. As Shane released her, Laura Faulkner grabbed for the dog’s collar, pulling it back. She leaned down and spoke softly into its ear, her hands gently fondling its ears, and after a while it retreated to the divan and lay down again, its black eyes fixed unwinkingly on Shane.
    When she turned, her cheeks were flushed and there was anger in her eyes. She took out a cigarette and lit it with shaking fingers, and when she spoke there was a slight tremble in her voice. ‘If you try to lay a hand on me again I’ll let the dog tear your throat out, and believe me - he can do it.’
    Shane moved back until he was leaning against the wall. When he spoke, his voice was level and calm. ‘All right, let’s cut the dramatics and get down to some hard fact. When I first spoke to you, you told me you’d never met any of the men who’d known your brother in Korea. Last night I saw you coming out of the Garland Club with Reggie Steele, and from what I’ve been told you’ve been visiting him there regularly for years.’
    She took a few nervous paces away from him, and when she turned there was real anger in her eyes. ‘All right. You’ve asked for some hard facts - I’ll give you some.’
    She untied the knot at her waist, pulled the blouse from her body with one fluid motion, and stood facing him. ‘Now don’t start getting any silly ideas just because I’m treating you like an adult.’
    She was wearing no brassiere and her breasts were superb, full and ripe, with delicate nipples. A sudden dryness clutched Shane by the throat, and then he saw the scar and sucked in his breath. It started beneath her left breast and ran up into her shoulder, a jagged line of white showing clearly against her tanned skin.
    He swallowed hard. ‘Who did it?’
    She quickly pulled on the blouse and knotted it again at her waist. ‘My loving brother Simon,’ she said. ‘Or step-brother, I should say, because that’s what he really was.’
    Shane shook his head in bewilderment. ‘Simon?’ he said. ‘But I don’t understand.’
    ‘It’s easy. When he was drunk he was capable of anything. One night he tried to get fresh with me. We struggled, knocked over a table with some liquor bottles on it, and I fell on one of the broken bottles.’
    ‘And what did your father have to say about it?’ Shane said.
    She shrugged. ‘My father thought the sun shone out of him. Who was I to disillusion him? I told him it was an accident. That we’d just been fooling around. The only good thing that came out of it was that Simon left me strictly alone after that.’
    ‘He was always wild,’ Shane said, ‘but I never thought he was as bad as that.’
    She laughed tightly. ‘Oh, there’s worse to come. After my father’s stroke, Simon took control of the firm. For two years he spent money like water - other people’s money. The day he met you in that bar he was just one step ahead of the law. The accountants were due the following week, and he was in too deep to be able to cover it up.’
    Shane’s eyes narrowed. ‘So that’s why he volunteered for Korea?’
    She nodded.