Hooper, Kay - [Hagen 09] by It Takes A Thief (V1.0)[Htm] Page B

the
case," Skye requested. He sighed. "We should be about ready
to wind down on this. You could have taken him with that hand,"
he said, having obviously been close enough to the parlor earlier to
hear what had transpired there. "He would have kept raising."
    "Probably," Dane agreed in a murmur, standing
where he was and gazing at the portrait hanging before him. Skye was
to his left, completely hidden in the darkness of a doorway. "But
we haven't found the press yet, and he hasn't passed any phony money.
I don't want to panic him with just one hand."
    "He has to be feeling the strain," Skye
observed thoughtfully. "How much have you hit him for so far
tonight?"
    "Fifty thousand, more or less. He had close to a
hundred in his safe the other night. The way it stands since that
last hand, he's lost two thirds of what he started out with."
    There was a short silence, and then Skye said, "We
won't find the press in the house, you know that. I've already
checked nearly every room. You're going to have to win all the cash
he's got, and force him to lead us to it."
    "Yes. I know."
    "What's on your mind?" Skye asked
perceptively.
    After a moment, Dane answered, "Tomorrow night's
game – if I manage to win it all tonight. Kelly's sure to want
another shot at me."
    "So?"
    "I did some figuring this afternoon. If our
information on Kelly is accurate, his only assets are this
plantation and house. The plantation is the biggest in this part
of the state, more than three hundred acres, mostly rice and timber.
It's in the red at the moment because he's borrowed heavily against
it and the income just barely covers the mortgage. Even so, the
market value is easily into seven figures, and he could expect to
stake close to a million with it discounting the mortgage. The
house is crammed with two hundred years of history, most of it
valuable, so add another million at the very least."
    Quietly, Skye said, "Your promise to Jennifer."
    Dane nodded, still gazing at the portrait of a proudly
erect Chantry in the uniform of a Confederate soldier. "I can
match Kelly's assets unless he goes berserk and prints a few hundred
thousand worthless dollars. In that case, I'll have to accept them at
face value, and even if I win every dollar on the table tonight, I
may not have enough to force him to stake Belle Retour."
    Skye sighed. "Then, somehow, we've got to prevent
Kelly from printing any more than a hundred grand without alerting him that we're on to him. You're better with machines
than I am; when we find the damned thing, you'll have to cripple it –
slightly."
    "And so carefully that he won't know it was
tampered with? Damn. I'd better make some calls tomorrow. I don't
suppose you know anyone who knows how to gently disable a counterfeit
press?"
    "Not offhand, no."
    Dane said something a great deal stronger than "damn."
    "It's your own fault," Skye reminded him
dryly. "You will keep on making promises." With no
change in tone, he added, "Speaking of which, how's Jennifer?
You haven't mentioned her the last couple of days. Have you even seen
her?"
    Dane had hoped to avoid that subject with Skye; though
the men he played poker against might well believe his composure was
nearly inhuman, his partner knew only too well there was a very
normal, feeling man beneath the tranquil mask. But Dane had to
answer, because in their life, the truth was all too often
possible only between the two of them.
    "No. She's wise enough not to get burned twice,"
he said finally, steadily.
    "Are you both so sure she would be burned?"
Skye didn't sound surprised, as if he'd expected this.
    "She isn't willing to risk it. I can't blame her
for that." Dane shifted restlessly. "I have to get back, or
Kelly will come looking for me."
    "Wait." Skye was silent for a moment, and when
he spoke his voice was unusually sober. "If you walk away from
her, you'll never be the same. Neither will she."
    "What she feels about her father's betrayal runs
deep. I don't know how to fight it ... or