The Stand-In by Evelyn Piper Page A

fifty thousand dollars, by tomorrow, Millie. Can you get it by tomorrow, Millie? And don’t ask Coral, because she doesn’t have fifty thousand pounds.”
    â€œCoral!”
    â€œShe doesn’t have it. Can you get the money, Millie, that’s the point.”
    â€œYes,” she said, “I can! And I’m not asking you! All I want from you is not to make any calls to Scotland Yard. Coral, you look at me, Coral! I want you to swear on mother’s grave that while I’m gone you won’t let him call.”
    Coral nodded.
    Bran said, “I won’t call, but please remember we think you’re doing the worst possible thing.”
    â€œAnd you stay here, Coral! You be here, because they might call again.”
    â€œHe said in the morning.”
    â€œYou shut up. Say you’ll stay, Coral!”
    â€œI’ll stay, Millie.” When the door closed after her sister, she grimaced as if she was tasting something bitter and shivered, then turned to her husband.
    He ignored everything her eyes asked. “Where the hell does she think she’s going? Where the hell does she think she can raise that money?”
    â€œBran—”
    â€œFor the thousandth time, Coral, we would have come to our senses! We would have come to our senses! You know how many times the kidnapped kid is dead before they even call? Giving them money is wrong, not only is it throwing it away, it’s wrong . What are you looking at me like that for? Nube told us exactly what I told Millie, didn’t he? Now, for the last time listen to me, Coral. I swear to you if Withers hadn’t called, we would have come to our senses.”
    She had been drinking steadily and spoke with the careful enunciation of the inebriated. “You goddamn liar, like hell we would have!”

8
    Alec wished he had a dollar for every night wasted in a Turkish bath with Nube. When he was low he thought being around to go with Nube was why Nube kept him on the payroll. How often did they use the stills he took?
    He was pretty sure that Nube would be in the pool, and there he was, the only one in the water. Nube was floating, his arms stretched out, like crucified. He called and Nube yelled to come on in, the water’s fine, but he said, “No, I got to talk to you. A matter of life and death.” Tucking in his topcoat so it wouldn’t get wet, Alec squatted at the edge of the pool. Nube was a strong if clumsy swimmer and reached him in a few strokes.
    â€œI am assuming the matter is your life or death, my dear cousin, but you see how instantly I respond, like a good Armenian relative.”
    Alec ignored the needle. Millie was waiting in a taxi outside, poor kid. As quickly as possible he told about the kidnapping and the ransom money which, of course, Millie couldn’t possibly raise.
    â€œShe called you in? Why not her sister and Branton? I see, she went there and they said call in the cops, and of course she won’t do that so she turns to Nube’s cousin.” Nube ducked his face into the water, pulled in a mouthful, then lifted his head and spouted it out like a whale. “Figures,” he said.
    â€œI want the money from you, Nube.” He pulled the contract out of his pocket, needing to stand to do so, then squatted down again. He had decided to protect Millie’s reputation. She hadn’t been with him; she had called him because of their contract. Now he held the contract toward his cousin and explained the terms. “Without you I can’t raise anything. You know my financial condition.”
    â€œMy dear cousin, I am your financial condition.”
    â€œYou think this is the time to make with the jokes? When she called me—well, you know I talk big and I had talked big about all my connections, but you’re my connections and I know it and you know it. So I decided to hand this over to you and here I am. You get Kitten and raise the money, and Mrs.