Free A Deadly Shade of Gold by John D. MacDonald

initials in the bottom right hand corner of the little code card. I leafed back to my little man and saw that the initials in the corner were CMC. I started through the stack again, looking for the same initials, and saw that they appeared on five of the photographs. The figurines were strange some beautiful, some twisted and evil, some crude and innocent, some earthily, shockingly explicit.
    I looked at her and said, "I just don't know. I just can't be sure."
    "Try. Please."
    I went through the stack and began putting some of them on the table top, face down. You have to gamble. I put nine photographs face down. I laid the stack aside. I looked at the nine again, sighed and returned one of them to the stack.
    I handed her the eight of them and said, "I'm pretty sure of some of these. And not so sure of others."
    I tried to read her face as she looked at them. The small mouth was curved in a small secretive smile. She had to show off. She handed me back three photographs. "These are the ones you're Page 40

    not so sure of, Sam?"
    I registered astonishment. "Yes! How could you know that?"
    "Never mind," she said, and slid all the photographs back into the envelope and returned it to her purse. "One more drink and let's order, shall we?"
    "Good idea."
    "Mr. Taggart, your credentials are in order. But I didn't know he would have so many."
    "Who would have so many?"
    "Oh, come now!" she said. "Couldn't we stop playing games now? He bought from us. Of course, he would have other sources, in the position he was in."
    "Put it this way Betty. There was another party in the middle."
    "You aren't acting as his agent, are you?"
    "Why do you ask a thing like that?"
    "I don't think you are completely the rude type you pretend to be, Sam. I can understand how, in the present circumstances, he might want to sell out through a clever agent. If you could prove you're his agent, we might see our way to being a little more liberal. After all, he was a good customer, long ago."
    "If I knew his name, I'd try to convince you I was working for him."
    "Politics creates a lot of confusion, doesn't it?"
    "I don't even know what you mean by that."
    "Then you are quite an innocent in this whole thing, and I shan't try to confuse you, Sam. Let me just say that I am personally convinced that the twenty-eight items are legitimate, and we would like to purchase them."
    "For how much?"
    "One hundred thousand dollars, Sam."
    "So I melt them, Betty. Maybe I can get that for the gold alone. Maybe more. I'm talking about a hundred and forty pounds of gold."
    "A lot of trouble, isn't it, finding a safe place to melt them down, then smuggling the gold out, finding a buyer, trying to get your money without getting hit on the head?"
    "I've had little problems like that before."
    "This would be cash, Sam. In small bills, if you'd like. No records of the transaction. We'll cover it on our books with a fake transaction with a foreign dealer. It would just be a case of meeting Page 41

    on neutral ground to trade money for the Mente... the collection, with a chance for both parties to examine what they are getting."
    "What did you start to say?"
    "Nothing of importance. You're very quick, aren't you?"
    "Money quickens me, Betty."
    "I too have a certain fondness for it. That's why I don't part with it readily."
    "You won't have to part with a single dime of that hundred thousand."
    "What would I have to part with?"
    "Let's say twice that."
    "Oh, my God! You are dreaming."
    "So are you, lady."
    "I'll tell you what. If the other pieces are as good as the five we know, I will go up to one twenty-five, absolute tops."
    "The other pieces are better, and one seventy-five is absolute bottom. Take it or leave it."
    We ordered. We haggled all the way through the late dinner. She was good at the game. Over plain coffee for me, coffee and a gooey dessert for Betty Borlika, we worked our way down to a five thousand dollar difference, and then split that down the middle, for an