Free Vulture is a Patient Bird by James Hadley Chase Page B

money?

    She walked around the room while she thought, then she came and sat on the bed, looking straight at him.

    "Daz . . . if I give you twelve hundred pounds, could you remain in London?"

    "Of course, but you can't give me that amount . . . so why talk about it?"

    "I can try. How long can you wait?"

    "Why talk about it?" He lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling. "I must get out. I'll go tomorrow."

    "How long can you wait?" Her voice was now as harsh as his.

    "Ten days . . . not more."

    "If I give you this money, Daz, will you come and live here?" How easy it was to lie to this poor cow, Daz thought.

    "You mean move in? You want me here?"

    "Yes." She tried to control her voice. "I want you here."

    "It would be nice . . . yes, of course. I could get a job, and we could be together. But why talk about it?"

    "I think I can manage," Natalie threw off her wrap. She dropped down beside him on the bed. "You love me, don't you, Daz?"

    That old jazz, he thought and pulled her to him.

    "You know I do. I'm crazy about you."

    "Then love me!"

    While Daz slept by her side, Natalie lay staring into the darkness, her mind busy. She knew it would be hopeless to ask Shalik to lend her a thousand pounds. Even as she was telling Daz that she thought she could get the money for him, she had been thinking of Charles Burnett of the National Bank of Natal.

    Natalie was well aware of the espionage and counter-espionage that goes on in present day big business. She knew Burnett had been hinting that he would pay for information and she had treated the hint with the contempt it had deserved but now under pressure with the real risk of losing Daz forever, she found she was much less scrupulous.

    Before dozing off, she made up her mind to contact Burnett. Leaving Daz sleeping, she had gone to the Royal Towers hotel the following morning.

    She quickly arranged Shalik's mail on his desk, left a note to remind him of his various engagements for the day and then returned to her office.
    At this hour, she knew Shalik was being shaved and dressed by the hateful Sherborn. She hesitated only briefly, then called the National Bank of Natal.

    She was put through immediately to Charles Burnett who had already been alerted by Daz by telephone what to expect.

    "Of course, Miss Norman. I will be delighted to meet you again. When would it be convenient?"

    "At your office at 13.15 hrs.," Natalie told him.

    "Then I will expect you."

    When she arrived, Burnett greeted her like a benign uncle. Natalie told him abruptly that she needed one thousand pounds.

    "It is a large sum," Burnett said, studying his pink finger nails, "but not impossible." He looked up, his eyes no longer benign. "You are an intelligent woman, Miss Norman. I don't have to spell it out to you. You want money: I want information concerning Mr. Shalik's activities that might have the remotest reference to Mr. Max Kahlenberg of Natal."

    Natalie stiffened.

    During the past few days she had learned from scribbled notes on Shalik's desk and from overhearing him talk to Sherborn that something important was being planned that concerned a man named Max Kahlenberg who until this moment had meant nothing to her.

    All Shalik's private correspondence was typed by Sherborn. Natalie's job was to arrange Shalik's appointments, his lunches and dinners and to act as hostess at his cocktail parties as well as taking care of the hundred and one personal matters that made his life smooth and easy.

    "I don't think I can help there," she said, dismay in her voice. "I'm excluded from Mr. Shalik's business life, but I do know something is going on to do with a man called Kahlenberg."

    Burnett smiled.

    "I can help you, Miss Norman. Your task will be absurdly easy. Let me explain. . ."

    Twenty minutes later, she accepted a plastic shopping bag he had ready which contained a miniature tape-recorder, six reels of tape and a very special eavesdropping microphone.

    "The quality of the