"Then you better hustle down here and let me tell you about it."

She hung up. As soon as he hung up the phone began ringing again. He answered it. A tense male voice said, "Kirby Whiter?"

"Yes?"

"Look, fella. I won't horse around. If n.o.body's got to you, twenty-five hundred bucks on the line for a twenty-four-hour exclusive. This is Joe Hooper. Remember that name, hey? And I'll see you get protection from everybody else until this time tomorrow. Is it a deal?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't be coy, sweetie. You got to move fast. You sneaked by pretty good, but word got around and they're on their way up there now."

"Who?"

"Are you Kirby Winter, for Crissake?"

He heard a commotion in the hall, and people began pounding on his door. "Excuse me, but there seems to be somebody at the door."

"That's them, you nut! Is it a deal?"

Kirby sighed and hung up. He started toward the door and hesitated. It sounded like a big crowd out there. Suddenly there was a sharp rapping on the locked interconnecting door at the other end of his room, and a m.u.f.fled voice. "Kirby?" He recognized Charla's voice. He went over to the door and answered her. "Open the latch, dear," she said.

He opened the door. She smiled at him and tilted her head and listened to the commotion in the hall. "My word, they gather quickly don't they?" She wore a yellow mandarin coat over white Bermuda shorts, and she was wearing huge opaque sungla.s.ses.

"Who?"

"All the news people, lover. All jostling and pushing and despising themselves and each other and you, their nasty little strobe lights and pencils and tape machines all aimed and ready. I thought it might be like this, so just in case, I had Joseph pick up this room in between you and the suite. These interconnect so this whole oceanside can be turned into a big suite. Joseph had to get a dear little honeymoon couple moved out of this room to arrange it."

"What do those people want?"

"Don't stand there like a ninny, dear. They sound as if they might actually break the door down."

He went with her through the extra bedroom and into the suite. She closed the interconnecting door behind them. In the suite she handed him an afternoon edition of the Miami News. They had a two-column picture of him on page one. It was an old picture. The head said, MYSTERY NEPHEW IN KREPPS TAX DODGE. He sat down very abruptly.

"At noon today Walton Grumby, Executive Vice President of Krepps Enterprises revealed that serious estate tax problems are antic.i.p.ated in the Omar Krepps estate because of the refusal by Kirby Winter, nephew of the late Krepps, to reveal the whereabouts of approximately $27,000,000 diverted over an eleven-year period from Krepps Enterprises into a mystery company known as O.K. Devices, entirely owned by Krepps.

"Grumby told reporters that O.K. Devices occupied a small rental office in the Fowler Building, employing only a Miss Wilma Farnham of Miami, and Kirby Winter. The day after the death of Krepps, Miss Farnham, either on her own initiative, or on the advice of Winter, destroyed all the files and records of O.K. Devices and closed the rental office. Grumby stated that Krepps was always highly secretive about the operations of O.K. Devices, and it seems possible that the company was merely a device for draining off the liquid a.s.sets of Krepps' other ventures and placing them out of the reach of the Internal Revenue Service.

"Grumby stated that Winter traveled to all parts of the world on confidential orders from Krepps, returning infrequently to Miami. Earlier today, Winter refused to disclose his confidential activities to Krepps Enterprises executives or to state what had happened to the $27 million. The Farnham woman also refused to reveal any details of the operations of O.K. Devices or to state on whose instructions she had burned all the records. "Grumby told reporters that in view of these indications of conspiracy, it seemed possible that Winter and the Farnham woman may attempt to flee the country. At press time neither Winter nor the Farnham woman had been located for comment."

"Good Lord," Kirby said, staring blankly at Charla.

She came and sat close beside him and took off the sungla.s.ses.

"Do you see all the implications, dearest?" she asked.

"I guess they're anxious to talk to me."

"That figure has a horrid fascination. A million dreary little people are absolutely vibrating with the vision of all that money hidden away in the romantic corners of the world. They hate you for having it. And they have a sneaking admiration for you for grabbing it all as soon as your uncle died."

"But it wasn't that way!"

"Does that make any difference, really?"

"But if I explain the whole operation in detail, "

"Without any doc.u.mentation at all? And you did tuck a little bit away here and there for yourself, didn't you? Don't look so indignant. If you didn't, you are an idiot, of course. Didn't Miss Farnham intercept a little? How can you be sure? But it isn't the news people you have to worry about."

"What do you mean?"

"Dear Kirby, the world is jammed with animals who would happily put you and your Miss Farnham on a double spit and roast you over coals for just one per cent of that much money. All of a sudden, dear, you two are very tasty animals in the wrong part of the jungle. And I think you might find out how sharp the teeth are if you walk out that door." She had been edging close to him and he had been trying to move away, inconspicuously. Now he was at the end of the couch and the satin weight of one breast was on his arm.

"You need us more than ever," she said.

"Huh?"

"The Glorianna, dear. Don't be so dense. Either we smuggle you away, or the world tears you to pieces, believe me. And I really don't know why we should even dream of helping you, after that nasty trick you pulled on us. Ice skates, indeed!"

"I was just checking."

"Joseph was livid with rage, but I told him it served us right for underestimating you. It was quite clever, really. But I imagine you wouldn't have been so wary if Betsy hadn't given you a lot of wrong impressions about us."

"But, I guess you do want something."

"Of course, dear! Isn't it refreshing to have it out in the open? We can all stop playing games, can't we?"

"I guess so."

"No secrets?"

"I guess, that depends."

"On what? Darling, if you're thinking of being so crude as to require some sort of agreement, you might spoil things for us, don't you think? I couldn't promise to be your absolute slave. But it might turn out that way, once we're at sea. I wouldn't really strike a wh.o.r.e's bargain, no matter what is at stake. It would make it all so terribly ordinary. And we want it to be extraordinary, don't we?"

Thinking of Betsy, he chose his words carefully. "I think, instead, I'm thinking in terms of a different kind of bargain. How my end of it will come out. And what the safeguards are."

She was so close he could see a tiny amber wedge in the gray-green iris of her left eye, and see the exquisite detail of her lashes and brows, the individual hairs like gold wire.

The eyes narrowed and she took a deep breath and held it. "Then you have it!"

"Have what?"

"Just don't get too b.l.o.o.d.y clever, Mr. Winter. You could b.i.t.c.h it for yourself, you know."

"How could I?"

"All of a sudden, pet, your dead uncle has put more pressure on you than we ever could. Now I think you're going to have to make a deal. Maybe you won't have any choice."

He was feeling his way. This was a new and rather deadly Charla, a confirmation of Betsy's description. "Just suppose, even with all that pressure, I don't need you."