Six Who Ran by Chaber M. E. & Crossen Kendell Foster

Author:Chaber, M. E. & Crossen, Kendell Foster [Chaber, M. E. & Crossen, Kendell Foster]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Pulp, NewBook
Publisher: Holt, Rinehart and Winston
Published: 1964-10-25T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

We walked back to our umbrella. I kicked off my sandals and led the way to the ocean before Fred could start asking questions. We plunged into the water and swam for several minutes. Finally, I left the water and headed back to the beach. As I trudged up the sand, it looked as if Jackson and Sforza were quarreling. But as they caught sight of me, they stopped. I went to sit under our umbrella.

Fred stayed in the water for another few minutes, then ran up to join me.

“Hey, that’s great water,” he said as he sat down.

“It’s a great place,” I said. “Beautiful city, beautiful women, excellent food – what more can you ask for?”

“Maybe I’m in the wrong end of the business,’ he said with a smile. “Is this the way you always work?”

“When I can. Know a better way?”

“What was that business before? I thought you didn’t want anyone to know I’m a cop?”

“They don’t count,” I said, nodding toward the three. “It’s the rest of the town that I don’t want to know about it, especially the local police.”

“I still don’t get what the introduction was about.”

I got a cigarette out of my robe and lit it. “Did Johnny tell you anything about how I work?”

“No. He merely said that you get results.”

“I don’t have some of the advantages of the police,” I said. “I don’t have a force of experts to rely on. I can’t use search warrants. If I want to arrest someone, I can only make a citizen’s arrest. I can’t drag anyone in and question them until they break. All of those things are denied private detectives.”

“Of course,” he said. “It wouldn’t do if everyone had those rights.”

“I agree,’ I said. “It’s bad enough that the police have them. But you see I have a problem all the time, which for the first time you are facing to some degree.”

“Me? I don’t understand.”

“Your reason for being down here, Fred, is pretty much the same as mine: to see Peter Jackson, Joseph Sforza, and Betty Bell back in the United States to be tried for grand larceny and murder. The only difference is that you’d like to see the money returned, while I must see it returned. Otherwise, for once we are completely equal.”

“Not quite. You have a gun and I don’t.”

“That advantage is only in connection with saving my own life, and I’m not sure how much it’s worth there – except psychologically. Now then, remembering that we are in a country which has no extradition treaty with our country, and a country in which you are nothing but a tourist, what would you do? How would you go about accomplishing the goal we agree we both want to achieve?”

“Well,” he said uncertainly, “I’m not sure that I can give an answer this quickly. I presume I would first try to get the cooperation of the local police.”

“Johnny should have explained something else to you,” I said gently. “It doesn’t exist.

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