Vanished - Robert Colby by Colby Robert

Author:Colby, Robert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
Publisher: Fearon/Janus
Published: 1987-05-20T00:00:00+00:00

“After dinner he has me drive him down to the shore,” Stokes continued. “He just sits and stares out to sea. He watches the sunset with this sad-eyed face on him. All this time he’s barely spoken a word to me—only ‘go here, go there, do this, do that.’

“Now all of a sudden he opens up and begins to talk. Nothing much, just some bits of philosophy tossed in. He says to me, ‘You know, Decker, we’re all going to our final destination on the same ship. It’s just that some of us are traveling first class.’ Boy, isn’t that the truth, I’m thinking right then. I’m behind the wheel of the limo, and he’s on the backseat, pockets stuffed with money.”

“What has this got to do with the disappearance of Miss Farrington?” Warren asked. He was growing more impatient by the minute.

Stokes shrugged. “Maybe nothing, except she was with him last time I saw her. Anyway, he took a liking to me and hired me full-time. Around the clock. On call twenty-four hours a day. And he paid me well for it. He always carried a roll of cash and was worried about getting ripped off. He wanted me to double as his bodyguard. He told me he’d been doing some undercover work for the government. He’d had to turn in some big-time crooks and now they had a contract out for him.

“It was one of the reasons he loved that limo. He could ride around like he was invisible behind those blackout windows. All the same, he gave me this gun that he wanted me to keep in the glove compartment. I said I would, but I didn’t. I couldn’t afford to risk it. I just played along because the money was fantastic. And I didn’t believe a word about that government undercover stuff and crooks with a contract out on him.”

“What did you believe?” Warren asked. Stokes shrugged. “I thought it could be possible that he was one of those big-time crooks himself, on the run. Who knows?”

“Okay, on with it, then,” Warren said.

“Now as to what went down with him and Miss Marla Farrington. I got a pretty good idea from my seat up front in the limo. There is a roll-up window to keep the driver from hearing what goes on in back. But it’s my car and I had it fixed when I first got it so I could listen in.” He winked. “Because you hear things from these types with a lot of money that will put extra green in your own pocket. Like tips on the stock market. Or a fix on a horse race.”

“How did you rig it?” Warren asked.

“Easy. A hidden mike in back feeds into my radio speaker when I flick a switch.”

“All right, what was the relationship between Marla and this Krueger guy?”

‘I’ll try to run the rest of it down for you in a hurry and you can judge for yourself.” He held up an empty glass. “I could talk a lot faster with a drink in my hand, though.

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