Trouble in Paradise by Fish Robert L.;

Author:Fish, Robert L.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road

CHAPTER 10

“Instant notoriety. That’s what I said,” Da Silva said over his shoulder and continued to prepare drinks for his guests. He handed Wilson a pony of brandy, crossed the living room to hand his other guest Luis Rangel, a gin and tonic, and took his own after-dinner brandy to his chair and sank into it, looking across the room. “Well?”

Rangel, managing editor of the newspaper Correio de Manha, sipped his gin and tonic and stared back equably. It sounded as if his old friend and usually reliable news source, Captain Da Silva, had changed in character. This pushing for publicity was not like him at all.

“What do you want with instant notoriety?” he asked curiously, his newsman’s nose sensing a story. “Don’t we give you enough play in the papers as it is? In fact, our board at its last meeting decided we should reduce personal coverage in favor of—”

“Not for me!” Da Silva was irritated that his friend should misunderstand his motives so completely.

“Oh? Then for whom?”

“For a man named Jose Maria Carvalho.”

“I see.” Rangel nodded; on his small body the movement was similar to a bird bobbing its beak. He sipped his drink again, placed his glass on the small table beside him, removed a handkerchief from his top jacket pocket and lightly patted his lips, but his eyes never left the face of his host. The eyes were pitch black and quite alert. “I don’t suppose this José Maria Carvalho could possibly be any relation to Captain Jose Maria Carvalho Santos Da Silva?”

“Heaven forbid!”

“And you said ‘notoriety’ and not just ‘publicity’?”

“Exactly,” Da Silva said, pleased that he had been so clear, and lit a cigarette.

“I see.” Rangel drank again and again patted his lips delicately with his handkerchief. It appeared to be an effeminate gesture as he did it, but Da Silva knew very well that the small Rangel, while still a reporter, had taken on the most desperate of Rio’s underworld without fear where a story would result. Rangel tucked his handkerchief away, straightening the corners, and then brought his attention back to his host. “Just what did this José Maria Carvalho do to deserve the attention of our newspaper? I gather, from your use of the word ‘notoriety,’ that whatever it was he did was not particularly nice?”

“He’s an extremely unworthy character,” Da Silva assured him, “and one any country, including ours, would be better off without.”

“Unworthy in exactly what way?”

“He steals,” Da Silva said solemnly. “Worst, he doesn’t even steal, himself; he has a gang that steals for him. He’s the main force behind the pilferage from the Santos docks, among other things.” He paused to think a moment and then shook his head. “No, let’s leave it at that. He’s guilty of a hundred other things, but—”

“He smokes too much, he drinks too much, and he can’t be trusted within a block of a woman,” Wilson interposed, his face expressionless.

“—but let’s just go after him for running the dock racket in Santos,” Da Silva finished, paying no attention to Wilson.

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