Vulture is a Patient Bird

"A girl?" Natalie turned cold. "Daz . . . won't you explain what this is all about? Won't you sit down? I could help you if you would explain."

"I've had enough out of you." Daz shook his head. "Anyway, Lola has practically promised . . ."

"Please sit down and tell me."

He sat down. It was easy to lie to her. The horse that was a cinch. The bet he couldn't cover, and now the bookie was after him.

"They are a tough lot," he concluded. "If I don't raise fifty pounds by tomorrow they are going to do me."

"Do you?" Natalie looked at him in horror. "What does that mean?"

"Carve me, of course," he said impatiently. "Slash me with a razor . . . what do you think?"

She imagined that handsome face bleeding. The thought made her feel faint.

"I can let you have fifty pounds, Daz . . . of course."

"I can't take it from you . . . no, I'll see Lola."

"Don't be silly. I'll give you a cheque now."

An hour later, they were lying side by side on the bed. Natalie was relaxed and happy for the first time since last she had seen Daz. It had been wonderful, she was thinking, better even than the first time. She turned to look at Daz and her heart contracted to see that sullen dark look back on his face again.

"What is it, Daz?"

"Just thinking . . . can't a man think, for God's sake?" She flinched at the harsh note in his voice.

"Wasn't it good for you? Did I disappoint you?"

"I wasn't thinking about that." He looked impatiently at her in the shaded light of the bedside lamp. "That's over. I'm thinking ahead. Just shut up a minute, will you?"

She remained still, waiting and watching his hard young face and the way his eyes shifted, reminding her of an animal in a trap.

"Yes," he said finally as if speaking his thoughts aloud. "That's what I'll do. I'll get out. I'll go to Dublin. That's it! Danny will get me a job."

Natalie sat up, clutching the sheet to her breasts.

"Dublin? What do you mean?"

He frowned at her as if just aware she was with him.

"What I say. I have to get out. That fifty quid you've given me

will keep Isaacs off my neck for a couple of days. By then, I'll be out of his reach."

She felt as if she were going to faint again. Watching her, Daz saw he had played a trump card.

"But you said if I gave you the money it would be all right," she gasped. "Daz! Tell me! What do you mean?"

He looked scornfully at her.

"You don't imagine a bookie would carve anyone for fifty quid, do you? I'm in the hole for twelve hundred."

Once she had absorbed the shock, her trained mind searched for ways and means. Twelve hundred pounds! It was an impossible sum! She had taken an expensive autumn vacation, and she had only two hundred pounds to her credit at her bank. But the idea of Daz leaving England and going to Ireland was unthinkable.

She slid off the bed and put on her wrap while Daz watched her. He saw there was a change of expression on her face. He saw her mind was working, and he lay still, waiting results. He wondered uneasily if he had put the price too high, but Burnett had told him to clean her out. Just suppose she hadn't the 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.