The Gangster by Clive Cussler (free novels .txt) 📕

of members of the Cherry Grove Gentlemen’s Society in attendance the night the President’s life was threatened, he gave nothing away, drawling only, “I am flattered to be regarded in such company. But as you’ve already deduced, I am only a hardworking lawyer. By keeping my ear to the ground, my finger on the pulse, and my eye on the ball, I cultivate clients a thousand times wealthier than I could even dream of becoming.”

Bell said, “The fact that you are assumed to run with such company forces the Van Dorn Agency to offer a higher fee.”

Claypool’s reply was brisk and to the point. “Save your money. I’ll take my fee in trade.”

“Done,” said Bell, extending his hand. If Claypool were innocent, then the Van Dorn Detective Agency had just gained a shrewd source inside the upper echelons of American business; if Claypool were guilty, the Van Dorns were inside the inside man.

They shook on it, and Brewster Claypool asked, “What can I tell you about Wall Street?”

Isaac Bell leveled a cold-eyed gaze at the window. “Who down there hates the President of the United States enough to kill him?”

18

John Butler Culp’s grandfather built a Hudson River estate at Storm King Mountain. Culp’s father hugely expanded it, and the mansion was currently being enlarged and modernized by the son. They called it Raven’s Eyrie, after the Raven—the grandfather’s first steamboat that spawned their river, railroad, mining, and financial empires. Brewster Claypool dubbed it, archly, affectionately, and extremely privately, the Birdhouse.

Claypool found Culp in the gymnasium sparring with Lee, one of the prizefighters he kept on the place. The gym was a physical culture temple brightly lighted by a wall of windows. The morning sun beamed on the men perspiring in the ring. The other prizefighter, a heavyweight named Barry, was exercising with full-size twenty-pound, twenty-eight-inch Indian clubs. Neither of the boxers was the broken-down pug type that some rich men kept around as bodyguards, but competitors in their prime. Nonetheless, Barry had a black eye.

Black eyes tended to happen sparring with Culp, and Claypool helped him inflict another by flourishing his gold-headed cane to reflect the sun. Momentarily distracted, Lee received a powerful jab that knocked him into the ropes. That ought to teach him never to let down his guard around Culp.

Culp dismissed his fighters with orders to go to the kitchen and tell the cook to give them beefsteaks for their black eyes. Then he vaulted over the ropes, landed beside Claypool with a crash that shook the floor, and demanded, “What happened with Isaac Bell?”

Claypool reported in detail.

Culp snatched up his Indian clubs. But he listened intently, even as he whirled the bulbous lengths of varnished wood around his head like the Wright brothers’ propellers. He interrupted only when Claypool said, “Finally, Detective Bell asked, ‘Who hates Roosevelt enough to kill him?’”

“What did you answer?”

“I handed him the membership directory of the New York Stock Exchange.”

Culp dropped the clubs, slapped his thigh, and roared with laughter.

The master-servant indignities suffered by Claypool as “Culp’s man” were vastly mitigated by the sheer pleasure of conspiring with him.

“What’s he looking for?”

“He’s fishing.”

“Can we be connected?”

“Never.”

“Why?”

“We are separated by a long chain of people who don’t know each other, much less us.”

“Then where did Bell get his list? Manfred, Bill, Gore, Warren, and Jeremy Pendergast were all at the club the night you and I discussed this.”

“Here, I believe, Isaac Bell made a mistake. He gave up quite a clue with that list.”

“Right he did! Now we know someone in that room told him who was there.”

“So it would seem.”

“I want to know who? And why? Who’s going to try to use this against me?”

Claypool said, “It couldn’t have been any Cherry Grovers; none heard a word that could lead to putting two and two together.”

Culp, growing agitated, asked, “The girls?”

“Of course not. Unless you indulged in uncharacteristic pillow talk.”

“That’ll be the day. What about you?”

“I left early that night,” said Claypool. “With much on my mind.”

“Then who?”

“I was as baffled as you are. Until I had time to think about it on the train. Do you recall that the Cherry Grove reopened immediately under the new name? The very weekend after Coligney’s Pink Tea?”

“Of course I recall. I was there. So were you until you hustled the twins upstairs. Tammany called in a marker; you can bet they now own a bigger slice of Nick.”

“That’s not what I’ve heard,” said Claypool.

“What do you mean?”

“Tammany did not impose its will on Captain Coligney.”

“Then how . . . Oh, I see what you mean . . . Nick.”

“Nick Sayers must have given Coligney something to be allowed to reopen.”

“But how would that weasel know?”

“That I don’t know. Perhaps it had nothing to do with us. A coincidence.”

“I’ll have the fellows sweat it out of him.”

“I don’t recommend that.”

“Who is a whorehouse owner going to complain to?”

“If Isaac Bell catches wind of Nick suffering a beating, it will put him wise and he will be on Nick like a tiger.”

“The fellows can make it impossible for Nick to be found by Bell.”

“Unnecessary complications could ensue. As things stand now, there’s no connection to whoever will do the job. No reason to stop. You can press ahead. If you still insist.”

“I still insist.”

“Then we definitely don’t want any more complications.”

“What’s Bell’s next move?”

“Don’t be surprised when he comes calling on you.”

“Why me? You said it can’t be traced.”

“It can’t be traced. Which means he has to call on every man who was in that room. Including you.”

“Especially me. He’s already called on you. It won’t take a Sherlock Holmes to connect us.”

“Point is, what you insist on doing can’t be traced to us.”

Culp pondered that a moment. “I hope he does call on me.”

“Why?”

“Because he’ll wish he hadn’t. And that will be the end of it.”

Brewster Claypool fell silent.

Culp glowered at him awhile. “O.K. What’s wrong?”

“I don’t mean to ascribe to the Van Dorns powers they don’t possess. But