Show r I CARIBBEAN VI 1 CONSPIRACy I nI 1 I I bi- bi BRENDA CONRAD r- r N J THE TilE STORY SO FAR FAtt Anne beautiful daughter of a 1 wealthy New NewYork NewYork York newspaper publisher goes on an assignment to Puerto Rico where Pete Wilcox a reporter on her fathers father's paper is stationed as a U. U S. S Army Intelligence officer On the boat t she meets a young youn Puerto Rican Miguel Valera and an engineer en en- named Richard Tat Ta of whom she Is suspicious although she does not know that he Is actually a German Getman agent ordered to destroy Puerto Ricos Rico's water supply At the hotel In San Juan Annes Anne's luggage Is searched and she suspects Taussig Anne and Mr 1 Taussig have been Invited to dinner at the home of the Russell Porters Sue Porter and Anne went to school t together ether CHAPTER VII VH VIIi I i Its flIts early Miss Heywood Mr Taussig said as they came into the lobby and Russells Russell's car moved out of the drive Why dont don't we have havea a night-cap night together Oh thanks a lot Anne said But Ive I've really really- Id like to talk to you Miss Heywood Heywood Heywood Hey Hey- wood Mr Taussig said quietly Mr Taussig was looking at her i intently 1 All AIl right she said In the bar He waited for her to sit down and signalled the waiter He might be making a mistake he thought I may as well weIl come to the point at once Miss Heywood he said pleasantly Annes Anne's throat tightened What isit isit is isit All right she said it The waiter put their glasses down on the table Mr 1 Taussig raised hisTo his To To our better understanding understand understand- ing Miss Heywood Anne raised hers She was aware of what Barbara had called the veiled scrutiny behind his impregnable impregnable impregnable lenses It It is your interest in me that confuses me slightly Miss Hey Hey- wood Anne looked at him blankly What do you mean Mr Taussig Oh not interest damour d'amour Miss Heywood I dont don't mean that I mean interest in my shall we say belongings Last night for example example example ex ex- ample Anne sat perfectly calm and completely completely completely com com- controlled while the whole bottom of a kind of lovely dream inside her dropped out in shattered fragments Miguel had told himI himI himI him I was just returning the compliment compliment compliment ment Mr Taussig she said Her voice was calm and detached She thought she saw him start but she couldn't be Ie y May I ask what you mean by that Miss Heywood he asked qui qui- etly You went through my bags yesterday yesterday yesterday yes yes- didn't you Mr Taussig He was staring at her in open and undisguised astonishment Anne misunderstood What if she was wrong What if il it hadn't been he atall atall at atall all She didn't know she know she was only guessing actually He recovered his composure in an instant If she had lied he wouldn't u un have known What makes you think I did such an incredible thing Your thumb prints Mr 1 Taussig Taussig Taussig Taus Taus- sig Anne said If shed she'd been wrong he could deny it and she would apologize He thought quickly His hands had been moist from the heat He smiled I think youve you've jumped to a very hasty conclusion Miss Heywood You have a bag just like one of mine The porter put yours in my room I opened it but I closed it at once of course and had the porter porter porter por por- ter take it to your room and bring mine to me You'll find theres there's usually usually usually ally a simple explanation for most things Miss Heywood Then I apologize profoundly Mr 1 Taussig Anne said Im glad we talked about it She got up and held out her hand She could see the indecision in the cold blue gleam of his eyes fastened on hers He wasn't sure whether she was telling the truth or or not And she knew he had lied Anne lay in the luminous half-dark half under the oblong tent of cheesecloth around her bed trying to think without without without with with- out feeling trying to separate the things she knew from the things she suspected but did not actually know without coloring them with her o own emotions But Im I'm not wrong about it she told herself I saw it Its It's one of the things I know even if I dont don't know what its it's all about Actually there were only two other other other oth oth- er things she really knew when she came down to it One was that Taussig had opened her bag and gone through her letters and had not told the truth about it The other was that Miguel had told him she was in his room I The rest of it was in that dangerous danger danger- ous border line of intuition and sus sus- That was what she had to watch Still even Barbara French had recognized what she called Taussig's veiled scrutiny Anne shook her head It didn't do any good to go over every Y detail de de- tail o of f a day or two days the wa way she was doing Nights a magnifying glass anyway any any- way she thought She reached down pulled the thin blanket up from the foot of the bed bcd and settled back into the pillows She wasn't going to think about it and she wasn't going to think about abou Miguel She closed her eyes Just as she shedid shedid shedid did the telephone on the table beside beside beside be be- side her jangled stridently It rang again before she could pull the mosquito mosquito mosquito mos mos- quito netting out from under the mattress mattress mattress mat mat- tress and free free- her arm Hello she said Im sorry It was Petes Pete's voice that came from the other end I Iwas Iwas Iwas was just wondering about you if you got home all right I hope I didn't wake you up Of course she said at last Dont tell me its it's part of your job to check up and see the tourists are all properly in bed every night What are arc you doing up at this hour yourself yourself yourself your your- self Captain Wilcox Ive just been to a meeting of the Falange my child Pete said cheerfully Its called something else now but its it's the same old leopard leopard leopard leop leop- ard with the same old spots Go Goback Goback Goback back to bed Im I'm putting you on the Clipper tomorrow remember out outto outto outto You mean youre you're taking me to dinner tomorrow night Ill I'll see you about six Good night dear Anne put down the phone and wriggled back under the net She sat up crossed her legs under her herand herand herand and sat staring through her f filmy my gauze box at a lighted ship moving across the window in the silver ocean beyond the reef The uThe Falange Of course I never never never nev nev- er thought of that A whole new pattern wove itself quietly in front of her For the moment she forgot Miguel and Richard Richard Richard Rich Rich- ard Taussig and herself Here was i iQ I Q yf 4 1 t t sly I L Lb b You went through my bags yesterday yesterday yesterday yes yes- didn't you Mr l Taussig her story It was what shed she'd come comedown comedown comedown down to get In the curious way that better newspaper people than shed she'd ever be stumbled into things she had stumbled right into what she was hunting for entirely without without without with with- out knowing it it Diego was Spanish Don Alvaro was Spanish in everything but the place of his birth The Falange w was s the conservative organization that had bound the old Spain and colonial Spaniards together especially especially especially espe espe- during the civil war that had changed the mother country from a republic to a totalitarian power It w was s through the Falange that the Axis dominated Spain and it was the most important sometimes important sometimes actual sometimes only potential potential- Fifth Filth Column in Latin and South America She tried to remember all the things shed she'd read about it It was made up of the wealthier conservative con con- which which down here would usually mean anti democratic democratic- groups It was supposed to be the stronghold of the idea of Spanish Empire At one time when there was still peace in the world it hadn't meant much more than the various foreign associations in the States had meant Or people had thought it hadn't including most of its members members members mem mem- bers probably In times like the present it meant something very dif dif- dif dif- ferent That was why in Puerto Rico it had been disbanded or officially it had been Apparently there were still remnants of it Anne lay down again and closed her eyes Don Alvaro was old Spain Diego wife who was Graciela's Graciela's Graciela's Gra- Gra ciela's mother had been killed in inthe inthe inthe the Spanish civil war Miguels Miguel's orders orders orders or or- ders had been cancelled by the War Department Maybe it all add added d up to what she couldn't say Maybe what it added up to was Richard d Taussig Except Except Miguel not Miguel It was all back again from where it had started Richard Taussig gripped the open window ledge of the crowded station- station wagon with one hand and hung on onto onto onto to his guide book and his yachting cap with the other He was in one of those new vehicles known locally as us public cars that provide a vast network of cheap transportation for forthe forthe forthe the Island and make taxi-drivers taxi and chauffeurs a political bloc that no party dares to ignore At the moment the car was careen careening ma ma- t across the narrow perilous causeway out the Bayamon Road from San Juan On the right the garbage dump smoked with evil- evil smelling pervasiveness Beyond it in the shallow head of the bay two dredges pumped softly and monotonously monotonously monotonously filling the murky oozing I swamp that stretched on the left of the Jie road making firm new land for forthe forthe forthe the U. U S. S Navy It was dotted with witha a couple of thousand oranges just then hen where a truck had gone off the road and just behind it a station wagon like Mr Taussig's had gone like ike a dive bomber motor-deep motor inthe in inthe the he mud its rear lear wheels still going around A constant stream of khaki- khaki colored Army trucks and open field cars trundled noisily past it and private cars darting in and out trying trying trying try try- ing to pass what seemed to Mr Taussig to be an already solid line into town An accident would be easy enough he ie thought thought up up in the hills where there was no soft cushion of mud and slime He frowned There were certain complications he expected and did not mind He was used to accidents when necessary though he preferred to avoid them He was even used to the emotional equation equation equation equa equa- tion that women sometimes brought in but not on the level that the girl in across the hall had pre pre- He was more used to the kind of thing he was headed for now The public car stopp stopped d on the side of the crowded road under an almond almond almond al al- al- al mond tree Caparra senor The driver pointed to a low shed- shed like Ike group of buildings just beyond a rickety fence They looked more like ike subterranean mushroom sheds than the ruins of the villa of Ponce Poncede de Leon the first governor who built his first capitol here four centuries centuries centuries cen cen- ago before he abandoned it and Puerto Rico to go on his search for or the Fountain of Youth and found instead Florida and death Mr R Richard chard Taussig was only superficially superficially superficially su su- su- su i interested in the blue and yellow tiles and in the story of the Indian Cacique and the great Con- Con who is still heard and even seen clanking up the ghostly stairs in his battle armor He tipped the caretaker enough to make him remember him but not enough to tomake tomake tomake make him suspicious and made his way along the shaded road under the Indian almonds and to toa toa toa a roadhouse There he drank a bottle of cool pale ale in the garden and read his guide book That was for forthe forthe forthe the record too in case one was being being being be be- ing kept So far as he knew no noone noone noone one had followed him but deviousness devious- devious ness and plausibility were a habit as much as a plan and in the half- half world that Mr Taussig operated in overconfidence was more dangerous than wasted time I can get to Rio Piedras to Piedras-to to the University University out out this his way He tipped the waiter and pointed i ito to the left fork of the road he had come on And to the Tuberculosis I S CO aua LUL LUlU on the nit un way The man nodded Si senor I Gracias senor If I walk along a public car will stop for me I Si senor Mr 1 Taussig set out walking slow slow- ly The road was less crowded than the other branch Nevertheless he walked past the blue stucco house set behind a great hedge of red and pink punk hibiscus because a cart loaded loaded loaded load load- ed with sugar cane was passing it just lust then When the road was empty he turned back went quickly through the tall gate in the hedge and closed it securely behind him Diego car stood in the drive Taussig glanced at his watch He had allowed himself forty-five forty minutes to compensate for the temperamental temperamental temperamental tem tem- disregard of time that was another complication of the Latin Lathi scene that irritated his precise precise precise pre pre- cise mind He had not wanted to arrive at the house of Diego Gon Gon- garos garo's mistress until was there himself He was disturbed about aboul her just as he was disturbed about Graciela In fact there were too many women in all this altogether er for his liking All except little Mrs 1 Porter So far as he could see she was the one simple aspect of his problem His impulse had been to go see her that morning but he had rejected it It was best to let the first move come from her He went up the steps reached out oui outto outto to ring the bell beside the iron- iron grilled door and stopped From inside inside inside in in- side he could hear loud and hysterical cal weeping It stopped abruptly and a womans woman's shrill voice cried ou out in rapid Spanish But why Why Diego Why not let all of that alone Why endanger endanger endanger ger yourself and me and your family family family fam fam- ily What is there to gain that that that- She stopped as ns suddenly as she had begun A heavy chair moved there were sharp steps on the tiled floor Taussig stepped back came across the porch again scraping his soled rubber-soled shoes on the tile anc and rang the bell In a moment Diego came from an inner room through the portiere made of colored colored colored col col- col- col ored glass beads and short lengths of fine bamboo He smiled cordially cordial cordial- ly as he opened the grill Whether he was unaware that his caller had hac heard the end of the scene or was simply unconcerned Mr 1 Taussig could not tell Come in he said I am happy to see that it is possible for you to tobe tobe tobe be late also my friend TO DE BE CONTINUED |