Read Online Blood on the Stars by Brett Halliday - Free Book Online

for someone to mention that,” said Dustin. “I don’t know what the legal position will be. I understood from Mr. Voorland that it was all arranged.”
    “Don’t worry about legal quibbling,” Voorland said with assurance. “International Indemnity is zealous of its reputation for paying every valid claim promptly. Your temporary coverage is every bit as good as a formal policy, even though you haven’t paid a cent on it. Of course,” he added, “the first premium will be deducted from the full amount when settlement is made.”
    “I wouldn’t worry too much about a cash settlement,” said Shayne. “The very uniqueness of the stones in the bracelet makes it a practical certainty that the thieves will be glad to make a deal as soon as they find out what they’ve got.”
    “That sounds like prior knowledge, Shayne.” Painter pounced upon his statement. “Could it be you who is planning to make a deal?”
    Shayne disregarded him. “Isn’t that right?” he asked the jeweler.
    “Exactly,” Voorland agreed. “It will be impossible to sell rubies like that as they are. I have photographs and exact measurements by which they can be positively identified.”
    “But they could be cut up,” Painter interjected.
    “That is exactly what they cannot be,” Voorland explained to him. “Star rubies would lose nine-tenths of their value cut up into pieces. Any cutting that destroys the asterism destroys the value of the stone. Shayne is right. They’ll be offered by the thieves—at a price.”
    The door buzzer sounded. Celia Dustin went to the door and admitted a portly man with a round, shining face and a broad smile that displayed two gold teeth beneath a neatly trimmed mustache.
    He said, “I’m Mr. Randolph. Mrs. Dustin?”
    She said, “Yes,” and offered her hand. Voorland came across to meet Randolph, his eyes grave and intent.
    “This is bad business, Earl,” said the jeweler. “We were just discussing International’s liability if the jewels are not recovered.”
    “We’ve done business together for twenty years,” Randolph reminded him. “Has any company I ever represented tried to avoid a valid commitment?”
    “Just what I’ve been telling Mr. Dustin. You know Shayne and Chief Painter. And this is your client whom I believe you have not met.”
    Randolph nodded   to   the others and went over  to Dustin. He said, solemnly, “I didn’t realize you’d been injured. In the robbery?”
    “That’s right,” said Dustin glumly. “If I’d been sure about the insurance I might not have tried to save the bracelet.”
    “Mr. Voorland has been trying to tell us,” Painter put in, “that the gems in the bracelet are a kind that can’t be cut up and resold readily.”
    “Star rubies? Only an idiot would even consider cutting one up,” Randolph confirmed. “How are you in on this, Mike?”
    “Offering a reward?” Shayne countered with a slow grin.
    “I haven’t had time to think about that phase,” Randolph said slowly, “but I presume—”
    “Wait a minute, Randolph.” Painter spoke up swiftly and emphatically. “You know the law about stolen property. There’ll be no deals with thieves while I’m chief of detectives on the Beach.”
    Earl Randolph smiled blandly and asked, “Are you intimating that Mike Shayne is a thief? It’s perfectly legal to offer a reward for the return of stolen property, and you know it.”
    “But it isn’t legal to offer immunity along with it.”
    “Who said anything about offering immunity? If Shayne can recover the stuff, I won’t ask him how he did it,”
    “It’s a positive encouragement to lawlessness,” Painter declared angrily. “You know as well as I do how such deals are arranged, and I’m determined to stamp out the practice on the Beach.”
    “Just how are such deals arranged?” Shayne asked coldly.
    “All the organized mobs have someone set up as a go-between—someone with the protective coloration of legality— like