The Stand-In (10 page)

“Yes,” she said. She was putting her stocking on. When the telephone rang, she had snapped the light on. Before so modest, she was a religious kid, a sin was a sin, and he'd had some job getting home, now she was just standing there in those stockings. When she reached for her garter belt, he started climbing into his clothes, too. He had his shorts on and his trousers and was zipping up when she began to talk.

“When that nurse came for Kitten—when you said you'd show me London, I
wanted
to go with you.”

“Acourse, sweetheart, acourse, sweetheart.”

“I worship that child. To me it's a miracle from heaven that I should get Kitten and Coral should only get Cornie, but I'm only human. This would be the first night since we came I haven't gone to bed right there after I put Kitten to bed.” She pointed to the unrumpled twin bed. “I'm not five years old. I don't just drop off at eight o'clock. I just lay there and lay there.”

“Doll, sweetheart, from now on it's going to be different.”

“Did you see the way Kitten went with that nurse?”

“Like a doll! She is a doll.”

“Since I brought her from the hospital we never spent a night apart, Alec, but when I tell her to go with this English nurse, she goes.”

“Like a doll!”

“Kitten went to give me a break, Alec! In my sister's house when Mr. Ossian paid our way for the screen test, Kitten told Cornie I was like Cinderella because I had no dress to go to the ball! My Kitten knew the difference between my twenty-two-buck number and Coral's dressing room loaded with designer clothes. Oh, I tell you, I tell you!”

He kissed her bare shoulder. “That's the kid Alec Agathon has signed up! That's what comes across!”

“You don't understand, Alec! She put her little hand in that nurse's and went with her
for my sake! Overnight
—you don't get it! When I put Kitten to sleep there's a routine. I have to do this, I have to do that.” She was fastening a garter and pulled too hard, so that the elastic snapped and the metal of the garter hit her hand.

“All I'm trying to say is my little girl went away like that the first night in her life only to give Cinderella a break!”

He kissed her neck. “To give me a break.”

“You're still not reading me!” She gave up on the garter and picking up her dress stepped into it.

Alec Agathon scratched at his beard. “No, sweetheart, I'm not.”

“That was Bran just called.”

“I know.”

“Why do you think my brother-in-law called? He said to ask about my sister's earrings. Like hell! Maybe I'm dumb, but where Kitten is concerned I have this sixth sense.” She closed her eyes and held each lid down with a forefinger to assist her memory. “He said, ‘Did I wake you, Millie?' Then he said, ‘Did I wake Kitten?' He wanted to know whether Kitten got back here.
She's lost!”

“Come on, Millie. He just forgot Kitten's sleeping at Lady St. Justin's. What Bran Collier remembers about anyone but himself you could put in your eye and not feel it.”

“No. They don't know where Kitten is! You notice
he
called,
Bran!
You know how many times my brother-in-law has called me in six years? I'll tell you. Never! He called me because my sister Coral would have bust out crying.”

“Millie!”

“Because if Kitten was still at Lady St. Justin's, they would have found her by now. They wouldn't have hoped someone on the road picked her up and brought her back here. That nurse came back from wherever and Kitten is gone—Finally they call my sister.”

“Why not you, Millie?”

“Because that nurse may not know a thing about my baby, but she knows I'm going to tear her limb from limb, and Mr. Ossian knows.” She drew her fingers through her hair to tidy it and started for the door.

“Where you going? You want I should go with you?” She was saying no. “Maybe you're right. Nobody knows I'm in your room—after all the trouble we took so I wouldn't be spotted.”

“You think I care about that now?”

“When you find out you dreamed this whole thing up, you'll care. I'll stay right here, Millie. I want to stand behind you, sweetheart. I'll wait here. We'll have a good laugh, you'll see.”

“Millie,” Bran said, “why, Millie!” The ham stank in his nostrils but he overplayed to remind Coral she had agreed he better handle this.

Millie pushed past her brother-in-law and ran to her sister. “Coral, what are they doing to find my baby?” She tried to read the beautiful eyes and the weak propitiating smile. “I'm not blaming you, Coral, I'm just asking. After all, a trained nurse with one of those caps—I'll cap her! I suppose she could take out Kitten's appendix by herself, but to sit with a child, that's too much to ask!”

Bran perched on the arm of Coral's chair and pressed his hand on her shoulder, signaling her to remember her promise to let him handle Millie. “Tell us more about that trained nurse, Millie.”

“What for? I'm not
telling
, I'm asking! Have you called Missing Persons?”

Bran pressed his wife's shoulder. “Of course we called. Now tell us more about that nurse, describe her.”

“Why? Didn't you see her? She was a bean pole, tall, light-brown hair—Wait a sec, wait a sec, what difference
her
description? She's not missing, my baby is missing.” She stared at her brother-in-law. “You mean the nurse is missing, too? She didn't get to Lady Whatsit? She didn't take Kitten there like Mr. Ossian wanted? I don't get it!
Coral!”

“Coral, I'm handling this.”

Millie suddenly grabbed her elbows, hands crossed. It was the way she always waited for blows to fall.

“Millie, dear, look—there wasn't any trained nurse.”

She didn't want to hear him, gabbled to stop him. “The nurse said Mr. Ossian wanted Kitten at this party for publicity.”

Bran shook his head. “No. Mr. Ossian did not want Kitten there.”

“What?”

“They
found out about the party.
They
used it.
They
took advantage of the party, do you see, Millie?”

“They? They?”

“Well, a man and a woman,” Bran said. “Coral spoke to a man and a woman. No, Coral, shut up! They kidnapped Kitten.”

“And I was in bed with a man! I was sinning. God punished me.”

“Millie, Coral'll tell you exactly what was said to her, and while I'm calling I want you to try to remember every possible detail about the nurse. Height, weight, age, any distinguishing marks. The uniform was a disguise to give you confidence. They know their stuff.” He got off the arm of Coral's chair to reach the telephone, but Millie was there before him. He said gently, “Millie, we shouldn't waste another minute before calling Scotland Yard.”

“No.”

“We're amateurs, Millie. Scotland Yard knows how to handle these things.”

“Coral, they said no cops, didn't they? They said if you called the cops I'd never see Kitten again?”

Bran said gently, “That's straight out of a grade B movie, Millie.”

“I don't care what it's from. That's what they said.” She put both her hands over her ears and because she was deafened spoke very loudly, “Coral, remember in the hospital today when you're sitting on the bench and Kitten comes and sits on your lap, how she pats your face, how her hand feels?” Millie held her right palm out to her sister. “She must have climbed on your lap and touched you twenty times. When Mr. Ossian said, ‘Once more'—a baby to have such patience! ‘Once more—once more—'”

“Millie, you're only making things worse.”

“She looks like you, Coral. She's beautiful like you.”

“Millie, these kidnappers are counting on your reaction because they know only the cops can catch them.”

“I want my baby back! I want my baby back! No cops!”

“Okay. Okay, Millie. They want money. They want fifty thousand pounds.”

“How much is that?”

“Say, one hundred fifty thousand dollars, by tomorrow, Millie. Can you get it by tomorrow, Millie? And don't ask Coral, because she doesn't have fifty thousand pounds.”

“Coral!”

“She doesn't have it. Can you get the money, Millie, that's the point.”

“Yes,” she said, “I can! And I'm not asking
you!
All I want from you is not to make any calls to Scotland Yard. Coral, you look at me, Coral! I want you to swear on mother's grave that while I'm gone you won't let him call.”

Coral nodded.

Bran said, “I won't call, but please remember we think you're doing the worst possible thing.”

“And you stay here, Coral! You be here, because they might call again.”

“He said in the morning.”

“You shut up. Say you'll stay, Coral!”

“I'll stay, Millie.” When the door closed after her sister, she grimaced as if she was tasting something bitter and shivered, then turned to her husband.

He ignored everything her eyes asked. “Where the hell does she think she's going? Where the hell does she think she can raise that money?”

“Bran—”

“For the thousandth time, Coral, we would have come to our senses! We would have come to our senses! You know how many times the kidnapped kid is dead before they even call? Giving them money is wrong, not only is it throwing it away, it's
wrong
. What are you looking at me like that for? Nube told us exactly what I told Millie, didn't he? Now, for the last time listen to me, Coral. I swear to you if Withers hadn't called, we would have come to our senses.”

She had been drinking steadily and spoke with the careful enunciation of the inebriated. “You goddamn liar, like hell we would have!”

8

Alec wished he had a dollar for every night wasted in a Turkish bath with Nube. When he was low he thought being around to go with Nube was why Nube kept him on the payroll. How often did they use the stills he took?

He was pretty sure that Nube would be in the pool, and there he was, the only one in the water. Nube was floating, his arms stretched out, like crucified. He called and Nube yelled to come on in, the water's fine, but he said, “No, I got to talk to you. A matter of life and death.” Tucking in his topcoat so it wouldn't get wet, Alec squatted at the edge of the pool. Nube was a strong if clumsy swimmer and reached him in a few strokes.

“I am assuming the matter is
your
life or death, my dear cousin, but you see how instantly I respond, like a good Armenian relative.”

Alec ignored the needle. Millie was waiting in a taxi outside, poor kid. As quickly as possible he told about the kidnapping and the ransom money which, of course, Millie couldn't possibly raise.

“She called you in? Why not her sister and Branton? I see, she went there and they said call in the cops, and of course she won't do that so she turns to Nube's cousin.” Nube ducked his face into the water, pulled in a mouthful, then lifted his head and spouted it out like a whale. “Figures,” he said.

“I want the money from you, Nube.” He pulled the contract out of his pocket, needing to stand to do so, then squatted down again. He had decided to protect Millie's reputation. She hadn't been with him; she had called him because of their contract. Now he held the contract toward his cousin and explained the terms. “Without you I can't raise anything. You know my financial condition.”

“My dear cousin, I
am
your financial condition.”

“You think this is the time to make with the jokes? When she called me—well, you know I talk big and I had talked big about all my connections, but you're my connections and I know it and you know it. So I decided to hand this over to you and here I am. You get Kitten and raise the money, and Mrs. Williams gets the money and Alec Agathon gets nothing.” Nube was staring at him in a funny way. “Nube, I didn't think for a minute that even if I didn't have this—a man like you doesn't hesitate.”

“But, just in case, you throw in the contract to sweeten the pot. Just in case?”

“Don't needle me now, Nube.” He waved the contract. “This is the first break I got in thirty years. I'll be honest with you. This is the first time I got in before you. When they see Kitten in
Peep
—do I have to tell
you?
I don't have to tell you where this could put Alec Agathon, but I give it to you.” He held out the contract.

“Careful! It will get wet. The signatures, God forbid, will run!” Nube crossed his arms, grasped the rim of the pool with his two strong, small hands and turning plopped on the edge of the pool. “Put your contract back in your pocket, my dear cousin.”

“Back? What do you mean ‘back'?
Back?”

“Let me tell you something, my dear cousin. If I knew this child was the greatest—the greatest—and saw her name on a contract to you I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole. In thirty-five years you have had an unbroken record of picking wrong—from the wrong people to gun down, to the wrong asses to lick! You are a genius of wrong, Alec.” He wiped the water off his left arm with his right hand and shook the hand in the warm, moist air while his cousin watched. “Wake up, Alec! As I was saying, even if I didn't know the kid was nothing from the evening I saw her screen test, I would know it from this contract with your name on it.”

“Then why did you sign her for
Peep?”

“When Coral changed her mind about letting us use her own kid, she mentioned her niece. She did her sister a favor, and I signed Kitten to do Coral a favor.”

“You never signed anyone for a favor in your life. Why wouldn't Coral want her own kid for the part?”

“Search me. Maybe her own kid would have stolen the picture. This one won't. Search me. She changed her mind, I don't know why. Personally I think it was Branton. I think the idea of me directing all three of them, his kid, too, was too much. The whole family jumping when Nube says jump. Maybe it's one of those psychological hang-ups, but Coral told me she was against it and I signed Kitten strictly to please her.” He laughed. “My dear cousin, you are now thinking in your mind that Nube is lying to you. Everyone lies to you, Alec. To a liar, everyone lies.”