‘So I’m to blame, real y?’
‘Well, I suppose you are,’ Gil is said, and laughed. ‘I certainly wouldn’t have bothered to phone Olin if you were still anxious to remain Kale’s mistress. But as you aren’t, I thought I’d better do something about it. After all, Eve, you’ve helped me in the past. The least I could do was to help you when the opportunity arose.’
‘Are you sure it wasn’t because Baird tricked you?’ Eve said quietly. ‘Are you sure you didn’t round on Kile in a moment of spite because you had to work off your temper on someone, and he was the least likely to hit back?’
For a moment Gillis’s face hardened, but he quickly controlled himself, and burst out laughing.
‘You certainly know me, don’t you, Eve? You’re absolutely right I was livid at the time. Everything was going so well. Yes, I under-estimated that sonofabitch. I thought he was a gun-happy thug without any brains. But he beat me to it. I admit it. He even got paid to get Hater out of the swamp, and then he calmly walked off with him, and will probably do a deal with the Rajah and pocket the half million.
Well, I’ve got over it now. I’ve other ideas: not quite so lucrative, but definitely more promising.’
It had always been the same, Eve thought bitterly. He was forever working on some new idea to get rich quickly. Nothing discouraged him. As soon as one idea petered out, he began working on another.
He would go to endless trouble to try to make money out of his crack-pot schemes, although he wouldn’t stir a finger to get himself a job that would bring him in a legitimate income.
‘I think I’ll go to bed now,’ she said abruptly. ‘I’m tired. You can stay here for the night if you want to.’ ‘I was going to suggest it,’ he said, smiling. ‘But don’t run away just yet. I want to talk to you about my new idea. By the way, pet, how are you off for money?’
‘How much do you want?’