Claire Gulliver #04 - Cruisin' for a Bruisin'

by Gayle Wigglesworth

  “Good evening, Mrs. Witherspoon. Here’s your Martini, just as you like it.”

  She smiled at him, removing her gloves and carefully laying them on the little cocktail table before taking a sip, then sighing with approval. “Perfect, perfect as usual Mariso, thank you.”

  Then turning to her husband she asked, “Been waiting long darling? I promise I did hurry.”

  Nate’s smile was indulgent. “No problem, I needed a little time to think; and to unwind with a couple of those.”

  “What about?” Seeing his puzzled look she repeated, “What were you thinking about?”

  “How lucky I am, of course.” His tone was light, but his eyes were serious. He scanned her face. “I still can’t believe how lucky I am. I found you. I went to war and came back in one piece. We’ve been married for five years and, impossible as it sounds, I find I love you more each day. Tell me, how can that be?”

  She reached out and clasped his hand, tears springing to her own eyes. “Love, I’m the lucky one. You make me so happy.”

  “Oops, I guess I should take this back then.” He kept his face serious, but his eyes were dancing with mischief.

  “What’s that? A present? Did you get me another present?” She couldn’t help herself, she loved presents; especially she loved the ones Nate picked out for her.

  “I thought it would match your brooch.”

  Unconsciously one hand went to finger the Heart of Persia pinned to her suit lapel at the same time her other hand darted out to retrieve the box he held. She opened it to reveal a bracelet of baguette diamonds and peridots, interspersed with round cut rubies. It was wonderful. She looked at him with shining eyes and then held out her wrist for him to fasten the bracelet.

  “How did you ever find something so perfect? It just matches. Nate, you spoil me so.” She couldn’t stop admiring her wrist, twisting her arm so the dim lights caught in the stones of the bracelet. “I’ll treasure it.”

  He watched her closely and deciding she really did love it, he relaxed and sipped his drink. “Drink up, little lady. We have reservations at Ernie’s. We’re meeting the Amersans there. Business tonight, but if all goes well we’ll stop at Bimbo’s 365 for a little dancing before going home, all right?”

  She laughed. Their life was like that, business meetings in posh restaurants, dining with the elite of the city, dancing and clubbing with the trendy group and stunning gifts for no reason at all. And she never took one minute of it for granted. Always, every minute she was thankful for finding Nate. She knew enough to enjoy every moment. But later that night she would wonder if she always suspected it would end suddenly.

  It was during coffee and liqueurs, after she and Irene Amersan had returned from freshening their make-up, it happened. The two uniformed police officers pulled Nate’s chair back, grabbing him by the arms and pulling him to his feet before slapping cuffs on him.

  “Nathaniel Witherspoon, you’re under arrest.”

  “What, what are you saying?” Nate’s face turned white, then suffused with the red of either embarrassment or anger.

  “Nate, Nate, what’s happening?” She was confused, frightened by the policemen’s belligerence.

  “Flo, call Clarke. Tell him to meet me down at the station...” Nate had control of himself now. Even as the policemen were hustling him out of the crowded restaurant, he called over his shoulder to the Amersans, “Don’t worry Buddy, just a misunderstanding. My lawyer will get it all straightened out. I’ll call you and tell you all about it.” Then with a last smile at his wife, he was gone.

  It seemed an eternity, but actually it was probably only a few moments until all the other diners turned their attention back to their dinners, although it was apparent they were still discussing the vulgar interruption.

  Flo shook herself out of her shocked trance and smiled apologetically at the Amersans. “I’m so sorry our dinner was interrupted.” She signaled the waiter for the check.

  “Let me get that.” Buddy reached for it, but Flo snatched it from the waiter.

  “No, Nate is paying for this.” Her voice was shrill with panic as she took bills from her purse and laid them on the tray. Then she smiled tightly, attempting to make the situation seem normal. “I’m sure it is all just a misunderstanding, but Clarke will get it all settled and Nate will give you a call to explain everything. Meanwhile, I know you will excuse me, I find I have some business to attend to.” She got up, collected her purse and gloves, and then strolled through the elite restaurant, chin high, not even glancing at the other diners.

  She took a cab to their apartment building, high on top of Russian Hill overlooking the Bay, where she went directly to the phone and attempted to reach Clyde Clarke. It wasn’t easy finding him, but she was determined. Already Nate had been gone far too long. Then as Clyde instructed, she settled in to wait for his call, or her husband’s return.

  She paced their living room alternating between bubbling rage at the police for treating Nate so poorly and her worry about the cause of the problem. She just couldn’t imagine what trouble Nate could be in.

  They had married as soon as Nate returned from war, then set about establishing themselves as one of the new hot couples on the San Francisco social scene. Nate had an idea about reopening the gold mine outside of Skagway his father had left him. He spent a lot of time in Alaska investigating the feasibility, working with an old friend, Smithy, who agreed to be his man on site. When the assay reports came in, their excitement couldn’t be contained. Nate’s father had always claimed the mine was worth millions and now it looked as if it was true.

  Nate was in his glory. He oozed optimism. Money poured in, everyone wanted to invest. Everyone wanted to be part of the dream. Everyone wanted to own a gold mine, specifically the Lucky Jewel Gold Mine.

  They lived well, and why not? People were shoving money at him. When the mine started producing it was going to be just that, a gold mine, a money well, an infinite source of money. Nate bought them a beautiful apartment; they had a car to use on the weekends if they went to the country; he couldn’t buy enough jewelry and furs for his wife, and he invested in the newest, most modern equipment available to free the gold in the mine.

  It was a fairy tale. Ever the realist, Florence was aware there were some problems. While Nate didn’t tell her what was troubling him she could tell he was worried about something. In fact, he was planning to go north next week, he said, to help work out the kinks in production. But he was confident he would soon have it all under control. After all, he explained patiently, it was a new operation. Smithy, his general manager, was still working out the bugs.

  Still, Florence couldn’t see how Nate’s arrest tonight could have any thing to do with the mine. After all the gold mine was in Alaska, how could that effect them clear down here in San Francisco?

  Maria interrupted her pacing when she brought in a tray of coffee and toast. “Is everything all right, Mrs. Witherspoon?”

  “Yes, yes thank you, Maria. I didn’t even hear you come in.” She realized it was morning already and she still hadn’t heard from Clyde.

  She had only taken a sip of coffee before Maria returned, this time followed by four policemen. Maria was so distressed she was twisting her hands in her apron, “I had to let them in. They have a paper...”

  “What is it you want?” she coldly asked the one in charge.

  “I’m sorry, madam. We have a search warrant.” He handed her the paper in his hand and motioned his men to their tasks.

  Flo looked at the paper blankly, then told Maria to go back to the kitchen while she went to the phone and tried to get through to Clyde Clarke. She couldn’t reach him and when she hung up the phone rang shrilly. She grabbed it believing it to be Clarke only to find it was Josie, her husband’s secretary.

  “Mrs. Witherspoon, is Mr. Witherspoon there?”

  “No, I’m sorry he isn’t, Josie. Is something wrong?”

  “Oh, Mrs. Witherspoon, there are policemen all over the
place, going through my files, taking papers and records. They say they have a court order. They say they have the right to take anything or everything. I just don’t know what to do?”

  Flo took a deep calming breath before trying to say anything. “Josie, take the paper from them and then let them take whatever they want. After they leave, do your best to straighten up. I’ll get back to you later and let you know what Nate wants you to do. And Josie, thanks for calling.”

  When she hung up, the phone rang again and it still wasn’t Clyde. This time it was one of Nate’s investors. He read the story in the morning’s Chronicle and wanted to talk to Nate. He got a little nasty with Flo demanding his money back. He said he was withdrawing his investment in the Lucky Jewel and threatened, “Nate had better, by God, get my money back to me.”

  The next call was from another investor, equally as belligerent. The next was from a newspaper reporter, and then Maria came in saying there were three reporters at the door who wanted to talk to her. That’s when she took the phone off the hook and told Maria not to answer the door.

  Flo was overwhelmed. She wandered through her apartment, watching the policemen paw through Nate’s desk, pushing papers of no interest to the floor, not concerned about the mess they were making. Her bedroom seemed vandalized. Not just Nate’s bureau and closet, but her things were searched and discarded in heaps. The bed had been torn apart, the mattress half off the bed, the pillows thrown in the corner. She returned to the living room and sank down on a chair near the window. She didn’t know what to do; she didn’t know what was happening.

  * * *

  Mrs. Bernbaum came awake slowly. The heaviness in her heart made it hard to breathe. She lay still, wondering if she was having a heart attack, but then she began to recognize the heaviness as the same pain she felt when they arrested Nate. It was as if it had happened yesterday, instead of more than fifty years ago. She breathed deeply trying to relax, and she remembered. That was the beginning of the end for her and Nate. Events were spiraling out of her control, certainly out of his control. Smithy, his trusted manager shouldn’t have been trusted. While he had been an important figure in Nate’s past, Nate had failed to notice or remember Smithy’s idiosyncrasies. Leopards and men don’t really ever change their spots. And Smithy’s spots revolved around his penchant for working cons. In the early days he would have been labeled a flimflam man, a con artist, a crook. And no matter that he was Nate’s friend, he probably couldn’t help himself. When the opportunity presented itself, he went with the con. And that he would so cunningly deceive his friend was the biggest blow of all to Nate.

  Nate couldn’t believe it, even when confronted with the evidence. The mine had been salted. Oh, there was gold, but the quantity and quality never would have justified the cost of getting it out. Nate grew up on his father’s stories. His friend Smithy fed him more and provided the “proof” of the value. Nate believed because he wanted to believe. And Nate’s enthusiasm is what convinced everyone of the value of the mine. No wonder he had investors lining up to give him money. No wonder he could afford to live like a prince.

  But it couldn’t last. The mine needed to start delivering profits and the gold just wasn’t there. Nor, was Smithy! He had disappeared shortly after Nate’s visit last April, just before they expected the rich ore to start being produced.

  Of course no one believed Nate had been bamboozled just as his investors had. And why would they? He was living high off of their investments while Smithy had simply disappeared and with him the entire working capital for the Lucky Jewel.

  The whole scheme was going to fall apart, but was hastened when one of his investors went to Alaska on a fishing trip and decided to fly into Skagway to see the mine. That visit to the mine, with the boxes of equipment sitting there, not even opened, was shocking. What was even more upsetting was the fact that the people in nearby Skagway regarded the Lucky Jewel Gold Mine as another of Smithy’s stories. They all knew about Smithy and during the long bleak winter they might enjoy listening to his tales, but none of them would have invested a dime in any enterprise he promoted. And they couldn’t believe anyone else had.

  Nate sat in jail while his investors raged. He told Flo he had to get out to get the money to pay his investors off. That was the only way he could have his freedom and his honor. He was not a cheat. He did not intentionally bilk these people. In fact, he really had only intended to share the wealth.

  Clyde Clarke was no help. Flo fired him and hired a street smart guy, who wasn’t afraid to do whatever was necessary to free Nate.

  Then she began to do what she needed to do to get the money for his lawyer and to reimburse the investors. She started with the most saleable items, her jewelry, the car, the furnishings, then her furs, the apartment, and the furnishings in the office downtown on Sansome Street. Even that wasn’t enough. She borrowed from her family, she liquidated all of her own investments and finally, reluctantly she went to Bernie Bernbaum, Nate’s favorite jeweler, and offered him the Heart of Persia.

  Bernie didn’t haggle with her. He offered her a price, not as much as it was worth, but more than she feared she would get. It would be enough. She accepted the money, appreciated the sympathy in his eyes and she left her last treasure in his hands.

  Mrs. Bernbaum felt the gentle rocking of the ship and it soothed her. The room was a soft grey now; the sun was coming up, early as it did here in the north. It was too early to get up and, she admitted, she was too tired. She closed her eyes and tried to think about Anita, anything to stop her thoughts from dwelling on that time so long ago, that painful time in the fifties when her world fell apart.

  * * *

  As soon as Kim opened the door he quickly crowded into the passageway, forcing her to retreat ahead of him into her cabin. He sat on the edge of her bed while he studied her carefully, anxious to hear the details.

  While outwardly she appeared calm, there was an air of suppressed excitement about her, as if she could explode any minute.

  She stood proudly in front of him, a triumphant smile spread over her face, as she bragged. “Everything went just right, just like we planned. All that worry was for nothing.”

  “No one saw you together?”

  “Probably about 4,000 people saw her get into the car, but will anyone remember?” She shook her head grinning. “We went over the bridge to Douglas Island because the woman at the Tourist Information booth warned me of delays on the highway up north because of road work. She said the upper part of Douglas Island was very remote, only a few hardy souls live out that way.

  “So after driving for a while I just pulled over to the side of the road and told her I was going to go pee.” She laughed, delighted with her own subterfuge. “She didn’t suspect a thing. When I saw it was a good location, I found a spot, located a rock and called her to come down.”

  “Just like that?” He looked nonplused at her casualness.

  She nodded. “She thought we were on our way to the shrine, so she wasn’t concerned about the delay. Maybe a little annoyed about traipsing through the brush, but curious enough about what I wanted her to see, to do it. She wasn’t scared and she died never knowing what was coming. Really, it was a very humane way to go and not even very messy.”

  Now as if seeing it all again in her mind she couldn’t seem to contain her excitement. She paced around the tiny cabin. “You know I really had to psych myself up for this. I mean I knew we had to do it or the whole plan would collapse, but truthfully, I didn’t want to do it.

  “I know..., I know you couldn’t; it had to be me, but still, it was hard. And then it turned out to be so easy. Actually it was kind of exciting, do you know what I mean?”

  He looked at her strangely, as if her excitement and enthusiasm were just a little worrying to him. “What did you do with her things?”

  Kim pulled open a door of the closet and gestured to a small bag sitting on a shelf. “I sweated that one. The cabin steward hung around and hung around, finally
he went away and I got in. I really had to hurry, but I think I got most of it. I should have waited until the old lady went to dinner, then I could have taken my time and made sure I did it right.”

  “No, no it was better you came right back and removed the stuff before the old lady returned from shore. Who knows what she might have noticed if you waited until she went to dinner.” He nodded, obviously pleased. “Apparently they had words earlier in the day. She mentioned it at dinner. So now with Anita’s things missing it looks as if Anita left in a huff. It’s just what we want her to think.”

  He reached out and pulled Kim to him, suddenly feeling excited himself. Success had a way of rousing his lust. “You did it, babe. It’s going to work.”

  “And you want to know the best thing?” she murmured between his kisses, “I don’t have to hide out in this cabin anymore and I don’t have to wear all those dowdy clothes. I can enjoy the rest of the cruise.” She wrapped her arms around his neck. “What a team we make!”

  CHAPTER NINE

  People were still drifting into the cocktail lounge outside the theatre, gathering for today’s Trivia contest. Claire and Ruth sat with Heidi and Bob when Ruth spotted Pearl.

  “Pearl, Pearl over here.” She waved enthusiastically. “We need you and Harold on our team.”

  Pearl headed for them, pulling Harold by the hand behind her as they threaded through the tables. “Hi, we’d love to join you.” Then turning to Heidi and Bob, “We’re the Merriwetters, Pearl and Harold, from Houston. Where are you all from?”