Read Blood on the Stars for Free Online

showcases. “Start looking around, but don’t stop if you come to any star rubies.”

 
Chapter Four
    A WELL-PLANNED CRIME
     
    MARK DUSTIN’S SPORTS ROADSTER was one of an unending parade of cars rolling across the Venetian Causeway toward Miami Beach. The last race of the day had been run at Tropical Park, and Dustin was content to relax while the procession crawled at a snail’s pace. He had hit a freak daily double at 420 to 1 with a ten-spot, and his four grand winnings made a comfortable wad in his pocket.
    Celia was supremely happy beside her husband, pressing close against his shoulder and dreamily contemplating the shifting mass of fleecy clouds above the palm-fringed shore eastward. She was always happy when Mark won at the races. It gave her a deep-rooted sense of security to know that Mark was one of those people who are almost invariably lucky. She no longer worried when he gambled, and that part of her past when she was poverty-stricken had gradually become an unreality. Mark had snatched her away from it after a whirlwind courtship lasting exactly five days.
    Tonight they would attend the society concert in Miami and she would wear the ruby bracelet. She, little Celia Hicks, would wear a piece of jewelry worth almost two hundred thousand dollars. She would make herself so beautiful for the occasion that Mark would never forget it, never be sorry he had paid so much for the bracelet.
    A shiver of delight pulsed through her. She asked excitedly, “Will it come, Mark? Do you think it will be at the hotel when we get there?” A queer sense of dread suddenly mingled with her happiness.
    Mark grinned tolerantly and chided, “Say star ruby bracelet when you mention your anniversary gift, Mrs. Dustin. The idea—calling it it .”
    They laughed together and she said, “Didn’t Mr. Voorland tell you this morning?”
    “He promised to deliver the bracelet by evening.” Mark’s voice was quietly emphatic. “His bank had a wire from Denver yesterday saying the check had cleared.”
    “But didn’t he say he would rather have the actual money back here in his account first?”
    “Naturally. In a transaction like this where I’m completely unknown to him he wants to take all the precautions possible. He hopes the money will be credited to his account before his bank closes this afternoon, but even if it isn’t, he said over the phone that the telegraphic assurance would be enough. Don’t worry, darling, you’ll knock everybody’s eyes out with that bracelet tonight.”
    “You should never have bought it, Mark,” she said earnestly. “I’ll be frightened to death every moment I have it on—just thinking about how much it cost.”
    “You’ll get used to it,” he told her cheerfully. “Just remember it’s insured.”
    “Some people keep expensive things like that locked up in a safe and never wear them,” she told him.
    “I know. They have cheap replicas made and wear those instead. Of all the damn fool ideas I ever heard of,” said Mark explosively, “that’s the damnedest.”
    They reached the end of the causeway and some of the cars ahead of them turned off to the right or left onto winding, palm-lined drives threading through the length of the peninsula. With the congestion eased, Mark Dustin sat up straight and darted expertly past laggard cars, gauging his speed and distances superbly to gain a couple of minutes in the short distance to the hotel.
    In the hotel lobby Celia stood back and waited breathlessly while Mark went to the desk to inquire about the delivery of the package from the jeweler. Her heart sank when she saw the clerk shake his head emphatically, and saw the taut anger come into Mark’s face.
    He strode back toward her and she made herself smile as she hurried to meet him. “Don’t you mind, darling. It really doesn’t matter whether I have it tonight or not.”
    “The hell it doesn’t,” he said furiously. “That Dutchman promised to have it here, and by God