Black Easter Read Free

finders.’
    ‘I do and I don’t,’ Baines said. ‘I’ll explain that, too, but a little later, if you don’t mind. Primarily I wanted someone inyour speciality – murder – and of course the white monks were of no use there. I didn’t even broach the subject with them. Frankly, I only wanted to test your reputation, of which I’d had hints. I, too, can use newspaper morgues. Their horror when I mentioned you was enough to convince me that I ought to talk to you, at least.’
    ‘Sensible. Then you don’t really believe in magic yet – only in ESP or some such nonsense.’
    ‘I’m not,’ Baines said guardedly, ‘a religious man.’
    ‘Precisely put. Hence, you want a demonstration. Did you bring with you the mirror I mentioned on the phone to your assistant?’
    Silently, Jack took from his inside jacket pocket a waxed paper envelope, from which he in turn removed a lady’s hand mirror sealed in glassine. He handed it to Baines, who broke the seal.
    ‘Good. Look in it.’
    Out of the corners of Baine’s eyes, two slow thick tears of dark venous blood were crawling down beside his nose. He lowered the mirror and stared at Ware.
    ‘Hypnotism,’ he said, quite steadily. ‘I had hoped for better.’
    ‘Wipe them off,’ Ware said, unruffled.
    Baines pulled out his immaculate monogrammed handkerchief. On the white-on-white fabric, the red stains turned slowly into butter-yellow gold.
    ‘I suggest you take those to a government metallurgist tomorrow,’ Ware said. ‘I could hardly have hypnotized him. Now perhaps we might get down to business.’
    ‘I thought you said –’
    That even the simplest trick requires a demon. So I did, and I meant it. He is sitting at your back now, Mr Baines, and he will be there until the day after tomorrow at this hour. Remember that – day after tomorrow. It will cost me dearly to have turned this little piece of silliness, but I’m used to having to do such things for a sceptical client – and it will be included in my bill. Now, if you please, Mr Baines, what
do
you want?’
    Baines handed the handkerchief to Jack, who folded it carefully and put it back in its waxed-paper wrapper. ‘I,’ Baines said, ‘of course want someone killed. Tracelessly.’
    ‘Of course, but who?’
    ‘I’ll tell you that in a minute. First of all, do you exercise any scruples?’
    ‘Quite a few,’ Ware said. ‘For instance, I don’t kill my friends, not for any client. And possibly I might balk at certain strangers. However, in general, I do have strangers sent for, on a regular scale of charges.’
    ‘Then we had better explore the possibilities,’ Baines said.
    ‘I’ve got an ex-wife who’s a gross inconvenience to me. Do you balk at that?’
    ‘Has she any children – by you or anybody else?’
    ‘No, none at all.’
    ‘In that case, there’s no problem. For that kind of job, my standard fee is fifteen thousand dollars, flat.’
    Despite himself, Baines stared in astonishment. ‘Is that all?’ he said at last.
    ‘That’s all. I suspect that I’m almost as wealthy as you are, Mr Baines. After all, I can find treasure as handily as the white monks can – indeed, a good deal better. I use these alimony cases to keep my name before the public. Financially they’re a loss to me.’
    ‘What kinds of fees are you interested in?’
    ‘I begin to exert myself slightly at about five million.’
    If this man was a charlatan, he was a grandiose one. Baines said, ‘Let’s stick to the alimony case for the moment. Or rather, suppose I don’t care about the alimony, as in fact I don’t. Instead, I might not only want her dead, but I might want her to die badly. To suffer.’
    ‘I don’t charge for that.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Mr Baines,’ Ware said patiently, ‘I remind you, please, that I myself am not a killer. I merely summon and direct the agent. I think it very likely – in fact, I think it beyond doubt – that any patient I have sent for dies in an access of