The Green Lama: Scions (The Green Lama Legacy Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

smoke?
    “Guess I shouldn’t ask you for a light, then,” she said, cigarette hanging from the corner of her mouth.
    “I’m not without class, Miss Dale,” Dumont said, drawing a chrome lighter from his vest, the letters JPD engraved on one side. Betty leaned over the table to let Dumont light her cigarette. “So, what’s this article about? You’ve called my people, called my houses and apartments, chased me across the city, and finally tracked me down. However, at no point have you mentioned what it is you’ll be writing about. I’d like to believe it’s something a little more substantive than a Broadway Brevities piece, but then again the public does love a scandal.”
    “No offense, Mr. Dumont,” she said, taking a drag from her cigarette, “you’re scandal personified.”
    “Miss Dale, you’re going to make me blush.”
    “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
    “You know, I remember hearing about another Betty Dale who disappeared after the Cleveland Post printed her article about the murder of Lew Giggi.”
    Betty grimaced. “I have no idea who that woman was, but she thoroughly screwed my career for six months after that fiasco. I ever find her, I’m going to give her a piece of my mind.”
    Dumont flashed a sly smile. “I’ll make sure to let you know if I ever run into her. But we’re going off on a tangent, aren’t we?”
    “We are.” Dale picked up a pen and flipped opened her notepad. “There are a lot of questions, Mr. Dumont, as I’m sure you’re aware, about your ten year sojourn into Tibet.”
    “I am aware,” he said with a nod. “And all of these questions will be addressed in my friend Richard Foster’s upcoming book, Jewel in the Lotus Flower. It’s quite an interesting read, I promise you. Full of illustrations and photos. I’ll have them send you a copy.”
    “You left shortly after the death of your parents, correct? From what I understand you were attending Harvard at the time and simply walked off campus.”
    “In the middle of a snowstorm, yes.” He laced his fingers together and kept his penetrating gaze on Betty. “Though I assure you it wasn’t as histrionic as it sounds. I took a cab to the train station.”
    Betty nodded and jotted down a few superfluous notes. “There’s also your more, shall we say… dramatic return to the States almost five years ago.”
    Dumont’s body stiffened and his eyes steeled over. “If you’re referring to the three children who were gunned down while I was disembarking the S.S. Heki —”
    “There are some who believe those guns were aimed at you, Mr. Dumont.”
    “Are you trying to imply I’m somehow connected to the mob, Miss Dale?”
    “I’m implying nothing. I’m simply asking the questions many others have already asked themselves.”
    “And they would be wrong,” he said sharply. “If you’d like this interview to continue I’d advise you to tread lightly, Miss Dale.”
    “I mean no disrespect, Mr. Dumont,” she said, her eyes saying different. “As I said, I’m merely asking questions.”
    “Lies spoken are slander, easily ignored and forgotten,” he said, methodically. “Put them in print and that’s libel, and my lawyers absolutely love libel.”
    Betty took a thoughtful drag of her cigarette as she measured him. “Then why don’t we snub any falsehoods printed or spoken before your lawyers get wind of them?”
    “Ask your questions then,” he said with a dismissive wave.
    Betty took once last pull of her cigarette and placed it in the ashtray. “There are some who believe that the death of your parents was no mere accident, that you absconded to the East because of some serious debt either you or your parents had accrued from some very dangerous people.” “Are you asking to look at my bank accounts, Miss Dale? I assure you the quantities are all in the nonuple digits.”
    “It just seems a little suspicious, Mr. Dumont, that you should disappear for a decade after the death of