The Whenabouts of Burr Read Online Free Page A

screen, foreign nobility, men and women in every walk (or crouch) of life; he became aware, almost by second nature, of the little signs which most of us leave unnoticed, by which the crook so often gives himself away.
    â€œI go into the office of the firm reporting the losses,” he explained once to Nate, over a cafe espresso at the Downtown Chess Club, “and my first question, well, it might be, ‘Who’s been taking taxicabs who didn’t used to?’ Be surprised, Mr. Swift,”—it was not yet “Nate”—“You’d be surprised how many embezzlers, they never think of giving themselves away by, say, wearing the fancy clothes to work which they might have bought with their ill-gotten gains, yet somehow they just can’t resist calling that taxicab once they leave the office.”
    Nate looked up from the dissolving heap of cinnamon-sprinkled whipped cream atop the bitter liquid. “And then what?”
    Romero shrugged. “Oh, I simply walk up to him and I say, ‘The firm is aware that somebody has abused its confidence to the tune of $17,000—or however much the firm has lost, and you’d be surprised how many of them aren’t sure exactly what the figure is—but it would rather not prosecute if this can be avoided.’ Nine times out of ten, they come clean.” He shrugged, sighed. “But… you know… nine times out of ten, it just got to be boring.”
    His eyes glistened. “And then… then, five years back, it will be five years the 11th of April, my dear wife passed away. And after that, well, the taste just seemed to go out of almost everything…”
    And it was not long after this great loss that Mr. Romero’s son and daughter both married. It happened that both his son and his son-in-law were attached to the firm of Romero Associates, and got along well together. Romero the elder called them to him, and said, “Roger, Robert. Take over the business. You know more than I did at your age because you have had educational advantages which I didn’t; also here you have a ready-made business, which I didn’t; plus you have the old man to advise you when you get into trouble, which I didn’t. This way you’ll be able to keep the family together, provide for the children which you will have, with God’s blessing, and bring them up well. Since Mom died, I don’t know, somehow I can’t keep my mind on the business the way I used to. Besides, I’m getting on in years and I deserve a little rest. Neither do I believe in keeping children tied to their elders’ apron-strings, so to speak, male or female, the way some parents do. Look at Queen Victoria, for example, who should have abdicated years before she died, the way Queen Wilhelmina did, turned the country over to her son and daughter, or however it was; sensible woman.”
    Also, he said to his son and his son-in-law, “Just pay me a small salary as Consultant, so you can justifiably keep my name on the letterhead, and a percentage of the gross—that way,” he now ceased speaking in retrospect and directed his comments entirely to Nate Swift; “That way, they don’t get the idea that they’re getting something for nothing, which in my opinion can corrupt young people quickly. So now everybody is happy,” he said with a sigh, “and I have no reason in the world to feel the least bit unhappy, which to tell you the truth, I do. Nonetheless.” And he sighed once again.
    From such a chance meeting over the chessboard and coffee sprang that most unlikely and yet fruitful partnership which, on behalf (though clandestinely, yet honorably) of the President and, through him, the People of the United States, was to solve such matters as the affairs of the knifegrinder and the abbreviated state senator, the case of the foreign agent and the Jersey City pom-pom girl, the mixed-up matter of how the