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Chapter 8: Excelsior Encounter
“I felt that the least I could do would be to buy you a drink,” Victoria Leon had called Gregg Gillstrom to apologise for what had happened to him and Maxine in her hotel room. “I mean after you two and poor Jungle Jane ended up as the victims of whoever was trying to rob me.”
“That’s OK,” Gregg dissembled, “I’m not even sure why we were there. But,” he said, recognising the opportunity to find out a little more about the heiress, “I’d be happy to take you up on that offer of a drink. Maxine’s not free tonight but I’d be happy to.”
“Well, as long as you’re sure she won’t mind. Why don’t we meet in the bar of the Excelsior? How about 7 o’clock?”
“Yes, that’ll be fine,” said Gregg.
Maxine’s reaction was that it was anything but fine. “I’m getting pretty pissed at the way you keep finding excuses to go off and meet with women.”
“It’s the job, lover,” Gregg protested. “You keep the ‘Astounding Gillstrom’ gigs coming in and I’ll look after the rest of it. I’d still like to get my hands on some of Ms Leon’s money.”
“That’s not all you want to get your hands on,” Maxine responded sulkily. Gregg didn’t bother to answer but he allowed himself an inner smirk, Maxine wasn’t wrong.
As Gregg arrived at the Excelsior, he saw Victoria in conversation with Dorothea Reynolds. The mayor got up as he arrived. “Mr Gillstrom,” she acknowledged. “I can’t stop I’m afraid. Enjoy your evening.”
Gregg watched her go and then sat down to join Victoria.
“She’s a bit of a stuffed shirt, isn’t she?” Victoria said with a smile.
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Gregg, thinking that her shirt was certainly well stuffed, although not in the way Victoria meant.
“You don’t think there’s a passionate soul beating beneath that grey suit do you?” Victoria giggled. “It doesn’t bear thinking about!”
Gregg was enjoying himself already. Victoria summoned a uniformed waiter with a practiced wave. “What would you like?” she asked. “I’m on mojito’s.”
“Sounds fine to me,” Gregg responded as Victoria nodded at the waiter. He could, he thought, get used to this lifestyle without any difficulty and it was obvious that Victoria already had. As she sipped her own drink he allowed himself the opportunity to work out just how much of daddy’s fortune Victoria was wearing. Her gold necklace alone looked as though it would pay for a pretty good car, and her earrings were big enough to provide the wheels. Victoria had the sort of careful grooming that most girls would only aim to achieve for a special occasion. Flawless make up, neatly coiffed hair, nail’s precisely painted and buffed to a gleaming shine. It was her outfit that impressed Gregg most though. The jacket and skirt seemed to be made in some sort of tapestry material, with a classical pattern woven into it. The skirt was short and the jacket fitted snugly so there wasn’t that much cloth but even so it looked to Gregg as though the fabric had been stolen from some European chateau.
“Do you like the suit?” Victoria’s question broke into Gregg’s train of thought.
“Sorry,” he said, as the waiter arrived with their drinks. “Was I staring?” Victoria swapped her now empty glass for afresh mojito.
“It’s all right. It’s one of my favourite outfits. It’s French. They copied the design from one of the Gobelins tapestries in the palace of Versailles.”
“I’ll try not to lose my head over it. Cheers!” Gregg lifted his glass. “And thanks for the invitation.” Gregg was enjoying himself. Quite apart from the agreeable view of Victoria’s legs as she sat back on the couch opposite him, the drink was good and the company was pleasant.
“How did you get into the whole magic business then?” Victoria took a sip of her drink as she looked directly at him over the rim of her glass. Something about her directness made Gregg feel that her interest was more than the usual social chit-chat that you might expect from a wealthy debutante.
“It kept me out of mischief while I was at college,” Gregg replied. That was true – at least up until the point he had discovered the basket in the antique shop. “Then I discovered I had a bit of a talent. Maxine took over the business management and keeps me on the straight and narrow.”
“Is that from a personal or a professional perspective?”
You’re flirting with me, thought Gregg. What’s all this about? “Professional,” he lied, telling himself that he had better be careful.
“Well,” she said, “I’ve heard a lot about your skills. And like I said, I’ve never really been that impressed by conjuring tricks. Why don’t you see if you can change my mind?”
He very nearly suggested that he should try to charm her knickers off her but resisted the thought. “All right,” Gregg said. “Give me one of your earrings for a moment.”
“All right,” Victoria said, unfastening it. “Be careful though, it’s Zimbabwean gold. The copper gives it that reddish colour.”
And makes it look so good against the strawberry highlights in your hair, Gregg thought. “Don’t worry I’ll take great care of it. Look,” he said placing it in the upturned palm of his hand. “It won’t even be out of your sight.” He placed his other hand over the top. Victoria was staring straight at his hands. “I couldn’t possibly do anything with it, could I?”
“Not while I’m watching you this closely,” Victoria smiled.
“That’s all right then,” said Gregg as he took his hand away to reveal his empty palm.
Victoria was dumb struck. “But, you couldn’t! I mean I was watching all the time. It can’t have? How did you?”
“Professional secrets, I’m afraid,” Gregg laughed. “But it’s not lost. Look in your handbag.”
Victoria grabbed the bag from the couch. There in one of the zipped compartments in the inside of the bag was her earring safe and sound. It was hard to say which was more remarkable the disappearance from Gregg’s hand or the reappearance several feet away, inside her bag. “All right,” Victoria laughed. “I will admit to being impressed. That was extraordinary.”
“Well can I ask you a question then?” Gregg was keen to move to discussion around to something where he might find out a little more about Victoria and her wealth.
“Of course.” She downed her drink with a flourish that impressed Gregg. “Another?”
Gregg nodded, telling himself that he had better not try to keep up with Victoria when it came to alcohol. “Well,” he said, “you don’t seem to have been in the least bit phased what’s happened to you since you came to the city. Robberies, dramatic appeals to people not to be intimidated by criminals and then another attack that was certainly targeted at you. Is all the money worth it?”
“Oh, the money doesn’t worry me! In fact I can’t really get my hands on it for another year. The whole thing is run by trustees until I’m twenty five. They seem happy to dole it out though – and it keeps them in a job. Daddy disappeared when I was about ten but he’d discovered the diamond mines by then and I’ve never had to worry since. I’ve no idea how much I’m worth.”
“But all these attacks? Robberies?” Another round of drinks appeared and Victoria leapt on hers eagerly.
“I was brought up in Africa. When I was small my Dad caught me once lapping milk from a bowl alongside a lion cub he was fostering. You were more worried about the animals and the insects than anything else that might happen. Once you’ve faced down a hippo, a few snakes won’t bother you.” Gregg noticed that she seemed to catch herself before starting again. “Real snakes in the grass these thieves. We had a shotgun behind the door for them on the farm but I suppose that sort of thing is frowned on here.”
“I think it probably is,” Gregg smiled taking a sip of his drink. “Tell me about Africa,” he said, “it must have been an extraordinary place to grow up.”
“It was, it was,” Victoria began and Gregg sat back to listen, wondering to himself how she knew that snakes were involved in the robberies and thinking what a coincidence it was that Victoria had turned up at the same time as a mysterious masked crime fighter that was steeped in the law of the jungle too.
Victoria was happy to talk. Apart for the stupid slip up over the snakes – which she didn’t think Gregg had noticed - she was pretty pleased with how things were going. Gregg seemed to be happy to take her at face value as a fun-loving, rich kid with a taste for white rum, lime and mint. But Gregg had made a mistake. He’d been showing off when he did that trick. Victoria had seen some of the best conjurors in the world when she’d been living in Egypt. She knew there had been more to the trick with her earring than sleight of hand and that meant Gregg was more than capable of having carried out the mystery thefts.
****** ***** ***** *****
At home in her apartment, Mayor Reynolds was staring out at the night time view across the city. She felt strangely restless, disturbed by the robbery of her office without really understanding why. She was appalled by the fact that the thieves had obviously amused themselves at her and her secretary’s expense, even if neither of them could remember anything about it. But - even though she found it appalling - there was a strange thrilling undercurrent to it as well. The whole thing was too strange for words. Between them the Commissioner, the Chief and this Jungle Jane had better find these thieves and put a stop to it.
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