Chapter 30 – High noon

It was Millie. Yes, Millie!

In place of the dowdy servant I had encountered in past meetings, however, stood a tall, slender female, fashionably attired in a low-cut dress which showed the woman’s person to advantage. Tastefully, her shoes matched it perfectly. Gone were the spectacles, her hair was unconstrained by its tight pinning and loose about her shoulders. Her face was made up with a subtle application of cosmetics. The creature thus transformed may not have been exactly a head-turner but was certainly worth a second look!

I stepped inside the doorway, exclaiming as I did so. “Hello! The door was… open” I faltered. “The door was open and I shouted. I didn’t mean to intrude.”

In contrast to the building’s entrance hall, this part of the ranch was well cared for and well furnished. The contrast was striking. There were three other people in the room. Turned towards me as I stood in the entrance were Millie and, perched on a chaise in the centre of the room, the lady of the house. The latter was wearing a loose top and a smart skirt. She had paid more attention to her make-up than on the last occasion I’d seen her and looked younger and almost attractive, though even less pleased to see me than on the previous visit. I observed that the expressions on the faces of both were tinged with fear and I turned my attention to two other individuals. Both faced away from me.

The eyes of Meg and Millie were rivetted on a tall chair which stood before them, its back towards me. I followed their gaze to observe that its occupant appeared to be a tall woman with greying hair, which even from the back looked familiar.

A pregnant silence ensued which, when it was broken by a voice I recognised only too well, confirmed my deduction. “Now don’t stand on ceremony, you there in the doorway” drawled Jocasta’s voice. “Come in and join the party!”

“And take it nice and easy” snarled the harsh tones of the final player. On the other side of Jocasta, Midas was stood, the gun in the racketeer’s hand covering the two creatures who quailed before him. A steely glare consumed his usually handsome features.

Treading with utmost care I sidled into the room, as if by doing so the peril of the fraught situation I had walked into would somehow be lessened. Gloria hesitantly followed me. The reaction to her entrance by the room’s occupants could not have been more varied. Millie’s look of embarrassment was only as might have been expected on her employer being permitted to view how she was dressed. Meg Stevens’s posture looked most unnatural with one arm twisted behind her. She had squirmed around in her seat to face her visitors, and her face bore an almost mask-like passivity.

The countenances of the two confronting them were more in harmony with each other with mirrored scornful expressions. Only the degree of contempt was different, Jocasta’s being the most intense.

“Well, if it isn’t my old dance partner… or should I say, accomplice” she derided. “And how comes our ‘Ginger’ fairy to be here today? It’s quite an unexpected and most underwhelming pleasure to see you!”

Gloria made no reply but drew herself up to meet the jibe with a look of disdain.

“We were just doing the introductions when you and Jennifer barged in” continued the woman. “Now, Mrs… er Stevens, we’d like you to tell us what you know about a man who came here to make some inquiries a year or so ago. Soon after he disappeared but we know that before he did, he was searching for a spread that sounded pretty much like this place. He happened to be the brother of my partner here.”

At these words inspiration finally took complete hold of me. I felt suddenly assured that I understood at last. Every last thing had fallen into place in my mind.

“Why do you think it was this particular ranch he was interested in?” I interposed.

Jocasta looked surprised at my question. “What is that to you? Your little friend Connie let it slip, if you must know, though why you're interested, I can’t imagine. Her description tallied, when I finally dragged it out of her, if you must know. I could have guessed you would interfere, you little tramp!”

The angry woman glanced suspiciously from me to Midas and back again, the latter looking decidedly uncomfortable under that searching stare.
At the mention of Connie’s name, the woman Meg had given an involuntary gasp, the first sound she had uttered. In response Gloria grabbed my arm as recognition dawned upon her. I decided it was time for some answers.

“I came here to see our friend Meg here” I began. “Or, should I say our friend…”

“Arthur?!”

The brilliance of my intended revelation had been somewhat dimmed by the name being spoken by the person standing behind me. Gloria had at last made the connection and found her voice.

“Arthur! What…? How come? You’re supposed to be dead!”

The atmosphere could have been cut with a knife.

“Arthur, if it’s really you and you are really alive, then… who is that buried in the churchyard back there?”

Again, there was no response, so I filled in the blank myself.

“May I venture to suggest? It’s likely to be the body of a man with an unusual name… Klondyke… Auros Klondyke!”

“Auros…?” Gloria’s voice petered away leaving a silence which hung in the air. I had everyone’s attention.

Then it all happened. Before my words Midas had swivelled around to give his attention to my client and myself. Recovering from his surprise, he began to turn back to point it at the ‘woman’ of the house, but he was an instant too slow.

Then the reason for Meg/Arthur’s contorted posture became clear. She took the split-second opportunity offered to make her countermove. From amid the cushions behind her on the couch she pulled out an automatic and aimed it at the gunman. Both shots rang out simultaneously and one was sufficient to finish the casino owner. His firearm clattered from his hand as he hit the deck and lay lifeless.

“You’ve killed him!” screamed Jocasta and flung herself down to kneel by the side of her would-be paramour. Next instant she seized the fallen weapon. “That’s for Auros… and for Midas!” she spat as she fired it twice at Meg/Arthur who collapsed in a heap on the floor.

“You can rot in hell for taking them from me.” The words were ground out from between clenched teeth as Jocasta strode across and kicked her adversary’s firearm out of reach. She then backed away, gun in hand, glowering at us all

Arthur’s faithful attendant, Millie, recovered first. She threw herself over him as if in a vain attempt to shield him, but the time for that had long passed,

“You crazy bitch!” she shrieked hysterically. “You’ve shot him!” Looking incongruously distraught in her seductive trappings, she broke down and sobbed over the bleeding body while its assassin watched with a contemptuous smirk on her face.

Next moment the sound of running feet was heard, the door was flung wide and Guy sprang into the room, automatic in hand. “I heard gunfire!” he exclaimed breathlessly. “What…?”

Jocasta was quick to react. With remarkable agility she spun around and fired at the intruder, but in her haste the shot went high and wide.

The ex-agent’s weapon responded immediately. Too close to miss, the bullet fatally found its target and his aggressor collapsed to the floor, shot through the heart.

Guy stepped forward and knelt to feel for a pulse in the woman’s wrist. He shook his head. “She’s dead. I had no choice” he stated flatly. “I had to do it.”