In the last episode of Special Delivery, Rocky and James Wong were told that the stolen package had been taken by the Russians. We continue this entry in the Rocky Stone notebooks, dated April 25, 1949:
The rest of my time at James Wong's office was spent baby-sitting our two friends. They sat on the floor and waited patiently until Wong came back with a couple of Chinese wrestlers who wore turtlenecks because their necks were too thick to accommodate ties. They hustled their Communist counterparts out and I didn't ask any foolish questions about where they were going. When it was over, Wong gave me a sliver of a smile and said, “No more needs to be said about this.”
“I wasn't even here,” I added, and left as soon as I could to give it that touch of authenticity.
It kept raining. There were moments where it looked like it might let up but it kept pouring out of the sky no matter how much my windshield wipers cursed it. The roads were a couple of inches away from becoming canals and the Los Diablos River had filled up for the time being, and as I guided my Buick upstream I couldn't think of anything but Communist spies and why the Wellers would get mixed up with them. They had all the money in the world. What would make them risk it all?
Gus Cantelmi of the Chronicle owed me a favor after the Lola Bricksetter case and I cashed it in over the phone as soon as I got back to the office. I wanted to know everything about Jesse Weller, who she knew and what she was capable of, and I knew Gus's taste in newspaper stories well enough to know she was pretty enough and rich enough and wild enough to sit on his radar screen. At the mention of her name I could hear the smile in his voice.
“Jessica Bell Weller: Born in Carolina to money and came west for the reason most pretty young things come here, only she got discovered. Her screen test led her to a contract and she was on her way until she runs into Frank Weller at a party. She decided she was better off being a rich wife than an actress so she retires before the general public can see her name in lights. They tied the knot two years ago. Made the higher-ups mad you can bet. And that's the end of the story. She appears on young Frank's arm at the odd spectacle but she keeps her nose clean of scandal. Until now, I hope.”
“Keep your shirt on, son,” I replied. “If that's all you've got, I can't add much more to it. No boy-friends on the side? She strikes me as the type.”
Gus drooled: “So you met her? Lucky dog.”
“I could have been luckier. That's what has me confused. Does she have any political affiliations? Ones that would raise eyebrows?”
“Not at all. Apolitical as far as anyone knows.” He laughed. “Just what tiger do you have by the tail?”
“Got me, but the mess she's in has already turned international. I'll give you the exclusives when the time comes.”
“Hey, wait, you can't just...”
I eased the receiver on to the hook and thought about it. Surely there was smoke somewhere around this fire. The Chinese were involved and the Russians were involved and they don't spring out of nowhere for no good reason. I reached into a desk drawer and wrapped my hand around a bottle of ginger ale.
The door flipped open and Wanda stood in the way, blocking my view of a man who had yet to take his hat off. I tilted my head and saw the point of his nose and I recognized him as the man who stomped out of the Weller mansion earlier that day. “Are you expecting a Rollo Betancourt?” she asked.
“Does anyone?”
The man pushed his way around Wanda without a by-your-leave, sat in the chair across my desk, and waited and watched me impatiently, like I was a bus with a flat tire. He expected me to say something so I did.
“Didn't expect to see you here. How did you know where to find me?”
He pointed his beak at me and said in a nasty tone: “Mr. Weller wants you to find his parcel.” To bring his point home, he dropped a stack of bills on the top of my desk. The face on the top was Ben Franklin's, and there were at least ten of his cousins lying beneath him. Rollo added: “We expect results.”
Can Rocky recover the package from the Russians? And why does Frank Weller want Rocky to find it? Continue to read The Adventures of Rocky Stone on this very same inter-net for the answers to these and many more questions!
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