In the last episode of Special Delivery, Rocky had just thwarted the advances of Jesse Weller, wife of financier Frank Weller. He agreed to meet her at the luxury restaurant The Palms for breakfast the next morning. The following takes place the morning of April 27, 1949:
The slender digit that tapped a beat on the table was adorned with a piece of ice most normal women couldn't lift with one hand, but Jesse Weller was hardly the average. Backed by the light that streamed in through the open patio of The Palms, she could have been mistaken for an angel instead of a woman who would slip into a stranger's bed unannounced. Even her wide-brimmed hat seemed in on the act, serving as a sort of halo atop her neatly-arranged hair.
An open place sat across from her at a table built for two. Most of the tables in the room had an arrangement of flowers in a vase separating the customers, but this one had no such natural barrier, while the next table over carried two. Seated there were two gentlemen I recognized, despite the fact that I knew neither one's real name. I only knew them by Dave and by Rollo. All three of them grinned like it was a surprise party.
The Palms didn't normally open its doors wide for anybody earning less than a hundred grand but I was expected. A waiter directed me to a wing on the sunny side of the building where the walls were painted a pale blue and the furniture was bright white and the gentle breezes came through quietly so as not to disturb anyone. An older couple sat in the corner and slowly fell asleep at their place settings and other than the waiter there was no one else in the room but me and the wrecking crew. I sat across from Jesse Weller just like she hoped and waited for the bad news.
“I trust you slept well?” she said, mildly taunting.
She gave them a look and Dave and Rollo dutifully tucked into their breakfasts. The waiter asked me what I would prefer and instead of telling him that I would have preferred to be in a different restaurant with different company I told him to scare up some ham and eggs if they had such humble stuff lying around. He filtered off and Jesse gave me an approving look.
I said: “I slept like a dog, thank you.”
“Don't you mean 'like a log'?”
“I mean what I say.”
“I see. You want the whole story?” she asked, helpfully.
“For starters, yes.”
“All right,” she said, leaning back, carefully brushing the inside of my leg with her foot. “Five years ago I was just a hard-working grifter without a care in the world when I ran into Frank Weller. A bigger rube there never was, loaded with cash, hot-tempered, and born without a brain. That, I said, is the prefect combination.”
“So you married him?”
Jesse grinned. “The southern Belle routine snagged him in a matter of seconds. Plus I did him a favor, which I can tell you about if you promise not to blush.”
I shook my head and slapped her foot away. “Skip the spicy stuff, sister. I'm on a diet.”
“Suit yourself. So Frank, dear Frank, will buy anything. All you have to do is ask. He collects statues by the hundreds and then forgets he buys them. They're all in a warehouse downtown. So I get the idea to have a little fun and sell a few. Frank never paid attention. Then a year ago, he brings in this crate packed like nothing I've ever seen. Boxed, lined with lead an inch thick. And inside, a half-carved statue with a black thumb.” Her face lit up. “It was a con just waiting to happen. The legend existed already. All I had to do was tell the tale. I've sold the statue to eight people in the last year. They touch the thumb, keel over, we swipe it back again. Simple as that. And each time I sell it, the legend grows and the price goes up.”
“Charming,” I said. “No regrets?”
She laughed at that. “When you're foolish enough to fall for something like that, you deserve what you get. There was only one problem, though: Frank had the stupid thing checked out at a lab. You know, to see if it was authentic? Whatever that thumb is made out of is...”
“...radioactive,” I finished.
She raised her glass of orange juice to me. “Well done, my pet. You win the prize, if you're smart enough to take it.”
The man I knew as Rollo put a stack of bills on my plate, just like the one he had given me in my office. I just laughed at it. “Do you think I'll fall for this again?”
Will Rocky be convinced to work for Jesse Weller and find out where the statue is? Find out in the next episode of The Adventures of Rocky Stone!
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