"Shadow - 341201 - Back Pages - Grace Culver - Double Chocolate" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brown Roswell)

Moody purse. Maggie held them out on an open palmЧperhaps a hundred and
fifty dollars' worth.
Grace bent above them for a minute, her eyes sharp, her fingers busy. Then
she straightened slowly.
"They're almost all fake, darling." Not only Mr. Figgens' money, but other
money that Mother Moody had.

The head cashier of the Importer's Trust downtown branch bank ruffled the
bills through his fingers carefully.
"Counterfeit." he said. But the word was matter-of-fact, not indignant in the
manner of the Blue Bird cashier.
"All but these few are counterfeit, Mrs. Moody."
Maggie faced him across the mahogany desk, her eyes stunned. Grace,
sitting beside her and holding one of her hands consolingly, could feel a shudder
passing through the heavy body.
"But----I'm sure I don't understand it, at all, at all. If it was only the money
from one boarder, sure;: although even then I'd be doubtin' me senses, them folks
is that close to me. But here's Mrs. Reilly payin' me the first of the week, and
Mrs. Gilliman only yesterday, andЧ"
"Very odd," Mr. Albertson commented. "Very odd, indeed. They couldn't all
be in on the counterfeit ring, very well. And there's a new ring in operation,
ladies. A big one. The same plates that struck off these have been working
overtime here lately. Yours is ourЧlet me rememberЧour twenty-third
complaint since last month."
It was his first remark which had struck a spark in Maggie Moody. She eyed
the cashier angrily.
"Don't you be hintin' me boarders is a crime ring, MisterЧMister What's-it!
There's guests have been with me since seven years before Terrance Moody died,
andЧ"
Grace laid a quieting hand on her landlady's arm.
"There, there, darling, nobody's accusing your pets of having long jail
sentences behind them. Mr. Albertson, I just was wonderingЧthat's all new
money, isn't it ?"
The cashier nodded.
"Fresh from the plates. Cleverest engraving I've ever run across, too. As I
say, we've been fooled before by this same brand. There's a lot of it around the
town right now."
"But not," said Grace, "enough to explain why every one at Mrs. Moody's
should pay her with nothing but phony bills of small denominations." She
turned toward Maggie. "Try to rememberЧwas all the money they gave you
new?"
The Moody head shook instantly.
"It was not, that! I remember thinkin' Mrs. Gilliman must of saved hers in
her coal hod since the Armistice, it was that dirty. And there was a grease spot
onЧ" Her heavy jaws dropped suddenly. "Say! None of that's my money! None
of that's what me boarders paid me!"
The redhead caught her up with shallowly concealed eagerness, her nose
lifting like a pointing dog's.
"I knew it! And the first time those bills were all together was when you put
them in your purse to bank them to-day! SoЧwhere did you stop on your way