was too vivid, the thin arch of her eyebrows was almost fantastic in its curve and spread, and the mascara was so thick on her eyelashes that they looked like miniature iron railings.
She wore white duck slacks, blue and white open-toed sandals over bare feet and crimson lake toenails, a white silk blouse and a necklace of green stones that were not square cut emeralds. Her hair was as artificial as a nightclub lobby.
On the chair beside her there was a white straw garden hat with a brim the size of a spare tire and a white satin chinstrap. On the brim of the hat lay a pair of green sunglasses with lenses the size of doughnuts.
Vannier marched over to her and snapped out: “You’ve got to can that nasty little red-eyed driver of yours, but quick. Otherwise I’m liable to break his neck any minute. I can’t go near him without getting insulted.”
The blond coughed lightly, flicked a handkerchief around without doing anything with it, and said:
“Sit down and rest your sex appeal. Who’s your friend?”
Vannier looked for my card, found he was holding it in his band and threw it on her lap. She picked it up languidly, ran her eyes over it, ran them over me, sighed and tapped her teeth with her fingernails.
“Big, isn’t he? Too much for you to handle, I guess.”
Vannier looked at me nastily. “All right, get it over with, whatever it is.”
“Do I talk to her?” I asked. “Or do I talk to you and have you put it in English?”
The blond laughed. A silvery ripple of laughter that held the unspoiled naturalness of a bubble dance. A small tongue played roguishly along her lips.
Vannier sat down and lit a gold-tipped cigarette and I stood there looking at them.
I said: “I’m looking for a friend of yours, Mrs. Morny. I understand that she shared an apartment with you about a year ago. Her name is Linda Conquest.”
Vannier flicked his eyes up, down, up, down. He turned his head and looked across the pool. The cocker spaniel named Heathcliff sat over there looking at us with the white of one eye.
Vannier snapped his fingers. “Here, Heathcliff! Here, Heathcliff! Come here, sir!”
The blond said: “Shut up. The dog hates your guts. Give your vanity a rest, for heaven’s sake.”
Vannier snapped: “Don’t talk like that to me.”
The blond giggled and petted his face with her eyes.
I said: “I’m looking for a girl named Linda Conquest, Mrs. Morny.”
The blond looked at me and said: “So you said. I was just thinking. I don’t think I’ve seen her in six months. She got married.”
“You haven’t seen her in six months?”
“That’s what I said, big boy. What do you want to know for?”
“Just a private enquiry I’m making.”
“About what?”
“About a confidential matter,” I said.
“Just think,” the blond said brightly. “He’s making a private enquiry about a confidential matter. You hear that, Lou? Busting in on total strangers that don’t want to see him is quite all right, though, isn’t it, Lou? On account of he’s making a private enquiry about a confidential matter.”
“Then you don’t know where she is, Mrs. Morny?”
“Didn’t I say so?” Her voice rose a couple of notches.
“No. You said you didn’t think you had seen her in six months. Not quite the same thing.”
“Who told you I shared an apartment with her?” the blond snapped.
“I never reveal a source of information, Mrs. Morny.”
“Sweetheart, you’re fussy enough to be a dance director. I should tell you everything, you should tell me nothing.”
“The position is quite different,” I said. “I’m a hired hand obeying instructions. The lady has no reason to hide out, has she?”
“Who’s looking for her?”
“Her folks.”
“Guess again. She doesn’t have any folks.”
“You must know her pretty well, if you know that,” I said.
“Maybe I did once. That don’t prove I do now.”
“Okay,” I said. “The answer is you know, but you won’t tell.”
“The answer,” Vannier said suddenly, “is that you’re not wanted here and the sooner you get out, the better we like it.”
I kept on looking at Mrs. Morny. She winked at me and said to Vannier: “Don’t get so hostile, darling. You have a lot of charm, but you have small bones. You’re not built for the rough work. That right, big boy?”
I said: “I hadn’t thought about it, Mrs. Morny. Do you think Mr. Morny could help me—or would?”
