another for a trip like this.”
Raven put his foot on the brake and the car came to a standstill. “Say the word, sister, and back we go.”
She looked at him and shook her head. “It's okay. I dare say it won't kill me,” she said, and settled once more comfortably.
Raven sent the car shooting forward. He knew it was in the bag now.
Neither of them spoke for some time. The Chrysler tore through the night, ripping miles off the State Highway. As the hands of the dashboard clock crept on the night grew colder. Both of them began to feel stiff and chilly.
Raven said, “Just ahead is Williamsburg. I guess we'll stop there for a drink.”
Marie rubbed her bare arms. “I'll get a coat out when we get there,” she said.
In ten minutes they reached the town and Raven stopped the car outside a small all?wood hotel. He went round to the boot and helped her get out a light dust?coat. He also took out a rug.
They went into the hotel together. The clock was just striking a quarter to twelve. They went into a deserted lobby and ordered coffee and rum from a startled negro waiter.
“Tired?” Raven asked, as they sipped the steaming coffee.
She shook her head. “We'll go on.” She was very decided about it. Raven grinned to himself.
They got up to go when they had finished. She said, “Shall I drive?”
He nodded. “Sure, if you want to. We'll go on to Columbia, then maybe we'll get some sleep.”
She bit her lip. “Couldn't you sleep now? Then we could drive all the time.”
“So we could,” he said. “You're sure in a hurry to get there, ain't you?”
And he followed her out to the car.
19
HOGARTY SAID, “Think it's Raven?”
Jay and he stared down at the battered Goshawk. Two cops who stood in the room watched them with bored eyes. They never had much use for Federal Agents.
Jay shrugged. “It might be.”
“Let's go over the ground again,” Hogarty said, turning from the bed. “The girl downstairs says that the guy who had this room never went out. Goshawk always took up his meals. No one else in the hotel ever saw him. That points to Raven, don't it?”
Again Jay shrugged. “Maybe,” he said.
“Then the girl over the way. How does she fit in?”
“Suppose we talk to the kid again?”
They went downstairs, where a round?eyed maid stood waiting. Hogarty jerked his head. “Come inside here, sister, an' let's go through with it again. Your name's Alice Cohen, ain't it?”
The girl nodded.
“Your boss sent you across to the apartment house opposite to ask after a certain Marie Leroyright?”
Again she nodded.
“Well, go on.”
“He wanted to find out who she was. The landlady told me. She was a dancer who wanted to go to Hollywood.”
“Why should this guy Goshawk want to know that?”
“I don't know. He didn't say.”
“You never saw the guy who had that room?”
“No, but Mr. Goshawk sent me out for some tinted spectacles and a bottle of hair bleach. He didn't use them himself. I got to thinking they were for this fella who had the room.”
Hogarty and Jay exchanged glances.
“I see,” Hogarty said. “Anythin' else.”
“I heard Mr. Goshawk arrange about buying a Chrysler car. I was surprised, because Mr. Goshawk was always tight with his dough. I thought he was steppin' out a bit.”
“All right, baby, you're doin' fine.” Hogarty was excited. “I'll talk to you again in a while. Just stick around.”
When she had gone he turned to Jay excitedly. “It looks like it. The troopers at the west barricade report that a blond guy with his wife passed through in a two?seater Chrysler.” He checked himself from a note?book. “They say the girl was wearing a red dress with pinhead white spots. Let's go over an' find out if that's the dress this Leroy dame was wearing. If it is, we'll get after them. They're heading for Hollywood by the U.S. Highway 40.”
Jay followed him out of the hotel.
20
RAVEN said, “We'll stop at Odessa for the night.”
Marie clenched her fists, but said nothing. The continuous driving had unnerved both of them, and Raven had lost patience. He wasn't going to drive like this day and night, with her sitting at his side. What the hell did she think? She wasn't just goin' to sit around all day and all night, letting him take her free of expense all the way to Hollywood. It was time she paid for her trip.
“It's a tough little town,” he said, “but it'll do for the night. We'll stop again at Kansas City. You'll like that.”
She said, “It'll take us weeks to get to Hollywood.”
“Not after tonight it won't,” he said with a little grin. “Time'll go fast enough after tonight.”
She looked at him uneasily, but said nothing. A few minutes later they drove into Odessa.
Raven stopped at a petrol station and had his tank filled. He asked where a hotel was, and then drove in the direction indicated.
As they got out of the car he said, “Mr. and Mrs. Young, baby, an' don't forget it.”
She walked into the lobby without answering. A negro came out at a run and took their bags. Raven went over and signed the register. The clerk blotted the ink, looked at the name, gave a little start, and glanced up at Raven searchingly.
“Anythin' wrong?” Raven asked, his eyes suddenly going hard.
The clerk shook his head. “Quite okay, sir,” he said. “You've omitted to say where you've come from.”
Raven took up the pen and scribbled “Jefferson City', then he turned away.
“A double room?” the clerk asked.
Marie stiffened.
“Sure,” Raven said, smiling at her. “An' a double bed.”
There was no elevator, and they followed the negro up two flights of stairs.
“These hick hotels give me a pain,” Raven said.
Marie found she couldn't answer him. Her heart was beating wildly, and she felt a little sick.
They went into a large, shabbily furnished room. The big iron double bed took up a lot of room. When the negro got his tip he left them with a broad grin.
Raven took off his hat and dust?coat and yawned. “How do you like it?” he asked, looking round.
“I think it's horribly sordid,” Marie said with a little shudder. “Mr. Young, must we go through with this?
You could have given me a single room, couldn't you?”
Raven grinned at her. “Sure I could.”
“You said it was business. You said I didn't have anything to worry about. Can't you see this is all horribly sordid?”
