“That was lucky,” Randolph agreed warmly. They were swinging around Bayfront Park now, and a moment later Shayne parked in front of the side entrance to his hotel and they got out.
He knocked on the closed door of his apartment, and was surprised to hear Lucy’s voice telling them to come in.
She was seated alone in a big chair in the center of the room, wearing a coral dressing-gown and a neat bandage on her head which was almost concealed by skillfully fluffed brown hair. She smiled gaily when Shayne entered, and began breathlessly:
“Now, don’t scold me, Mike. I feel perfectly all right. I sent the nurse home-” She stopped abruptly when she saw Earl Randolph enter behind her employer.
Shayne said, “Earl has things to say to you. Don’t be too angry with him because he’s paying for all your medical attention and double your wages while you’re convalescing.” He crossed to her and touched her pale forehead caressingly with his finger tips for a moment, and then turned aside to let Randolph make his explanations.
He paused at the table to glance in the drawer and assure himself that the bulky envelope of twenty-dollar bills was still intact, and then hummed a little tune of contentment as he got down a cognac bottle and poured out two drinks.
