Crane through wide-open eyes, but he didn t move. His neck looked curiously bent; blood trickled from his mouth.
One of the Negroes said, 'Wham!'
The other corrected him. 'Wham! And Wham!'
'Are you coming?' Delia Young asked.
CHAPTER IX
There was green carpet on the upstairs hall floor. There were many doors. There was a stink of incense and cheap perfume. Delia Young entered the next-to-last room on the right without glancing back to see if Crane was following.
'Close the door,' she said over her shoulder.
The room obviously had been furnished by a department store. It looked like display window No. 3; Moderne, in green. There was a low davenport finished in a material that looked like green-stained burlap, and on it were three tan-and-absinthe pillows. The pale rug on the floor was about the shade of creamed spinach. Two white lacquered chairs had seats covered with the green-stained burlap, if that was what it was.
Delia had gone into an inside room. Beside a bookcase filled with novels in bright wrappers was a white cabinet. He found a bottle of whisky, some seltzer and two glasses in it. He poured himself a drink.
Delia called, 'Mix me one, too.'
He did, then sat on the davenport. He was worried about Lefty s neck. He wondered if it had had a steel tube in it, perhaps because of a bullet wound, and if Delia s fist could have jolted the tube. Then Lefty would probably choke to death. He wondered if Delia had purposely hit the man s neck. He didn t feel so good about Delia. He took a drink of the whisky.
He had almost finished the glass when she appeared. She was wearing pajamas. They were of silk, entirely black except for a DY woven in white thread over her left breast. She had put on a diamond bracelet.
She got her glass and sat down beside him on the davenport, touching his thigh with her elbow. She smelled of chypre. Her eyes were underlined with violet mascara.
'I like you, Arthur,' she said.
'I certainly hope so. I d hate to have you punch me.'
'Lefty had it coming to him.'
'But won t he tell Slats?'
'No. That monkey s been trying to promote me for months. He knows what I d tell Slats if he crossed me.'
When she bent toward him a slit appeared between two of the buttons on her pajama coat, and he could see her white stomach. A woman was laughing shrilly down the hall. She finished the whisky.
'Want a real rear?' she inquired.
'Laudanum?'
'Yeah. A dash with the next whisky.'
'I m tall now.'
'I didn t think you d be yellow, Arthur.'
'All right.'
She patted his thigh and went to the cabinet. Someone knocked and Crane started to get up. 'No,' she said. She went to the door, opened it a crack. A man s voice said something in a whisper.
'Like hell,' Delia Young said.
The man whispered again.
'Screw, Frog.' Delia slammed the door. 'Frenchy Duval don t think you ought to be up here.'
'Maybe he s right.'
'I m of age, ain t I?'
This was obvious, particularly as one of the two buttons permitting a partial view of her stomach had become unfastened. She came over and gave him a glass. 'Try this, Arthur.'
He did, and it was terrible. It tasted like cough medicine; it tasted like embalming fluid. It was really awful. He drained the glass.
'Not bad,' he said.
Her purple eyes were surprised. 'Say, Arthur, you can handle it.'
'Sure,' he said. 'Can t your boy chum?'
'Who?'
'Slats.'
'That mick!' She laughed, slapped his thigh. 'He don t drink nothing but bubbles, and very little of them He s a businessman.'
'I hear he s tough, though.'
'I don t know.' Her eyes were contemptuous. 'He took a beating from old Simeon March without putting up a fight.'
Crane was interested. 'How?' he asked.
Delia told him. It happened six years back, she said, when Slats was trying to go straight. He got the state distribution agency for both March products, washing machines and refrigerators, when the man who had it retired, and was doing well until Simeon March heard he d done time and kicked him out.
'He took it with his tail between his legs,' she said. 'He just quit trying to be straight.'
Crane asked, 'What had he been in jail for?'
'The alky business.'
'He s been in since, hasn t he?'
She tasted her drink, made a face. 'A year on an income-tax rap. He got out two summers ago.'
Crane felt pleased. That fitted with the notes in Richard s house. He wondered if Slats had known about Richard. That would have given him a double motive for the murder: Delia s betrayal and revenge on Simeon March.
'He didn t like the March family, then?' he asked tentatively.
'You don t know the half of it.'
The half of it proved to be very interesting. After Donovan had been fired by Simeon he and Talmadge March and Dr Woodrin, Delia said, had decided to start a night club. Woodrin and Talmadge were to put up eight thousand dollars apiece, and Donovan was to manage it. Woodrin was in because he wanted to make money; Talmadge for the fun of being a night-club operator.
But it had been running only a week when John March found out Talmadge was a backer and told Simeon March, who made him drop out.
'They couldn t have a March in a business like that,' Delia explained.
The withdrawal of Talmadge diminished the capital, and the club failed. Donovan was very bitter about it, Delia said. He finally got a gambler from Chicago to back him in another club and made a lot of money, but he still hated Simeon March. She said he was always talking about killing him.
This was pretty good, Crane thought. It pointed to Donovan, but it pointed even more to Talmadge March. He murdered Richard because of Alice March; John because he meddled in his business. And, of course, each death meant more money for Talmadge. And he was trying to implicate Carmel with the odor of gardenias.
'What happened to Woodrin?' he asked.
'He lost his dough, too. He was almost as sore as Slats.'
No wonder Slats was angry, Crane thought. First Simeon March forced him out of legitimate business. And then John March broke up his night-club venture. And Richard March stole his girl, though perhaps he didn t know that.
'Does Slats hate all the Marchs?' he asked, trying to find out about Richard.
'Just Simeon.'
'If he s so tough I d think he d get Simeon.'
