“If that’s the way you feel about it.”
“I’m on my way.”
I walked out of the office, along the corridor to the elevator. I rode down to the ground
floor and tramped across the lobby to the terrace. Someone spoke to me, but I didn’t look to
see who it was. I kept right on. The Buick was waiting at the foot of the terrace. I got in and
drove down the carriageway. The guards opened the gates as soon as they saw me. I was
doing seventy before I hit the highway.
247 Coral Boulevard was a sprawling mansion that had been converted into apartments. I
took a creaking elevator to the fourth floor and walked down a corridor to a door on which
the numbers 247c were picked out in white paint against a glossy apple-green background.
I leaned against the bell-push. She had the door open before I could really get any weight
into it: a blonde, slim lovely, with arched eyebrows that weren’t her own, a figure you only
see in Esquire and an invitation in her eyes.
“You must have moved,” she said. “Come on in.”
She was wearing one of those house-coat things. The way it set off her figure was nobody’s
business.
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We went into a small room that was cluttered up with a settee, two armchairs, a radio and a
table. You couldn’t have swung even a Manx cat in it. She sat on the settee and I sat beside
her.
We looked at each other. I had an idea she wasn’t going to be difficult to handle.
“Have you found another job yet?” I asked.
“No. Want to give me one?” She crossed her legs, showing me a knee that might have
interested me before I met Ginny, but which I scarcely looked at now.
“I want the combination of the safe in Reisner’s office. Louis said you knew it. That’s why
I’m here.”
“Well, you certainly don’t believe in wasting time,” she said, and smiled. “What makes you
think I’ll give it to you?”
“I’m just hoping. You don’t seem surprised.”
She leaned forward and dug a long finger into my chest.
“I’m surprised you haven’t been before. I was expecting you, handsome. Your type doesn’t
sit in a room all day with a safe full of money without getting ideas. What do you intend to do
- skin her?”
“She promised me a little dough, but she’s changed her mind. I’m pulling out and I’m
hoping to take what she owes me.”
“What makes you think I’ll help you?”
“I have no reason to think you will, but there’s no harm in trying.”
She leaned closer.
“Don’t be so stand-offish. I could be persuaded. I was always a sucker for muscular men.”
I kissed her. It was like getting snarled up in a meat-mincer.
After a while she pushed me away and drew in a deep breath.
“Hmmm, not bad. With a little tuition and patience you could be good.”
I ran my fingers through my hair, wiped the lipstick off my mouth and took a sly look at the
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clock on the overmantel. It showed five minutes after five.
“I don’t want to hurry this, but I’ll have to,” I said.
“Do you think you’ll get away with it?” She had opened a powder compact and was
restoring her face.
“I’ll have a try.”
