My angel got up and pulled the filmy housecoat around her like a veil. 'Hell, I'll get it myself. This leading the life of a cripple is a pain. Everybody treats me like an invalid. The nurse is the compliments of the management hoping I don't sue them for neglecting to keep their property properly protected. She's a good cook, otherwise I would have told them to keep her.'
She walked over to a sideboard and I couldn't take my eyes off her. None of this fancy hip-swinging business; just a nice plain walk that could do more than all the fancy wriggling a stripper could put out. Her legs brushing the sheer nylon of the housecoat made it crackle and cling to her body until every curve was outlined in white with pink undertones.
She had tawny brown hair that fell loosely about her shoulders, with eyes that matched perfectly, and a mouth that didn't have to go far to meet mine. Marsha must have just come from a bath, because she smelt fresh and soapy without any veneer of perfume.
When she turned around she had two glasses in her hands and she looked even prettier coming toward me than going away. Her breasts were precocious things that accentuated the width of her shoulders and the smooth contours of her stomach, rising jauntily against the nylon as though they were looking for a way out.
I thought she was too busy balancing the glasses to notice what I was doing, but I was wrong. She handed me a highball and said, 'Do I pass?'
'What?'
'Inspection. Do I pass?'
'If I could get my mouth unpuckered I'd let out a long low whistle,' I told her. 'I'm getting tired of seeing dames in clothes that make them look like a tulip having a hard time coming up. With all the women wearing crew cuts with curled ends these days it's a pleasure to see one with hair for a change.'
'That's a left-handed compliment if ever I heard one. What a lover you'd make.'
I looked at her a long time. 'Don't fool yourself.'
She looked at me just as long. 'I'm not.'
We raised the glasses in a silent toast and sipped the top off them. 'Now, Mr. Hammer...'
'Mike.'
Her lips came apart in a smile. 'Mike. It fits you perfectly. What was it you wanted to see me about?'
'First I want to know why you seem so damn familiar. Even with the shiner you remind me of somebody I've seen before.'
Her hands smoothed the front of the housecoat. 'Thank you for remembering.' She let her eyes drift to the piano that stood in the corner and the picture on top of it. I picked up my drink and walked over to it and this time I did let out a long low whistle.
It was a big shot of Marsha in a pre-Civil War dress that came up six inches above her waist before nature took over. The makeup artist had to do very little to make her the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She had been younger when it was taken, but me... I'd take Marsha like she was now. Time had only improved her. Almost hidden by the frame was a line that said the photo was released by the Allerton Motion Picture Company.
Marsha was familiar because I had seen her plenty of times before. So have you. Ten years ago she was an up-and-coming star in Hollywood.
'Yesteryear, those were the days,' she said.
I put the picture back and sat down opposite her so I could see her better. She was well worth looking at and she didn't have to cross her legs to attract attention, either. They were nice legs, too.
'It's a wonder I forgot you,' I said.
'Most people do. The public has a short memory.'
'How come you quit?'
'Oh, it's a sad but brief story. Perhaps you read about it. There was a man, a bit player but a charming heel if ever I saw one. He played up to me to further his own career by picking up a lot of publicity. I was madly in love with him until I found that he was making a play for my secretary in his spare time. In my foolishness I made an issue of it and he told me how he was using me. So, I became the woman scorned and said if he saw her again I'd see that he was blacklisted off every lot in Hollywood. At the time I carried enough potential importance to let me get away with it. Anyway, he told my secretary that he'd never see her after that and she promptly went out and drove her car off a cliff.
'You know Hollywood. It was bad publicity and it knocked me back plenty. Before they could tear my contract up I resigned and came back East where I stuck my savings in investments that allow me to live like I want to.'
I made a motion with my head to take in the room. The place held a fortune in well-chosen furniture and the pictures on the wall weren't any cheap copies either. Every one of them must have cost four figures. If this was plain living, I'd like to take a crack at it myself.
I pulled out a smoke and she snapped the catch on a table lighter, holding the flame out to me. 'Now... you didn't come up here for the story of my life,' she said. Her eyes danced for me.
'Nope, I want to know about the robbery.'
'There's little to tell, Mike. I left here a few minutes before seven to pick up one of the Little Theater members who broke his arm in a fall, drove him home, stopped off at a friend's for a while then came in about a quarter to twelve. As I was about to turn on the lights I saw the beam of a flashlight inside here and like a fool ran right in. For a second I saw this man outlined against the window and the next thing I knew I was flat on my back. I got up and tried to scream, then he hit me again and the world turned upside down. I was still there on the floor when the police came.'
'I got that much of the story from Captain Chambers. Did they tell you the guy is dead?'
'No, they haven't gotten in touch with me at all. What happened?'
