out, and I was suddenly aware of a drop or two of sweat running down my face from inside my hat.
I turned the handle and pushed. The door opened heavily and sluggishly, but it opened. Something behind the door jumped against the panels and sent my heart jumping like a frog on a hot stove. I looked into the empty bathroom, saw the soiled pink bath, the mussed-up towels, the loofah, the cake of toilet soap and the half- squeezed tube of toothpaste.
I knew she was behind the door. She had to be.
I stepped into the bathroom, my nerves creeping up my spine. She was there all right: hanging from a hook in the door, in a blue, crumpled nightdress, her knees drawn up, her head on one side, the knot of her dressing- gown cord carefully under her right ear, the cord imbedded in the flesh of her neck.
I touched her hand.
It was cold and hard and lifeless.
CHAPTER FOUR
I
I LOOKED up and down the corridor. There was no one in sight. A faint and far-off sound of movement told me that at least some of the occupants behind the many doors were beginning to greet the day; even if they went no farther than rolling over in bed.
I moved cautiously out of Room 23 and closed the door. Then I took off my hat and wiped my face with my handker-chief. I lit a cigarette and drew in a lungful of smoke. That helped a little, but not much. What I needed was a large whisky, neat, and in a hurry.
I stepped across the corridor to the redhead’s door. On the left-hand panel with a card that read:
I tapped with my finger-nails on the door, making no more noise than a mouse makes when it is nibbling at die wainscot-ting, but it was loud enough.
The door opened about eight inches and Miss Dreadon peered at me through the opening. She seemed to have lost her
‘Well?’
Her big green eyes were suspicious and watchful.
I decided to waste no time and to talk to her in a language she would understand and appreciate.
‘I want to buy a little information,’ I said, and pushed my card at her. ‘Twenty dollars buys ten minutes at my rates: nice clean bills and secrecy guaranteed.’
She read the card with that pained expression people usually wear who don’t read a great deal and are still bothered by long words. She had to make an obvious effort not to move her lips while she spelt out the letters to herself.
Then she opened the door a couple more notches and push-ed the card back at me.
‘Let’s see die money.’
A simple, direct soul, I thought, who gets straight to the point of interest and doesn’t bother to ask unnecessary questions.
I took out my bill-fold and showed her two crisp clean ten-dollar bills. I didn’t give them to her. I just showed them to her.
She eyed them the way a small child eyes Santa Claus’s sack, and opened the door.
‘Come on in. I don’t care who you are, but those berries certainly make my palms itch. Sure it’s information you want?’
I stepped past her into a room a little larger than 23, and much more pleasant and comfortable. There was a divan, a settee, two armchairs, a couple of expensive Chinese rugs on the grey fitted carpet and a bowl of red-and- yellow begonias on a table in the window recess.
I put my hat down on a chair and said I was sure it was information I wanted.
She held out a white hand with dark red, polished nails.
‘Let’s have half. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but it’s a good principle. You can have a drink if you like, or coffee.’
I gave her one of the ten-dollar bills, thinking this case was costing me plenty. I seemed to be spending the entire morning giving my money away.
She folded the bill and hid it in her brassiere as I said a Scotch would adequately meet the case.
She wasn’t niggardly about it. She gave me the bottle and glass and told me to help myself.
‘Give me a second to get my coffee.’
By the time she was back I was two drinks ahead of her.
She set a tray on the table near her and flopped on the settee, showing me a pair of long, slender legs that might have given me ideas if my head wasn’t already full of ideas of a different kind. Seeing the direction of my studied stare, she flicked the wrap into place and raised her eyebrows.
‘What are you: a private dick or something?’
‘Something like that. Not quite, but it’ll do.’
‘I knew it. As soon as I saw you, I knew you weren’t the usual prowler. You’ve got nice eyes. Sure you wouldn’t like a little fun?’
I started to make a courteous speech, but she stopped me with a wave of her hand and a wide, friendly grin.
‘Forget it, honey, I was only kidding. It’s not often I get a good-looking man in here who doesn’t start climbing up the wall immediately the door shuts. It’s a novelty, and I like it. What do you want to know?’
I made a third drink.
‘The subject of the inquiry is Gracie Lehmann. Do you know her?’
Miss Dreadon’s face hardened.
‘For crying out loud! You’re not wasting good money to find out about
The Scotch had set me up. In fact it was so good it nearly, set me up on my ear.
‘I’m working for a client who’s in trouble with the police. Gracie could have cleared him. No other reason.’
‘Well, go and ask her. Why come to me?’
‘I doubt if she’s going to be much help now. She’s dead.’
She started and spilt some coffee on her bare knee, she swore softly under her breath, put down the coffee cup and wiped her knee with her handkerchief.
‘Must you say things like that?’ Then, as I didn’t say anything, but looked at her, she went on, ‘You don’t mean she’s really dead?’
‘She’s dead all right. I’ve just been in there. She’s hanging at the back of the bathroom door.’
She gave a little shudder, grimaced, gave another little shudder and reached for the whisky bottle.
‘She was a stupid little fool, but I didn’t think she’d be that stupid. The trouble with her was she couldn’t leave reefers alone.’
‘I guessed that. I could smell the stuff in the room.’ I took out my cigarette case and offered it
She took one and we lit up, then she poured a shot of whisky into her coffee and drank it.
‘Now I’ve got the jitters,’ she confessed. ‘I hate hearing things like that.’
‘Did you see her last night?’
‘Yes; I’m always running into her.’
‘When?’
‘Oh, when I went out to dinner she was coming in, and we met again on the stairs when I returned. She
