I said, “You hold me, and when you finally turn me in to get a reward I’ll tell the police all about how you kept me here.”
He laughed and said, “Your word isn’t going to be worth a damn now. You’ll be trying to tell the police you didn’t kill the girl, and your fingerprints will show all over the back of the book. The lipstick smears were all over your handkerchief. Anything you tell the police isn’t going to do you a damn bit of good. I can make a trade all right, and I think I can collect some dough.”
“Well, don’t think you’re going to leave me here with him,” the girl said, “I…”
“Shut up, Babe. I’ve got to do a little heavy thinking. What did you want those pictures for, Lam?”
“I was working on a case.”
“What kind of a case?”
“Oh, just one of those love-pact things! A murder and suicide.”
“That one out in the motor court?” the girl asked.
I nodded.
She was looking at me with wide, round eyes. She said, “This girl went out to the motor court with you, and you registered as husband and wife?”
“That’s what the police say.”
“You wanted to get her in there so you—” she said. “You wanted to get her close up and tie a stocking around her neck, and…”
“Shut up, Babe. Pour that gravy out, and rinse out the pan, then put some eggs in. Sure you don’t want any, Lam?”
I shook my head.
“Okay. Just four eggs, Babe.”
“I’m not hungry any more,” the girl said. “I feel sick to my stomach.”
“Get those eggs in the frying pan,” Lowry commanded, moving threateningly towards her.
She shut up and started cooking.
Lowry said, musingly, “This is going to take a little figuring.”
“If you think you’re going to move one step out of this apartment while he’s here, you’re crazy,” she said.
“That’s what’s bothering me,” Lowry admitted. “How I can swing this thing. I want to get hold of Bob Elgin, but — I don’t want him to find you here.”
There was silence for a while. Then Lowry said, “I could give you a gun, Babe. You could hold it on him. You could sit right there, and…”
“I tell you, I won’t be in this room with him when you’re not here. I don’t care how many guns you give me.” Lowry tried thinking things over.
I said, “You could tag along with me, Lowry, and make some dough.”
“How come?”
I said, “Why don’t you grow up? You don’t want to be a night-club bouncer all your life.”
“It ain’t what you want in this world that makes you fat. It’s what you get,” Lowry said.
“Perhaps you and I could get our heads together.”
The girl put breakfast on the table. Lowry started eating.
“You watch him,” Babe said indignantly to Lowry. “He’s smooth. You start making any kind of a deal with him and I walk out of your life so fast you just hear me whiz as I go through the door.”
“What’s the deal?” Lowry asked me.
I said, “There’s eighty thousand dollars’ insurance at stake. The insurance company would like to refund one year’s premium and be in the clear. It would hate like hell to be stuck for eighty thousand bucks.”
“Who wouldn’t?” Lowry interjected, shovelling ham into his mouth.
I said, “I’m going to stick them. I was working on that angle of the case. I went to see the girl, but she was dressing. She told me to wait in the other room while she got some clothes on. Someone followed me. I think it was you.”
“Not him,” the girl declared. “You can’t pull that stuff on us. I was with him every minute of the time from the time you stole our car. We had to flag a passing motorist, get some petrol for your car, drive it into town, and park it and then take a taxi out here.”
I said, “Somebody else knew about that address.”
“What address?”
“The girl’s address. The one that was murdered.”
He grinned and said, “You’ve got a nice story there. Let’s see how it goes. You got in the girl’s bedroom and she was dressing. Is that right?”
“That’s right.”
“And she kissed you while she was undressed?”
I nodded.
“And then you were too modest to sit in the room while she was dressing, and she was too bashful to have you in there, so she sent you into her sister’s bedroom.”
“Believe it or not, that’s it,” I said.
He laughed. “What would you think of a girl like that, Babe?” he asked the redhead.
“Don’t drag me into this,” she declared. “When I think of the chances a girl takes! Gosh, to think of that poor kid!”
I said, “I’m going to change my mind and have some eggs after all. Don’t bother. I’ll cook them.”
I started to get up out of the chair.
“You sit right where you are,” Lowry said, “and don’t make a move. Babe, if he wants a couple of eggs, cook them for him.”
She pouted, and said, “I don’t want to cook for any sex killer. Why don’t you let him cook them himself?”
“He got hungry too suddenly,” Lowry said, his eyes cunning. “He wanted to do the cooking. Let him get hold of a frying pan full of hot grease and you know what could happen. He could fling that in my eyes and then what would happen to you?”
“Oh, oh!” she said.
I said, “Suspicious, aren’t you?”
“You’re damn right I’m suspicious,” Lowry grinned. “I’ve had one experience with you. You’re smart.”
The redhead got up and cooked a couple of eggs. I sat there and watched them sputtering in the frying pan. She didn’t make a good job of cooking them. There was too much crust on the bottom and there were lots of bubbles cooked into the sides so that it was a nasty mess swimming in grease.
“Take the pepper off the table, honey,” Lowry said.
“I want pepper on my eggs.”
“I’ll pepper the eggs,” Lowry said. “You get your hands on that pepper-shaker and you might find some way of unscrewing the top and getting a fistful of pepper.
“And don’t reach for that coffee,” he said, as I started to reach for the pot of hot coffee. “I’ll pour the coffee. No, I won’t either. Babe, you pour the coffee.”
Lowry moved his chair back a few feet, and said, “Don’t make a move, Lam. Don’t try any smart stuff. I’ll be right back.”
He stepped into the other room, leaving the door open, and a moment later came back carrying a revolver. “Now,” he said, “this will get you over any ideas you might have of throwing hot coffee in my eyes.”
I choked down the greasy eggs, had some toast and coffee. The coffee was fairly good, but I was having trouble with the food.
Lowry watched me eat, and laughed. He said, “You’re having to swallow twice with every mouthful.”
“What’s the idea?” I asked. “Are you trying to criticize Babe’s cooking? I don’t seem to stand much chance of getting along, no matter what I do.”
He watched me while I finished eating the eggs and sipped my second cup of coffee.
He said. “You sit right there in that chair. No matter what happens don’t move out of that chair. Do you understand?” I yawned, and said, “It suits me all right. I was going to give your wife a hand with the dishes.”
“His wife,” the redhead said, and then laughed.
“It’s okay, Babe. Let it ride,” Lowry said.
I said, “Why do you suppose I came up here this morning, Lowry?”
“I’m damned if I know.”
“I’ve made a deal with Elgin. There’s eighty grand involved. We only get a cut of it, but it’s a nice hunk of change at that. I guess Elgin will be along pretty quick — unless he intended to cut you out. He wouldn’t do that, would he?”