Long black hair was let down luxuriously on her shoulders. Her face was beautiful and cruel. Barbarically beautiful and savagely cruel. A hell of a combination.
Anyhow, there she was. Lying on the couch waiting for me. Waiting — with the stage set for the effect the spectacle was supposed to work on the overwrought nerves of mere men coming into her presence the first time.
She was watching me from beneath incredibly long lashes veiling elongated eyes. She said throatily:
“So you’re Barlow?”
Her voice was part of the stage presentation. It was as heavy with allure as was the incense.
I said, “That’s right,” and went toward her. The only article of furniture in the room was the couch she lay on.
She said, “Sit down by my side, Ed Barlow,” letting slim fingers droop over the side of the couch toward a pile of silk cushions.
I sat on them. It brought my head level with hers. A slow smile curved her lips. The warm breath of her was on mine. I looked into her eyes and everything else faded away. They grew to enormous proportions. I was shaken as no woman has ever shaken me before. Her fingers touched my cheek, lingeringly.
Still looking into her eyes, I said: “You’re Sandra?” I’m afraid it was more a gulp than a question.
She didn’t answer. Her gaze was brooding. Inviting.
I got up and turned my back on her. It was the hardest thing I ever did. I said: “I’ve come to talk business with you. Didn’t Stormy tell you?”
“Sit down. We can talk business... afterward.”
I swung about and looked at her. “If I take hold of you, you’ll know you’ve been taken hold of.”
A shiver went down the length of her body beneath the silk covering. She said: “Men take what I give them thankfully.”
I was getting used to the incense. Enough accustomed to it so I could make a try at thinking things out. I had sense enough to know I wouldn’t get very far by giving up to the impulse she aroused in me. It was easy to see the terrific hold she’d get on a man who gave up to her.
I said: “You’re nothing but another woman to me. Stripped, you wouldn’t be any different from hundreds of others I’ve known. What the hell have you got to offer that I should be thankful about?”
Hell glittered in her eyes. I went on because I knew it was the only way I could break down the spell the room and Sandra had put on me:
“I came here to talk business.”
The hell-light didn’t go out of her eyes. “Stormy told me. He did not tell me you were like this.”
“He wouldn’t have told you anything if he’d known what I really wanted.”
“No?”
“No. Because if I have my way, Stormy will bounce out on his ear.”
“And you, possibly, could be persuaded to take his place?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Your layout needs a man to take hold.”
“You think well of Mr. Barlow, do you not?” Her eyes were veiled, her voice suavely curious. There was an undertone of menace beneath the suavity.
“Not as well,” I told her, “as you will if you let yourself get acquainted with me.”
She seemed to ponder that a moment. “Perhaps I can use you.”
“No you can’t. I’m not a bird that can be used.”
Hell came flashing back into her eyes. “Aren’t you rather presumptuous?”
I said, “Hell,” disgustedly and let it go at that.
Her fingers were clawed toward my face and she said in a choked voice: “You’re either a fool or you don’t know what can happen to you.”
I laughed at her and that was that.
A green light glowed on the wall above her head. She held up her hand and pressed a button. A ray of white light was focussed on a slide at the foot of her bed. I looked at it and saw the reception room below where I had left Stormy.
Stormy was walking away from the row of buttons on the wall. Two figures stood in the doorway. A man and woman.
As my eyes accustomed themselves to looking at the slide, I recognized the couple. Herman Blattscomb and Cherry.
Sandra spoke in her normal voice. “You may bring them up to me.”
I saw Cherry and Blattscomb jump and look all around them, and realized that Sandra had a trick electrical device that reproduced her voice in the room below.
Stormy escorted them to the elevator, followed them in, and the panel slid shut. Sandra pressed the button that shut off the light on the slide. She said:
“This should be an interesting meeting, don’t you think, Ed Barlow?”
Chapter 18
I didn’t say anything. I didn’t see that there was a hell of a lot to be said. It looked as though Cherry and Blattscomb would be having enough to say to fill in all the gaps.
I moved nearer Sandra and saw she was watching me with triumph or something else in her eyes. It was as though she wanted to look triumphant but couldn’t quite make the grade.
I heard the panel slide back outside and Cherry and the lawyer get out of the elevator. There was a slithery movement beyond the drapes; a voice, muffled and indistinct.
The drapes parted and the nude odalisque ushered Cherry and Blattscomb in.
Cherry’s eyes lingered on the girl, then went to me. Blattscomb kept looking at the girl until she dropped the drapes behind them.
Then he wet his lips and looked at Sandra. Then at me. I’d known all along that I didn’t like the man, but I hadn’t realized how much I didn’t like him.
My fist sounded good and felt good smashing into his face. There was just the smashing sound, then a little rustle as he crumpled to the floor in a heap.
I swung around to face Cherry with my fist still doubled. I heard Sandra say behind me: “You can’t get away with that. I’ll...”
I kept on spinning around and she was reaching for a button. I caught a white forearm that had muscles in it like a toe dancer’s leg. I dragged her off the lounge and pushed her away from the buttons. There were red marks on her arm when I let go.
I said: “You can call your wolves later. You’re going to listen to me first.”
She stood near Cherry, breathing hard. I had a hunch that being manhandled was a new thing in Sandra’s life. She wasn’t the kind to scream and she knew she couldn’t get past me to call for help.
Cherry had a funny, twisted smile on her face when I looked past Sandra to her. Fleetingly, it seemed to me I glimpsed approval in her eyes. Damned fleetingly. It vanished in an instant and she was all the way against me. She opened her mouth to speak but I beat her to the gun.
I put it straight to Sandra: “This shyster and girl are trying to horn in on your game. They’re burned up because I know too much about them to let them get to first base when I start running things for you. Without being on the inside, I can tell you they’re here to queer me.”
Sandra looked into my eyes a moment, then turned on Cherry: “Stormy said you insisted on seeing me personally to tell me something I should know about Barlow.”
The little smile came back to Cherry’s lips. This time, it was an acknowledgment of checkmate. Her eyes wandered to Blattscomb. He hadn’t moved nor uttered a sound since hitting the floor.
“My chief witness is indisposed.”
“Don’t quibble,” Sandra raged at her. “Tell your story and get out.”
Cherry’s head came up. Her eyes were level with Sandra’s. “Under the circumstances, I think I prefer to get out without telling my story and being called a liar.”
I laughed with as much mockery as I could put into a laugh. Neither of the women heard me. Sandra was all cat. Her eyes were green and it didn’t take a strong imagination to detect her back arching. “Tell me or I’ll slap it put of you.”