Finally, from somewhere he produced a rope and managed to get it around her ankles and her wrists. And then he really gave it to her!
I thought I had been satisfied this evening. I began to get aroused. He was going to kill her for sure!
But suddenly it was all over. She shucked off the rope as though it had not existed. She said, "Was that the way it was, Mr. Boola?"
He said, "Exactly! Let's do it all again!"
Ah, well. I hadn't come here for recreation. I moved the telescope along. I was looking into Heller's sitting room. It was quite dim.
Everything was very neat except for some ice-cream dishes sitting on the bar and they were stacked just right and ready for a houseman to take. Leave it to Heller. His neatness grated on you if nothing else did!
It sure was a beautiful living room, even seen in the half-light.
I moved the telescope along. I was looking into his bedroom. It was confusing! Mirrors! For a moment I couldn't tell which was the bed and which was any one of fifty multiplying images. I found the bed. Huge, circular; enough bed for a half-dozen people.
There was Heller! Lying on his side, blond head pillowed on one upflung arm. Sleeping peacefully. Without a care in the world for all the trouble he was causing me! He was all alone in bed! Not a trace of anyone else!
And then the telescope slipped and tipped up at the ceiling mirror. Was that someone on the other pillow? A face? A small, three-dimensional face? I increased the magnification. A Voltar three-dimensional bust picture! THE COUNTESS KRAK!
I was stunned. Perhaps it was because those pictures look so lifelike despite their cloud and sky backgrounds, but it was sort of like the Countess Krak was looking at me! There she was, blond hair, gray-blue eyes, perfect features. He must have sneaked a portraitist in one night on the tug in Voltar.
He had been carrying her picture in his baggage! And there it was, lying on the pillow next to him. For some reason, I knew not why, it made me uneasy. Then I threw it off. What a dog he was, having all these women every day and still putting out Countess Krak's picture!
But that wasn't why I was here. By adjusting focus, I began to inspect closets.
He sure had a lot of clothes! And there sure were a lot of bass plugs in those cabinets! Death traps!
But the telescope couldn't comb through stacks of sweaters and other things.
One door was very tightly barred and locked. I had a ray of hope. Maybe he only locked it when he went to bed. Maybe, had I been earlier, he would have opened it.
It occurred to me that we were approaching the time when he would be writing his third report. If I got very, very lucky and got here earlier tomorrow night before he went to bed, he might be writing his report or at least have that closet open.
I resisted the temptation to look in on more diplomats at play. I went into the stairwell, locked the door, walked down to the 22nd floor and was shortly back in the street again. How easy! Nothing to it when you're Apparatus trained.
Back at the hotel, Utanc still wasn't in. But I went to bed. It had been a busy night!
I idled through the following day. I did not see Utanc, but then, I didn't expect to. I was getting conditioned to hanging around hotel rooms alone.
The afternoon papers had an item of interest. Rockecenter had roared in from a conference with kings and dictators and things in the Middle East where he had settled the world problems of energy forever until next week when the price was going up again. Nice front-page picture of him being handed a bouquet of calla lilies by Miss Peace. The photographer had had a bit of trouble shooting around and through the two or three hundred soldiers carrying cocked guns. I hadn't known he had been out of town. My luck was surely in. Tomorrow I would make an appointment and see him. But Senator Twiddle surely had been right about it being hard to get close to Delbert John Rockecenter. Those soldiers. And even while the ceremony was going on, apparently, Miss Peace was being frisked by a personal bodyguard.
As to this night's planned work, I knew that Heller would probably be up and around in his suite about nine. Earlier observations on the viewer told me that. And he was not well enough trained to know that safety lay in not repeating habit patterns.
Accordingly, I had dinner in my room and, carrying my case, at 8:45 P.M. stood once more in the lobby of the apartment house.
It had worked once. It would work twice. I boldly pushed the button of Margarita Pompom Pizzazz.
The voice on the phone. "Well?"
I opted to be charming. "I was in too much of a hurry last night. I was impolite. Could you let me in again?"
The door clicked. In I went and up I went in the elevator. I headed for the emergency exit. Her door was cracked open again.
"Roof inspector," I said.
"And?" said the voice in the door.
"And nothing," I said. "Roof inspector!"
The door really slammed!
I went up the stairwell, picked the lock and shortly there I was, training the telescope on Heller's walls.
He was up!
Unfortunately, as a swift side glance showed, the target closet was shut tight. I swivelled the telescope back. Heller was sitting on the couch reading something.
Bang-Bang was watching TV. Heller got up and got himself a Seven Up. There was a knock on the door.
Vantagio came in. He had a girl by the arm. She was in street clothes. "This is Margie," said Vantagio. "The girl I phoned up about."
"Have a seat, Vantagio," said Heller. "No, no. Busy night. Listen, kid, I just want you and Bang-Bang to break this Margie in. She just came on. She doesn't know. She's new."
Oho, so Heller broke in the new girls, did he! Oh, Krak would love to know about this!
Heller looked at the girl. "You really want to do this? It's kind of rough the first time."
The girl said, "Oh, yes! I heard you really had something big going!"
Bang-Bang said, "I'm leaving. I can only stand to do this just so often! It wears me out. I get sore!"
Vantagio said, "Shut up, Bang-Bang. Please, kid. Just one more girl. It helps their morale. The other girls feel pretty cocky when you're through with them."
Bang-Bang was trying to leave. "Stay right where you are, Bang-Bang," said Heller.
Vantagio said, "Do you want her stripped, kid?
Lying down or standing up?" He turned to the girl.
"Take off your coat and skirt." He started to help her.
Heller said, "Vantagio, you better watch it or I'll use you!"
The Sicilian got the girl's skirt off but he withdrew to the door. "No, you won't. I'm getting too old. I'm going right now," he said and left.
Heller turned to the girl. She was standing there in her slip now. She was looking at Heller adoringly. "Sit there," he said. "Now, how much experience have you had?"
The girl sat down, her knees apart. She decided she had too much on and shucked the slip over her head, leaving herself with just panties and a bra.
"Oh," she said. "A few boys in Duluth. Just high-school stuff, mainly. In a car, back of the gym. One or two professors. And my brother, of course. Nothing important."
Heller said, "Ever get battered around?"
The girl thought it over. "Oh, yeah. Once. A drunk raped me."
Heller said, "Now we're getting somewhere. What did you do?"
"I tried to hold him off and then he just knocked me out, ripped my clothes off and raped me."
"Okay, Bang-Bang," said Heller. "Start to rape her! You get started. I'll finish up."
Bang-Bang groaned. But he got up. He grabbed the girl by the arms and threw her down on the floor. He ripped her bra off. He grabbed the band of the panties and pulled them down and off and threw them away.