"Wait," I said. "I'm supposed to be questioning you, not drinking with you."
"Lord, you Yanks are conscientious," she said, filling the glasses. "So question me while we drink. A few drinks might help me remember something."
I smiled quietly to myself. "Okay." I shrugged, taking the glass she handed me. Her breasts, loose under the pale lemon blouse, moved provocatively. Lynn Delba was a hungry woman, hungry for attention, for compliments, for sex. Most hef her good years were behind her, she knew, and she'd been dancing on the rim of those desperate years when a woman realizes most of her weapons are gone. Then, like an actor unsure of himself who keeps repeating his lines, she keeps trying her weapons out to make sure she still has some, at least.
It was a sad game, a self-deluding way to keep inner confidence, but it was harmless except to her. My game was the more callous. But, hell, I wasn't here to play psychiatrist. I gave her the attention and compliments she wanted and by the way she tossed off the first drink, I knew that she was letting liquor help keep her from looking in the mirror too often. It didn't take her long before she had moved closer to me, the small points of her bra-less breasts forming tiny thrusts against the blouse.
"It was really sad about your friend, Dawsey," I said, leaning back after enough small talk. "Just when he was getting into some money and everything."
The hell with Dawsey," she said, almost savagely, as I sat beside her, my face only inches from hers. I kept letting my eyes roam up and down her legs and then linger on her breasts and yet I didn't make a move — it was driving her wild. She got up angrily and started to pour herself another drink. I moved quickly, halted her as she started to pick up the glass and spun her around. I kissed her as I pushed my hand up beneath the lemon blouse and felt the rounded bottoms of her breasts. I took one and gathered it up in my hand. Her tongue was furiously darting around my mouth and I felt her nipple already firm and erect. She was beginning to pant and writhe as I caressed her breasts when suddenly I pulled away, moving from her arms. She sat back down on the couch and tossed the blouse off over her head. I went over to her and cupped her breasts in my hands, their softness gathering itself comfortably in my palms. She had started to unbutton the shorts but I stopped her.
"I can't stay," I said. "I've got to be somewhere else in an hour."
"God, you can't go," she protested, clutching at me.
"This is what I was afraid of," I said. 'This won't help you remember anything and it's keeping me from what I have to do."
"Yes, it will," she said, holding onto me. "Believe me." I rubbed my thumbs across the firm points of her breasts, brownish points, large for the size of her breasts. She shuddered but I shook my head.
"It's just me, I guess," I said, putting a note of sadness into my voice. "I've always been like that. I've got to justify my being here, to myself at least, while I'm on the job. If you could just remember something more to tell me, something that'd help me."
I watched her eyes suddenly grow darker and she half pulled away. T can't think of anything yet," she said. "But I will." She was retreating fast. I rubbed my thumbs across her nipples again and she shuddered and came back into my arms. I got up quickly, and she fell back against the couch.
"I'll come back later tonight," I said. "If you can remember anything more, tell me. I'll phone you first. I want to come back. Just give me reason."
I put an arm around the back of her neck, half lifted her up like a doll and pressed my lips against her breasts, moving the hard, brown nipples under my teeth. She whimpered in ecstasy. Then I let her drop back and walked to the door. "Tonight," I said, pausing, watching her as she looked at me with half lowered lids, her breasts moving up and down as her breath came hard. I knew she'd been turned on and she wouldn't turn off easily. I closed the door and went down the hall and outside to the street. It would be a contest, I knew, between her hunger and her caution. I was betting on her hunger, unless she got someone else to turn it off for her. That was always a possibility. I'd find out later.
I'd spent the better part of the afternoon nursing Lynn Delba along and I stopped in at a restaurant for a bite to eat while it grew dark. When I'd finished, I headed for The Ruddy Jug. I sauntered in and met Judy's eyes as I walked over to sit down at one of the tables in the center of the floor. My guarded glance swept by her, and I smiled inwardly as she didn't show even a flicker of expression. The two goons who'd tossed me out were at their table in the corner. They didn't remember me except as a face they'd seen at the place before. I hadn't made any real trouble for them and it was only the really troublesome ones they bothered to remember. I ordered a rye and water, looked the place over, and sat back.
Judy was doing her job, moving from table to table and booth to booth, being charmingly pleasant and attractive, her low-necked dress a burnt orange this time. I seemed to pay no attention to her, a silent, morose type, intent on my own thoughts and my own drinking. I ordered another rye, then another as the time went by.
The place had filled up more and was a cacophony of tinkling piano, raucous laughter and loud conversation. Judy was leaning against the bar. Suddenly I saw the man threading his way toward her. Even through the smoke of the place I caught the "burning eyes" of the man and his face, hawk-like with the beaked shape of his prominent nose. He halted at the bar beside the girl and spoke to her casually in low tones. She answered and I saw her shake her head a few times. She seemed to be telling him that no new propects had been around. I saw him shake hands with her and I caught the folding money she palmed as she strolled away. They were still paying her to be contact girl for them. Good, they didn't suspect her of anything. But hawk-face could answer a lot of questions, I knew. I started for him, moving casually toward the bar.
He saw me as I approached, took one look, and streaked across the big room, moving alongside the bar. As a rat doesn't need to be told an approaching terrier means trouble, he had instinctively known I spelled the same for him. I saw he was heading for a side door at the far end of the bar. I was hampered by having to move around and between the tables while he streaked in a straight line for it. He was gone from sight when I reached the door. I ran into a parking lot and heard the sound of an engine roar into life. Headlights blinked on and I saw a jeep leap from its place and roar toward me.
"Stop!" I yelled at him. He veered for me and I got ready to leap back. He didn't see the cold glint of Wilhelmina's barrel in my hand. I leaped backwards as the jeep swung to hit me, firing as I hit the ground. It was an easy shot and the bullet landed right on target. Too much on target, in fact. He was dead before the jeep came to a grinding halt as it bounced along the bumpers of a row of parked cars. I pulled him from the jeep, went through his pockets and found he had nothing to identify himself. Other people were coming from The Ruddy Jug now, and I leaped into the jeep and roared out of the lot.
I kept going until I was a good distance away. Then I halted and examined the vehicle, going over it from tires to roof. The glove compartment held nothing, and the only thing I found was a branding iron in the rear of it. That, and the orange-red dust all over the tires, sticking in every crevice of the treads and in the wheels themselves.
I got back into the jeep and headed west, out of Townsville and toward the outback. I was betting he hadn't come from too damned far, within two or three hours drive. There were plenty of ranches in that range.
Once outside of Townsville, the Australian country grew wild and rugged very quickly. The vast outback, farther on, supported few working ranches because of its aridness, and when they'd told Judy they came from the «outback», they were using the term loosely. I had the branding iron and I'd use it to locate the ranch.