He came toward the couch with both his hands outstretched in front of him, the fingers quivering with eager anticipation. Patty thrust herself against the back of the couch, her eyes dilating with horror. “No!” she whimpered. “You can’t—” The broad, stubby fingers hooked into the collar of her blouse and ripped it open right down the front, exposing the lacy black bra beneath.
“Relax, baby,” Pete almost chuckled. “You could get to like it, even.”
Again the fingers worked, and Pattie screamed thinly as the brassiere was literally torn off her body. He knocked her hands away with a scornful gesture as she tried to cover her exposed breasts.
“Hold it,” Estell said. “You want to change your mind, Boyd? From here on in, it’ll get real interesting.”
Patty’s face was a deep scarlet color with mortification, and terror glistened wetly in her eyes. I looked at her exposed bosom, the twin ivory mounds so softly feminine and completely vulnerable, and I knew I couldn’t let those obscene squat fingers violate her any further.
“I didn’t kill Louise and I don’t have the tiara,” I said to Estell. “But I can tell you who did kill her, and who’s got the tiara now.”
“So tell me?”
“You tell Pete to move away from the girl first.”
He shrugged impatiently. “You want to get sentimental about that sniveling broad?”
“The same way you want those diamonds,” I told him. “Okay. Get the hell out of the way, Pete.”
The giant moved away slowly, giving me a look of
animal-like hatred on the way. His fingers were still twitching as he backed off, and I figured maybe one day soon I might get lucky and do the world a favor at the same time.
“All right,” Marty said. “Now let’s hear it”
“The guy you want is Willie Byers,” I told him.
“Byers?” He looked questioningly at the giant, who stared back blankly and shook his head. “Who the hell is Byers?” Marty said coldly.
“He works for Elmo,” 1 said. “He’s the guy who made the original tiara and—”
“And he’s the man who was seeing an awful lot of I Louise a few months back,” Patty said suddenly in a \ cracked voice. “I knew he was no good for her the very first time I saw him! She wouldn’t listen when I tried to tell-—”
“Shut up, will you?” Estell snarled at her. “Boyd’s telling the story.”
Patty froze fearfully, her mouth hanging wide open. Then her whole body started to shake convulsively. 1 went on with the story, giving Estell every detail because I had to have him convinced, the way I was convinced. Byers was the expert and who better to make a paste imitation of the real tiara? The painting on his wall that had to be Louise Lamont—the art classes that both of them had attended. How she must have suckered him into the plot by dangling her dazzling body in front of his eyes. Then somehow he must have found out about her and Marty Estell and realized just how he had been suckered—so he’d killed her and taken the stolen tiara for himself.
There was an agonizing silence after I stopped talking. I watched Estell’s face but it remained completely expressionless—I might just as well have watched the wall. Then one side of his face twitched suddenly. “You got this Willie Byers’ address?” he asked.
“Sure—right here.” I took out my wallet and read out loud.
“You figure it is this Byers character, boss?” Pete asked dubiously. “You figure Boyd’s leveling with you and it's not just a stall?”
“I think there’s a reasonable chance he’s telling the truth,” Marty said flatly. “That’s why we’re going to find out.”
“Sure—anything you say,” Pete said hastily. “But what about these two?—tie broad and all? She could give us a lot of grief if she calls the cops.”
“We’ll leave them here,” Marty said. “If Boyd’s right and we lift the ice from this Willie Byers, we won’t be back. If he’s been kidding us a little, then we’ll be back for another little chat. So we got to make sure they don’t go anyplace meantime.”
“Scout’s honor?” I queried.
“You’re a very funny man, pal,” he said softly. “I got a good mind to come back here anyway and have Pete work you over some more, just for kicks.” The pale blue eyes were even more remote as they looked straight through me for a while. “Pete,” he said slowly, “look around and see if you can find anything to tie them up with.”
The giant hunted through the apartment, noisily opening closets and desecrating Patty’s bedroom. Around five minutes later he triumphantly emerged from the bedroom, carrying a bunch of luggage straps.
“You sure took your goddamned time,” Marty said thinly. “Take the broad into the bathroom and tie her to the faucet.”
Pete smiled nastily at Patty. “On your feet, baby!”
She stood up slowly, trying to pull the shredded blouse across the front of her. Pete grabbed her arm, nearly jerking her off her feet, and propelled her toward the bathroom. “You got no reason to feel shy, baby,” he bellowed, “I seen it all already!”
Another sixty seconds of miserable silence, then he returned with a satisfied grin on his face. “She’s fixed up real good, boss,” he said smugly. “Tied so tight she can’t blink even.”
“All right,” Marty nodded. “Now take care of Boyd and snap it up, will you?”
“Sure, sure,” Pete mumbled hastily.
He did a good job all right—my hands strapped behind my back, both my ankles and my knees strapped tight together. The leather dug cruelly into my flesh and I figured I didn’t have a hope in hell of moving one solitary muscle even, until someone untied the straps again.
“Where will I put him, boss?” Pete grunted.
“In the bathroom with the broad,” Estell snarled. “Where the hell else? They can keep each other company, and we’ll leave the radio on when we go, in case they start yelling any.”
The giant picked me up like I was a trussed fowl, threw me over his shoulder, and carried me into the bathroom. There was a bath and shower combination; Patty’s wrists were strapped to the shower faucet and she . was standing with one side pressed against the tiled walL Pete propped me in a standing position against the side of the bath and chuckled loudly. “Ain’t nothing like being really clean, pal!” Then he nudged my shoulder with the palm of his hand and I toppled sideways into the bath, banging my head painfully against the side. I lay full-length with my head close to Patty’s feet, writhing impotently while the sound of his raucous laugh faded into the other room. The door slammed shut after him, and a few seconds later the radio flooded the whole apartment with loud jazz.
“Danny?” Patty’s voice sounded remote from where I lay. I squirmed a little, twisting my neck, until I could look up at her face.
“Yeah?”
“I’m terribly sorry I got you into this!”
“I wouldn’t worry about it, I told her in a slightly terse voice. “You didn’t have any choice.”
“You’re very kind,” she said softly. “That was the first thing I thought when I met you, do you know that? Under that awfully good-looking and tough guy facade, I said to myself, there’s a wonderful soft, kindly man!”
“I don’t wonder you get into this kind of trouble if you go around saying things like that to yourself all the time!”
I grated. “How about we try and figure a way out of this?”
“I’ve tried.” Her body jerked suddenly as she pulled against the straps that held her wrists to the faucet. “But I can’t loosen them at all.”
“Well, keep right on trying, Patty,” I snapped. “We don’t have too much time before the boys will be back
—and frankly, I don’t want to be here when they arrive.” “Maybe they won’t be back?” she said hopefully. “If your theory about that Mr. Byers is right, they’ll—” “They’ll be back,” I said bleakly. “You remember when Estell asked for Byers’ address and I read it out loud to him?”