“That I couldn’t say. York was a quiet one, you know.”
“I didn’t know. Did he seem to favor any of them?”
She stood up and stretched on her toes. Under the sheer fabric little muscles played in her body. “As far as I could see, he had an evident distaste for the lot of them. When I first came here he apparently liked his niece, Rhoda. He remembered her with gifts upon the slightest provocation. Expensive ones, too. I know, I bought them for him.”
I snubbed my butt. “Uh-huh. Did he turn to someone else?”
“Why, yes.” She looked at me in faint surprise. “The other niece, Alice Nichols.”
“I would have looked at her first to begin with.”
“Yes, you would,” she grinned. “Shall I go on?”
“Please.”
“For quite a while she got all the attention, which threw the Ghents into an uproar. I imagine they saw Rhoda being his heir and didn’t like the switch. Mr. York’s partiality to Alice continued for several months then fell off somewhat. He paid little attention to her after that, but never forgot her on birthdays or holidays. His gifts were as great as ever. And that,” she concluded, “is the only unusual situation that ever existed as far as I know.”
“Alice and York, huh? How far did the relationship go?”
“Not that far. His feelings were paternal, I think.”
“Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure. Mr. York was long past his prime. If sex meant anything to him it was no more than a biological difference between the species.”
“It might mean something to Alice.”
“Of that I’m sure. She likes anything with muscles, but with Mr. York she didn’t need it. She did all right without it. I noticed that she cast a hook in your direction.”
“She didn’t use the right bait,” I stated briefly. “She showed up in my room with nothing on but a prayer and wanted to play. I like to be teased a little. Besides, I was tired. Did York know she acted that way?”
Roxy plugged in a tiny radio set and fiddled with the dial. “If he did he didn’t care.”
“Kitten, did York ever mention a will?”
An old Benny Goodman tune came on. She brought it in clearer and turned around with a dance step. “Yes, he had one. He kept the family on the verge of a nervous breakdown every time he alluded to it, but he never came right out and said where his money would go.”
She began to spin with the music. “Hold still a second, will you? Didn’t he hand out any hints at all?”
The hem of her negligee brushed past my face, higher than any hem had a right to be. “None at all, except that it would go where it was most deserving.”
Her legs flashed in the light. My heart began beating faster again. They were lovely legs, long, firm. “Did Grange ever hear that statement?”
She stopped, poised dramatically and threw her belt at me. “Yes.” She began to dance again. The music was a rhumba now and her body swayed to it, jerking rhythmically. “Once during a heated discussion Mr. York told them all that Miss Grange was the only one he could trust and she would be the one to handle his estate.”
There was no answer to that. How the devil could she handle it if she got it all? I never got a chance to think about it. The robe came off and she used it like a fan, almost disclosing everything, showing nothing. Her skin was fair, cream-colored, her body graceful. She circled in front of me, letting her hair fall to her shoulders. At the height of that furious dance I stood up.
Roxy flew into my arms. “Kiss me . . . you thing.”
I didn’t need any urging.
Her mouth melted into mine like butter. I felt her nails digging into my arms. Roughly, I pushed her away, held her there at arm’s length. “What was that for?”
She gave me a delightfully evil grin. “That is because I could love you if I wanted to, Mike. I did once, you know.”
“I know. What made you stop?”
“You’re Broadway, Mike. You’re the bright lights and big money . . . sometimes. You’re bullets when there should be kisses. That’s why I stopped. I wanted someone with a normal life expectancy.”
“Then why this?”
“I missed you. Funny as it sounds, someplace inside me I have a spot that’s always reserved for you. I didn’t want you to ever know it, but there it is.”
I kissed her again, longer and closer this time. Her body was talking to me, screaming to me. There would have been more if Ruston hadn’t called out.
Roxy slipped into the robe again, the cold static making it snap. “Let me go,” I said. She nodded.
I opened the door and hit the light switch. “Hello, Sir Lancelot.” The kid had been crying in his sleep, but he smiled at me.
“Hello, Mike. When did you come?”
“A little while ago. Want something?”
“Can I have some water, please? My throat’s awfully dry.”
A pitcher half full of ice was on the desk. I poured it into a glass and handed it to him and he drank deeply. “Have enough?”
He gave the glass back to me. “Yes, thank you.”
I gave his chin a little twist. “Then back to bed with you. Get a good sleep.”
Ruston squirmed back under the covers. “I will. Good night, Mike.”
“’Night, pal.” I closed the door behind me. Roxy had changed into a deep maroon quilted job and sat in the chair smoking a cigarette. The moment had passed. I could see that she was sorry, too. She handed me my deck of butts and I pocketed them, then waved a good-night. Neither of us felt like saying anything.
Evidently Harvey had retired for the night. The staircase was lit only by tiny night-lights shaped to resemble candle flames, while the foyer below was a dim challenge to the eyesight. I picked my way through the rooms and found Billy’s without upsetting anything. He was in bed, but awake. “It’s Mike, Billy,” I said.
He snapped on the bed lamp. “Come on in.”
I shut the door and slumped in a chair next to him. “More questions. I know it’s late, but I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all, Mike. What’s new?”
“Oh, you know how these things are. Haven’t found Miss Grange yet and things are settling around her. Dilwick’s got his men covering her place like a blanket.”
“Yeah? What for? Ain’t she supposed to be drowned?”
“Somebody wants it to look that way, I think. Listen, Billy, you told me before that you heard someone come downstairs between York and me the night of the murder. It wasn’t important before except to establish an alibi for you if it was needed, but now what you heard may have a bearing on the case. Go over it again, will you? Do it in as much detail as you can.”
“Let’s see. I didn’t really hear York leave, I just remember a car crunching the gravel. It woke me up. I had a headache and a bad taste in my mouth from something York gave me. Pills, I think.”
“It was supposed to keep you asleep. He gave you a sedative.”
“Whatever it was I puked up in bed, that’s why it didn’t do me any good. Anyway, I lay here half awake when I heard somebody come down the last two stairs. They squeak, they do. This room is set funny, see. Any noise outside the room travels right in here. They got a name for it.”
“Acoustics.”
“Yeah, that’s it. That’s why nobody ever used this room but me. They couldn’t stand the noise all the time. Not only loud noises, any kind of noises. This was like whoever it was didn’t want to make a sound, but it didn’t do any good because I heard it. Only I thought it was one of the family trying to be quiet so they wouldn’t wake anyone up and I didn’t pay any attention to it. About two or three minutes after that comes this noise like someone coughing with their head under a coat and it died out real slow and that’s all. I was just getting back to sleep when there was another car tearing out the drive. That was you, I guess.”