‘Isn’t it a little solid? I go for pulp magazines myself. Raymond Chandler is about the highest I aim at.’
She laughed. ‘I’m planning to go to Rome next fall. I wanted to get the background.’
‘You are? Why Rome?’
‘Oh, I’ve always wanted to go there — and Florence too.’
‘What’s the matter with Paris? There’s more excitement in Paris so I’m told.’
‘I’ll settle for Rome.’
I finished my drink and sat nursing the glass, looking at her. It occurred to me she wasn’t what I imagined a help to look like. This kid was like someone just out of college.
‘Is that why you’ve taken this job? Saving up for Rome?’
She nodded. ‘I’m going to be an architect. I have my finals at the end of next year. I thought this job would give me that little extra while I complete my reading.’
‘Yeah.’ I didn’t quite know what to make of this. I wasn’t sure if Helen had made a mistake or not. I would rather have had a dumb cluck with no brains than a girl like this who was obviously nobody’s fool.
‘Well, I don’t think Mrs. Dester will work you to death.’
She shook her head and laughed.
‘She’s just wonderful. She told me I could use this room when she wasn’t using it herself. I feel quite at home already.’
I stretched out my legs. ‘She told you about Mr. Dester?’
‘Yes. Isn’t it a shame? I’ve seen all his pictures. I think he is the best director of them all.’
‘That’s right. Have you ever seen him?’
She shook her head.
‘Only pictures of him. Why do you ask?’
I pulled a face.
‘Well, you know: he’s been working too hard. He’s changed a lot. His nerves are all shot. She told you he’s going to the sanatorium as soon as they can take him?’
‘Yes.’
I gave her an out-of-the-corner-of-my-eyes stare. She fascinated me. We had been talking now for six or seven minutes and she hadn’t once tried to show me her knees nor flutter her eyelashes at me.
‘Well,’ I went on, getting to my feet, ‘I guess I’ll go up and see how he is before I go back to my apartment. I live over the garage.’
‘Yes, Mrs. Dester said you did.’
She was looking up at me, her big blue eyes interested.
‘Sorry if I took you away from Gibbons.’
‘Oh, that’s all right. I have to work at it: it’s not easy reading.’
‘I can imagine.’
She smiled, then as I started across the lounge, she opened her book again and bent her glossy head over it. I paused in the doorway to look at her. It crossed my mind that the difference between her and Helen was the difference between a pearl and a diamond. Helen had all the hard, glossy glamour of a diamond; this kid had the soft, smooth beauty of the pearl.
She looked up and caught me staring at her and she blushed. That knocked me. No girl I had ever been around with knew how to blush. I grinned at her, turned and went up the stairs, three at a time.
Helen was in her bedroom, smoking, and going through a stack of documents, bills and letters that she had spread out on the bed. She looked up as I came in.
‘Going over old love letters?’ I asked, closing the door and leaning against it.
‘I thought you said we weren’t to be alone together when she was in the house?’
‘That’s right, but right now she and Gibbons are keeping each other company, and I told her I was going to sit with Dester. What’s all the junk?’
‘What do you think? I’m trying to find out how much he owes.’
‘You’ve got a sweet job. Did you start the list with Hammerstock’s four thousand?’
‘I’ve got up to twenty-two thousand and there are still more.’
‘You don’t have to worry. If we get the insurance money, we’ll still have something left. What’s been happening?’
‘Burnett is coming to see me at three o’clock tomorrow. Four newspaper men have been here. Luckily Marian arrived before they did and I let her handle them.’
‘You let her handle them?’
‘Yes. She told them Dester was out of town and I was out. They didn’t get anything out of her. I was listening in the lounge. She was good.’
‘I’m not sure if you’ve picked the right one. That girl’s got brains.’
‘I had no choice. She was the only one the agency sent. I had to take her. Anyway, she may have brains, but she’s only a kid.’
I went over and sat in a lounging chair. ‘How about the sanatorium?’
‘They can take him any time. I said I would call back.’
‘Tell them he’ll arrive around eleven next Sunday night.’
She stared at me. ‘Sunday night? Why not before?’
‘I won’t be ready before.’
‘What are you planning to do?’
‘Maybe we’d better not talk here.’ I looked at my strap watch. ‘Come over to my place when she’s gone to bed. It’s after ten-thirty now. She won’t stay down there much longer. Have you got a good road map of the district that takes in Santa Barbara?’
‘I think so.’
‘Bring it with you. Don’t forget to take a meal up to Dester’s room before you go to bed. He’s got to eat or she’ll begin to wonder what it’s all about.’
‘I’ve already done that.’
That was one of the important things about her. She wasn’t dumb.
‘What did you do? Eat it yourself?’
‘I flushed it down the toilet.’
‘Well, okay, just so long as she doesn’t think you are starving him.’ I moved to the door. ‘Did you tell her about the deep-freeze?’
‘Not yet. I’ll tell her when I show her the kitchen tomorrow.’
‘I’ll be waiting for you.’
I half opened the door, listened, then hearing no sound I stepped out into the corridor and walked to the head of the stairs. As I began to descend them, Marian came out of the lounge. She looked up at me.
‘Mrs. Dester has gone to bed.’ I said. ‘You going too?’
‘Yes.’
I came down and stood beside her.
‘You and Gibbons?’
She blushed a little and then smiled.
‘Well, I don’t think I’ll read in bed.’
‘I’ll turn off the lights. Good night.’
She said good night and ran up the stairs. I turned slowly and watched her. She had lovely, slim legs, boyish hips and square shoulders. She didn’t look back as she went along the corridor to her room. I was still standing there, seeing her in my mind, when I heard her door close.
I went into the lounge, took a bottle of Scotch from the rack behind the bar, turned off the lights and walked over to the apartment above the garage. Some kid, I was thinking. She and Gibbons. Some kid.
Around twelve-thirty, Helen came into my bedroom. I had changed into pyjamas and I was lying on the bed, smoking. She came to the foot of the bed.
‘Now, tell me,’ she said.
I looked at her. There are moments when a diamond can look a lot more exciting than a pearl. This was one of them.
‘Come here,’ I said and stretched out my hand.
She came around the side of the bed and sat down near me.
‘Okay,’ I said, ‘now let me explain the setup to you. Between now and Sunday the rumour that Dester is once more in the money is going to strengthen. The columnists won’t want to be left out in the cold. Even if they don’t get any confirmation, they’ll hint that Dester is after a big job. That’s just the situation we want. No one knows where he is, but they have an idea he is back in the money again. If it doesn’t work out that way, I’ll have to fan the flames. There are two reasons why we must create the idea he is back in the money: one is to hold off his creditors and the other is that he is going to be kidnapped.’
She stiffened. ‘Kidnapped?’
‘That’s right. No one would kidnap him unless he was back in the money, would they?’