Read [Mike Hammer 03] - Vengeance Is Mine for Free Online Page B

squelch it.”
    She nodded slowly, complete understanding written in her face. “You are right, Mike. I’ll see the girls as they come in for assignments and try to find out who it was. Will you stop by tomorrow sometime?”
    I stood up, my hat in my hand. “That’ll be fine, Juno. Tomorrow then.”
    “Please.” Her voice dropped into a lower register as she stood up and held her hand out to me again. Every motion she made was like liquid being poured and there was a flame in her eyes that waited to be breathed into life. I wrapped my hand around hers just long enough to feel her tighten it in subtle invitation.
    I walked to the door and turned around to say good-by again. Juno let her eyes sweep over me, up and down, and she smiled. I couldn’t get the words out. Something about her made me too warm under my clothes. She was beautiful and she was built like a goddess should be built and her eyes said that she was good when she was bad.
    They said something else, too, something I should know and couldn’t remember.
     
    When I got to the elevators I found I had company. This company was waiting for me at the far end of the hall, comfortably braced against the radiator smoking a cigarette.
    This time she had more clothes on. When she saw me coming she ground the butt under her heel and walked up to me with such deliberate purpose that my eyes began to undress her all over again.
    “Make me,” she said.
    “I need an introduction first.”
    “Like hell you do.” The light over the elevator turned red and I heard the car rattling in the well. “Okay, you’re made.” She turned her grin on me as the car slowed up behind the steel doors. “Right here?”
    “Yup.”
    “Look out, bub, I’m not the coy type. I may take you up on it.”
    “Right here?” I asked.
    “Yup.”
    I let out a short laugh as the doors opened and shoved her in. It could be that she wasn’t kidding and I hated audiences. When we hit the ground floor she linked her arm in mine and let me lead her out to the street. We reached Broadway before she said, “If you really need an introduction, my name is Connie Wales. Who’re you?”
    “Mr. Michael Hammer, chick. I used to be a private investigator. I was in the papers recently.”
    Her mouth was drawn up in a partial smile. “Wow, am I in company.”
    We reached Broadway and turned north. Connie didn’t ask where we were going, but when we passed three bars in a row without stopping I got an elbow in the ribs until I got the hint. The place I did turn into was a long, narrow affair with tables for ladies in the rear. So we took a table for ladies as far down as we could get with a waiter mumbling under his breath behind us.
    Both of us ordered beer and I said, “You’re not very expensive to keep, are you?”
    “Your change’ll last longer this way,” she laughed. “You aren’t rich, or are you?”
    “I got dough,” I said, “but you won’t get it out of me, girlie,” I tacked on.
    Her laugh made pretty music and it was real. “Most men want to buy me everything I look at. Wouldn’t you?” She sipped her brew, watching me over the rim of the glass with eyes as shiny as new dimes.
    “Maybe a beer, that’s all. A kid I knew once told me I’d never have to pay for another damn thing. Not a thing at all.”
    She looked at me soberly. “She was right.”
    “Yeah,” I agreed.
    The waiter came back with his tray and four more beers. He sat two in front of each of us, picked up the cash and shuffled away. As he left Connie stared at me for a full minute. “What were you doing in the studio?”
    I told her the same thing I told Juno.
    She shook her head. “I don’t believe you.”
    “Why?”
    “I don’t know. It just doesn’t sound right. Why would any reporter try to make something out of a suicide?”
    She had a point there, but I had an answer. “Because he didn’t leave a farewell note. Because his home life was happy. Because he had a lot of dough and no apparent