Jealous Woman

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Book: Read Jealous Woman for Free Online
Authors: James M. Cain
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11:05 P.M. Subject returned to hotel, entered Suite 642 with Robert Keyes.
    11:08 P.M. Keyes left subject’s suite.
    11:14 P.M. Phone rang in subject’s suite, subject answered, conversation inaudible.
    11:15 P.M. Subject admitted man to her room. Identity undiscovered so far. Description:
    Age: 30-35.
    Height: About six feet.
    Weight: Around 160.
    Hair: Black, slightly gray.
    Good build, well-dressed.
    At 12:00 P.M. this man had not come out. I put wedges cut from three paper matches in crack between door and frame, using point of penknife to work them into place in such way they would fall unnoticed if door was opened. Went off duty. Sunday: 9:30 A.M. Wedges still in place.
    “Well, Mr. Keyes, she crossed you.”
    “But why?”
    “Maybe she likes him.”
    “I thought she liked me. I—worshipped her.”
    “Being married to one guy, playing around with another, carrying on with still another—it’s done every day, except mostly they don’t have a private eye down the hall wearing a porter’s blouse.”
    “And I thought she was a lady—a thoroughbred.”
    “Oh, ladies play, but they don’t get caught.”
    “It’s a horrible shock to me.”
    “Don’t say you weren’t warned.”
    “Warned? By whom? Who dared warn me?”
    “Me. Remember my saying—watch out?”
    “That was a gag.”
    “Or so you thought.”
    “All right, Ed, you warned me.”
    When I went to Jane’s suite, she was in a worse state, if that was possible, than Keyes was. “Ed, something horrible has happened.”
    “O.K., let’s have it.”
    “Dick’s in town.”
    “Sperry?”
    “He’s here to kill Tom.”
    “... You mean bump him off? Like that?”
    “Just like that.”
    “Nice guy.”
    “Oh, yes. Once he tried to kill me.”
    “Kind of a Bluebeard type, I’d say.”
    “Don’t talk like that. ... Dick has spent too many years of his life in places where human life is very cheap, and where assassination is one of the regular ways to accomplish an end, and the cheapest. I—I tell you, we went swimming, and suddenly I knew I was not coming back.”
    “How?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Well—!”
    “Oh, later on it was proved. He knew I knew.”
    “So?”
    “I screamed.”
    “Loud?”
    “I said my foot had touched something.”
    “And?”
    “I said it was rough, like sandpaper.”
    “Oh, like a shark maybe.”
    “And that was something even Mr. Sperry couldn’t face. He tried to pooh-pooh it, but I screamed again, and he cut for shore.”
    “Well, there’s no ocean here, or sharks.”
    “Ed, please listen to me. I’ve tried to tell Tom if he persisted in this thing, this annulment, that Dick would have to do something about it. I told him what I’ve just told you. I told him Dick was like that, that rather than have this thing happen he would kill him. His answer was to go to you about insurance. To prove he thought it simply silly he looked up an agent in the phone book and went over to your office. Well, thank heaven I warned you in time, and that part is out. That silly gesture he made, to prove I was just dreaming things up, and that even seemed silly to him, when I told him his application would be disapproved. You’re protected, but he’s not. We’ve got to think of some way to block this off.”
    “And with him gone I could marry you.”
    I guess it was a gag, but before she could answer the phone rang in the bedroom. She dived in there, and when she came back her eyes were shining. “Thank the all-merciful God! That was Tom. He’s given up the annulment action.”
    “Well, that just about fixes everything.”
    “I hadn’t counted on Dick going to see him.”
    “Turned on the heat, hey?”
    “At last Tom knew what I had been trying to tell him. Oh, I know how Dick looked when he came for that little chat. You wouldn’t think those quiet, scientific eyes could get that killer look in them, but they can, all right.”
    “Then let’s celebrate.”
    “Oh, yes!”
    “Little trip to

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