The Body Lovers

Read The Body Lovers for Free Online

Book: Read The Body Lovers for Free Online
Authors: Mickey Spillane
officer who picked her up. His opinion was that she was one of the lost tribe who inhabit the movie colony with stars in their eyes until disillusionment sets in, then she didn’t give a damn any more. Bob Sabre reached the Chicago outfit she posed for and said they didn’t bother with her because she didn’t project. Nice face and body, but she lacked that intangible something. She still thought she was a star and played it that way.”
    “Two of a kind,” I said.
    “There’s a similarity.” She pinched her lower lip between her teeth a moment, then said, “Mike...”
    “What?”
    “I can see the green on the redhead, but that black didn’t fit the blonde Poston girl. She wasn’t the type.”
    “They change when they hit the big town, kid.”
    “Everybody said she was extremely conservative.”
    “That was at home. There weren’t any eyes watching her here.”
    “Could there be a connection?”
    “If there is, it’ll come out. Right now I want you to check all the charge accounts at the better stores and see what you can get on Greta Service. She might have left a forwarding address with their billing departments. I can’t see a dame giving up charge accounts or lousing up her credit if it can be avoided.”
    Velda grinned up at me. “You going to leave a forwarding address?”
    “Yeah,” I said, “yours. I’ll call in later.”
    “Thanks a lot.”
    “Only because I love you, baby.”
    “Oh boy,” she said quietly and reached for the phone.
     
    Donald Harney had an office on the ninth floor of the Stenheim Building, sharing space with three other lawyers who hadnt made the high-income cases yet. The legal library was all secondhand and it was plain that any attempt at putting up a front was a lost cause a long time ago. The community receptionist told me to go right on in and I pushed through the door to his private cubicle. through
    Harney didn’t stand on ceremony in his own back yard. He sat there in his shittsteeves with a pencil over his ear editing a brief, shoved his hair out of his eyes and got up for a handshake. Our last meeting at Harry Service’s trial had been short, on the witness stands, and then only for a few perfunctory questions regarding his arrest. It had been a plea of guilty and his concern was getting Harry off with as light a sentence as possible.
    When he sat back relaxed he said. “What brings you here, Mike ? My client bust out?”
    “‘Harry isn’t the type,” I told him. “He’d rather sweat out a parole. Look ... I’d like some facts about him.”
    “It’s still privileged information.”
    “I know, but it concerns the welfare of your client ... and mine.” I grinned at him. “Funny as it sounds, Harry asked me to do him a favor.” I held out the note he had sent and let Harney read it over, then tucked it back in my wallet.
    “How’d he get that to you?”
    “Guys in stir can think up a lot of ways. Know anything about his sister?”
    Harney squinted and swung in his chair. “Harry’s case was assigned to me by the court. He didn’t have any funds to provide for a defense. The trial lasted three days only because the prosecution was trying to tie Harry into a few other unsolved robberies. The last day his sister appeared out of nowhere, damn well upset, too. Apparently they had been pretty close in their earlier days, then split up after their parents died and hadn’t kept in touch.”
    “It was too late to do anything then.”
    Harney shrugged and nodded. “She seemed to blame herself ... a sort of maternal instinct coming out. When they were kids he was quite a hero to her. Later he helped her out financially when she was off working.”
    “What did she do?”
    “She never said. Anyway, the day Harry was sentenced she told him she was going to make sure they never had to worry again, that she’d get things ready for his release ... you know, the usual emotional outburst.”
    “Was it?”
    Harney gave me a puzzled look. “Well, she

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