Read Warshawski 01 - Indemnity Only for Free Online Page B

can’t stay in bed like sleeping beauty.”
    It was only 8:10, I noticed, looking at the wooden clock next to the back door. No wonder my head felt so woolly. I methodically sliced cheese, green peppers, and onions, put them on the pumpernickel, and put the open-faced sandwich under the broiler. I kept my back to Bobby and the sergeant while I waited for the cheese to melt, then transferred the whole thing to a plate and poured myself a cup of coffee. From his breathing I could tell Bobby’s temper was mounting. His face was red by the time I put my food on the table and straddled a chair opposite him.
    “I know very little about the Thayer boy, Bobby,” I apologized. “I know he used to be a student at the University of Chicago, and that he’s dead now. And I knew he’s dead because I read it in the
Sun-Times.”
    “Don’t be cute with me, Vicki; you know he’s dead because you found the body.”
    I swallowed a mouthful of toasted cheese and green pepper. “Well, I assumed after reading the
Sun-Times
story that the boy was Thayer, but I certainly didn’t know that when I saw the body. To me, he seemed to be just another corpse. Snuffed out in the springtime of life,” I added piously.
    “Spare me his funeral oration and tell me what brought you down there,” Mallory demanded.
    “You know me, Bobby—I have an instinct for crime. Where evil flourishes, there I will be, on my self-appointed mission to stamp it out.”
    Mallory turned redder. McGonnigal coughed diffidently and changed the subject before his boss hemorrhaged. “Do you have a client of some kind, Miss Warshawski?” he asked.
    Of course I’d seen this one coming, but I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. However, she who hesitates is lost in the detective biz, so I opted for partial disclosure.
    “I was hired to get Peter Thayer to agree to go to business school.” Mallory choked. “I’m not lying, Bobby,” I said earnestly “I went down there to meet the kid. And the door to his apartment was open, so I—”
    “When you got there or after you’d picked the lock?” Mallory interrupted.
    “So I went in,” I continued. “Anyway, I guess I failed in my assignment, since I don’t think Peter Thayer will ever go to business school. I’m not sure I still have a client.”
    “Who hired you, Vicki?” Mallory was talking more quietly now. “John Thayer?”
    “Now why would John Thayer want to hire me, Bobby?”
    “You tell me that, Vicki. Maybe he wanted some dirt to use as a lever to pry the kid off those potheads down there.”
    I swallowed the rest of my coffee and looked at Mallory squarely. “A guy came to me night before last and told me he was John Thayer. He wanted me to find his son’s girl friend, Anita. Anita Hill.”
    “There’s no Anita Hill in that setup,” McGonnigal volunteered. “There’s an Anita McGraw. It looks like he was sharing a room with a girl, but the whole setup is so unisex you can’t tell who was with who.”
    “Whom,” I said absently. McGonnigal looked blank. “You can’t tell who was with
whom,
Sergeant,” I explained. Mallory made explosive noises. “Anyway,” I added hastily, “I was beginning to suspect that the guy had sent me on a wild-goose chase when I found there was no Anita Hill at the university. Later I was sure of it.”
    “Why?” Mallory demanded.
    “I got a copy of Thayer’s picture from the Fort Dearborn Bank and Trust. He wasn’t my client.”
    “Vicki,” Mallory said, “I think you’re a pain in the butt. I think Tony would turn in his grave if he knew what you were doing. But you’re not a fool. Don’t tell me you didn’t ask for any identification.”
    “He gave me his card and his home phone and a retainer. I figured I could get back to him.”
    “Let me see the card,” Mallory demanded. Suspicious bastard.
    “It’s his card,” I said.
    “Could I please see it anyway.” Tone of father barely restraining himself with recalcitrant child.
    “It