Whiff Of Money

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Book: Read Whiff Of Money for Free Online
Authors: James Hadley Chase
Drina kept after the Fiat. At Rue de Vaugirard, Girland turned right and drove a few metres down the traffic-packed road before edging his car into a courtyard.
    Forced to continue on down the street by the traffic behind him, Drina had just time to see Girland get out of his car before he lost sight of him. Cursing, he drove on, turned off into a side street and was lucky to find a car pulling away from the kerb. He edged the Deux Chevaux into the space. Snapping off the engine and without waiting to lock the car door, he ran back to the courtyard.
    The Fiat was still there, but Girland had disappeared. Drina looked around. There were several doorways leading into the courtyard building that stood in a half square. A brass plate on one of the doors caught his eye.
    BENNYSLADE Photographic Studio
    Remembering the movie projector, Drina decided that Girland was paying Benny Slade a visit. He now wished Lintz had taken this assignment. When Girland eventually came out of this building, he would drive away. Drina would have to run down the street, get in his car, and by the time he had got back to Rue de Vaugirard, he would have lost Girland.
    He hesitated for a long moment, then decided he had to have help.
    He walked to the entrance of the courtyard, spotted a cafe further up the road and ran to it.
    A few minutes later, he was once more talking to Kovski.
    He had known Benny Slade for some years. Benny was an enormously fat, jovial homosexual with a brilliant flair for photography. He ran a very special and lucrative business supplying the luxury hotels where the Americans were to be found with coloured slides and 8 mm colour films of The Girls of Paris. There was nothing pornographic about his work: every shot was artistic, but somehow managed to be titillating. His slides and films had a very brisk sale. Most of the American tourists bought them to show their neighbours back home just what they were missing.
    Benny was onto a good thing and he knew it. He kept clear of any smut. He was the Playboy of Paris, and he prospered.
    The door was opened by a fair, beautiful looking youth clad in skin tight trousers and a white shirt worn outside the trousers. He gave Girland a coy little smile and lifted carefully plucked eyebrows as he asked, 'Yes, monsieur?'
    'Is Benny hatching an egg?' Girland asked.
    The eyebrows went up and then down.
    'Mr Slade is shooting.'
    'When isn't he? Okay, I'll wait.' Girland moved forward, driving the youth into a long corridor lit by rose-pink lamps held in golden hands fixed to the wall. Everything about Benny's studio was artistic. Girland thought it was terrible.
    The youth shut the door.
    'Who shall I say, monsieur?'
    'Girland... he knows me.'
    The youth led the way down the corridor and opened a door.
    'Will you wait in here, please, monsieur?'
    Girland walked into a glossily furnished room with chairs along the walls, a table in the centre littered with the latest magazines, several of Benny's masterpieces of nude girls enormously blown-up, hanging in gilt frames on the wall.
    As the youth closed the door, Girland became aware of a girl sitting on a chair in the far corner of the room, a cigarette in her slim fingers, leafing through a copy of Elle.
    She glanced up and looked Girland over as he was looking her over. Quite a doll, he thought.
    The girl was possibly twenty-three or four years of age. She had long silky blonde hair that reached below her shoulders and concealed most of her face. Her eyes were large and the colour of first grade sapphires. Her mouth was made for kissing. Girland eyed her legs: long and slim, the way he liked them. She was wearing a white silk wrap that hung open revealing the swell of her breasts. She seemed to be wearing nothing under the wrap although Girland couldn't be sure about this. She pulled the wrap close to her when she saw Girland was staring.
    He gave her his most charming smile.

    'Like waiting at the dentist, isn't it? Are you modelling for

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