Lucy Hamilton sat stiffly erect in a straight chair near the telephone in her living room, smoking a cigarette and frowning a little, half-closing her eyes against the blue smoke that curled lazily up from the tip of the white cylinder in her left hand.
Each time she opened her eyes, her gaze went across the room to the big chair beside the sofa and the low table beside it with the glasses and cognac bottle she had set out for her red-headed employer more than an hour previously.
The untouched glasses mocked at her. Her brown eyes smarted each time she looked at them, and she blinked them shut to keep back the tears.
It was silly of her to feel this way, of course. This was no difiEerent from many other times. Tonight was just an integral part of the pattern she had cut out for her future when she went to work as Michael Shayne's secretary. For years, she had accepted the pattern. She accepted it now. But, damn it! Tonight The fingertips of her right hand drummed restlessly on the telephone stand beside her. Until his telephone call a few minutes ago she had been not too unhappily quiescent, waiting for him to return so they could have a drink together.
Tonight? Somehow, tonight had been dijfferent. Michael had seemed subtly different as they drove home together after a perfect shore dinner. With her face pressed against his shoulder in the car she had allowed herself to drift away once again on the wings of a recurring dream. It wasn't often she allowed herself to do that. Not these days. Not after these years of being with Michael. Of working so closely with him.
Always, there would be a telephone to take him from her side. Her right hand clenched into a tight fist. That was] the pattern. His work came first. Any blonde floozy who had got herself in trouble and wanted him to get her out ' of it would always come first with Michael. Damn her j anyway I;
And now he was pulling Lucy into it with him. She had been sitting beside the telephone like this ever since Shayne had phoned to say he was sending his latest blonde over to her place for her to hold the girl's hand.
So, he didn't know whether she was "actually nuts" or not? And Lucy was supposed to bed down this blonde half-wit and keep her quiet and entertained while Shayne went off on a tangent hunting a brother who might not be a brother after all because she said her brother had been murdered God!
Her buzzer sounded from the push-button in the foyer downstairs. Lucy got up and went to the door and unhooked the receiver and spoke into the mouthpiece: "Yes? Who is it?"
"Miss Hamilton?" The voice was flat and metallic in her ear.
"Yes."
"This is- I've a note for you from Mr. Shayne."
Lucy said coldly, "I know. He telephoned for me to expect you. I'm on the first floor." She pressed the button that released the catch on the inside door below. She held it a long moment, then released it and opened her door, stepped out on the landing and listened to the clack of high heels ascending the stairs.
She stood there and watched, saw the top of a blonde head of hair appear over the railing, then a pretty young face that was tilted upward anxiously. A timid smile fluttered on red lips when the girl saw her waiting on the landing. She came on up, clutching a black suede handbag nervously and said, "Miss Hamilton? I–I know this is an awful intrusion at this time of night, but Mr. Shayne said-"
"I know just about what Mr. Shayne said," Lucy assured her dryly. "It's all part of my job-giving succor to his frightened female clients. Go on in."
She stood back composedly and let the girl precede her into the lighted room, closed the door firmly and made sure it was double-locked, then turned slowly to look at her visitor.
She had stopped in the center of the long room and stood there with her back to Lucy. For a moment, her young shoulders slumped forlornly, and Lucy had to fight back a sudden up-welling of sympathy. She didn't want to feel sympathetic, damn itl She wanted to hate the girl who had taken Michael away from her on this particular night.
When the girl just kept on standing there with her back turned, Lucy moved toward her, saying calmly, "So, you're Miss Paulson? May I call you Nellie?"
The girl whirled about at the words, her features twisting strangely, her eyes wild, and Shayne's warning came sharply to Lucy: "I don't know whether she's actually nuts or not, but she's on the fringe."
"On the fringe" was putting it mildly, Lucy thought to herself as the girl demanded, "How did you know-who told you my name was Nellie Paulson?"
"Mr. Shayne. When he telephoned me."
"Oh-I see." The distorted features smoothed out slowly. She even managed a smile as she fumbled with the catch of her black bag and got it open, extracted a sheet of paper and held it out to Lucy. "Here's the note he wrote for you. Just so you'll know."
Lucy glanced at the note and found it was about what she had expected. In the meantime, the girl turned away from her to the sofa, removing her jacket as she did so. "You've got a drink all poured out for me," she breathed happily, reaching for the cognac glass waiting for Shayne's return. "I can use one right now-believe me. After all I've been through."
"Not that one I" said Lucy sharply.
She drew her hand back from the wine-glass as though it had burned her, and looked up in perplexity. "Sorry. I thought you'd fixed it for me."
Now her lips were pouting and she looked like a little girl about to cry after her favorite doll had been snatched away from her, Lucy thought despondently. "Dear God. What has Michael let me in for this time?"
Aloud, she said hurriedly, "You're welcome to a drink, of course. It's just that- I'll get you another glass." She went swiftly into the kitchen and returned with a clean glass, and her cheeks were rosy as she confessed, "I'm just sort of superstitious, I guess. I'd poured that for Mr. Shayne when he was called out to see you, and he promised to be back to drink it with me before midnight."
"Before midnight?" her visitor echoed speculatively, watching avidly as Lucy poured out another drink, and glancing down at her wristwatch.
"Not that I believe for a moment he'll make it." Lucy shrugged and reached for her tumbler where she had poured an inch of cognac more than an hour before. The ice cubes were more than half-melted now, and the diluted liquor in the glass was a pale amber. She moved to the other end of the sofa with it, and the girl took a tentative sip of her drink and sputtered doubtfully, "It's awfully strong, isn't it?"
"I don't like it straight," Lucy confessed. "I'll get you some water or soda if you like."
"That's okay, I guess. I'll just sip it slowly. How much — did Mr. Shayne tell you about me over the phone?"
"Not very much. Just that some awful man is chasing you with a gun, and you're frightened and I'm not to let anyone in. So you needn't be worried any more," Lucy went on practically. "I'm quite sure Michael will take care of everything."
"Oh, I'm sure he will, too," the girl agreed fervently. "He's really wonderful, isn't he? Mr. Shayne? It must be marvelous to work for him. So exciting and interesting."
"It's very seldom dull," Lucy conceded dryly. "Now look. I don't want to pry, and I know you're all upset and must be terribly worried about your brother."
She had managed that very well, Lucy thought complacently. Whether the brother had been murdered as Shayne said the girl believed, or whether it was her brother who was chasing her-Lucy felt she had made the statement sufficiently ambiguous to cover either contingency.
"So if you just want to sit here quietly and not talk about it at all, it's perfectly all right with me," Lucy went on evenly. "And if you want to lie down after you've finished your drink, there's an extra bed all made up. The most important thing is to relax and try to forget all about it. We can just pretend we're old friends and you've dropped in for a chat, and talk about-well, ships and shoes and sealing wax and such."
She received a humbly grateful look in return. "And cabbages and kings, maybe? But-didn't he tell you anything about what happened at the Hibiscus Hotel tonight?"
"Not a single thing. You can, if you wish, but don't feel you have to. I'm not a detective and not a bit of good in the world at deductions."
"I guess you're right. I guess I should just try to put it all out of my mind. Do you think Mr. Shayne will be back for his drink before midnight?"
"Not unless he finishes up whatever he's doing first. You know better than I what that is."
Lucy sat erect suddenly as she finished speaking, and leaned forward to put her glass down. "I forgot. I promised to call him as soon as you got here."
She went to the telephone and dialed a number, and when a male voice replied, she said:
"I'd like Chief Gentry's office, please. If he's still at headquarters."