“Did she sound scared?”

“Not in the least. Completely calm. I might say, icily calm. She had it all worked out. She realized somebody would have to bring the money she might not know. She seemed to know Derry—Mr. Kingsley wouldn’t bring it.”

“Call him Derry,” I said. “I’ll be able to guess who you mean.

She smiled faintly. “She will go into this Peacock Lounge every hour about fifteen minutes past the hour. I—I guess I assumed you would be the one to go. I described you to her. And you’re to wear Derry’s scarf. I described that. He keeps some clothes at the office and this was among them. It’s distinctive enough.”

It was all of that. It was an affair of fat green kidneys laid down on an egg yolk background. It would be almost as distinctive as if I went in there wheeling a red, white and blue wheelbarrow.

“For a blimp brain she’s doing all right,” I said.

“This is no time to fool around,” Kingsley put in sharply.

“You said that before,” I told him. “You’ve got a hell of a crust assuming I’ll go down there and take a getaway stake to somebody I know the police are looking for.”

He twisted a hand on his knee and his face twisted into a crooked grin.

“I admit it’s a bit thick,” he said. “Well, how about it?”

“It makes accessories after the fact out of all three of us. That might not be too tough for her husband and his confidential secretary to talk out of, but what they would do to me would be nobody’s dream of a vacation.”

“I’m going to make it worth your while,” he said. “And we wouldn’t be accessories, if she hasn’t done anything.”

“I’m willing to suppose it,” I said. “Otherwise I wouldn’t be talking to you. And in addition to that, if I decide she did do any murder, I’m going to turn her over to the police.”

“She won’t talk to you,” he said.

I reached for the envelope and put it in my pocket. “She will, if she wants this.” I looked at my strap watch. “If I start right away, I might make the one-fifteen deadline. They must know her by heart in that bar after all these hours. That makes it nice too.”

“She’s dyed her hair dark brown,” Miss Fromsett said. “That ought to help a little.”

I said: “It doesn’t help me to think she is just an innocent wayfarer.” I finished my drink and stood up. Kingsley swallowed his at a gulp and stood up and got the scarf off his neck and handed it to me.

“What did you do to get the police on your neck down there?” he asked.

“I was using some information Miss Fromsett very kindly got for me. And that led to my looking for a man named Talley who worked on the Almore case. And that led to the clink. They had the house staked. Talley was the dick the Graysons hired,” I added, looking at the tall dark girl. “You’ll probably be able to explain to him what it’s all about. It doesn’t matter anyway. I haven’t time to go into it now. You two want to wait here?”

Kingsley shook his head. “We’ll go to my place and wait for a call from you.”

Miss Fromsett stood up and yawned. “No. I’m tired, Derry. I’m going home and going to bed.”

“You’ll come with me,” he said sharply. “You’ve got to keep me from going nuts.”

“Where do you live, Miss Fromsett?” I asked.

“Bryson Tower on Sunset Place. Apartment 716. Why?” She gave me a speculative look.

“I might want to reach you some time.”

Kingsley’s face looked bleakly irritated, but his eyes still were the eyes of a sick animal. I wound his scarf around my neck and went out to the dinette to switch off the light. When I came back they were both standing by the door. Kingsley had his arm around her shoulders. She looked very tired and rather bored.

“Well, I certainly hope—” he started to say, then took a quick step and put his hand out. “You’re a pretty level guy, Marlowe.”

“Go on, beat it,” I said. “Go away. Go far away.”

He gave a queer look and they went out.

I waited until I heard the elevator come up and stop, and the doors open and close again, and the elevator start down. Then I went out myself and took the stairs down to the basement garage and got the Chrysler awake again.

THIRTY

The Peacock Lounge was a narrow front next to a gift shop in whose window a tray of small crystal animals shimmered in the street light. The Peacock had a glass brick front and soft light glowed out around the stained-glass peacock that was set into the brick. I went in around a Chinese screen and looked along the bar and then sat at the outer edge of a small booth. The light was amber, the leather was Chinese red and the booths had polished plastic tables. In one booth four soldiers were drinking beer moodily, a little glassy in the eyes and obviously bored even with drinking beer. Across from them a party of two girls and two flashy-looking men were making the noise in the place. I saw nobody that looked like my idea of Crystal Kingsley.

A wizened waiter with evil eyes and a face like a gnawed bone put a napkin with a printed peacock on it down on the table in front of me and gave me a Bacardi cocktail. I sipped it and looked at the amber face of the bar clock. It was just past one-fifteen.

One of the men with the two girls got up suddenly and stalked along to the door and went on. The voice of the other man said:

“What did you have to insult the guy for?”

A girl’s tinny voice said: “Insult him? I like that. He propositioned me.”

The man’s voice said complainingly: “Well, you didn’t have to insult him, did you?”

One of the soldiers suddenly laughed deep in his chest and then wiped the laugh off his face with a brown hand and drank a little more beer. I rubbed the back of my knee. It was hot and swollen still but the paralyzed feeling had gone away.

A tiny, white-faced Mexican boy with enormous black eyes came in with morning papers and scuttled along the booths trying to make a few sales before the barman threw him out. I bought a paper and looked through it to see if there were any interesting murders. There were not.

I folded it and looked up as a slim, brown-haired girl in coal black slacks and a yellow shirt and a long gray coat came out of somewhere and passed the booth without looking at me. I tried to make up my mind whether her face was familiar or just such a standard type of lean, rather hard, prettiness that I must have seen it ten thousand times. She went out of the street door around the screen. Two minutes later the little Mexican boy came back in, shot a quick look at the barman, and scuttled over to stand in front of me.

“Mister,” he said, his great big eyes shining with mischief. Then he made a beckoning sign and scuttled out again.

I finished my drink and went after him. The girl in the gray coat and yellow shirt and black slacks was standing in front of the gift shop, looking in at the window. Her eyes moved as I went out. I went and stood beside her.

She looked at me again. Her face was white and tired. Her hair looked darker than dark brown. She looked away and spoke to the window.