1955 - You've Got It Coming by James Hadley Chase Read Free Book Online Page A

gangster, X-ray eyes.
    “I find it less complicated not to have one. Boyfriends are so often unreliable.”
    “Oh, I don't know.” He smiled. “Is that what you call it? After all a guy likes a change.” He wandered over to the window. He couldn't resist showing off his new possession. “Here, take a look at that.”
    She joined him at the window. They looked down at the swimming pool, through the glass wall at Fay who lay on an air mattress, her red-gold hair around her shoulders, a towel draped across her, under the rays of a sunray lamp.
    “Pretty nice, eh?” Ben looked out of the corner of his hard little eyes, contemptuous and proud. “Cute and pretty, huh? I like them young, Glorie: young and enthusiastic as you used to be.”
    Glorie felt herself turn white. The sneer hit her where she lived.
    “Yes,” she said. “Very nice, but she'll get old. We all do. Even you're not as handsome as you used to be, Ben. Good-bye.”
    She crossed the room, opened the door and went out.
    Ben stared at the door, his eyes angry. Well, the bitch had had the last word as she always did. He was well shot of her. Who would have believed she would have worn so badly? He had been smart to have dropped her when he did.
    He crossed the room to his desk and picked up the telephone.
    “Borg? There's a woman leaving here; she's on her way out now. She's tall, dark, wearing a black-and-white costume. Her name's Glorie Dane. Send Taggart after her. He's not to lose sight of her. I want to know where she hangs out, what she does, who her men friends are — the works.”
    The voice at the other end of the line, a low, breathless voice, as if the owner suffered from asthma, said, “Okay, I'll take care of it.”
    Ben replaced the receiver and stood frowning down at the blotter on his desk. Harry Green? Who was this guy? Where was he getting all these diamonds from? If she said there were three million dollars’ worth of diamonds, then he was pretty sure there were three million dollars of diamonds. He had always been able to trust Glorie.
    He wandered over to the window to look once more at Fay.
    She'll get old. We all do. Even you're not as handsome as you used to be.
    Damn her! To say a thing like that. It spoilt his morning.
     
     

II
     
    G lorie was too preoccupied with her thoughts as she walked down the boulevard to notice a tall, slouching man, wearing a dark topcoat and a slouch hat, who sat in a Buick convertible on the far side of the road. His lean, hard face, his hooked nose and thin lips gave him the look of a hawk. He watched her through the windshield of the car, saw her pause at the bus stop, and when the bus arrived, get on board. He shifted the gear lever and drove after the bus.
    As the bus took her towards her apartment, Glorie was thinking that the first important move in Harry's plan had been accomplished. The interview had been no worse than she had expected. She had guessed that Ben would have treated her as he had treated her. She felt slightly sick as she remembered the sneering way he had looked at her. She thought how much he had changed since they had been lovers. It seemed to her now to be impossible that they had ever been happy together: unbelievable.
    She didn't envy the pretty doll she had seen under the sunray lamp. In fact she pitied her. She would earn everything Ben gave her, and she would probably not last long. But there was no doubt that she was pretty and attractive.
    She had been a fool not to have smartened herself up a little before she had seen Ben. It would have saved her that insulting, contemptuous look Ben had given her: a look that had made a sharp dent in her already sagging ego.
    She must warn Harry to be on his guard. Ben was certain to make every effort to dig into his background. She remembered he had once said that he never took anyone on trust. “If a guy acts cagey, he has something to hide,” he had said. “If he has something to hide, I want to know what it is: it might