A Key to the Suite by John D. MacDonald Read Free Book Online Page B

it, but we’ll agree to fight it. Then I shall tearfully permit myself to be seduced, and it will be such a compelling and glorious experience that we won’t be able to stop. We will agree that this will be our little stolen time of magical love, and when it is over, we will go our separate ways. But then, you understand, because I am so much in love I can’t stand the thought of the heartbreak ahead, I will get a little drunk, and make some horribly slutty embarrassing scene in front of all the people he most wants not to know about his sneaky little romance. Will that do it?”
    “Dear God,” Frick said, awed and humble. “That would sure do it.”
    “It’s a scene I’ve played before. And the first two times I played it, I thought I meant it.”
    “One thing. Can anybody show up who’d … spoil the act?”
    “I’m not notorious, Mr. Frick. I haven’t taken on regiments. I’m not on a police blotter anywhere for anything. I have the quaint idea I resemble a lady.”
    “I only meant …”
    “I’d say the odds are distinctly against it, certainly at the Sultana.”
    “Good.”
    “And if there was one of those little coincidences, I’m sure I could handle it very quietly.”
    “I’m sure you could.”
    “I suppose the most reasonable time and place is in the suite you mentioned, in another … fifteen minutes? That’s when you’ll all be gathered. Say! Suppose the boss man, whoever he is, doesn’t like the idea?”
    “The boss man,” Frick said with a barracuda grin, “is Mulaney.”
    “You can tip him off, then. I’ll be playing it to the others as well as Floyd Hubbard, so even if Hubbard isn’t there, tell your Mr. Mulaney to be … reasonably skeptical.”
    “Sure, Cory. I’ll fix it up.”
    “I have the suite right? Eight sixty? I guess I’m dressed all right for that sort of thing. You could probably fit me into the dinner arrangements … if I decide I can help you.”
    “No trouble at all.”
    Miss Cory Barlund stood up, slung the oversized bag over her arm and began working her gloves back on. “I’ll kill some time downstairs, and get to the suite about six thirty, if that sounds all right, Mr. Frick.”
    “It sounds fine. Just fine, only …”
    “Only what?”
    His lips felt slightly numb, and he knew it wasn’t the drink. “What I mean to say, Cory honey, we’ve set up a sort of little business arrangement here and I don’t have to get up there right on the dot, and I was thinking maybe we could … sort of seal the bargain …” She devoted her entire attention to putting her gloves back on. He swallowed and said, “I … I could sweeten the pot a little.”
    She smiled at him, but something in her smile warned him to stay just where he was. “
Mister
Frick, let me set an imaginary scene for you. You walk into a good restaurant. You see me eating alone at a table. You’ve never seen me before in your life. Now how would you judge your chances of coming over, introducing yourself, and even being permitted to sit at my table and watch me eat?”
    “Maybe not so good, but that would be because I wouldn’t know …”
    “What I am? You know what I am. At least you think you do.” Her smile became more intense. “Let’s make our relationship clear. At a rate of a hundred dollars a second, Mr. Frick, I wouldn’t let an insect like you kiss the back of my hand.”
    He sprang to his feet and in a strangled tone said, “Listen, you! Listen to me!”
    “Careful!”
    “No high class whore is going to …”
    The envelope of money appeared with the abruptness of magic, was slapped solidly across his mouth and fell to the floor at his feet. He looked stupidly down at it and then at Cory Barlund walking briskly toward the door.
    “Hey!” he said. “Hey, wait!”
    She had the door partially open before she stopped. She stood still for a moment, then slammed the door violently and turned and faced him.
    “It seems to mean something to Alma,” she