Find This Woman by Richard S. Prather Read Free Book Online Page A

and said, "How do you do, Mr. Scott?"
    "How does he do," groaned Freddy. Then, "All right, all right, I'm coming," and he walked down to get a very thirsty man a drink.
    "Colleen," I said, "or is it Mrs. Shawn?"
    "I'm not a Mrs. any more; I've had the six-week salvation here. And, anyway, it's Colleen."
    "Tell me all about yourself," I said. "Everything."
    She smiled slightly at that, and gave me a trace of the previous look, but she said, "You tell me something about you."
    Usually men like to talk about themselves, and she undoubtedly knew that, because I was getting convinced that this was a wise woman indeed, but right now I was more interested in her. But so that we didn't go through one of those horrible you-tell-me-no-you-tell-me deals, I said, "Not much about me. I'm thirty, a bachelor, a private detective. Office in Los Angeles and an apartment in Hollywood. I think you're lovely and I'd like to monopolize you, only. . . " I stopped. I'd actually forgotten, for these last few minutes, what I was up here for.
    She asked, "Only what?"
    "Only—I think I may be pretty busy."
    "Women—"
    "That's not what I meant."
    "—or private detecting?"
    "Well, both, if you're going to be around town and if I don't get all wound up detecting." I almost added, "Or wounded up."
    She smiled. "I'll be around through Helldorado, I guess. I'm just enjoying myself."
    Somebody tapped me on the shoulder. It was Freddy. "What are you doing on this side of the bar?" I asked him. He picked up my left arm, pulled back my sleeve, and tapped my watch. "Where you been? It's after six. Come on up to the room and I'll give you the scoop on the housing situation."
    "O.K." I turned to Colleen. "You staying at the hotel?"
    "Uh-huh."
    "I might give you a ring. O.K.?"
    "I'm in One-o-seven. Or I'll be down here somewhere."
    "Good enough. I'll find you." I turned and followed Freddy toward his room. On the way I stopped at the desk and Freddy waited while I checked on William Carter again. I was hoping to hell that he'd strolled in with mission accomplished, because this place was getting into my blood and Colleen was much on my mind, and I could think of any number of things I'd rather do during Helldorado Week than look for Isabel Ellis.
    But it looked as though I might also wind up looking for William Carter, because the guy was still among the missing. At least Lorraine wasn't missing any more; not that that was good. The clerk on duty knew nothing at all about Mr. Carter except that he wasn't present or accounted for. I found out that the clerk who'd checked him in wouldn't be around again till tomorrow, then followed Freddy to his room.
    Ordinarily Freddy lived in a rooming house farther downtown, but he was in Room 209 at the front of the hotel on the second floor for Helldorado Week. He was keeping it as a "base of operations," he said, and he didn't explain that. He didn't need to explain. When we got inside the room the first thing my eyes lit on was the bed, and I was surprised at how good it looked. Now that the noise and excitement weren't bubbling around me I could feel the fatigue sticky inside my body. All the running around I'd done this morning, and the long drive up here, added to the beating that had given aches and twinges of pain that were still with me, suddenly ganged up on me. I needed some rest. Even my brain was dulled with fatigue.
    Freddy saw me looking at the bed. "Flop," he said. "I'll fix you something for your corpuscles."
    I tossed my coat over a chair and flopped, and noticed that he had a paper sack under his arm. He pulled out a fifth of Old Taylor and a plastic sack full of those ice cubes with holes in their middles. He held up the bottle. "This is now your private stock, Shell. Welcome to the party. Now, what's your situation?"
    I relaxed while he mixed the drinks in tall highball glasses he'd filched from the bar, and said, "Just what I told you on the phone, chum. Looking for a gal named Ellis who might be