Hard Case Crime: Baby Moll by John Farris Read Free Book Online

she said. “Let me sleep with you. I really need to. I need to sleep next to a man for a change.”
    I took her arms and moved her away from me. She was beginning to perspire lightly. Tiny drops appeared on her forehead. Her fingers squeezed once again, then she backed away still more. Her eyes were cloudy. She didn’t seem upset that I had refused her, just disappointed. In withdrawing her fingertips, she touched the scraped places along my forearms. I looked at them. They werestippled with dried blood. Most of it had washed off during my swim.
    “You’re hurt,” she said. “How did that happen?”
    “I was trying to run away. Somebody was shooting at me.”
    Her expressive eyebrows pressed down. “Does that happen often?”
    “No. It hasn’t lately. Not since the war.” She wasn’t standing still now, but moving as though something inside was whipping at her. She breathed deeply.
    “What’s your trouble?” I asked. “Nerves?”
    “God, yes.” Her fingers clenched. “God, yes.”
    “I know,” I said. “I had the same trouble once. The war did it to me.”
    Mrs. Rinke smiled painfully. “Wars always end. I wish something that simple could help me. I’d drink, if it didn’t make me sick. How I’d drink!”
    She looked at the pavement burns on my arms again. “I’ll get something for those,” she said, and left before I could protest. She was back before long with a white metal first-aid kit. She used an antiseptic on the scrapes, doctored them with iodine.
    “Better not bandage them,” she said. “They’ll heal faster.”
    I looked up to see a man standing in the doorway. He wore loose pajamas and no robe. Evelyn Rinke was too engrossed in repacking the first-aid kit to notice him. He was a little man, slightly built, with pale hair in a crew cut and thick glasses that made his grayish-purple eyes round and staring. His ears were big and his jaws long and hollowed beneath strong wide cheekbones. The mouth was too large for his face, and folded down at the edges whenit ran out of room. The upper lip was thin and almost bloodless, slanted down from the cleft, corners fitting into deep pockets. His lips had a certain acid primness, like those of an obnoxious preacher. But his voice was firm and soft and polite, betraying no irritation from finding his wife in my room.
    “I missed you, Evelyn,” he said. He was looking at me. “You weren’t in your bed.”
    She was startled. She jerked around, pulling the robe together. Her fingers clamped tightly together at her belly. The small pleasure she had taken from helping me cleanse my scraped arms fled.
    “I... couldn’t sleep, Charley. It was warm, and... I couldn’t sleep. Mr. Mallory was hurt. I...”
    Rinke walked toward me and offered his hand. He apparently wasn’t bothered by the fact that his wife’s body had been prominently visible through the nightgown under the carelessly worn robe.
    He shook hands with me strongly. “I’ve heard a lot about you,” he said. “From Macy.” His mouth told the tone of his thoughts. It stayed surly. “Macy thinks a lot of you,” he went on. “I’m Charley Rinke. I suppose Macy told you about me.”
    “No, he didn’t,” I said. “I’m glad to meet you, Mr. Rinke.”
    “Oh?” It seemed to disturb him that Macy hadn’t mentioned him. “I guess you’ll be with us for a while, Mr. Mallory.”
    “Probably.”
    “I know you want to be left alone.” He glanced at his wife. “You’re not feeling well, Evelyn?”
    She shook her head. Her agitation had become worsesince the sudden appearance of her husband.
    “Did you have an accident, Mr. Mallory?” Rinke said, still looking at Evelyn. It was a trick he had, to look at one person and talk to another. He seemed interested.
    “Sort of. I’m all right.”
    He waited for more information. When I didn’t offer any he said, “Evelyn, a hot bath would help, wouldn’t it?”
    “I... I don’t think so, Char—”
    “But it has helped