McNally's luck by Lawrence Sanders Read Free Book Online

know what a ribbing I'd take from the Joe Six-packs?"
    "Your secret is safe with me," I said. "How about lunch in an hour?"
    "Nope," he said promptly. "I could make it but I'm not going to."
    "Al!" I said, shocked. "Since when do you turn down a decent lunch? I'll pay the bill."
    "You'll pay the bill for the food," he said, "but every time I have lunch with you I end up paying a lot more-like more work, more stress, more headaches. No, thanks. You solve your own problems."
    "I have no problems," I protested. "I'm not working a case. I merely wanted to have a pleasant social get-together."
    "Oh sure," he said. "When shrimp fly. I appreciate the invitation, but I'll pass."
    "Well, will you at least answer one little question for me?"
    "Trot it out and I'll let you know."
    "Has the Department had any complaints lately from people receiving poison-pen letters? Vicious stuff. Threats of murder."
    "I knew it!" Rogoff said, almost shouting. "I knew you'd never feed me without getting me involved in one of your cockamamy investigations. Who got the letter?"
    "I can't tell you that," I said. "Client confidentiality. And I'm not trying to get you involved. I just want to know if it's part of a local pattern."
    "Not to my knowledge," he said. "I'll ask around but I haven't heard of any similar squeals."
    "Al," I said, "the crazies who mail filth like that- do they ever do what they threaten?"
    "Sometimes they do," he said, "and sometimes they don't."
    "Thank you very much," I said. "That's a big help."
    "We're here to serve," he said. Then, gruffly, "Keep me up to speed on this, Archy. I don't like the sound of it."
    "I don't either," said I, and we hung up.
    I drove home for lunch reflecting that Sgt. Rogoff was right; sooner or later I'd have to get him involved. I needed professional help on the Willigan and Gillsworth letters: analysis of the paper and the printing machine used, perhaps a psychological profile of the writer. I laughed aloud at what Al's reaction would be when he learned I wanted his assistance to recover an abducted pussycat.
    It was not, after all, a major criminal act. In fact, considering Peaches' personality, I didn't think it was a crime at all. I remembered The Ransom of Red Chief, and wondered if the case might end with the catnappers paying Harry Willigan to take back his disagreeable pet.
    My mother had departed for the monthly meeting of her garden club so I lunched in the kitchen with Ursi and Jamie Olson. We had a big platter of cold cuts, a bowl of German potato salad, and the marvelous sour rye Ursi bakes once a week. We all made sandwiches, of course, with a hairy mustard and cold bottles of St. Pauli Girl to cool the fire.
    It was all so satisfying that I went up to my digs for a short nap. I had a demented dream that involved Peaches wearing pajamas in convict stripes. The pj's then turned into a sleek black maillot. Can you help me, Dr. Freud?
    I awoke in time to freshen up, smoke a cigarette (No. 2), and vault into the freshly washed Miata for my trip to the Gillsworth home. I was looking forward to my conversation with Lydia, a lovely woman.
    She was younger than her husband by about ten years, which would put her in my age bracket. But I always thought of her as a married woman and that made her seem older. I can't explain it. Why do married people strike one as older than singles of the same age? I must puzzle that out one of these days.
    Physiognomically Lydia Gillsworth was unique- at least in my experience. She had an overbite so extreme that I once heard it cruelly remarked that she was the only woman in Palm Beach who could eat corn on the cob through a picket fence. But to compensate for this anomaly she had the county's most wonderful eyes. They used to be called bedroom eyes: large, deep-set, luminous. It was almost impossible to turn one's gaze away from those seductive orbs.
    And charm? A plentitude! She had the rare faculty of making you believe she thought you the most fascinating