Perchance to Dream by Robert B. Parker Read Free Book Online

doesn't act that way because he's tough. He acts that way because he can't act. Go tell Eddie I'm here."
        He gave me the same tough-guy blank stare and turned and disappeared back into the gloom to the right. Pretty soon he came and said, "This way."
        His expression hadn't changed. Nothing had changed. He acted like he didn't care about me. Maybe he wasn't acting.
        Eddie Mars was still gray. Fine gray hair, gray eyes, neat gray eyebrows. His double-breasted flannel suit was gray, and his shirt was a lighter gray and his tie a darker gray except for two red diamonds in it. He had a hand in his coat pocket with the thumb out, the nail perfectly manicured, gleaming in the light from the big old bay window that looked out at the sea. The room was paneled, with a fabric frieze above the paneling. A wood fire burned in the deep stone fireplace and the smell of the woodsmoke mingled softly with the smell of the cold ocean. The time-lock safe was still in the corner. The Sevres tea set still sat on its tray. It didn't look like it had been used any more than it had the last time I was here.
        Mars grinned at me sociably. "Nice to see you again, soldier," he said.
        "That's not what everybody else says."
        Mars raised his even gray eyebrows. His face was tanned, and smooth-shaven, and healthy looking.
        "People can be cruel," he said. "Any special reason they're talking to you that way?"
        "I keep asking them where Carmen Sternwood is," I said.
        Mars' face darkened. The smile stayed but it seemed less sociable.
        "It's that kind of a visit, is it?" Mars said.
        "Of course it is," I said. "Why would I come calling on you socially?"
        "I thought we got along, Marlowe."
        "You're a thug, Eddie. You look like a good polo player, and you've got a lot of money, and you know a lot of rich folks. But behind it you're a thug, and you've got goons like Blondie there to follow you around with a rod."
        "And what's that to you?" Mars said. "Supposing what you say is true. What the hell are you? You're packing a rod, right now, under your left arm. You bend the law. You did it on Rusty Regan's death. The difference between me and you, soldier, is I make money and you don't."
        "The difference between you and me, Eddie, is there's things I won't do."
        Mars kept his smile and shrugged.
        "What is it you wanted to ask me?" he said.
        "What do you know about Carmen Sternwood?"
        Mars shrugged again. Distantly I could hear the sound of the Pacific as it roiled against the foot of the cliff below the Cypress Club.
        "Not much," he said. "Except what you know."
        "You know where she is now?"
        Mars shook his head. "Last I knew she was in a sanitarium up the top of Coldwater Canyon."
        "She's not there now," I said.
        "She run off?"
        It was my turn to shrug.
        "Vivian hire you?" Mars said.
        "No," I said. "She's one of the people telling me to butt out."
        "Lot of hard edge to that woman," Mars said.
        "She also told me that you had promised her you'd find Carmen."
        Mars was silent a moment. Then he said, "That a fact?"
        "What she said," I answered.
        "Why would I do that?" Mars said.
        "Same reason you rigged it to look like Rusty Regan ran off with your wife," I said. " 'Cause you're sweet."
        Mars laughed out loud.
        "Sweet," he said. "Soldier, I've got to say I always enjoy you."
        "Like you enjoyed me when I found your wife and Regan wasn't with her. And you were afraid I'd blow the whistle that maybe Regan really was dead. Like you enjoyed me when you told Lash Canino to kill me?"
        Mars shrugged. "I underestimated you, soldier. How'd you take Canino anyway?"
        "Your wife helped me. Mona Mars in the silver wig."
        "Ex-wife," Mars said.
        "Canino's car was parked