SSC (1950) Six Deadly Dames by Frederick Nebel Read Free Book Online

straining at the luggage straps. “Get these things off! They hurt.”
    “They won't hurt if you lie still. Besides, I remember that clout on the head... Irene, you and I are going to have a very short conversation. First, let me tell you that Babe Delaney is in the hospital with a bullet in his guts. Alfred, that nice-faced little doggie, is in the same hospital with a bullet in his leg. Alfred got Babe. I got Alfred.”
    She grimaced, showing her white small teeth.
    Donahue went on, “The bulls have Alfred for the Delaney shoot and it won't be long before they pin the Crosby kill on one of them.... It wasn't very nice, Irene, the way you helped put Babe on the spot.”
    “I didn't-”
    “Ah-ah!” Donahue held up his forefinger, shook it. “I happened to be listening in when you telephoned him.” She cried, “I was made to do it! Alfred stood right there with a razor held under my throat. I had to, Donahue-I swear to God I had to!”
    “You little double-crosser, you were playing both ends against the middle! You were jockeying both Alfred and Babe!”
    She closed her eyes, bit her lip, whimpered, “Oh... God!”
    Donahue leaned across the bed, braced on two rigid arms, one on either side of Irene's waist. His brown eyes smoldered.
    “You don't have to act around me, Irene,” he said. “You'll get on better by coming across. The bulls have Babe and Alfred, and they're both red-hots. The houseman down in Waverly Place saw Babe come in. I saw Alfred there and I saw you there. I'm the only one knows where you are. I want the whole story from you.”
    “What good would that do?”
    He said quietly, “It will help you a lot. You've got looks. I've got a pull in the city, and the tabloids can run you up on the sob stuff. If you don't play ball with me, I'll land on you like a ton of brick.”
    “Oh, I've been a fool!”
    “If you only wouldn't pull those stock lines, Irene!”
    Her voice throbbed when she cried, “I mean it!”
    “Bah! You laid the trap for Crosby-”
    “That's a lie!” she shouted.
    Donahue rose, crossed to the door and closed the transom. He came back to the bed eying her whimsically. “Then are you going to tell me why it's a lie?”
    Her eyes narrowed. “How do I know you can give me a break?”
    “You can find out by not telling me things.”
    “Why-why do you want to know?”
    “I'm a private cop. I work for a salary. I get a bonus on big jobs I turn. Crosby's uncle offered to pay the Agency ten thousand dollars. I get the bonus by getting to the core of things before the cops do. That's the whole shebang in a nut-shell.”
    She considered him for a moment. Then she said, “The trouble is, you don't believe I loved Crosby.”
    “All right.... I'll believe you loved him.”
    “You say that easily.”
    “Maybe I'll be able to say it easier after you've told me things.”
    She sighed brokenly, moistened her lips. She looked at the ceiling and said, “I did love him. He loved me. I met him on the boat train from Paris to Cherbourg. Alfred and I were traveling as brother and sister. We were only two days out when Robert told me he loved me. Alfred never loved me. We weren't like that to each other. We just-traveled together, for reasons.
    “Alfred was bringing home a diamond he'd lifted from a woman at Cannes. It was worth about seventy thousand dollars. It was set in a platinum medallion, a pendant sort of thing. We got to Paris with it. We got the stone out of the platinum medallion, threw everything away but the I stone.
    “When we were three days out of Cherbourg, Alfred began to get one of his hunches. He was sure the Customs would pick it up. He browbeat me into planting it on Robert. I did. I didn't want to, though. I told Alfred how I felt about Robert, and he scoffed-just as you've been scoffing. He threatened to expose me if I didn't do as he said. I was afraid of the inevitable. I planted it on Robert. I worked it into one of his paint tubes, one that had been half