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

used, with the bottom rolled up like you roll up a tube of toothpaste. I unrolled it, slit it, worked the diamond up into the paint and then re-rolled it.”
    “Where does Babe Delaney come in?”
    “Oh... Babe.” She sighed. “He was Robert's bootlegger. The first day Robert was home he called Babe up, and Babe went down to see him. He saw a photograph of me lying on the table there-one Robert had taken on board ship. Robert remarked it was a picture of Leone Tenquist. Babe said nothing to him. He came to me and asked what my racket was. I told him it wasn't anything. He said maybe I'd tell him or he'd tell Robert how things stood. Alfred and I had to let Babe in. We promised him ten thousand on sale of the diamond.
    “Robert gave me a key to his flat. He said he'd be busy for a few days but that I could drop in any old time. I went down and looked for the tube of paint. I couldn't find it. I told Alfred I couldn't find it. He accused me of a double-cross. I swore I was telling the truth. Then Babe came, and when he heard the story he accused both of us. I told both of them the exact description of the tube of paint.”
    “Babe went down last night to look himself. He was: tearing the place apart when Robert came in. Babe must have picked the lock. He did a two year stretch ten years ago for picking locks. He turned out the lights, but Robert went after him in the dark. Robert was pretty strong. Babe had to use a claspknife.-”
    “Alfred stole the key I had to Robert's flat. He went down. He was there when you arrived. I went down when I'd discovered my key was gone. It's the truth, the God's honest truth! I couldn't get out of the racket. I tried to. I meant to after I'd gotten the diamond. I was going to let Alfred and Babe split. I was crazy about Robert.”
    “And what happened to the diamond?”
    “Gone. Robert had cleaned up, thrown out a lot of rubbish. The diamond went that way. Nobody got it.”
    Donahue began untying the straps that held Irene's feet. “You have nice little feet,” he said.
    “Please-don't ridicule me!”
    He said, “Irene, that's a swell story and it rings true. I'll repeat it word for word to the bulls. You were a girl trying to go straight, but they had you in the toils of sin. Great?... Sure! I'll boost your story fifty per cent by saying that it was you put me on the trail of Babe Delaney.”
    She gasped, “Oh... not that!”
    “Irene,” he said, untying her hands, “you want to save your skin. Babe Delaney muscled in. He was a punk. You want a fresh start in life-”
    “You're ridiculing me!”
    “I promise you the sweetest sob story ever told, Irene. You may even get a run in vaudeville... but you've got to tell the cops that Babe Delaney carved Crosby. That's your big and only way-out into God's country.... But why did Alfred smoke the Babe?”
    “He was sure that if he didn't Babe would get him.”
    Donahue stood up, smiled down at Irene. “Crosby knew a looker when he saw one, honey.”
    Irene started to cry into her hands.
    Donahue went towards the telephone saying, “Well, it's the least I can do for Roper.”

IX
    WHEN THE DOOR OPENED Roper stood there with his dour face and his lazy big eyes. Donahue said, grinning, “You must come in.” Roper walked in hunching his shoulders in his threadbare coat. He looked at Irene. She was standing with her back to the bureau. She looked very small and very lovely in a black dress that clung snugly to neat hips. Donahue closed the door and Roper stared at Irene with his big dispassionate eyes.
    He said dully, “So you're the moll in the case.”
    “I wouldn't call her a moll,” Donahue said.
    Roper did not look around at Donahue but he said, “Keep your oar out of it, Donahue.”
    Then he walked heavily to the bureau, gripped Irene's arm.
    “You look like the kind,” he said. “You look like the kind I like to get nasty with.”
    Donahue put in, “Why, Roper, because a good-looking jane would never give you a