The Bamboo Blonde by Dorothy B. Hughes Read Free Book Online Page A

into the kitchen and she followed with the gin bottle.
    "Con out?"
    "Yes. You might have dropped it on the beach."
    "Dropped—my case. Perhaps. I'll probably find I mislaid it in my room."
    They returned to comfortable chairs with the cold glasses.
    "Where is Con? I thought maybe you two might join Dare and me for dinner."
    She stated into the liquid, "Con went to see Dare."
    He didn't look sympathetic but he did look too kind. "How about tonight?"
    "We can't. We're having dinner with some friends of Con's. I don't know them." She recalled the name. "The Travises."
    He looked up then. "Not Walker Travis?"
    "I don't know. Maybe that was the name. You know him?"
    "No. But you know who he is, don't you?"
    She said lazily that she didn't.
    "Walker Travis is the naval radio expert." He added, "I've been wanting to do a story on him."
    "He's Navy. Con said so." She wasn't very interested. There was something bigger than radio experts filling her thoughts. Kew could have read a part of them.
    He asked, "What did the police want with Con?"
    "It was about that girl who was killed last night. Shelley Huffaker." Of course, he must know that.
    "Why come to Con?"
    "Because"—she could have wailed over Con's headstrong curiosity—"because he was with her, that's why."
    "And how did they know that?" He shook his head as if disbelieving.
    "Evidently his bar friend, the one at the Bamboo, the one he calls Chang, volunteered the information." She said, "It's so stupid. Con didn't have anything to do with it. He didn't even know her. And now we can't go to Malibu. We can't leave here."
    "Can't?" His dark brows were perplexed.
    "Captain Thusby won't let us. Con said so."
    "He's not under—" He didn't finish.
    "Oh no!" She stressed it. "Oh no, of course not." She finished lamely, "But they might want to ask him some more questions."
    His dark eyes smiled into her blue ones. "Selfishly I'm glad of that. Glad you won't be running out on me for the movie paradise."
    Of course, he meant nothing personal but Kew always made it sound that way. That was why women liked him, why men did not. But she wasn't interested in him the way other women might be. She didn't know exactly how or what to say of the major. The man might be Kew's friend. She continued speaking, waiting for a bypath.
    "Kew, the cousin who identified Shelley Huffaker was Dare." And then she realized, this couldn't be news to him. "But you knew that."
    "I didn't." He was thoughtful, then spoke again, "I still haven't seen Dare. I spoke to her on the phone but she said she was busy this afternoon."
    Not too busy to see Con. They were both thinking that.
    He was finishing his drink. She had to blurt it now, "Kew, who is Major Pembrooke?"
    He set down his glass. He didn't look at her. "Why do you ask? Have you run into him out here?"
    She didn't explain. She said, "Yes."
    Kew's eyes were steady. "He is a British officer."
    "Con told me that." It was surprising that you could speak when you were so cold you trembled without willing it. Whatever his title Major Pembrooke was a dangerous person; that was written on him. She asked, "Are you here looking for Mannie Martin?" She added hurriedly to the flash in his eyes, "Major Pembrooke said that you were."
    The flash had faded. He answered as evasively as Con, "I wouldn't object to finding him." He held out his hand. "I must go. Maybe we'll see you tonight anyway. Where are you dining, the Sky Room?"
    "Yes. I suppose so. We're meeting them at the Hilton."
    "We may run into you."
    She asked curiously, "Is Dare going to be with you?"
    "Yes." He repeated, "We may see you. Unless Dare decides not to go out."
    She had little hope that Dare would make that decision. Not the Dare she remembered. She watched Kew's roadster, handsome as his face, make a turn toward the city. She would have to dress with competition in mind. It was ridiculous to have to compete for your own husband but there was no faint hope that the leopard had changed her spots in