The Barbarous Coast by Ross MacDonald Read Free Book Online Page B

presence struck her. “We’re not having wife trouble again?”
    “Wife trouble, yes, but nothing to do with the boss. He says you may be able to give me some information.”
    “My telephone number, by any chance?” Her smile was warm and easygoing behind her lipstick mask.
    “That I could do with, too.”
    “You flatter me. Go right ahead. I can stand a smattering of flattering for a change. You don’t meet many eligible males in this business.”
    We exchanged some further pleasantries, and I asked her if she remembered seeing Hester at the party. She remembered.
    “And her escort?”
    She nodded. “Dreamy. A real cute thing. That is, if you like the Latin type. I don’t go for the Latin type myself, but we got along just fine. Until he showed his true colors.”
    “You talked to him?”
    “For a while. He was kind of shy with all the people, so I took him under my wing. He told me about his career and all. He’s an actor. Helio-Graff Studios have him under long-term contract.”
    “What’s his name?”
    “Lance Leonard. It’s kind of a cute name, don’t you think? He told me he chose it himself.”
    “He didn’t tell you his real name?”
    “No.”
    “And he’s under contract to Helio-Graff?”
    “That’s what he said. He’s certainly got the looks for it.
And
the artistic temperament.”
    “You mean he made a pass at you?”
    “Oh, no. Not that I’d permit it. He’s stuck on Hester anyway, I could see that. They were at the bar after, drinking out of the same glass, just as close as close.” Her voice waswistful. She added by way of consolation to herself: “But then he showed his true colors.”
    “How did he do that?”
    “It was awful,” she said with relish. “Hester came in here to put in a telephone call. I let her have the key. It must have been to another man, because he followed her in and made a scene. These Latins are so emotional.”
    “You were here?”
    “I heard him yelling at her. I had things to do in my own office, and I couldn’t
help
overhearing. He called her some awful names: b-i-t-c-h and other words I won’t repeat.” She tried to blush, and failed.
    “Did he threaten her in any way?”
    “You bet he did. He said she wouldn’t last a week unless she played along with the operation. She was in it deeper than anybody, and she wasn’t going to ruin his big chance.” Miss Seeley was a fairly decent woman, but she couldn’t quite restrain the glee fluttering at the corners of her mouth.
    “Did he say what the operation was?”
    “Not that I heard.”
    “Or threaten to kill her?”
    “He didn’t say that
he
was going to do anything to her. What he said—” She looked up at the ceiling and tapped her chin. “He said if she didn’t stay in line, he’d get this friend of his after her. Somebody called Carl.”
    “Carl Stern?”
    “Maybe. He didn’t mention the last name. He just kept saying that Carl would fix her wagon.”
    “What happened after that?”
    “Nothing. They came out and left together. She looked pretty subdued, I mean it.”

chapter
8
    T HERE was an outdoor telephone booth in the court, and I immured myself with the local directories. Lance Leonard wasn’t in them. Neither was Lance Torres, or Hester Campbell, or Carl Stern. I made a telephone call to Peter Colton, who had recently retired as senior investigator in the D.A.’s office.
    Carl Stern, he told me, had also retired recently. That is, he’d moved to Vegas and gone legit, if you could call Vegas legit. Stern had invested his money in a big new hotel-and-casino which was under construction. Personally Colton hoped he’d lose his dirty gold-plated shirt.
    “Where did the gold come from, Peter?”
    “Various sources. He was a Syndicate boy. When Siegel broke with the Syndicate and died of it, Stern was one of the heirs. He made his heavy money out of the wire service. When the Crime Commission broke that up, he financed a narcotics ring for a while.”
    “So you put