The Monet Murders by Terry Mort Read Free Book Online Page B

attention to you until they’re good and ready. It’s a way of pretending to be in charge.
    The receptionist was about as homely a creature as I had ever laid eyes on, so maybe that’s why she was pleasant. She was wearing a blue polka-dot dress of the kind you remember your grandmother wearing, and her hair was pulled back into a tight bun. She had a single eyebrow and a Cyrano nose. And she was as thin as Olive Oyl.
    I returned her smile without any effort.
    â€œMay I help you?” she asked.
    â€œI hope so.” I gave her a business card.
    â€œOh,” she said, visibly impressed, a sign that she’d seen too many movies or had too many fantasies.
    â€œIs Mr. Miles in? I’d like to have a quick chat with him. Won’t take long.”
    â€œOh, I’m afraid he’s not in today. There’s a big convention of general agents in San Diego. He’s down there all this week.”
    â€œSo you’re holding down the fort.”
    â€œYes. There’s no one else in the office. Mr. Miles works alone. Is there anything . . . I can help you with?”
    The usual way of handling this question from a woman is to smile roguishly and see what develops, but in this case she was being utterly sincere in a professionally friendly way. She had looked in enough mirrors to understand that flirtatiousness wouldn’t be her strong suit.
    â€œI hope so. I’m on a private case trying to trace a woman who used to work here—Catherine Moore.”
    â€œOh, yes. She left last week. She said she was going to get married. But you know, there were some police earlier this week looking for her, too. Has she done something wrong?”
    â€œNothing illegal. She’s not in any trouble. It’s more in the line of a personal situation.”
    â€œOh, I see.” She lowered her voice and became confidential. “You know, if those policemen last week had only told me that, I would have been, shall we say, a little more cooperative. But they were rude characters.”
    â€œThey weren’t real cops. Just studio security.”
    â€œOh. Well, perhaps that explains it. One can’t expect much from those kinds of people. Anyway, I just said nothing and sent them away with a flea in their ear. Mr. Miles was out on a sales call, and they didn’t wait. It wouldn’t have done any good anyway, because he doesn’t know anything about where she went.”
    â€œBut you do?”
    She shrugged knowingly. “I have an idea.”
    â€œCare to share it?”
    â€œI might.” She paused and looked at me with a pretty good imitation of slyness. “But you know, times are hard, and a secretary doesn’t make much money.”
    Life is full of surprises. It’s not every day you get shaken down by a secretary in a polka-dot dress.
    â€œWould five bucks help?”
    â€œYes, but ten bucks would help twice as much.”
    Well, it was Manny’s money. I gave her two fives, which she folded primly and tucked away in a plastic change purse.
    â€œWell?”
    She lowered her voice even lower, even though there were just the two of us in the room.
    â€œThat whole story about getting married was a lie. She just wanted to get out from under . . .” Understanding the double entendre, she smirked and didn’t blush. “Get out from under a relationship with some man who was rich but not especially . . . simpatico. I suppose that’s who you’re working for.”
    â€œCould be.”
    â€œIs your client simpatico?”
    â€œNot particularly.”
    â€œI’m not surprised. Catherine was not very bright and she was not very efficient, but she was very good-looking in a trashy sort of way. She knew when she was being taken advantage of. She looked exactly like a former movie star. Minnie David.”
    â€œReally? Do you think she’s still in town?”
    â€œShe told me she was going to quit this job and go out to one