Too Darn Hot by Sandra Scoppettone Read Free Book Online

change, went through it, picked out the nickel, and threw the rest back.
    “Thanks,” I said.
    “Think nothing of it.” With that he started laughing all over again.
    I was gonna thank him for seeing me but there was no way I could break through the laughing and I didn’t feel like hanging around till he stopped. I went out the door and rang for the elevator.
    I could still hear him while I waited. It was nice to know I could lay em in the aisles.
    The elevator came and I got on. “I was wonderin somethin,” I said.
    “Yeah? You’re not the first.”
    “Meanin?”
    “What’s a nice girl like me doin runnin an elevator?”
    “That’s not what I was gonna ask. A war’s on and there’s a man shortage. Everybody knows that.”
    “Come to think of it, it’s only old geezers who ask me.” She gave me a knowing smile. “Whaddaya wanna know?”
    “That girl who used to visit Mr. Widmark? The one you mentioned? You ever get her name?”
    “Yeah. It was Lucille Turner.”

FIVE
    W
hen I came through my office door, Birdie was holding up a bunch of pink message notes in one hand and, in the other, my wallet.
    “Where’d ya get that?”
    “A little boy delivered it.”
    “A little boy?”
    “That’s what I said.”
    I took it from her and opened it toot sweet. No filthy lucre. But everything else was there. I had nice pictures of Johnny and me from one of those machines that were four for two bits. He had the other two. And there was one of Woody in his uniform and some of me with my girlfriends, making faces and acting nutty. And my library card was there, which made me breathe easier. I kept my PI license in a separate folder so I hadn’t worked myself into a lather about that.
    “How’d ya lose it, Faye?”
    To tell or not to tell. “I met up with a pickpocket.”
    “Yer kiddin.”
    “Nope.”
    “Where?”
    “I don’t have time to go into all the details, but suffice it to say my wallet got liberated on the subway.”
    “He musta been some smooth operator to get it outta yer bag.”
    Not in a million years was I gonna identify the thief who boosted my property. “
Smooth
is the right word. I never felt a thing.”
    “How’d ya get back here?”
    “I had to tap the guy I was interviewin.”
    “I bet that put a crimp in your tail.”
    “It wasn’t fun. This boy just knocked on the door and gave ya the wallet?”
    “He didn’t knock and he didn’t give. He banged and threw. I’m happy to say it didn’t hit me.”
    “Did ya get a look at him?”
    “Ya don’t care that it didn’t hit me?”
    “Bird, what’s to care? If it’d hit ya, I’d care.”
    “It’s gettin dangerous to work around here.”
    “Meanin what?”
    “Nothin. I’m just sayin.”
    “Anything more on the Rhode Island Ladds?”
    “I got a few more places to try, but nothin yet.”
    “What’s takin so long?”
    “
You
wanna try?”
    “Hold yer water. Any important messages?”
    “Some new people, some old, and . . . oh, yeah, somebody named Johnny Lake.”
    “Hilarious.”
    I took the memos from her, went into my office, turned on the fan, and stood in front of it.
    All the way back from Eighty-sixth, I’d been thinking about this Lucille Turner. Could the elevator dame have made a mistake with the name? I didn’t think so. I don’t believe in coincidences. Lucille hadda be related to Claire.
    Having the name I coulda gone back to Widmark’s apartment and asked him who she was, but I wanted to talk to Claire first.
    If Lucille was connected to Claire, why hadn’t she mentioned her? And why was Lucille visiting Widmark?
    I flipped through the memos real quick to get to Johnny’s cause he wasn’t always at the same number. The one on the message was his precinct. I dialed him there but he wasn’t at his desk. So I buzzed him at Joe’s Chili Parlor. Joe got him to the phone.
    “Hi, Faye. What’s up?”
    I knew he couldn’t be lovey-dovey in front of his cronies. Still.