Double Feature by Donald E. Westlake

Author:Donald E. Westlake
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Titan

NINE

The Death of the Party

After the hospital, where they gave me a shot and a scrub and some gauze bandage on my cheek, I went with Staples back to my apartment and we discussed the Laura Penney murder some more. He assured me they were investigating possibilities other than the guilt of Kit Markowitz, meaning they were still checking into the five original male suspects. I asked him the questions Kit had assigned me, and he said no, they hadn’t established solid alibis for Jay English or Dave Poumon, mostly because the initial interview with that pair had seemed conclusive enough. As for Claire and Ellen, Kit’s two alternate female suspects. Staples acknowledged they’d studied Claire a bit without establishing much of anything, but Ellen came as a surprise to him. He made himself a note, and I said, “Our investigations overlap.”

“The more the merrier,” he told me. “I really want to solve this Laura Penney murder, Carey.”

“Good,” I said.

Next I asked him about the anonymous letter, and he turned out to have a Xerox copy of it on his person. He let me make my own copy, in longhand, and then a phone call from his office summoned him away.

I hadn’t wanted to check my messages while he was there, not being absolutely certain Patricia wouldn’t be cute in spite of my warning, but it turned out to be just the usual dull band of voices, including Shirley, calling from Boston again about those damned papers she wanted signed: “I know you have them by now, and this time I’m serious. If I don’t receive them by tomorrow, my Boston attorney is going to hire a New York attorney. At your expense.”

Papers, papers. Yes, I remembered receiving them, but had I ever signed and returned them? With all this other stuff going on, I was pretty sure I hadn’t, but when I went through the crap on my desk they weren’t there.

Damn. Who needed this annoyance? I spent ten minutes searching the apartment, in every likely and unlikely corner, and finally had to give up and call Shirley, a thing I hate to do. One of the brats answered—until John’s voice changes, which I presume it will some day, there’s no way to tell them apart, even if I wanted to—but then Shirley came on the line and I said, “Look, I’m not trying to make trouble, but I lost those damn papers.”

“You’re such a bullshitter, Carey.”

“Well, that’s all right, you do what you want to do, only if you send me another set I’ll sign them right away and send them straight back.”

Some snarling followed, until it was agreed I’d be sent another set of papers, and then we both hung up and off I went for the Valium. That, plus the medication I’d been given at the hospital, plus the hectic life I’d been leading recently, combined to knock me out all of a sudden, and I staggered to the bed and slept until seven-thirty, when the phone woke me, being Kit, wondering where I was.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.