Start Screaming Murder by Talmage Powell

Author:Talmage Powell [Powell, Talmage]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-1-4405-3694-6
Publisher: Pocket Books, Inc.
Published: 1962-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Dinner over, D. D. cleared the table and brought a bottle of brandy and two glasses from the galley.

“I think I’ll have a swim,” she said. “Join me, Ed?”

“I doubt that Mr. Rivers came here to swim,” Lessard said.

D. D. went into the cabin. Lessard poured brandy. D. D. came out, her bathing suit and hair bold splashes of white in the early darkness. She went forward with a wave of her hand. A few seconds later, the sound of her plunge in the water came to us.

The Gulf breeze spared Lessard the bother of squirting insect repellent. Even in sitting, he was in an attitude of intensity. He listened to the forward splash. “When she was a small girl, her mother always warned her not to swim until an hour after she’d eaten,” he said.

“Her mother must have been a beautiful woman.”

“Yes,” Lessard said, hissing the “s” heavily. Light flared over the chiseled sharpness of his features as he lighted a cigarette. “Shall we get down to business, Rivers?”

“Why not?”

“You’re still looking for Kincaid and Smith.”

“Right.”

“I wish you’d update me,” he said. “I honestly don’t know what’s going on.” His cigarette coal arced bright as he threw up his hands. “First you come out here looking for Bucks Jordan. Someone kills him. Then you reappear to question my daughter. Sounds quite serious.”

“No picnic. Not for Bucks.”

He was thoughtful for a moment. “D. D. was not too drunk to remember the details of your visit.”

“I really came out to see you.”

“Sorry I missed you. But thanks for going in after her when she fell overboard. She—usually she isn’t so quickly cooled off when she goes on a … well, rampage. Perhaps the fault is mine. I haven’t lived the sort of life conducive to the proper rearing of a daughter. But you surely can’t believe she had anything serious to do with a man like Bucks Jordan.”

“I’m trying to find out.”

“Someone has been telling you tales out of school. If D. D. flirted a trifle with him, it was out of boredom. And because he was such an asinine fool. Believe me, we hardly knew the man. I’ve explained all that. Now I think you owe me an explanation or two.”

“Fire away.”

“Why do you keep coming here?”

“I’m working.”

“Who is your client?”

“You got a good technique,” I said. “You fire your questions.”

“You think Jordan’s death has some connection with this boat, don’t you?”

“To be honest, yes.”

“Then go to the police.”

“I’ll work in my own way, Lessard.”

“Perhaps I’ll go to them myself.”

“And tell them what?”

“That I put into this port with the proper clearance. That Jordan worked for me briefly and quit. That I never saw him before I came to Tampa and know nothing about him. That you will not believe the truth but persist in improper invasion of privacy.”

The velvet gloves were coming off now. He leaned forward. “In appearance, you’re not above suspicion yourself, Rivers. You’re no fresh-faced schoolboy in a clean Peter Pan collar.”

“Meaning?”

“I’m beginning to take you seriously,” he said.

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.