The Case of the Murdered Model by Thomas B. Dewey

Author:Thomas B. Dewey [Dewey, Thomas B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mystery, detective, crime, sleuth, murder
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Published: 2015-07-28T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

She stood there with one hand on the knob of the suddenly wide-open door, staring at us with a variety of expressions—from startled fear through confusion to exasperation and anger. Finally she stepped back and looked at the apartment number to make sure she hadn’t opened the wrong door. Then she came on in slowly, pushing the door to behind her with her foot.

The dim light on Peterson’s stairway and the photos I’d found in the suitcase had not done her justice. She was an extremely pretty girl, slim and well made, with dark eyes and truly black hair. Her face was slightly flushed now from shock and anger and there was quite a lot of light coming out of her eyes. When she found her voice it was full and confident and most of the shock had gone out of it.

“All right,” she said, “who are you and what are you doing here?”

“This is your apartment?” I said.

“It certainly is.”

“We didn’t know it,” I said.

“How did you get in?”

“We had a key. We were acquainted with the—former tenant.”

“The former tenant might have told you—”

“The former tenant is dead.”

That stopped her for a while. Her eyes traveled briefly over Marta, rigid again now on the studio couch, then looked at me curiously.

“I’ve seen you somewhere—” she said.

“Yes,” I said. “On the stairway leading to Carl Peterson’s apartment.”

Fear slid back in her behind the eyes.

“You’re from the police.”

“No.”

Having a momentary advantage, I decided to hold onto it by keeping my mouth shut. It worked all right. She wasn’t hysterical, but she was scared enough to think things over and to want to know what was going on.

Pretty soon she was looking at the End of the World pamphlet that lay on the floor near Marta’s feet. I let her wonder about that too. I don’t know how much wondering she had to do but after a while she pulled her eyes away from it and looked at me again. She ran her tongue lightly over her lips.

“If you’re not with the police—” she said, “then what—?”

“There will be police here sooner or later,” I said. “This former tenant I spoke of did not die a natural death. She was murdered.”

Except for a slight widening of her eyes, she took it pretty well. I wondered whether she had already known it.

Marta had stronger reactions. The springs of the sagging couch groaned and she was on her feet.

“Mac!” she said, and her voice was taut and strident. “Please get me out of here! I can’t stand it.”

This was not the Marta Sandor I had come to know and it scared me. I went to where she stood and put an arm around her. She was trembling now. The two women were staring at each other and Marta spoke first, the words coming in wrenched spurts.

“She looks like Dinny! She makes me think of Dinny!”

Now I understood that she trembled because she was crying and also fighting against crying.

“All right, baby,” I said, “we’ll go now.

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.