The Never-Was Girl by Brown Carter

Author:Brown, Carter [Brown, Carter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
Publisher: Signet Books
Published: 1964-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

I guess because we came out of the same mold, Marty Jennings and I lived in the same place—Beverly Hills. My status-symbol house was only in the fifty thousand bracket and I figured you could add another hundred grand to his, for sure. But then I wasn’t a producer, only a self-styled industrial consultant. But still and all, it rankled when I thought about it. It still rankled when the doorbell sounded and I welcomed Betty Wong into my humble abode.

She wore a black heavy silk cheongsam that fit tight across the aggressive thrust of her small breasts, and was slit high to reveal her slender rounded thighs every time she moved. Her sapphire-blue eyes looked at me from her calm serene face with about as much emotion showing in them as you’d expect from a disapproving aunt. I tried to remember the passionate hot-eyed temptress of the previous night and couldn’t.

We went into the living room; she sat perched on the edge of an armchair, like she was ready to run at the first sign of anything she might disapprove of, and the way she looked, she disapproved of everything right then. It was a hell of a good start, I figured.

“Would you like a drink?” I asked her.”

She shook her head: “No. Please come straight to the point. I don’t have much time.”

“I talked with Sammy Westin—I called you from his office,” I said. “He told me the truth about what happened the night of Marty Jennings’ party. How everybody agreed to lie about the blonde, Dixie, and how she and Giles went to Fessler’s shack on the beach, and then Giles beat her up.”

“Yes?” she said.

“It was a conspiracy,” I went on in a flat voice. “Nick. Fessler created it, because he’s got an angle someplace. Marty Jennings went along with it because he wanted to protect the star of his new spectacular. Virginia Strong agreed because Marty just about owns her and she’d do whatever he told her. They blackmailed Westin into it, by threatening to tell his wife he’d been cheating on her with the Strong girl, if he didn’t.” I stared into her expressionless eyes. “I guess you had to have a good reason, too?”

She shrugged. “Does it matter?”

“I figure it does,” I said. “I’m about to go back to my client and tell him he didn’t just dream it up, it all happened. After that, I don’t know what will happen exactly, but the whole thing will obviously bust wide open.”

“If that’s what you’re about to do anyway, why bother telling me first?”

“Because you saved my life last night,” I grated. “Maybe it didn’t mean a damned thing to you, honey, but it was real important to me!”

“I wouldn’t let it bother you,” she said coldly. “Do whatever you have to do!”

“You went along with the conspiracy,” I persisted hopelessly. “But later that day, when Bruce Milford conned me into going to what I thought was Marty Jennings’ shack and tipped off Fessler I was going, you were happy to watch my interests for him.

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