EQMM 1941-01 by Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine

Author:Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine [Magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: det_classic
Publisher: American Mercury
Published: 1941-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Dime a Dance

by Cornell Woolrich

A distinguished yarn of the hard-boiled school, with the impact of a machine gun and the jangle of honky-tonk.

*

Patsy Marino was clocking us as usual when I barged in through the foyer. He had to look twice at his watch to make sure it was right when he saw who it was. Or pretended he had to, anyway. It was the first time in months I’d breezed in early enough to climb into my evening dress and powder up before we were due on the dance floor.

Marino said, “What’s the matter, don’t you feel well?”

I snapped, “D’ya have to pass a medical examination to get in here and earn a living?” and gave him a dirty look across the frayed alley-cat I wore on my shoulder.

“The reason I ask is you’re on time. Are you sure you’re feeling well?” he pleaded sarcastically.

“Keep it up and you won’t be,” I promised, but soft-pedalled it so he couldn’t quite get it. He was my bread and butter after all.

The barn looked like a morgue. It always did before eight — or so I’d heard. They didn’t have any of the “pash” lights on yet, those smoky red things around the walls that gave it atmosphere. There wasn’t a cat in the box, just five empty gilt chairs and the coffin. They had all the full-length windows overlooking the main drag open to get some ventilation in, too. It didn’t seem like the same place at all; you could actually breathe fresh air in it!

My high heels going back to the dressing-room clicked hollowly in the emptiness, and my reflection followed me upside-down across the waxed floor, like a ghost. It gave me a spooky feeling, like tonight was going to be a bad night. And whenever I get a spooky feeling, it turns out to be a bad night all right.

I shoved the dressing-room door in and started: “Hey, Julie, why didn’t you wait for me, ya getting too high-hat?” Then I quit again.

She wasn’t here either. If she wasn’t at either end, where the hell was she?

Only Mom Henderson was there, reading one of tomorrow morning’s tabs. “Is it that late?” she wanted to know when she saw me.

“Aw, lay off,” I said. “It’s bad enough I gotta go to work on a empty stomach.” I slung my cat-pelt on a hook. Then I sat down and took off my pumps and dumped some foot powder in them, and put them back on again.

“I knocked on Julie’s door on my way over,” I said, “and didn’t get any answer. We always have a cup of Java together before we come to work. I don’t know how I’m going to last the full fifteen rounds—”

An unworthy suspicion crossed my mind momentarily: Did Julie purposely dodge me to get out of sharing a cup of coffee with me like I always took with her other nights? They allowed her to make it in her rooming-house because it had a fire-escape; they wouldn’t allow me to make it in mine.

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