1956 - There's Always a Price Tag Read Online Free

I thought it was funny because Dester pays the accounts when he does pay them. I've got a suspicious mind, and I'm glad of it. I trusted her the way I'd trust a rattlesnake. I went over the bill very, very carefully. She had pricked a cross in it with a pin. It didn't take me a couple of seconds to figure out what the next move was to be. I had just time to shove the bill into the fire when two dicks walked in. They went over me and the rooms with a tooth comb, but they didn't find the bill. They told me she had complained that she had been missing money for some time, and she thought I was the guy who was helping himself. It was a close thing, and when they left, I packed and got out fast.'
    I stared at him, remembering how she had offered me a hundred-dollar bill the previous night.
    'What's the idea? Why doesn't she want her husband to have a chauffeur?'
    He shrugged.
    'Three months ago, they had a cook, a houseboy, and two maids,' he told me, 'as well as a gardener and a chauffeur. Then all of a sudden she got rid of them all, closed up most of the rooms in the house and ran the place herself. Dester tried to keep a chauffeur, but sooner or later she fixed it that the guy couldn't take any more of it and quit. Don't ask me why. I wouldn't know.'
    'She says Dester hasn't any money.'
    'I wouldn't know about that. Maybe she's right. Maybe that's the answer, but she doesn't strike me as the type to run a house on her own just because he hasn't any money.'
    She didn't strike me as the type either.
    'Who is Dester anyway?'
    'You mean who was he,' Simmonds said, finishing his coffee and pouring himself another cup. 'One time he was chief executive producer for Pacific Studios, one of the biggest shots in the movie business. He's washed up now. They haven't renewed his contract. It runs out in a month or so; then he'll be nobody. He goes there every day and sits in his office, doing nothing. No one takes any notice of him. He's just sweating out his time.'
    'Why doesn't he look for some other job?'
    Simmonds laughed. 'Haven't you cottoned on to him yet? He's a lush. No one wants him. The only time he's sober is when he wakes up in the morning. He starts boozing at breakfast and goes right on until he falls into bed. I guess if I had married that redheaded bitch, I'd be a lush too. He's crazy about her. From what I hear she has her own room, and he hasn't been inside it since a few days after they married.'
    'Who is she and where does she come from?'
    'I don't know. They've been married about a year. Since then he's been going downhill fast. The movie business doesn't want him anymore. When his contract runs out, he'll be broke. So don't kid yourself you've got yourself a permanent job. You'll be lucky if you hold it a week.'
    'He can't be broke. He's got three cars and that house. The Rolls would fetch twelve thousand in the open market.'
    'I hear he's up to his eyes in debts, but I could be wrong,' Simmonds said. 'But it's my bet as soon as he leaves the Studios, the wolves will move in, and when they do, there won't be anything left. I'd like to see that redhead earn her living. She'll find it tough after the way he's poured money into her lap.'
    'Did you get paid?' I asked.
    'Sure, but I had to ask for it. Dester never remembers trifles like paying his servants.' Simmonds looked at a cheap alarm clock on the bedside table. 'I've got to be moving. I'm going after a job this morning: driving two old ladies. I guess it'll be a nice change after driving a drunk. You have a sweet time ahead of you. If he gets home by one o'clock he calls it an early night.' He stood up. 'But don't think I dislike the guy. I'm sorry for him. When you can catch him sober, you couldn't wish for a nicer guy to work for. The trouble is you don't often catch him sober. It's a knock out that a woman could ruin a man as fast as this redhead has ruined him. She must be crazy. By fixing him, she's fixed herself out of a big, juicy income, and that doesn't