All The Way Read Online Free Page A

don’t remember whether that was before or after you told her your father was Chairman of the Board of Inland Steel.”
    “It was a waste of breath,” I said. “She was a girl who liked to strike closer to the source. She collected the board chairmen themselves. But what did you do then?”
    She finished her drink and started to get up. “Let me,” I said, and refilled the glasses with what was left in the pitcher. I sat down again. “Go on.”
    “I went up to my room,” she said. “It was on the second floor, overlooking the patio and the pool, and I could watch you from the window. I called the desk and asked them to page Mr. Hamilton.”
    “Oh. I remember that call. So you were the mixed-up type from Eastern Airlines that kept insisting she’d found the luggage I hadn’t even lost?”
    She nodded coolly. “That’s right.”
    “Why?”
    “Several reasons. I had to find out if you really were registered under that name, or just lying to the girl on the grounds that you should always lie to girls. And I wanted to hear your voice over the telephone—”
    “And that was the same deal last night?” I interrupted. “I mean, when you asked all those questions about fishing, over the phone?”
    “Of course.” She gestured impatiently with a slim hand. “But to get back—primarily, I wanted to watch you while you were being paged.”
    “I see.” This girl was clever. “And I flunked?”
    “You flunked. The boy called you three times from the other end of the pool before you remembered who you were.”
    “Well, there was an awful lot of blonde extruded from that bathing suit—”
    “I allowed for a certain amount of preoccupation. But your subconscious should have been on duty, anyway. It was fairly obvious you hadn’t been Mr. Hamilton for very long.”
    I nodded. “So then you put the private snoops on me? You know, sometimes I get the impression I’m a kind of backlog for the whole damned industry.”
    “Well, perhaps if you behaved yourself—”
    “If you’re referring to this last deal,” I said, “the woman told me she was separated from her husband. What was I supposed to do, get an affidavit? But never mind that. How did the snoops find out where to dig? After I rocked that one up with his camera, I was running scared, believe me; he didn’t seem to be the healthiest. I think I used three different names from Las Vegas to Los Angeles International to Chicago to Miami, and I registered from San Antonio, Texas.”
    It was quite simple,” she said. “I got your correct name and your Los Angeles address off an old credit card.”
    “What?”
    ”When you try to change your identity, you should clean out your wallet.”
    “I don’t leave my wallet lying around—”
    “No. But you don’t take it in swimming with you, either.”
    I was beginning to feel like an absolute chump. This girl had picked me to pieces as if I’d been an oaf at a county fair.
    “Listen,” I said, almost angrily, “I know I’m not that stupid. When I was in the pool or on the beach, it was in my room. And the room was locked.”
    “I know,” she said. “But you have a bad habit of not turning the key in at the desk. And the next afternoon you went swimming off the beach. Remember? I merely took the key from the pocket of your wrap and went up to the room.”
    I shook my head. “You’ve got a really cold nerve. Don’t you know that’s a serious offense, whether you took anything or not?”
    “There was really no risk,” she said. “Your room overlooked the beach, so I could see you out there. And the whole thing didn’t take five minutes.”
    “You don’t let anything stop you, do you? So then what?”
    “That was when I called the detective agency. They put their Los Angeles office on it, and when you checked out of the Golden Horn they told me where you were staying down here. I came down. I wanted to keep in contact, and perhaps meet you, but not commit myself until I received the report