Design for Dying Read Online Free Page B

lunch, mermaid. Anything you like, on me.”
    â€œA cup of tea’s fine.” Ruby kicked up a squawk, but I held firm. I’d brought in some leftover breakfast sausages wrapped in waxed paper and I couldn’t abide letting food go to waste.
    Ruby ordered the ham-and-egg platter—“Still a growing girl”—and settled in at a table by the window, the afternoon sun striking her porcelain face like God’s own key light.
    â€œYou look good,” I told her with great reluctance. “If I had hair that color I never would have changed it.”
    â€œThat platinum look’s finished now that Jean Harlow’s dead. I’d hate to remind anyone of Baby. What if I run into William Powell?”
    â€œIf you were going to compliment my looks in return, this would be the time.”
    â€œCome on, mermaid. You’re always well turned out. Unlike the rest of us, you don’t need constant reassurance about it.”
    â€œShows what you know. So what have you been up to?”
    â€œWhatever keeps the wolf from the door. I hired on at Paramount, did you hear?”
    I sipped my scalding, just-arrived tea to buy myself a moment. “You don’t say.”
    â€œDidn’t your famous uncle Donny lift a brush there?”
    â€œDanny. I’m surprised the girls never mentioned that to me.” In truth, I could readily understand it. The other boarders at Mrs. Lindros’s house knew how I’d react to the news, well aware I longed to present myself at the studio’s Bronson Gate and be clutched to Paramount’s breast as a member of the extended family. I wasn’t necessarily jealous of Ruby when it came to Tommy Carpa, but I was positively green-eyed now. “How’d you wind up there?”
    â€œFriend of a friend. It’s all who you know. One call and I was in Wardrobe, helping the stars into their gowns. Of course, I’m not there anymore.”
    â€œYou were fired from Paramount?”
    â€œHardly, mermaid. I quit. The grind got in the way of my real work. Clomping around behind some studio stooge’s ‘discovery’ who can’t keep time.” Ruby sighed grandly. “Lately I’ve been giving some thought to the theater. The stage is where real acting is done.”
    â€œYou were born to play Lady Macbeth.”
    â€œDon’t be catty. I’ve had loads of time to reflect on my career since I gave Tommy the heave-ho.”
    I perked up. “You did? Why?”
    â€œEverything you ever said about him turned out to be true. In spades. He’s a louse and a bum. A four-flusher and a terrible dancer.” Ruby pressed her lips bloodless. “You warned me about him and I didn’t listen. Could have spared myself a boatload of heartache if I’d paid attention to my one true friend.”
    For the next half hour, as Ruby devoured ham and eggs to the accompaniment of my growling stomach, she brought me up to speed on the doings among Mrs. Lindros’s current class and alumni. With the last of the yolk soaked up, she pushed away her plate. Still packing away the chow and never gaining a pound. “This is some store,” she said.
    â€œThanks. I worked hard on it.”
    â€œDoesn’t that designer Irene have a boutique here?”
    â€œNo. She’s at Bullock’s on Wilshire.”
    â€œIrene does all of Claudette Colbert’s clothes. I saw her once, at a party Tommy took me to. Claudette. She was so tiny and beautiful I just wanted to claw her face and throw myself in front of a bus.” From Ruby there could be no higher praise. She paused. I felt the calculation in it. “There’s some choice stuff here. What’s the policy like?”
    â€œThe policy?”
    â€œYou know. On returns.”
    She winked, and I knew I was in trouble.
    â€œIt’s fairly strict. You need a receipt. Ideally witnessed by a priest.”
    â€œToo bad. I don’t have any