Give Up the Body Read Online Free Page A

little use for Daisy Willow. I tried to bring the subject around to my major interest. “Meaning Daisy, the nymph of the Teneskium?” I asked.
    Glory had good control of herself. She showed no reaction of fear now. She laughed harshly. “You saw that? Sure, Pansypuss Hilton is all upset about it.” She giggled like a school-girl. “Ee-magine,” she said, mimicking Delhart’s secretary, “ee-magine what
that
person will do. One should be very careful in dealing with the fourth estate, you know.” And she added a word I hadn’t heard since I left the army.
    I understood that I was “that” person. All I could think of to say was, “I fell right into it. But I didn’t stay long.”
    Glory looked hard again. And mean, and rather frighteningly vicious for a young and sometimes lovely woman. I did not know how to cope with her sudden drunken changes of appearance. They bewildered me and they scared me. I couldn’t know what she would do next. Looking at her expression just then I was almost afraid of what she might do.
    “So you know,” she said. “All right. She is after Carson. Playing little Miss Innocent. Playing cute with that wet-eared kid, Arthur Frew. Him tagging after her like a chaperone, like an idiot dog. But she’s playing Carson. And isn’t he eating it up!”
    I began to think I had wasted the whiskey. This sounded like a case of jealousy, with liquor pulling all the stops. Nothing more than that. I began to get over my bewilderment and that gnawing sensation of fright that I could not quite understand.
    Glory said, “Here’s your story.” Her voice was as flat as last night’s gingerale. It was emotionless, but it sent those little electric shocks the length of my spine.
    “Titwillow is going to give in too. He’s going to trade his daughter to Carson for that big charity donation.”
    Certainly there was not much in the words. It could have been her jealousy building onto a rumor that was already current. Delhart’s planned donation was common enough gossip. It was not her voice, unless it could have been the very lack of tone in it. It was the entire set of circumstances that made the statement register so hard with me. What I had seen and what I had heard and what I was now seeing and hearing.
    I said without meaning, “It sounds like the heroine tied to the railroad tracks touch to me.”
    Glory ignored me. She said, “And the girl doesn’t want him. Biggest man in Portland and she doesn’t want him.” She seemed to be doing a fine exercise in irrelevancy.
    “I thought you said she was after him.”
    Glory opened her purse, put the handkerchief in, and stood up. “Got another drink? A little one?” She snapped the purse shut and then used her fingers to suggest the size of the drink she wanted.
    I gave it to her, as ordered, and she took it neat, turned around and walked out on me. I half yelled, “Hey!” but she closed the door on my voice. Just like that! Before I had the door all the way open she went whizzing away in her fancy cream and chromium coupe.
    I left the door open to air out her perfume which was more noticeable with the disappearance of her breath. I put the bottle in Jud’s desk. Then I stood by the door and thought of the worst words I could and applied them to Glory Martin.
    Jud came in and interrupted me. He was carrying Bosco under one arm. In his other hand he held an ice cream cone. She was licking the ice cream and purring, and doing both so fast she threatened to choke. Jud dropped her and put the ice cream on a paper on the floor. She went happily to work.
    “Blasted beast,” he said.
    “Bosco saved my honor,” I said virtuously. “Respect her.”
    Jud sat down. “All right,” he said. “Fire away.”
    I pulled my chair back to my desk, made myself comfortable, and told him the whole story up to and including Glory Martin. I did not mention my sensation of being afraid. With Glory gone, with all traces of Delhart and his guests away from me it