Hard Case Crime: Fade to Blonde Read Online Free Page A

Anza. Cain’t miss it. You a friend a Becky’s, come by some time and I’ll give you a shine. Make your car like new. On the house, if you’re a friend a Becky’s”
    “I thought your car looked pretty nice,” I told her.
    “I said I couldn’t afford to wash it,” she said merrily. “I didn’t say I wasn’t washing it.”
    “You come on down to the car wash and I’ll fix you up, too,” Shade said. “Make you shine. It’s right before Anza. Cain’t miss it.”
    “Lorrie hasn’t gotten his break yet, but he really is something in the saddle. Lorrie rides,” she said sweetly and emphatically, “like a dream .” Shade flushed with pleasure. Then he thought about it a little and began to look panicky. But Rebecca was moving smoothly onward: “He’s a real ride-em cowboy. But I keep telling him, no stunt director’s going to put a fellow his size on one of his horses.”
    “Aw, I told you, Becky,” he said. “I sit real light. You know how to sit light, you can ride any size a horse.”
    “You did tell me that. So you did. But right now I have to talk to Mr. Corson, Lorrie. Could you be a honey right now and give us a few minutes?”
    Shade stood up at once and gave my hand another careful squeeze. He told me it had been a real pleasure, and that he hoped to see me around, and maybe we could all three have us a game of poker sometime, because Becky there was quite a hand with the cards, don’t think she wasn’t, you might not think so but you’d be wrong, at which point Rebecca smiled at him again with almost terrifyingbrightness and he shut up as if he’d been kicked. “Well, so long,” he said, and left, closing the door softly behind him. Rebecca smiled distractedly at the door and said, “Lorrie is the sweetest man in the world, and he’s been a true friend to me. So no remarks.”
    “No remarks,” I said.
    As she had been the other day, she was dressed neatly and primly in good-quality clothes that were a little dressy for the middle of a weekday. This time it was a dark oatmeal dress, high-necked, with tiny brass buttons shaped like knots down the front and one on the cuff of each short sleeve. She took a powder-blue engagement book from her bedside table, the kind that closes with a zipper, and unzipped it. I saw she’d been using it as a notebook. What looked like a draft of a letter or an essay ran straight down the page, the words sidling around the numbers of the days like surf rolling around rocks. She opened it to a fresh page, took a pen from the little loop inside the cover, and uncapped it. Then she was ready for business. She patted the bed beside her and I sat down in Shade’s place.
    “I knew you’d come,” she said, her eyes shining. “You have every cent I own in the world, and you could have just taken off and no one the wiser. Or you could have just laughed at me and said what money, because what proof would I have? But Mattie told me you were honest.”
    “Old Mattie,” I said.
    “I knew I picked the right man. And now I guess you deserve a little information.”
    “I do,” I said. “First off, are we talking about Lance Halliday?”
    She went completely still. She looked almost resentful. Then she leaned forward and gave me a sharp little punch in the leg. It hurt. “You’ve been busy,” she said,beaming. “I knew I picked the right man.”
    “All I did was what you did,” I said. “Talk to Mattie. What’s Halliday been doing?”
    “He’s going to burn my face with lye,” she said.
    “Seems a perfectly nice face. What for?”
    “You don’t believe me.”
    “It’s too early for believe and don’t believe. Why’s Halliday want to hurt you?”
    “He’s in love with me,” she said, eyes downcast. “No, I won’t use that word. He’s obsessed with me. I’m, I suppose it sounds arrogant to say it, but I’m someone men get obsessed over, sometimes. Many times. I met him when I was a hat check girl at Ciro’s. He’s a very good-looking