Love's Lovely Counterfeit Read Online Free Page B

went out.
    "What was the idea, calling me?"
    "Well, it was pretty successful, what I did. What you did. What—we did. I thought, after the way I acted today, the least I could do was call you and thank you."
    "Over that hotel phone?"
    "Oh, I was going to be careful."
    "On a night like this, when we set off five tons of dynamite in this town, you were going to let a night clerk hear you being careful?"
    "Is it as melodramatic as that?"
    "Yeah."
    He turned away from her, and became aware of the apart-ment she lived in. It was a bare little place, almost shabby, on the second floor of a small apartment house. To one side was a dining alcove, and a double door looked as though a bed might lurk behind it. He had not got up here without an argument through the door phone, for it was at least one o'clock in the morning, and when she finally let him up, she made him wait five minutes while she put on these lounging pajamas that she now wore. They were dark red, and certainly becoming, but he paid no attention to them. As she continued to smile, he seized her roughly by the arm and asked: "What's so funny about this melodrama thing?...O.K., they shoot off blanks, and I guess that's funny. But Caspar, he don't shoot off blanks. When he shoots, he throws lead. Is that funny? Go on, let's see you laugh."
    She tried to pull her arm away, but he gave it another shake. "And how'd you find out who I am, by the way?"
    "I don't see that that matters."
    "Oh yes. It matters."
    She turned to a table, opened a drawer, and took out a piece of paper. "When you tear up envelopes to write on, you might burn the part that has your name and address on it, or put it back in your pocket, or something. You were in such a hurry to jump out of the car today that you left this on the seat."
    "And who did you show it to?"
    "Nobody."
    "And who did you tell about it?"
    "Nobody."
    "Come on! How about Jansen?"
    "About you, I've told nothing, and I can prove it."
    "O.K., prove."
    "Were you there? At the meeting?"
    "I heard it."
    "You noticed I made that announcement myself?"
    "Saving Jansen from criminal libel?"
    "After I called Dietz and made sure that what you told me was true, I didn't have to worry about libel. No, I was thinking about myself. I was making sure that I, and nobody else, got the credit. I wanted to be certain that Mr. Jansen, if he gets elected, will have to do a lot more about me in the shape of a job than he would have to do if I was just a girl that handled secretaries, and had slips filled out. In that case I wouldn't be telling anybody the source of my information, would I? You see, I'm hoping for more tips."
    He sat down and studied her intently. Relaxing, she sat down, not far away, on the same hard little sofa. Suddenly he asked: "Outside of my name, do you know who I am?"
    "No."
    "I'm Sol Caspar's driver."
    "Then—you're Sol Caspar's driver."
    "And that's O.K. with you?"
    "It certainly gilt-edges your tips."
    "And it don't bother you that I drive for him six days a week and then on my day off I call you up and give you tips?"
    "I'm willing to believe you have your reasons."
    "I got plenty of reasons."
    "Then—I'm glad to know that."
    "I'd rather fight him clean, right out in the open, the way you fight him. I'd be perfectly willing to quit my job, and tell him straight out what I'm up to, than knife him in the back this way. But if I could quit my job I wouldn't be fighting him at all. I'm not looking for trouble. He even laughs at me because I don't like trouble. But he won't let me quit. If I quit, it's curtains for me, and that's why I'm here with you. He asked for it. I didn't."
    "I'm very glad to know that."
    "O.K. Now who are you?"
    "Nobody."
    "Listen, I've got to know."
    "I was born in Ohio, and raised there, just across the river from Kentucky. I went to school there, and high school, and college, and law school. Then I heard of a job in Lake City, and applied for it, and got it, and came here."
    "What kind of a job?"
    "With a