The Last Embrace Read Online Free Page A

the woman tilted her head. “We may have an opening at the end of the month.”
    “Oh,” said Lily. “That’s not why…I mean…I’m a friend of the Croggan family. From Illinois…My name’s Lily Kessler. I’ve come to…” Lily’s eyes darted away. “So does that mean Doreen’s still missing?”
    The woman stood, silhouetted in the doorway. Lily wondered why she didn’t invite her in. Her mind was clogged with cobwebs, sticky and sluggish after her long journey, and it troubled her that she couldn’t make out the woman’s face in the house’s shadows, where dim rooms receded into dusk, though it was high noon outside.
    The woman pursed her lips. “You mean Kitty.”
    Relieved, Lily nodded and launched into how Mrs. Croggan had sent her out to check on Doreen and make sure she was okay.
    “Kitty isn’t here.”
    “But has she come back?”
    “No, she hasn’t.” The woman’s voice was flat, without inflection.
    Lily felt a growing anxiety. The longer Doreen stayed missing, the worse the odds grew.
    “In that case, perhaps I might speak with you and the boarders?”
    The woman studied her.
    “Her mother sent me,” Lily repeated. “I’ve come all the way from Illinois.”
    The woman shifted, the floorboards creaking beneath her.
    “The police…” Lily began, and the words appeared to have a magical effect.
    “I suppose you might.” The woman opened the door wider. “I’m Mrs. Potter, the landlady. Won’t you come inside?”
    She led Lily into the front parlor. Lily put her suitcase down and sat at the edge of a red sofa. A battered Steinway covered in knickknacks stood against the far wall. The coffee table held a Sears Roebuck catalogue, two well-thumbed Movie Screen magazines, and a chipped ceramic ashtray pilfered from Earl Carroll’s nightclub.
    Mrs. Potter lowered herself into a caned chair. A sleek black cat padded into the room and crouched by her feet, tail twitching.
    “Well, Miss Kessler, what would you like to know?”
    Feminine laughter drifted from the back of the house, then a blast of song from a tinny radio. Mrs. Potter’s eyes flickered and her lips curved in annoyance. Lily smelled coffee and the tantalizing aroma of angel food cake. In Illinois, she would have been offered a meal by now. Surely something to drink.
    “Please, Mrs. Potter. Couldn’t I talk to you and the boarders together? I’d like to meet them. I’m sure they’ve got some ideas of where Dor—er, Kitty might be.”
    Mrs. Potter stared at her clenched white hands. “Very well. I’ll ask them into the parlor.”
    She left the room, the cat trailing after her. Lily jumped up and followed.
    “Maybe you could take me to where they are. I don’t want to disturb their coffee klatch.”
    Lily wanted them to feel comfortable. It wasn’t a police interrogation, after all.
    Mrs. Potter grabbed her arm. “Miss Kessler,” she said, “I run a respectable house.”
    The cat brushed against her stockings and Lily felt the prickle of static electricity. Something angular jabbed the back of her neck. She turned and saw an iron wall sconce casting a thin watery light into the hallway.
    Mrs. Potter’s eyes glinted. “We don’t have a curfew here, like some of the other places. I know what the studios expect of these girls, and it’s the devil’s own bargain. So long as they don’t bring it home, it’s none of my business.”
    “I see,” said Lily, who wasn’t sure she did at all.
    “If Kitty’s off somewhere improving her chances, it’s nobody’s business but her own.”
    Mrs. Potter gave Lily’s arm an emphatic shake. “She’s an ambitious girl, our Miss Kitty. No bad habits. Never any money trouble. Rent’s paid up through the thirty-first. She’s not one of those as pays by the week.”
    “Please let go of me,” Lily said.
    Mrs. Potter’s hand fell to her side. She gave a simpering laugh. “Sometimes I get carried away. These girls get to be like daughters to me.”
    Oh, so you’d