The Night People Read Online Free Page B

smoke at the graceful figure of Linda Bankcroft and said, “As I remarked at the beginning of all this, my darling, a proper murder is the ultimate game of skill….”

The Passionate Phantom
    “Y OU MEAN YOU’VE NEVER met Ida Spain?” Hastings asked with an incredulity that was rare for him. “Man, she’s slept with everybody in town. How did you get left out?”
    Crandell sipped his drink and smiled. “I’m a happily married man, Foster. I’d have no reason to know Ida Spain.”
    Foster Hastings shook his head sadly. “I thought everybody knew her. I can’t understand it. You really mean you’ve never even heard the name before?”
    Jim Crandell’s smile broadened. “I told you, Foster. That stuff isn’t for me.”
    “Not even when you’re away, man? I’ve heard stories about traveling salesmen.”
    “And farmer’s daughters, I know. I guess I’m just different.”
    “Well, you come around to one of our parties and meet her, anyway. It’ll make you feel young again.”
    Jim Crandell chuckled. “I’ve got someone at home who makes me feel young every weekend. I’ll be seeing you, Foster.”
    “So long, Jim….”
    Home was a little ranch house in the suburbs, with roses in the yard and good food in the kitchen. And Doris waiting there by the door as she always was.
    “How was the trip, dear?”
    He kissed her lightly on the cheek and peeled off his topcoat. “Good trip, but the weather was terrible up there. I’ll swear it must have been down to forty in Toronto.”
    “I’ve got supper all ready.”
    “Good.” He glanced at the evening newspaper briefly and then for some reason his mind returned to the conversation with Foster Hastings.
    “Doris?”
    She stuck her head around the kitchen door. “Yes dear?”
    “Did you ever hear of a girl called Ida Spain?”
    “Ida Spain?”
    “Yeah. I met Foster Hastings—you know, the fellow from the bank. He happened to tell me about her.” Jim answered.
    “Ida Spain … Gosh, dear, that name is familiar. I think I did meet her once or twice. Seems to me she was quite a beautiful woman. What did Foster say about her?”
    “Well, I guess she really gets around. I was just surprised I’d never met her.”
    “Why be surprised when you’re out of town three or four nights a week? We don’t exactly enter into the social whirl, you know.”
    It was an old argument between them, and he didn’t want to go into it now. “Well, it’s not really important. She’s probably not my type anyway. Foster just happened to mention her.”
    The food was smelling good, and he put down the paper and followed her into the kitchen, forgetting for the time about the girl named Ida Spain….
    It was many days later, and he’d just gotten back from a trip to Washington. The desk in his office was cluttered with two days’ accumulation of mail, and as he prowled through the pile in search of any unexpected orders that might lurk there, the telephone gave a shrill nagging peal.
    “Crandell?”
    “Jim, I’m glad I caught you. This is Foster Hastings.”
    “I just got in from Washington, Foster.”
    “Look, you’ve been saying that you never met this Ida Spain….
    “Ida Spain?” And then he remembered. “Oh, yes.”
    “Well, I’m at a little cocktail party at the Clinton Hotel, and she’s here. Why don’t you come over?”
    “Oh, I don’t think….”
    “Come on. The little woman will never miss you for an hour or so.”
    “Well….”
    “She’s worth seeing, believe me.”
    “Okay, Foster. You talked me into it. Where are you, in the cocktail lounge?”
    “That’s right. At the Clinton.”
    Jim Crandell smiled to himself as he gathered up the mail and stuffed it into his desk drawer. He never thought he’d be going out of his way to see a girl who’d slept with everybody in town, but the thing had his curiosity aroused. Of course he’d only been in this city a few years, but it seemed odd that his path had never crossed that of Ida Spain