Double Indemnity - James M. Cain [3]
"Thank you, no, Mrs. Nirdlinger. I'll only be a minute. That is, if Mr. Nirdlinger has decided to renew. I supposed he had, when you sent for me." Because it came over me that I wasn't surprised that Belle was off, and that she was just making herself some tea. And I meant to get out of there, whether I took the renewals with me or not.
"Oh, have some tea. I like tea. It makes a break in the afternoon."
"You must be English."
"No, native Californian."
"You don't see many of them."
"Most Californians were born in Iowa."
"I was myself."
"Think of that."
The white sailor suit did it. I sat down. "Lemon?"
"No thanks."
"Two?"
"No sugar, just straight."
"No sweet tooth?"
She smiled at me and I could see her teeth. They were big and white and maybe a little bit buck.
"I do a lot of business with the Chinese. They've got me out of the American way of drinking tea."
"I love the Chinese. Whenever I make chow mein I buy all the stuff at the same place near the park. Mr. Ling. Do you know him?"
"Known him for years."
"Oh, you have!"
Her brow wrinkled up, and I saw there was nothing washed-out about her. What gave her that look was a spray of freckles across her forehead. She saw me looking at them. "I believe you're looking at my freckles."
"Yes, I was. I like them."
"I don't."
"I do."
"I always used to wear a turban around my forehead when I went out in the sun, but so many people began stopping by, asking to have their fortunes told, that I had to stop it."
"You don't tell fortunes?"
"No, it's one California accomplishment I never learned."
"Anyway I like the freckles."
She sat down beside me and we talked about Mr. Ling. Now Mr. Ling wasn't anybody but a Chinese grocery dealer that had a City Hall job on the side, and every year we had to bond him for $2,500, but you'd be surprised what a swell guy he turned out to be when we talked about him. After a while, though, I switched to insurance. "Well, how about those policies?"
"He's still talking about the Automobile Club, but I think he's going to renew with you."
"I'm glad of that."
She sat there a minute, making little pleats with the edge of her blouse and rubbing them out. "I didn't say anything to him about the accident insurance."
"No?"
"I hate to talk to him about it."
"I can understand that."
"It seems an awful thing to tell him you think he ought to have an accident policy. And yet—you see, my husband is the Los Angeles representative of the Western Pipe and Supply Company."
"He's in the Petroleum Building, isn't he?"
"That's where he has his office. But most of the time he's in the oil fields."
"Plenty dangerous, knocking around there."
"It makes me positively ill to think about it."
"Does his company carry anything on him?"
"Not that I know of."
"Man in a business like that, he ought not to take chances."
And then I made up my mind that even if I did like her freckles, I was going to find out where I was at. "I tell you, how would you like it if I talked with Mr. Nirdlinger about this? You know, not say anything about where I got the idea, but just bring it up when I see him."
"I just hate to talk to him about it."
"I'm telling you. I'll talk."
"But then he'll ask me what I think, and—I won't know what to say. It's got me worried sick."
She made another bunch of pleats. Then, after a long time, here it came. "Mr. Huff, would it be possible for me to take out a policy for him, without bothering him about it at all? I have a little allowance of my own. I could pay you for it, and he wouldn't know, but just the same all this worry would be over."
I couldn't be mistaken about what she meant, not after fifteen years in the insurance business. I mashed out my cigarette, so I could get up and go. I was going to get out of there, and drop those renewals and everything else about her like a red-hot poker. But I didn't do it. She looked at me, a little surprised, and her face was about six inches away. What I did do was put my arm around her, pull her face up against mine,