The Mike Hammer Collection - Mickey Spillane [184]
“Then why this?”
“I missed you. Funny as it sounds, someplace inside me I have a spot that’s always reserved for you. I didn’t want you to ever know it, but there it is.”
I kissed her again, longer and closer this time. Her body was talking to me, screaming to me. There would have been more if Ruston hadn’t called out.
Roxy slipped into the robe again, the cold static making it snap. “Let me go,” I said. She nodded.
I opened the door and hit the light switch. “Hello, Sir Lancelot.” The kid had been crying in his sleep, but he smiled at me.
“Hello, Mike. When did you come?”
“A little while ago. Want something?”
“Can I have some water, please? My throat’s awfully dry.”
A pitcher half full of ice was on the desk. I poured it into a glass and handed it to him and he drank deeply. “Have enough?”
He gave the glass back to me. “Yes, thank you.”
I gave his chin a little twist. “Then back to bed with you. Get a good sleep.”
Ruston squirmed back under the covers. “I will. Good night, Mike.”
“’Night, pal.” I closed the door behind me. Roxy had changed into a deep maroon quilted job and sat in the chair smoking a cigarette. The moment had passed. I could see that she was sorry, too. She handed me my deck of butts and I pocketed them, then waved a good-night. Neither of us felt like saying anything.
Evidently Harvey had retired for the night. The staircase was lit only by tiny night-lights shaped to resemble candle flames, while the foyer below was a dim challenge to the eyesight. I picked my way through the rooms and found Billy’s without upsetting anything. He was in bed, but awake. “It’s Mike, Billy,” I said.
He snapped on the bed lamp. “Come on in.”
I shut the door and slumped in a chair next to him. “More questions. I know it’s late, but I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all, Mike. What’s new?”
“Oh, you know how these things are. Haven’t found Miss Grange yet and things are settling around her. Dilwick’s got his men covering her place like a blanket.”
“Yeah? What for? Ain’t she supposed to be drowned?”
“Somebody wants it to look that way, I think. Listen, Billy, you told me before that you heard someone come downstairs between York and me the night of the murder. It wasn’t important before except to establish an alibi for you if it was needed, but now what you heard may have a bearing on the case. Go over it again, will you? Do it in as much detail as you can.”
“Let’s see. I didn’t really hear York leave, I just remember a car crunching the gravel. It woke me up. I had a headache and a bad taste in my mouth from something York gave me. Pills, I think.”
“It was supposed to keep you asleep. He gave you a sedative.”
“Whatever it was I puked up in bed, that’s why it didn’t do me any good. Anyway, I lay here half awake when I heard somebody come down the last two stairs. They squeak, they do. This room is set funny, see. Any noise outside the room travels right in here. They got a name for it.”
“Acoustics.”
“Yeah, that’s it. That’s why nobody ever used this room but me. They couldn’t stand the noise all the time. Not only loud noises, any kind of noises. This was like whoever it was didn’t want to make a sound, but it didn’t do any good because I heard it. Only I thought it was one of the family trying to be quiet so they wouldn’t wake anyone up and I didn’t pay any attention to it. About two or three minutes after that comes this noise like someone coughing with their head under a coat and it died out real slow and that’s all. I was just getting back to sleep when there was another car tearing out the drive. That was you, I guess.”
“That all?”
“Yeah, that’s all, Mike. I went back to sleep after that.”
This was the ace. It had its face down so I couldn’t tell whether it was red or black, but it was the ace. The bells were going off in my head again, those little tinkles that promised to become the pealing of chimes. The cart was before the horse, but if I could find the right buckle to unloosen I could put them right back.
“Billy, say nothing to nobody about this, understand? If the local