Dream Town

Chapter 53

He took the automatic elevator up and walked down to the penthouse suite. One of the double doors was open, and there stood Gloria Mars. Her dress was red and tight and slitted, the heels were high and the fishnet stockings midnight black, lending a remarkable contrast with the sunset burn of the dress. Her auburn hair was piled on top of her head except for a few curlicue dangles around her cheeks. She looked him up and down like he was an object of purchase at the Farmer’s Market.

Archer was afraid that something had gotten seriously lost in translation with the maid.

“Archer, I was wondering when you were going to make your way back to me.”

“Well, here I am.”

She slipped her arm through his. “Yes you are. Let’s have a drink.”

She led him into the penthouse.

“Your husband around?”

“I’m not really sure where he is.”

“How about Vegas with the other Musketeers?”

She glanced at him, sharp as a tack. “How do you know about that?”

“Just heard it on the street.”

“Some street. So he’s in Vegas?”

The lady did not appear to be happy about that, thought Archer. “My best guess,” he replied.

She mixed them martinis and she placed Archer on a blue chesterfield while she perched close to him. “What other helpful information do you have for me?”

“You went to Wellesley. You were in the same class as Eleanor Lamb and Alice Jacoby.”

Mars sipped her drink. “I already knew that,” she said, not looking pleased.

“You never mentioned that when I was talking to you about Lamb.”

“What was there to mention? I didn’t even know her.”

That doesn’t match what Jacoby told me. “But you know Alice Jacoby?”

“Yes. She was Alice Buckner back then. From West Virginia, if you can believe it.”

“We’re all from somewhere.”

“I understand that Lamb is missing.”

“How do you understand that?”

“That same street you walk on, big fella.” A young maid passed by them, her gaze averted. Mars added, “But let’s find a place a little more private than this.” She rose and pulled him up.

Before Archer realized it, they had passed through a door and into a bedroom that was about twice the size of his entire apartment back in Bay Town, and very feminine in its décor.

In answer to his look, she said, “Danny and I maintain separate bedrooms. I like my own space. His bedroom looks like a combo hunting lodge and bar. Give me a minute, Archer.”

She disappeared into an adjacent bathroom and closed the door.

While she was gone Archer looked around. There was a large armoire about the size of the one in Jacoby’s office. He eyed the bathroom door and then tried to open the armoire. It was locked. That intrigued him enough to use his knife to push the bolt back and look inside. There were just piles of books. But then he looked at some of the titles and came away surprised, knowing what he did about Mars.

He closed the armoire and moved over across from the bed, but keeping his distance from it.

About thirty seconds later Mars came out of the bathroom with her hair down around her shoulders and her lipstick freshly applied. She smelled of vanilla and honeysuckle.

“You look more relaxed,” she said.

“Do I? Not really feeling that way.”

“Let me see if I can help.” Mars glided across and kissed him on the mouth. She pulled slightly away and gave him a searching look. “Well?”

“That helped,” he said.

“Well, let’s keep working on it.”

Mars led him over to the bed and put her drink down. She reached behind her, slid her zipper from her shoulders to her bottom, and stepped out of the dress. Underneath she had on a lacey lavender bra, white, high-cut underpants, and a black garter belt holding up her stockings. She stepped out of her heels, which brought her three inches closer to the earth.

“I don’t do this for just anybody.”

“Which makes me wonder why I’m so lucky.”

“Because you’re young and tall and handsome, and I like all those things in a man.”

“Your husband is a lot taller than me.”

“But he’s not young and he’s not handsome and he’s certainly not interested in this anymore.”

“Then maybe he should go see a doctor.”

“And you can sweet-talk, too. Even better.” She kissed him again, this time with her tongue, but didn’t get the reaction she wanted. She stepped back and looked up at him. “Is there something wrong?”

“I actually came here to ask you some questions, not jump into bed with you. I’m sorry if I let this get out of hand, but you threw me some curves I didn’t quite know how to handle.”

“Can’t you ask your questions while we do it? Interrogation while having intercourse, it might be kind of sexy.”

“You’re married,” he said.

“It’s 1953, for God’s sake. And do you really think Danny isn’t sleeping around?”

“I’m working what is now a murder investigation. In fact, I was almost murdered up in Vegas while I was checking on Lamb’s disappearance. It makes a man think. It makes a man careful.” He eyed her up and down. “All the time.”

She gave him a hard look right back. “Are you sure you want to forgo this opportunity?” She fiddled with her bra strap, apparently still trying despite his earlier rejection. “It might not come around again.”

He eyed her soft breasts. “Trust me, it’s a difficult decision. And a few years ago we’d already be in that bed over there. But it’s not a few years ago. So put your dress back on and let’s talk.”

She didn’t look pleased by this, but she didn’t slap him or order him to get out, either. What Mars did was step back into her dress, sit on the bed, and rub at one stockinged foot. “You said a murder investigation? Lamb isn’t dead, is she?”

By her tone, Archer didn’t think she cared one way or another. Yet when he looked at the woman’s tensed features, he thought he might be wrong about that.

“No, a PI from Anaheim named Cedric Bender is.”

“What’s the connection to Lamb?”

“His body was found in her house.”

“Maybe she killed him,” said Mars.

“Maybe.”

“What questions do you have?” Mars asked.

“Did Alice Jacoby ever strike you as being addicted to drugs?”

“Alice? She’s as straight a shooter as I’ve ever seen. I doubt she even takes aspirin.”

“Jacoby was friends with Lamb, so it seems odd that you didn’t know Lamb, too. Jacoby seemed to think that you two did know each other.”

“What can I tell you? She was wrong. We all had our little cliques, Archer, and Lamb was not part of mine.”

“Lamb was a political science major. Which makes sense because her father was in the diplomatic corps. She traveled all over because of that. Speaks multiple languages.”

“How interesting,” said Mars, who looked bored and distracted. She walked over to a side table, plucked a cigarette out of a bowl, used a chrome lighter next to the bowl to light up, and resumed her seat on the bed, her legs drawn up under her. She said in a prompting manner, “My attention span is waning, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“How much did the casinos tap you for Danny’s gambling losses?”

She puffed on her smoke without taking her unblinking eyes off him, a remarkable feat, he had to concede. “How do you know they did?”

“He’s still alive. And so are you.”

“I’m just a bit thrown here, I have to admit. I was ready for a very different afternoon with you. No talking, no thinking. Just some time with me, right here,” she said, patting the bed.

“So, the debts?”

“What possible business is it of yours?”

“If it makes you feel better, Mallory Green and Alice Jacoby have the same issues with their husbands. Bart Green’s is just on a bigger scale.”

“Well, I’m sure Mallory will be able to handle it.”

“He’s lost millions of dollars gambling, Gloria. Now, maybe you could pay that back with your J. P. Morgan and U.S. Trust inheritance. But Mallory doesn’t have those kinds of assets.”

“Bart makes a lot of money.”

“Not that much,” he said.

“What can I tell you?”

“I was hoping more than you have. So, Green never came to you for money?”

“If she did, why should I tell you?”

“Maybe you just did. How about Alice? Did she put the ask on you for bailout money?”

“As I told you before, Archer, I never touch the principal.”

“But what about a little interest? You probably have a bit to share for an old friend.”

She dropped her gaze. “If you must know, yes, I did help a little. But that was all.”

“Did you find some spare change for your husband, too?”

“Can you find your own way out, or do I have to call one of the servants to show you?”

He slowly walked over to the door.

“Oh, Archer?”

He turned to see her standing there all confidence and swagger, her hands on her hips.

“Just take a good long look at my bedroom, tall, dark, and stupid. Because you’ll never see it again.”

Yep, Archer thought, the warrior just got me with her sword right in the gut.