The Big Sleep: Chapter 11

I unlocked my deep drawer and got out my office bottle and two shot glasses. I filled them and we drank. She snapped her bag shut and pushed her chair back.

"I'll get the five mill," she said. "I've been a good customer of Eddie Mars. There's another reason why he should be nice to me, which you may not know." She gave me one of those smiles the lips have forgotten by the time they reach the eyes. "Eddie's blonde wife is the lady Rusty ran away with."

I didn't say anything. She stared tightly at me and added: "That doesn't interest you?"

"It ought to make him easier to find him - if I was looking for him. You don't think he's in this mess, do you?"

She pushed her empty glass at me. "Give me another drink. You're the hardest guy to get anything out of. You don't even move your ears."

I filled the little glass. "You've got all you wanted out of me - a pretty good idea I'm not looking for your husband."

She put the drink down very quickly. It made her gasp - or gave her an opportunity to gasp. She let a breath out slowly.

"Rusty was no crook. If he had been, it wouldn't have been for change. He carried fifteen million dollars, in bills. He called it his mad money. He had it when I married him and he had it when he left me. No - Rusty's not in on any cheap blackmail racket."

She reached for the envelope and stood up. "I'll keep in touch with you," I said.

She tapped the white envelope against her knuckles. She said: "You still feel you can't tell me what Dad - "

"I'd have to see him first."

She took the holo out and stood looking at it. "She has a beautiful little body, hasn't she?"

"Uh-huh."

She leaned towards me. "But you prefer mine, don't you?"

She dropped her bag and wriggled her fingers and her clothing slid off on the floor. She stood there, naked, staring steadily at me. I put out my cigarette and reached for her.

I fucked her twice that afternoon, once on the desk and once leaning on it. She knew everything about sucking cock and riding me in her ass. I made it difficult for her, holding out as long as I could and making sure she came too, both times. She was energetic and surprisingly imaginative, moaning dirty words which degenerated into screams as she reached orgasm.

As I sat panting, spent for the second time, she said: "You like it when I do you a favour or two?"

I said: "I still can't tell you anything about the General's instructions, you know."

She pulled on her clothing back on in a few deft movements, laughed sharply and went half-way though the door, then turned her head to say coolly: "You're as cold-blooded a beast as I have even met, Marlowe. Or can I call you Phil?"

"Sure."

"You can call me Vivian."

"Thanks, Mrs Regan."

"Oh, go to hell, Marlowe." She went on out and didn't look back.

I let the door shut itself. I felt a little hot, flushed and sticky. I put the whisky away in the desk and washed my dick, then rinsed out the shot glasses and put them away.

I put in a video call to the OSHA office and they put me through to Bernie Ohls.

He was back in his cubby hole. "Well, I let the old man alone," he said. "The butler said he or one of the girls would tell him when he was next awake. This Owen Taylor lived over the garage and I went though his stuff. Parents on Earth. I messaged them to find out what they want done. The Sternwood family will pay for it."

"Suicide?" I asked.

"No can tell. He didn't leave any notes. He had no leave to take the cruiser. Everybody was home last night but Mrs Regan. She was down-town at the Cypress Club with a playboy named Larry Cobb. I checked on that. I know a ‘bot on one of the tables."

"You ought to stop this flash gambling," I said.

"With the syndicate we got on this rock? Be your age, Marlowe. That bruise on the boy's head bothers me. Sure you can't help me on this?"

I liked his putting it that way. It let me say no without actually lying. We said good-bye and I left the office, rode a taxi down to the Hall of Justice to get my rickshaw out of the parking lot. There was nothing on any of the nets about Geiger. I took another look at his blue notebook, but the code as just as stubborn as it had been the night before.

Part 2

Chapter 12: Lost Property