[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
."He hung up on me before I could stop him," he told Carmela quietly."It was Lance.He's on his way up here."She jumped up with an abject cry of fright or of fear.Shayne went to her swiftly and put his arm about her shoulders.He swung her toward the open bathroom door and gave her a little ' shove."Go in there and lock the door.It might do you good to listen in at the keyhole and see what Lance has to say for himself.”,She stumbled toward the door and went inside, pulled it shut behind her.Shayne waited until he heard the click of the lock from the inside, then went slowly across to open his door.He heard the elevator stop down the hall to let out a passenger, and | waited there to greet Lance Bayliss.VIBayliss would have been almost as tall as Shayne had Bayliss stood erect.He didn't.His shoulders drooped wearily, and his back appeared to be permanently bowed.His head was lowered, and he walked with a curious shuffle as though to balance his body with each step.Tendons stood out on each side of his neck, and he wore a shabby gray suit and a black bow tie about the frayed collar of a dingy white shirt.Ten years had thickened his torso and he looked well-fed, but his eyes held an expression of secretive wariness, and he seemed prepared to cringe should a hand suddenly be lifted against him.Shayne put out his hand and said heartily, "Lance Bayliss!" After a moment's hesitation Lance put his hand in Shayne's.He didn't lift his head to look directly into the detective's eyes when he muttered, "Hello, Shayne.I didn't suppose I'd ever see you again."Shayne kept hold of his hand and stepped back, urging him inside the room."Come on in and have a drink."He narrowed his eyes as he noted the manner in which Lance Bayliss entered the hotel room.It told him a lot about what had happened to the man during the past ten years.Lance came in with a sort of furtive stealth, darting his eyes around in all directions suspiciously, behind the door and under the bed, and at the open closet door and the closed bathroom door.He kept moving toward the center of the room, and then stopped to look back slyly over his shoulder while Shayne closed the door.He said, "I guess I could use a drink."Shayne went past him and picked up Carmela's glass and set it beside his own on the bedside table.He split the remainder of the cognac in the two glasses.When he turned to offer one to Lance, his guest said, "I hope I didn't interrupt anything by coming up.""Nothing important," Shayne told him pleasantly."I couldn't help noticing the two glasses," Lance apologized."You're not—married?"Shayne said, "No," shortly."Are you?"Lance Bayliss shook his head.His hand trembled slightly as he lifted the glass to his lips.He murmured sardonically, "To older and happier days."Shayne sat down abruptly in the chair Carmela had occupied.He indicated another chair and asked, "What have you been doing with yourself?""Nothing important.Bumming around here and there.""Writing any poetry?""Hardly." Lance balanced his glass on his knee and watched it carefully, as though he feared it might disappear from his hand if he didn't keep his eyes fixed on it."Too busy writing propaganda for the Third Reich?" Shayne purposely made his voice harsh.Lance Bayliss wet his lips.He didn't look up."So you know about that?""Carmela Towne told me."He winced at the sound of her name."It was a dirty business," he said quietly."I didn't think anything mattered during those years.I was being very cynical and disillusioned.The war woke me up."He lifted his eyes to Shayne's face momentarily."You've got to believe me," he said strongly."I pulled out of it when Hitler marched into Poland.""Since then?"Lance shrugged."Dodging the Gestapo mostly.I got to Mexico finally and ghosted a book there.""What sort of a book?""Dictators I Have Known."Shayne jerked to closer attention."That was by the war correspondent Douglas Gershon.""His name was signed to it," Lance admitted wryly."I understand sold well.""It caused a lot of controversy.Half the people who read it sound pro-Fascist.""It wasn't at all," Lance protested."People felt that merely because presented the dictators as human beings.They are human, and ail le more despicable because of that.Hell, the book was banned in Germany and all the occupied countries." His grayish-blue eyes flashed fire at Shayne, then flickered away."Which might have been smart propaganda to get it more widely read over here," Shayne pointed out.Lance Bayliss sighed and finished his drink.He set the empty glass own and said, "I can't prove it, but I'm on the Gestapo blacklist 3r having ghosted the book.I had to get out of Mexico in a hurry, you know what happened to Douglas Gershon," he ended hoarsely."Had some sort of accident in New York, didn't he?""They called it an accident.Gershon was murdered [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]