Dark Blonde Read Online Free PDF Page A

grand jury. Diversion. There were plenty of irregularities in that last little election in Cook County if you haven’t heard. A lot of finger pointing helped to muddy the waters. Gail just got caught up in all that. She hung with the wrong sorts at the wrong time and place.”
    “You lead a complicated life for a girl from Nebraska. Give me the bottom line, she wasn’t helping run a string of whores?”
    She bristled at the word. “No. She wasn’t. Gail just likes to run with cheap dangerous men. Gets excited by it, I gather. Even as a girl she always rubbed up against the biggest bully on the school ground. Her way of defending herself. Christy French, the thug who ran that prostitute ring, I tried to warn her about him, that she’d get hauled in with him, tried to get her away from all of that, but he framed her for it and left town. I hear he crossed some bigshots and as they say in your trade, was fitted for some lead galoshes, some hot ones. It served him right. That enough dirt for you?”
    Julia was still hyperventilating. If she’d squeezed her glass any tighter, she’d need a tourniquet. It was obvious last year’s trial still prickled and I felt sorry for anyone who truly crossed her because it didn’t look like grudges were something she ever put down. I didn’t need to press; the grand jury testimony was there to dig into if needed. My partner Rick had contacts in the Mayor’s office, if he ever got back from Jersey.
    I massaged my face like I was fascinated by what she said, but I was more curious about what she didn’t say, even though she was the kind of woman who made you forget she was saying anything, as if talking was important when you could see any fantasy you wanted in those liquid peepers. I couldn’t imagine portly Henry with this dish, even with her much publicized ambition for political power. “I’ll need information of where and who she worked for in Vegas. What sort of work for Kerner and what’s her connection to him?”
    “Decorating for their new vacation home up north on Lake Michigan. Listen   —   there are things I don’t feel like disclosing, private family things. Please stick to finding Gail.”
    “I’ll try. If my nose gets too long just slap it for me. I only appear heartless. I ask a lot of questions to a lot of people not knowing how any of the answers might link up. Think of it as the curse of a private eye. You’re hiring an eye. Eyes look, they poke around, turn over rocks to look, ask too many personal questions and have a morbid fascination for dirt, some of which, strangely enough, can clean things up. Believe me, it’s not as glamorous as you see on television. Tedious, low pay and an occasional knot on the head. Every now and then someone like Miss Mathews brightens up my day. Even better, every now and then a nice leggy brunette turns out to be a blonde. Sometimes they don’t even ask about this scar.”
    She began a weak smile but it was only a beginning smile with no place to go. It slipped off her face and a smirk dropped by. “I don’t mind the scar. Anything else?”
    “Did she seem worried lately? Moody, different in any way?”
    Her eyes darted over my shoulder while I talked, like her thoughts raced ahead again, or maybe she wanted another drink. “No, things were fine. We were going to work on Henry’s campaign this week, designing the set for the television debate. She was very excited to be involved. She didn’t like my having veto over her ideas, but that’s nothing new.”
    “All right. I’ll take your case and see what I can do. That is, if you’ll have another Murphy’s with me.”
    She nodded and I flagged little Ponytail who scooted over like a twenty-dollar tip waited with an ice cream sundae and free tickets to American Bandstand . She scooted off again and we sat exchanging smoldering looks until the drinks came. Julia teased her Murphy’s down with ginger ale. I downed mine in one motion. Something like admiration