Double Indemnity Read Online Free PDF

couldn't use it the other night. He didn't have any gas."
    "Oh."
    I didn't want to lend him money on his car, or anything else. I didn't want to have anything to do with him, or her, in any way, shape, or form. I lit a cigarette, and sat there a minute. "You sure you want to borrow money on this car? Because if you're not working now, what I mean if you don't absolutely see your way clear to pay it back, it's a sure way to lose it. The whole secondhand car business depends on people that thought they could pay a small loan back, and couldn't."
    She looked at me very solemnly. "It's different with Nino. He isn't working, but he doesn't want this loan just to have money to spend. You see, he's done all his work for his Sc.D., and—"
    "Where?"
    "U.S.C."
    "What in?"
    "Chemistry. If he can only get his degree, he's sure of work, he's been promised that, and it seems such a pity to miss a chance for a really good position just because he hasn't taken his degree. But to take it, he has to have his dissertation published, and pay this and that, for his diploma for instance, and that's what he wants this money for. He won't spend it on his living. He has friends that will take care of that."
    I had to come through. I knew that. I wouldn't have, if it didn't make me so nervous to be around her, but all I could think of now was to say yes and get them out of there. "How much do you want?"
    "He thought if he could get $250, that would be enough."
    "I see. I see."
    I figured it up. With charges, it would amount to around $285, and it was an awfully big loan on the car he was going to put up. "Well—give me a day or two on it. I think we can manage it."
    They went out, and then she ducked back. "You're awfully nice to me. I don't know why I keep bothering you about things."
    "That's all right, Miss Nirdlinger, I'm glad—"
    "You can call me Lola, if you want to."
    "Thanks, I'll be glad to help any time I can."
    "This is secret, too."
    "Yes, I know."
    "I'm terribly grateful, Mr. Huff."
    "Thanks—Lola."
    The accident policy came through a couple of days later. That meant I had to get his check for it, and get it right away, so the dates would correspond. You understand, I wasn't going to deliver the accident policy, to him. That would go to Phyllis, and she would find it later, in his safe deposit box. And I wasn't going to tell him anything about it. Just the same, I had to get his check, in the exact amount of the policy, so later on, when they checked up his stubs and his cancelled checks, they would find he had paid for it himself. That would check with the application in our files, and it would also check with those trips I had made to his office, if they put me on the spot.
    I went in on him pretty worried, and shut the door on his secretary, and got down to brass tacks right away. "Mr. Nirdlinger, I'm in a hole, and I'm wondering if you'll help me out."
    "Well I don't know. I don't know. What is it?" He was expecting a touch and I wanted him to be expecting a touch. "It's pretty bad."
    "Suppose you tell me."
    "I've charged you too much for your insurance. For that automobile stuff."
    He burst out laughing. "Is that all? I thought you wanted to borrow money."
    "Oh. No. Nothing like that. It's worse—from my point of
    view."
    "Do I get a refund?"
    "Why sure."
    "Then it's better—from my point of view."
    "It isn't as simple as that. This is the trouble, Mr. Nirdlinger. There's a board, in our business, that was formed to stop cut-throating on rates, and see to it that every company charges a rate sufficient to protect the policy holder, and that's the board I'm in dutch with. Because here recently, they've made it a rule that every case, every case, mind you, where there's an alleged mischarge by an agent, is to be investigated by them, and you can see where that puts me. And you too, in a way. Because they'll have me up for fifteen different hearings, and come around pestering you till you don't know what your name is—and all