Dressed to Killed Read Online Free PDF Page B

a matter of hours before it'll be in the papers, anyway."
    "All right." She gave me a nod the size of a fingernail. "Then what?"
    "Then we try to squirm out of the mess." The dash clock showed 12:17. We had been buzzing right along and were nearing the north entrance of the Outer Drive. I braked the Pontiac a little. This was no time to haggle with traffic cops.
    "Meanwhile I'm going to nail down Richmond. Where does he usually hang out?"
    "Gosh, I don't know. He's got an office some place, I guess, but I don't know where it is."
    "What kind of an office?"
    "A business office. You know."
    "What kind of business?" I snorted. "Stop making me drag it out of you. What's his racket?"
    "He sort of sold things."
    "Sort of sold things!" I mimicked. "What kind of a racket is that?"
    "Honest to God, Mr. Forbes, that's what he did!" she protested. "I've known him nearly a year and every time I've seen him he was around one of the joints, taking orders for something. You can ask Ginny. She's the one who introduced me to him originally. She's bought lots of things from him."
    "What things?"
    "Well, she bought a fur coat, a couple of suits, and a lot of lingerie and things like perfume. I've bought stuff from him myself—nylons and some Chanel Number Five."
    "You mean he's a peddler?"
    "No, not exactly. According to Ginny, he has connections and can get nearly anything real cheap."
    "Wholesale?"
    "Even cheaper than wholesale. He lets us have nylons for only two dollars a box. Real nice ones, too. See?" She jerked her skirt up several inches and extended a leg. I didn't know about the hose, but the leg was fine. "In the stores, I'd have to pay nearly two dollars a pair!"
    "Sounds like his stuff is hot."
    She shrugged. "I suppose. I never asked."
    "When you talk to Ginny, ask her about Richmond's racket. Maybe he works out of a store or an office and she can spot him for me. Does he hang around any one of the joints particularly?"
    "He hits all of them, I guess, but I know he stops in the Frolics nearly every night. I think he tells people to call him there, in case they want anything; or maybe Frankie, the bartender, just takes orders for him."
    "I'll talk to Frankie. This morning you mentioned running some errands for Richmond. What sort of errands?"
    "Real crazy. Once he paid me fifty dollars to drive all the way to Gary, Indiana, and buy six tins of sardines for him! I could have gotten the same brand and everything on North State Street, for maybe thirty cents a can, but he made me go all the way to Gary." She laughed tightly. "I didn't give him an argument. I needed the fifty."
    "What else?"
    "Well, another time—this was a couple of weeks ago—he left a package at the Frolics with a note telling me to sit in the lobby of the Sherman Hotel with it until someone came up and asked me how my Aunt Maggie was. At first, I thought it was a gag, but there was a hundred-dollar bill pinned to the note, so I did like it said."
    "What happened?"
    "Oh, I sat around for a couple hours, and then a man came in and walked right up to me and said something like, 'Good evening, my dear, and how is Aunt Maggie?' He didn't crack a smile and I didn't either. I gave him the package and walked away."
    "Was he anybody you knew?"
    "I never saw him before or since."
    "How big was the package?"
    "About like this." Her hands described a two-foot square.
    "Heavy?"
    "Not very."
    "Sounds screwy."
    "I told you. Crazy."
    "I believe you, honey. I just can't figure the set-up."
    The jaunt into Indiana for sardines suggested dope-running, of course, but the rendezvous at the Sherman was certainly something else. A package of dope two feet square would contain too valuable a cargo to entrust to one messenger. Richmond evidently had his fingers in many pies.
    I stuck to the Outer Drive as far as Diversey Parkway, then cut into Lincoln Park and continued south.
    "What about Eddie Sands?" I asked. "What was his connection with Richmond?"
    "How would I know?"
    "Did Richmond