Love Me and Die Read Online Free PDF

room and started to dress.
    I said, “Somebody knew or Art wouldn’t have been followed. I wonder if Art’s being tailed while he was following Chester Healy means anything?”
    “What difference does it make now?” the redhead called from somewhere near the closet.
    I said, “Everything makes a difference. I’m giving Toby Jessup a call tonight. And I’m going to the plant tomorrow. The more we’ve thought this out beforehand, the more I’ll be able to ask sensible questions.”
    I finished dressing. I transferred my keys and wallet to my clean suit. I put the one I’d been wearing into my suitcase. I carried that back to the bedroom. Art’s suitcase was near the door.
    The redhead was sitting on the edge of the bed and sipping rum. I said, “Lay off that stuff. At least until you do a little more talking.”
    She scowled at me. “You try corpse-sitting alone for eight hours and see if you don’t need a drink.” She scowled harder, but she set the glass down.
    I said, “Tell me everything you can think of about the Jessup deal—facts, ideas, hunches, the works.”
    “What’s there to tell?” she demanded. “You know as much as I do.”
    I said, “Did you check out Bonita, Gorman, and Thorne when Art asked you to?”
    “I called San Francisco,” she said. “There’s probably an answer waiting for me now. It’s been long enough.”
    I said, “I didn’t see any mail in your office this noon.” I lit a cigarette. “How many of the people at Jessup do you know?”
    “None of them,” she said promptly. “Why should I?”
    “You sold them a lot of insurance.”
    She said, “I sold Thaddeus six years ago. He came to Tucson. Everything else has been by mail.”
    “Even the extended coverages they got last year?”
    “That’s right. Bonita Jessup simply wrote and told me what she wanted done. I made out the policy and sent it to her with a bill.”
    I said, “How badly will you be hurt if you lose the Jessup account?”
    She said sarcastically, “It pays most of my expenses—including those steaks I’ve been feeding you twice a week.”
    I let that remark pass. I went to the telephone book and flipped it open to the yellow pages. The book covered both Lozano and Ramiera. I ran my fìnger down the list of motels in Ramiera.
    I said, “Here’s a place that sounds good—the City Center Motel. It advertises privacy. And that’s what we need right now.”
    She said, “My God, at a time like this you want to shack up.”
    I said, “Behave yourself and listen. It’ll be dark in a few minutes. I’m going to drive the camper to a parking lot. There’s probably one near Mexican customs. There usually is in these border towns. Then I’ll come back and get your car. I’ll take it across the border and register at the City Center Motel as Joseph Brogan. You give me an hour or so and then take a taxi across the border. Get a room at the same place. As soon as I arrive, I’ll call Toby Jessup. Then maybe we’ll learn something so we’ll know what to do next. Give me your car key.”
    “And what about the body?” the redhead demanded. She fished in her purse and gave me her key case.
    I said, “Let the cleaning woman find it. There isn’t anything else we can do now. You waited too long to call the cops. They’d be sure to hold you.”
    I took a deep breath and tried my punch line. “You should get out of here and go home and make like you never left Tucson.”
    The redhead didn’t like that idea. She told me clearly what I could do with it. She said, “I sent Art down here and now he’s in trouble. I called you and you’re in the same trouble. And you want me to go home and dust my desk or something.”
    I sat down on the bed beside her. I said, “You pay Art and me to handle trouble and to keep your clients out of it. You’re not responsible for what happens to us.”
    She looked at me with her enormous green eyes. She said with sudden sadness in her voice, “Jojo, I’m scared.