McNally's Chance Read Online Free PDF Page B

then Hollywood has not made an astute casting decision since replacing Myrna Loy with Anna May Wong as the daughter of Fu Manchu.
    Connie and I have an open relationship, which I fear does not translate well into Espanol. I think it means I can dance cheek-to-cheek with a curvaceous blonde at one of Phil Meecham’s naughty mixes, and Connie thinks it means she can neuter me for doing so. Clearly, my need to head off Lolly’s item was of paramount importance to that which I hold near and dear.
    Thinking fast, which is something I do very well when Connie reaches for a carving knife, I blabbed, “Look, Lol, I’ll level with you.” Here I told him the same story I had told Ursi and Jamie.
    Recalling the laws of libel, Lolly demanded, “How do you know this?”
    “Ms Wright has hired me to find the culprit and her daughter.”
    McNally’s luck held out when Lolly, like Ursi, did not ask why the couple had fled to Palm Beach.
    “My, my, Archy, aren’t you rubbing shoulders, and what a delicious tidbit,” was Lolly’s expected reaction. I could see him licking his lips and filling his Mont Blanc with acid. “Do you think he was my anonymous caller?”
    “I’m sure he was,” I answered.
    “Why did he expose himself to me, so to speak, dear heart?”
    “He didn’t. You wouldn’t know who he was if I hadn’t told you. I think he did it to goad Sabrina.”
    “This gets better by the moment. Ta, ta, Archy, see you in church.”
    I had to again head Lolly off at the pass and took my second chance of the case, a wild one, to accomplish this goal. “Lol, can I ask you not to print a word of this just yet?”
    “You could, lover, but your plea will fall on deaf ears.”
    “What if I told you I could set up an exclusive interview for you with Sabrina Wright?” There is nothing, besides bartenders and food, that Lolly Spindrift likes better than the word exclusive followed by a celebrated name. I could almost hear his brain calculating the pros and cons of my offer. “To publish or not to publish, that is the question,” I intruded upon his deliberations. “One quickie blurb or an exclusive with Sabrina that might very well be picked up by the wire services and attributed to Lolly Spindrift.”
    After a prolonged silence he sighed, “She will speak to me? Promise?”
    “Scout’s honor.”
    “I’m not feeling too kindly toward the Scouts these days, Archy.”
    “Sorry, Lol. How ‘bout my word as a gentleman.”
    “Good grief, that’s worse. You have forty-eight hours to deliver, dear heart
    “You’re on, Lol. And the bartender works the day shift.”
    “Why, you little devil,” Lolly giggled.
    I hung up praying I could talk Sabrina into talking to Lolly Spindrift.
    My trump card was that anonymous caller who had to be Zack Ward trying to flush out Gillian’s father. Ward was a loose cannon, and I could see why Sabrina wanted him stopped before he learned all and told all.
    But how did he know she had come to Palm Beach and was asking for her husband when she registered at the Chesterfield?
    Sabrina would see the necessity of keeping Lolly from writing anything further until we had time to figure out what to tell him that would both defuse the man-that-got-away item and keep Lolly from learning the true reason for Gillian’s coming here.
    What to tell Lolly I would leave to Sabrina’s creative genius.
    Remember, I had only consented to look for her husband. Never had a case taken so many diverse paths so quickly with so little hope for a quick solution. On that ominous note, enter Binky Watrous pushing his mail cart, a wagon that is indistinguishable from those that clog the aisles of supermarkets from coast to coast. Binky’s, mercifully, does not contain a screaming two-year-old reaching for everything he has seen advertised on the telly.
    “Hi, Archy.”
    “Good afternoon, Binky, my boy.”
     
    Depositing a small packet of envelopes encased in a rubber band on my desk, Binky gave me a