Puzzle for Fiends Read Online Free PDF

Aurora Clean Living League would not endorse Selena.”
    “Why not?”
    Marny put her drink down. “That,” she said, “is something you might as well find out for yourself.”

Chapter 4
    I hadn’t said anything in reply when the door opened. A girl came in, a girl in a brief white cotton dress with no sleeves. The first sight of her dazzled me. She was the blondest girl I had ever seen. Her hair, cut loose to her shoulders like Marny’s, was fair as fresh country cream. Her skin too was cream, a deeper shade of cream darkened by the sun. Her body, her bare arms and legs had the molded quality of sculpture. Looking at her, I felt I was touching her. And, although she was full bosomed and thighed, she moved to the bed with a grace that was liquid as milk.
    “Gordy, baby.”
    Her lips were natural dark red; her eyes were blue as summer in the sky. She sat down on the bed, studying me, the cream hair spilling forward.
    “Scram, Marny,” she said.
    Marny was staring at this new, breath-taking girl, her brown eyes stubborn with antagonism. She seemed small, now, artificial, rather metallic.
    “Really, Selena,” she drawled, “do you have to be in that much of a hurry? His leg’s in a cast, you know.”
    “Scram.” Selina turned to Marny then and her face relaxed into a swift smile that would have coaxed a platoon of mules. “Please, darling, be a sweet baby. You can be sweet if you try.”
    Marny’s long black lashes flickered. “All right, I suppose. “She got up and, with a sudden rough movement, pushed past her sister-in-law and kissed me aggressively on the mouth. “If things get too hot for you, brother, ring an SOS on the buzzer, I’ll be up.”
    She mussed Selena’s hair. “Take it easy, Snow-white.”
    She picked up her cocktail shaker and her glass and strolled out of the room, kicking the door shut behind her.
    “That Marny. Such a sordid infant. Sweet, though.” Selena’s sunwarm fingers curled into mine. “How do you feel, baby?”
    I grinned. “Better by the minute.”
    Her smile drooped swooningly. “I’m your wife, Gordy. You don’t remember me, do you?”
    This settled it, I was thinking. Being Gordy Friend exceeded the dreams of the most ambitious amnesiac. “I can’t imagine getting hit that hard on the head, but I guess I was.”
    “Poor baby. What’s it matter anyway? Remembering things is usually so embarrassing.”
    Selena leaned over me, pressing her mouth quickly against mine. Her lips were warm and liquid as her walk. They seemed to melt into mine. It was a kiss that blotted out the memory of other kisses. Dimly I thought: Didn’t I say something about brunettes? Sultry brunettes? I must have been out of my mind.
    “I loathe sitting on beds.”
    Impulsively Selena tumbled back on the grey and gold spread next to me, her hair foaming over the pillow.
    “Ah.” She sighed in satisfaction and twisted around to take a cigarette from the bedside table. As she lit it, she murmured: “What happened to that divine candy I got for you? I bet your mother ate it.” She gazed around the room through half-shut lashes, blue-grey as the cigarette smoke. “She’s taken half the flowers out too. How boring, I wanted to make your return to consciousness a real production.”
    “As returns to consciousness go, I’d call this colossal,” I said.
    “You would, baby?” She turned her head so that her face was almost touching mine on the pillow. “Darling, with those bandages you look different, kind of tough. Isn’t this exciting? It’s almost like having a new man.”
    It’s hard to say what Selena was doing to me. She probably was the most gorgeous thing in California. Marny was right about that. But she was more than that. It wasn’t that part of me remembered her. It didn’t. But there was none of the awkwardness of a completely strange girl lying on my bed. It was exciting, yes, but it was somehow natural too. Selena made it that way. Some easy,