The Body in the Library Read Online Free PDF Page B

classy, but good provincial companies. Since then she’s been engaged as one of the dancing partners at the Palais de Danse in Brixwell—South London. It’s a nice respectable place and they look after the girls well, but there isn’t much money in it.” She paused.
    Colonel Melchett nodded.
    â€œNow this is where I come in. I’ve been dance and bridge hostess at the Majestic in Danemouth for three years. It’s a good job, well paid and pleasant to do. You look after people when they arrive—size them up, of course—some like to be left alone and others are lonely and want to get into the swing of things. You try to get the right people together for bridge and all that, and get the young people dancing with each other. It needs a bit of tact and experience.”
    Again Melchett nodded. He thought that this girl would be good at her job; she had a pleasant, friendly way with her and was, he thought, shrewd without being in the least intellectual.
    â€œBesides that,” continued Josie, “I do a couple of exhibition dances every evening with Raymond. Raymond Starr—he’s the tennis and dancing pro. Well, as it happens, this summer I slipped on the rocks bathing one day and gave my ankle a nasty turn.”
    Melchett had noticed that she walked with a slight limp.
    â€œNaturally that put the stop to dancing for a bit and it was rather awkward. I didn’t want the hotel to get someone else in my place. That’s always a danger”—for a minute her good-natured blue eyes were hard and sharp; she was the female fighting for existence—“that they may queer your pitch, you see. So I thought of Ruby and suggested to the manager that I should get her down. I’d carry on with the hostess business and the bridge and all that. Ruby would just take on the dancing. Keep it in the family, if you see what I mean?”
    Melchett said he saw.
    â€œWell, they agreed, and I wired to Ruby and she came down. Rather a chance for her. Much better class than anything she’d ever done before. That was about a month ago.”
    Colonel Melchett said:
    â€œI understand. And she was a success?”
    â€œOh, yes,” Josie said carelessly, “she went down quite well. She doesn’t dance as well as I do, but Raymond’s clever and carried her through, and she was quite nice-looking, you know—slim and fair and baby-looking. Overdid the makeup a bit—I was always on at her about that. But you know what girls are. She was only eighteen, and at that age they always go and overdo it. It doesn’t do for a good-class place like the Majestic. I was always ticking her off about it and getting her to tone it down.”
    Melchett asked: “People liked her?”
    â€œOh, yes. Mind you, Ruby hadn’t got much comeback. She was a bit dumb. She went down better with the older men than with the young ones.”
    â€œHad she got any special friend?”
    The girl’s eyes met his with complete understanding.
    â€œNot in the way you mean. Or, at any rate, not that I knew about. But then, you see, she wouldn’t tell me.”
    Just for a moment Melchett wondered why not—Josie did not give the impression of being a strict disciplinarian. But he only said: “Will you describe to me now when you last saw your cousin.”
    â€œLast night. She and Raymond do two exhibition dances—one at 10:30 and the other at midnight. They finished the first one. After it, I noticed Ruby dancing with one of the young men staying in the hotel. I was playing bridge with some people in the lounge. There’s a glass panel between the lounge and the ballroom. That’s the last time I saw her. Just after midnight Raymond came up in a terrible taking, said where was Ruby, she hadn’t turned up, and it was time to begin. I was vexed, I can tell you! That’s the sort of sillything girls do and get the management’s backs up and