The Uncomplaining Corpses Read Online Free PDF Page B

I—I’m afraid to go to sleep at night.”
    Shayne nodded reassuringly. He emptied his cup of cognac and stared across the pleasantly furnished living-room, catching together the threads of Mrs. Thrip’s story and balancing them against her husband’s story. It was evident that Mrs. Thrip knew nothing of her husband’s plan to pull a fake jewel theft.
    After a long moment of thought Shayne turned to Leora Thrip and said, “This does put a different complexion on the case. I’m interested. I don’t take cases unless I’m interested, Mrs. Thrip .”
    “Then you’ll take it?” Relief shone in the woman’s eyes. She glanced at Phyllis and Shayne caught a look of understanding, almost of triumph pass between them.
    “I’ll take it under consideration, Mrs. Thrip . I’ll need to check up on Carl Meldrum—” He paused, drumming his finger tips on the chair arm.
    Mrs. Thrip nodded. “I’m so relieved after telling you everything, Mr. Shayne. I feel sure you will know just what to do. It’s been such a horrible burden and it’s wonderful to shift it onto your shoulders.”
    Mrs. Thrip stood up. Again she was a placid, middle-aged woman with neat gray hair and tranquil eyes.
    Shayne stood up and told her not to worry. He went out of the apartment with her and to the elevator.
    Phyllis was sitting before the coffee table when he returned. Her chin was cupped in one hand and she looked frightened. While Shayne poured a drink, she said mournfully, “The poor dear, reaching out for life and love before she became forty—and finding only disillusionment. It’s pitiful.”
    “Tough,” Shayne agreed somberly. He stood behind her chair and rumpled her hair. “I’ve just been thinking—when you reach the dangerous age of thirty-nine I’ll be a decrepit fifty-four. You had no damn business marrying an old man, angel.”
    Phyllis laughed and sprang up. She put her hands on his wide shoulders and stood laughing. “Don’t say things—like that, Michael. When I’m old I’ll have—all this to look back on.” She stood on tiptoe to kiss him.
    He put an arm around her and led her to the divan where he carefully set his glass on an end table and pulled her down beside him. She snuggled close and said, “It’s grand that you can do something for a woman like that. I felt like crying when she first came and told me how you had refused to take the case.”
    Shayne lit a cigarette for each of them and put one between her lips. “And I suppose you promised to use your influence to get me to change my mind?”
    “Not only that,” Phyllis admitted gaily. “I promised her you would. In fact, I collected a retainer in advance.” She zipped her hostess gown open a few inches and took out a folded check.
    Shayne took it and spread it out on his knee, staring in open amazement at a check payable to Michael Shayne in the sum of one thousand dollars, signed by Leora Thrip .
    “I told her your services came high but were worth it,” Phyllis explained guilelessly. “You can’t say I’m not starting out being helpful.”
    “ Yeh , a big help,” he muttered. He got up suddenly. “I’ve got to do some telephoning, angel.”
    In the bedroom he called several numbers and asked for Joe Darnell. After half an hour without success, he stalked back into the living-room with a strange, set look on his face. He shook his head in response to Phyllis’s anxious queries and said dully, “We’ll keep our fingers crossed, angel. That’s all we can do now.”

Chapter Four: TWO DIE VIOLENTLY
     
    PHYLLIS AWOKE TO HEAR RAIN coming down softly outside the open window and the telephone ringing on the little table on her husband’s side of the bed. She nudged him and waited with a chill shivering through her as he groped for the phone. She sat up, urging him to hurry. It was the first night call that had come since their marriage.
    It was like being a doctor’s wife, she thought confusedly, only worse. A doctor’s wife knew that