Too Sweet to Die Read Online Free PDF Page B

course. That was before my time, but everyone is aware of her father around here.” The pen tapped again. “I’m Dr. Marlys Newborn. The doctor is for Ph.D. and not M.D. in this case. What exactly is the problem, Mr. Easy?”
    “Jill has disappeared, Dr. Newborn. There’s a possibility she’s in the Carmel area someplace. I’d like to know if Dr. Ingraham has heard from her or can tell me where she might be.”
    “Obviously you’ve already talked to her father?”
    “Not directly, but I’ve talked with his minions.”
    Dr. Newborn smiled faintly. “Come inside and I’ll see if possibly the doctor can talk to you. Though to the best of my knowledge he knows nothing about the Nordlin girl.”
    On the foggy lawn a husky black woman knocked the fondling man down and he yelled in protest.
    The pretty brunet Dr. Newborn led Easy up a red tile stairway and along a red tile corridor. She put him in a small carpeted library, saying, “I’ll see what I can do.” She left him in the darkwood room.
    The howls from the lawn seemed much farther away than they were. The windows were of thick rippled glass, leaded, and covered with rich red draperies. The chairs and sofa were low and of black synthetic leather. The yellow light came from two parchment-shaded floor lamps and fell mostly on the authentic-looking Persian rug. The only magazines on the little table next to the black chair Easy chose to sit in were an automobile club publication called Motorland and some two-year-old issues of The Lancet.
    Easy skimmed an article about obesity in the young, then got up and watched the fog press in tight against the thick windows. Once he thought he heard a scream from somewhere inside the sanitarium.
    “What is it, what is it?”
    A fifty-year-old man had rushed into the room. He was five feet tall, with a small round head. His hair was thin and spidery and acne spots glowed on his cheeks and forehead.
    “Dr. Ingraham?”
    “Of course, of course,” said the little ugly man. He put his cigarette back in his mouth, biting down hard. “Now what’s all this about that goofy Nordlin girl?”
    Easy walked closer. “Jill has disappeared. She’s been missing since last Friday.”
    Dr. Ingraham spit out cigarette smoke. “So what, so what? She’s a very high-strung girl, a spoiled brat from a very tense home. Her father’s goofy, too. A nasty man with a vast and onrushing ego.” The ugly little doctor bit into his cigarette again. “You’re a professional man, Easy. I’ll tell you something I don’t tell those galloping yahoos out there.” He spit smoke in the direction of the draped windows. “A goofy father produces a goofy daughter. A spoiled brat grows up to be a spoiled bitch. You can’t get away from taints like that.”
    “Has Jill been here?” put in Easy, looking down into the doctor’s small red-streaked eyes.
    “No.”
    “She called a friend and told her she was in Carmel Saturday.”
    “A goofy girl is liable to tell anybody anything.” Dr. Ingraham turned to the magazine table and straightened the pile. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”
    “Do you know where Jill might be?”
    “No.”
    Easy watched the little ugly doctor. “Why did you agree to talk with me?”
    Ingraham laughed and smoke came out of his mouth and nose. “Look up psychiatrists in the Yellow Pages sometime, Easy. You’ll find, in most parts of our great golden state at any rate, a substantial listing. I’m where I am because I have distinguished myself from the pack of them. One of the ways you do that, as I shouldn’t have to tell you, is to take special pains. Kissing ass is how some of my younger patients put it. I always try to find time for influential people, or for people such as yourself who work for influential people. It’s called public relations.”
    “Oh,” said Easy, “is that what this has been?”
    “Your humor is as elephantine as you are,” the little doctor told him. He suddenly slapped his