Brett Halliday - The Careless Corpse

The front doors were invitingly open, and Shayne entered a low-ceilinged hallway with a bar and cocktail lounge on the right. Directly ahead at the end of the hall was a sign that said, “Dining Room,” and halfway down, on the left, was a large archway leading into the gambling rooms. There was a winsome-faced and adequately dressed hatcheck girl behind a counter on his left as he entered, and he exchanged his hat for a numbered check and a smiling “Good evening, Sir.”

Shayne returned the smile and went into the barroom where there were booths along the left wall and a long bar with half a dozen bartenders behind it at the right.

No more than half the stools at the bar were occupied, mostly by men hunched quietly over their drinks, and less than half the booths were in use.

Shayne stood for a moment in the doorway, glancing down the bar at the backs of half a dozen women on stools without recognizing Laura Peralta. Then he strolled past the booths, looking into each one that was occupied with the same negative result.

Glass doors at the end opened into a pleasantly-lit cocktail lounge with well-separated tables and an air-conditioning unit that kept the atmosphere clean and fresh. Again, Shayne paused on the threshold to study the room carefully without seeing Laura. A smiling waiter came up and asked, “One, Sir?” but Shayne shook his head and said, “Later.” He strode through the room to a side entrance into the large dining room that was being well-patronized at this hour; and turned left to meet the maitre d’ whom he knew by sight, but not by name.

He was welcomed pleasantly, but not effusively. “Mr. Shayne, isn’t it? A table for dinner?”

Shayne said, “I’m meeting someone. Mrs. Laura Peralta. Have you seen her tonight?”

“Mrs. Peralta? No, Mr. Shayne. Not yet tonight. Have you tried the roulette tables?”

Shayne said, “I will. If she turns up, tell her I’m here.”

He went out into the entrance hall and sauntered through the archway to the main portion of the building and its reason for being.

The large room was brilliantly lighted and luxuriously carpeted, with no whirring clatter of slot machines to distract the players from the serious business of losing money at the tables. Just inside the archway was a cashier’s grilled window where chips could be cashed on leaving, and beyond were six well-separated roulette tables, four of which were getting a good play at this hour, and three huge revolving wheels where a player could get as much as twenty to one if the arrow on the wheel stopped in the right slot.

Opening off the main room on the right was the Card Room with its black-jack, poker and baccarat tables, and four crap layouts were in a similar room on the left.

It was a quiet and orderly scene that Shayne surveyed as he stopped inside the archway. Each of the four operating roulette tables had from four to six players seated about the rim, with half as many spectators standing behind the chairs watching the balls go around with intent but not feverish interest.

Shayne’s first casual glance did not discover Laura Peralta at any of the tables. He lit a cigarette and started forward over the thick carpet and was intercepted by a tall, ascetic-faced man wearing a dark business suit and a black bow tie. It was Alexander Griffin, manager of the Green Jungle, and he held out his hand to the detective with a faintly wary smile.

“Feel like trying your luck, Mr. Shayne?”

Shayne shook hands cordially and shrugged wide shoulders. He said, “I may donate a few bucks, Alex. Actually, I’m looking for someone.”

“No trouble, Shayne.” It was part question, part statement, and part plea. “Not inside? If you got to make a pick-up, just tell me and we’ll handle it quiet.”

“No pick-up,” Shayne assured him. “At least not the kind you mean. I was to meet Mrs. Julio Peralta here.”

“Her?” Griffin looked and sounded relieved. “Sure. At the far table with her back to us.” He jerked his chin to the right and Shayne’s eyes followed the gesture to see Laura’s piled dark ringlets above bare white shoulders that leaned forward eagerly as she watched the bouncing ball slow and drop into a slot.

“Mrs. Peralta, huh?” The manager’s voice dropped on a note of questioning. He sucked in his lower lip and put a persuasive hand on Shayne’s arm. “Why don’t we go in my office for a drink? She’s just starting on her second C-note and wouldn’t want to be disturbed just yet.”

Shayne said easily, “Sure,” and turned with Griffin toward a closed door on the left marked PRIVATE.

The manager opened the door on a lighted and orderly office. He crossed the room and opened the sliding door of a wall cabinet, revealing a well-stocked bar. He hesitated, asking over his shoulder, “Cognac, Shayne?”

“Please. And don’t bother with a snifter. A straight slug… with ice-water on the side, if it’s handy.”

Griffin said, “I should have remembered.” He selected an old-fashioned glass and filled it halfway from a bottle of Martell. Then he opened the freezing compartment and took out two ice cubes which he dropped in a tall glass and filled it with water from a decanter. He set both glasses on the desk and Shayne pulled a chair up and sat down while the gaming house manager made himself a Scotch highball.

He brought it to the other side of the desk and sank into a swivel chair and lifted his glass. “Here’s to crime.” His voice was blandly expansive, yet it seemed to pose a question. Shayne lifted his cognac glass to return the salute, took a sip and set the glass down.

“What are you worried about, Griffin?”

“Worried?” The manager blinked at him owlishly.

Shayne said, “This is good cognac. I appreciate it. What’s on your mind?”

Griffin looked past him at the open door. He got up, circled the desk and closed it firmly. Then he went back to the swivel chair.

“I run a quiet, decent business here, Shayne.”

“I know you do.”

Alexander Griffin sighed and squirmed uneasily in his chair. “Mrs. Peralta is a respectable, respected, and always-welcome customer here.”

Shayne took a sip of cognac and chased it with ice-water. “I’m sure she is,” he agreed calmly. “Anyone who drops half a grand an evening at your tables would be characterized in just those words.”

“That’s a high estimate.”

“Is it?” challenged Shayne.

“Quite high. On the other hand…” Griffin sighed deeply and spread out his hands. “She’s a woman, too, Shayne.”

“I have a certain feeling about that.” Shayne kept his eyes hooded as he turned the old-fashioned glass around and around on the desk in front of him. “Want to volunteer any information?” he demanded abruptly.

“About one of our steady customers?” Griffin sounded properly shocked.

Shayne said, “There’s an emerald bracelet missing.”

“I heard about that.”

“Is that all?” Shayne threw at him.

Alexander Griffin lifted one hand defensively. “I’m not a fence, Shayne.”

“Then you do think she had a hand in lifting it?”

Griffin hesitated a long time as though seeking exactly the right words with which to answer the detective. He took a long, contemplative pull at his highball, opened the center drawer of the desk and took out a blunt cigar. He lit it carefully and slowly.

“Mrs. Laura Peralta has been coming here two or three nights a week for the past six months, Shayne. She plays roulette exclusively. She buys twenty five-dollar chips and plays them, and then buys another twenty. Never more than five batches. She walks away from the table… a perfect lady… any time she has dropped her half grand. If she gets ahead and stays ahead, she cashes in around midnight. I’ve kept track… as we do in a place like this… and when she goes away ahead one night, she doesn’t buy extra chips the next time she shows up. Never any more than five hundred.”