the ice cold nude

“Danny!” she said fondly. “You aren’t going to have another drink before dinner, are you? You can have too much of a good thing, you know.” She caught the look in my eye and paled a little. “Well, whatever you like, dear, of course. I won’t have anything, I’ll just sit here and wait until you’re finished.”

I didn’t have to look to see the question mark on Tamara’s face, I could feel it. The waiter came back with the new drinks and there was a kind of leaden silence for a while.

“What a funny coincidence that you and Danny should know each other without me knowing about it,” Patty said brightly, and I figured I hadn’t known when I was well off with that leaden silence.

“No so funny,” Tamara said in a neutral voice. “Santo Bahia isn’t all that big a town.”

Patty’s eyes were moist as she looked directly at me, and now they were back to where they started out in my life, as wet black olives.

“I didn’t think we had any secrets from each other, darling?'’ A faint blush stained her cheeks. “Oh! That was a very indiscreet thing to say, wasn’t it?” Her hand descended on my forearm and grasped it firmly. “But I really don’t care who knows about us, Danny, do you?” “This all sounds very fascinating,” Tamara said in a dangerously brittle voice. “Do tell me some more, honey.”

It was now or never again for Boyd, I realized. All it needed was another five seconds at most, to blow the whole deal.

“Patty!” I said quickly. “Why don't you collect your things and go on over to your apartment right now? I’ve still got a couple of things to do, but I’ll call you when I’m through and—and—”

“Well,” she said doubtfully. “I thought we’d have dinner—maybe Tam would have dinner with us, darling? That would be loads of fun and—”

“Now!” I nearly choked on the word. “The things I have to do won’t wait.”

“Well, all right.” She stood up reluctantly. “I’ll run along then. It was wonderful to see you again, Tam. Don’t keep Danny too long from his business, will you?” “You can bet on that!” Tamara said coldly.

There was another long, leaden silence after Patty had gone. I finished my martini and signaled the waiter, then saw that Tamara’s drink was practically untouched.

“Fm intrigued, Mr. Boyd,” she said in a remote voice. “What are you striving for?—a harem?”

“Look!” I said desperately. “After what happened last night, I figured she’d be safer in the hotel, so for some strange reason she figures this is tantamount to a proposal of marriage, or something!”

“From the way she’s talking now, I feel sure you’ve achieved the ‘or something’ already!” she snapped.

“You went to high school together?” I said feebly, t^ing to change the subject. “How many years is it since you last saw her?”

“It’s precisely three weeks since I last saw Patty,” she said frigidly. “We are very old friends, Mr. Boyd. That is why I can judge her reactions, and what must be in back of them, with absolute accuracy. I guess I should congratulate you on already achieving one downfall?” “Old friends, eh?” I said, groping blindly for any straw. “The whole bit, like lunch twice a week and a movie the last Friday night of each month?”

“The whole bit!” she snapped. “We are very close, Mr. Boyd. I know almost as much about the internal working of Poolside Plastics as Patty knows about the internal workings of Elmo’s jewelry store!”

“How about that!” I babbled.

“How about getting up on your cloven hooves, so I can get out of this seat and go home?” she said savagely.

“Tamara, honey!” I pleaded. “You’ve got this thing all wrong—honest!”

“No,” she said grimly, “I’ve got this thing all right, and honest is the last word I’d use to describe it!” “You’re jumping to conclusions, doll,” I said, desperately. “Believe me, I don’t have any feelings toward Patty other than—”

“Are you going to let me out of here?” she said in a quiet voice that held undertones of frightening ferocity. “Or do I have to scream for the waiter and clobber you with my purse?”

“Okay,” I said bitterly. “If that’s the way you want it, but you’re making a big mistake!” 1 climbed wearily onto my feet.

“I made that in coming here in the first place!” she snapped, then brushed past me and walked toward the door at a fast clip.

By the time the paralysis wore off, she had disappeared out of sight. I ran like a maniac and caught up with her on the sidewalk outside the hotel, still walking at a furious pace.

“Tamara!” I yelped breathlessly. “Hold it a moment.” “Get away from me or I’ll call a cop!” she said crisp-

iy-

“Please, honey!” I grabbed her arm and forced her to stop for a moment. “Just answer me one question?”

“It had better be good.” Her foot tapped the sidewalk menacingly.

“If you know so much about the internal workings of Poolside, whose idea was it to hold the beauty contest?” She looked at me like I’d finally blown a hole clean through the top of my head, and maybe 1 had. “It was Patty’s idea,” she said. “She was very proud of it.”

“So whose idea was it to combine with Elmo’s jewelry store and use the tiara for publicizing the .contest?” Tamara smiled faintly. “That was Patty’s, too. Only this time she was cute and gave it to her own boss, Machin, to use as his own idea. I’d told her about Mr. Byers making the tiara two or three months before, and the day I mentioned he’d finished it, she suddenly got the idea of—”

“Thanks a lot,” I told her. “You’ve been a big help, Tamara, a big help!”

She looked at me blankly. “Where are you going now?” “I’m not sure,” I said honestly. “Maybe out of my mind.”

“Danny!” There was a delighted smile on Patty’s face as she opened the door of her apartment and saw me standing outside. “You have been quick! I only got here myself about fifteen minutes back. Did you bring Tam along with you. She peered hopefully over my shoulder. “She had other plans,” I snarled.

“Well”—she almost smirked—“I can’t say I’m sorry, darling. That means we can be alone, doesn’t it?”

I stepped past her into the apartment and she closed the door. “It’s stupid,” she chattered on as she led the way into the living room, “but I feel as if I’ve just come back from a long vacation or something, instead of just having been away for one night.”

I stopped for a moment in the center of the room and lit a cigarette, then started on a detailed inspection of the walls. Patty sat on the couch and decorously pulled her skirt down over her knees.

“Did you get your important business finished, darling?”

“I think so,” I said. “You know, I hadn’t realized what close friends you are with Tamara until we got to talking about it after you’d gone.”

“Ever since high school, Danny,” she said gaily.

“She figures she knows as much about Poolside as you do about the jewelry store,” 1 went on. "So just for a gag 103

I asked a couple of questions, to prove it. She scored a hundred per cent with both answers.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“It was a riot. Whose idea was the beauty contest, I asked, and right away she said it was yours.”

“I never told her that it was really Louise’s suggestion,” Patty said in a small voice. “I was so ashamed afterwards when Louise blackmailed Mr. Rutter into letting her enter.”

“Then I asked Tamara whose idea was the promotion gimmick using Elmo’s tiara,” I said. “Right away she told me it was yours, too. But you got real cute that time and gave it to your boss, Machin.”