morning.â
âDoesnât he live here at the hotel?â
âNo, he has his own place on the edge of town.â
âPerhaps we could see him tonight? I would like to get things settled as soon as possible.â
I shook my head. âTonight, heâs otherwise engaged, Mr. Vogel, believe me.â
âWhich means a woman if I know Arnie,â Desforge put in.
Vogel looked at me enquiringly and I nodded.â Something like that. He takes that side of life very seriously.â I turned to Sarah Kelso. âYouâve already met, by the way, just before dinner outside your room.â
Her eyes widened. âThe handsome young man with the white hair? How interesting.â Vogel frowned in puzzlement, but she didnât bother to explain. âIf you donât mind I think Iâll go to bed now. Iâm very tired.â
âBut of course, my dear.â His voice was instantly filled with concern. âIâll see you to your room.â
âThat isnât necessary.â
âNonsense, I insist. Time we were all in bed anyway. Itâs been a long day and tomorrow could be even longer.â
We all stood and she held out her hand to me. âThank you, Mr. Martinâthank you for all your help.â
Desforge smiled down at her. âDonât forget now. If thereâs anything I can doâanything . . .â
âIâll remember.â She smiled up at him warmly, the dark eyes shining for a moment, then walked away on Vogelâs arm. Stratton said good night and followed them and Desforge and I sat down.
He sighed and shook his head. âThere goes a real lady, Joe. I thought theyâd gone out of style.â
âYou think so?â
âI know so.â He frowned. âI donât know why, but you seem to be doing your level best to give her a hard time.â
âSheâll survive,â I said.
Either he hadnât detected the acid in my voice or chose to ignore it, but he carried straight on as if I hadnât spoken. âShe reminds me of someone I used to know a longtime agoâLilian Courtney. You ever heard of her, Joe?â
âI donât think so.â
âShe was one of the great original stars of the silent screen. Made her first picture before the first world war. She dropped out when talkies came in. It sounds crazy now, but she thought the whole thing was just a flash in the pan.â
âI think I remember her now,â I said. âWasnât there some scandal concerning her death? Drugs or something?â
He flared up instantly. âThatâs a damned lie. There were always people who hated herâhated her for what she wasâa lady. A real lady in a world of phonies.â
He beckoned to the waiter and ordered whisky. âStrange, but the older you get, the more you start looking back and the harder you look, the more you realise what a game of chance the whole thing is. The right street corner at the right time.â
âIâm with you there,â I said. âWhat was yours?â
âThe end of the pier in Santa Barbara in 1930âa fine rainy night with the fog rolling in. Thatâs when I met Lilian. Sheâd gone out for a walk in the rainâone of her weaknesses as I discovered when I got to know her better. Some bum tried to get fresh with her.â
âAnd you intervened?â
âThatâs it.â He stared back into the past, a slight smile on his mouth. âI was just sixteenâa raw kid fresh from Wisconsin who wanted to act. She did everything for me. Clothes, groomingâeven sent me to drama school for a while and, most important of all, she got me my first part in pictures.â
âAnd what did you have to do in return?â I said. âSit up and beg?â
It was a cruel and senseless remark that I regretted at once, but I got no chance to apologise. I wasnât even aware of his hand moving, but
Sharon Kleve, Jennifer Conner, Danica Winters, Casey Dawes