Free 1953 - The Sucker Punch by James Hadley Chase

listened intently and without interruption.
    "You called her just now?"
    "I couldn't get past her secretary."
    "You couldn't have tried very hard."
    "I didn't. I left a message. That was enough, wasn't it?"
    "A message? For Pete's sake! When will you learn a girl doesn't want a message? She wants something more tangible than a message. Never mind. You must send her some flowers. A box of white violets to open before she gets up will do."
    "You think that's a good idea? Well, I don't. She might imagine I'm physically attracted to her, and that's the last thing on earth I'll ever be."
    “What's the matter with you, Chad?" she asked, staring at me. "You slipping or something?"
    "What's going on in that dopey brain of yours?"
    "Not so dopey, darling." She reached for a cigarette and lit it. "I could use some of her money. I would love to have a luxury apartment on Park Avenue where you could come for a little relaxation when you've got her millions."
    "Have you gone nuts?" I asked, staring at her.
    "Don't you realize, Chad, that when you get to her age, when you're ugly and lonely and unloved as she is, and when a big, handsome, dashing guy like you comes along, she falls and falls and falls? Play your cards right, darling, follow my advice, and you will be married to her within a month."
    "Married to her!" I yelled. "She's the last woman on earth I would ever marry. Marry her? Not on your life! Imagine being tied to that dried up, bad tempered little monkey for the rest of my life! You're crazy!"
    Glorie stared steadily at me.
    "Imagine being married to seventy million dollars for the rest of your life," she said softly. "Imagine that."
    I started to say something, then stopped.
    "Ah! The nickel is beginning to drop," Glorie said, watching me. "Suppose you are tied to her? It doesn't mean you can't get your fun elsewhere, does it? There'll always be me in a luxury apartment waiting to amuse you. Look at it this way; how long do you imagine you will control that quarter of a million? If you don't make love to her, she'll turn sour and frustrated. Then she'll give you hell. She'll snatch the money away from you at the first excuse. But marry her, Chad, and you'll be right in the gravy. Be nice to her; pet her, and there won't be anything you can't get out of her. I know you. You're irresistible once you get going."
    "Shut up," I said. "I want to think about this."
    Glorie obediently sat still, not speaking, but watching me.
    I sat staring up at the ceiling for maybe ten minutes. Then I suddenly got up.
    Glorie said, "Made up your mind, Chad?"
    "I guess so," I said and grinned. "There's not much difference between one woman and another in the dark, but seventy million bucks is seventy million bucks whichever way you look at it."
     

chapter six
     
    I 'm not going to waste time giving too many details of how I set about marrying Vestal. It is now common knowledge that I did marry her as Glorie had predicted, within a month of her giving me the idea.
    Vestal played right into my hands. It was as Glorie had said. She was lonely and unloved. I happened to be the first good-looking, husky young man she had ever had personal contact with. The fact I wasn't scared of her also weighed tremendously in my favour.
    I managed to dig up enough business queries to give me the excuse of seeing her at least once a day.
    For the first four or five days it was strictly business, with a little relaxing when business was over—a drink or a short wander in the garden with her before I said I had work to do and left her.
    Then very gently and almost imperceptibly, I began to increase the pressure.
    I took her to Joe's restaurant out on Cape Point; a little dive that specialized in seafood. She had never been to a place like that before, and I could see she got a big bang out of it.
    I drove her home in the moonlight with the car radio playing something soulful from Schubert. But I was very careful to treat her as if she were my sister.
    No sister