Chapter 6
About eight days after the death of Theodora Ames's parents and the second working day for Laurel Branton, Jack Lurton came back from New York after a brief business trip and walked into the reception room of the agency. He did a double take when he saw the new receptionist. The color of copper and gold and flame in Laurel's hair, done up as it was in that sophisticated style which certainly made it impossible for any one to guess that she had ever been accustomed to rustic life up in Minnesota and, on occasion, taken part in swinging sex games with some of the eccentric millionaire's cronies. So, too, did the classic A-line rayon dress she had purchased in her shopping spree that first day in Chicago. So it wasn't any wonder that Jack Lurton's eyes widened with heartfelt and also prick-felt appreciation.
"Good morning! You're new here, aren't you? I'm Jack Lurton. Do you have any calls there for me?"
Laurel Branton favored him with her most dazzling smile, and it was the kind that had the power to stiffen a man's whang because it was both candidly admiring and sultry in the way of evocative promise of pussy. In fact, old man Meldish had once told Ruby, "That long-legged red-haired whelp of yours, you sweet bitch, would just about kill me if I ever took her to bed. I have to get my kicks watching her operate with one of my friends, she's too much for me or anybody else who's over forty, that's for damn sure."
"Oh, yes, I do have some, Mr. Lurton. My name's Laurel Branton," she beamed at him as she handed him a sheaf of phone messages.
"Thanks very much, Laurel. I'd say whoever hired You showed very good judgment. Oh, is Mr. Schneider in his office yet?"
"Yes, he is, Mr. Lurton."
"Fine. Thank you."
Once in his office, Jack Lurton reflected that he was probably going to call Amy and make a date for tonight. Just seeing this new piece of quim had given him a hard-on, and since he had been in New York just two days and hadn't taken out time for pussy, he was beginning to feel the vital urge all over again.
He looked through his mail, which his efficient, bespectacled, twenty-eight-year-old secretary Joan Addison had stacked neatly and in several piles according to relative importance. What he was really looking for was a note from Theodora acknowledging the flowers. But there wasn't any. Well, he really hadn't expected it. Maybe he ought to phone her and see how she was getting along. No, he'd only get another snub. It might be a much better idea to pay her an unexpected call tonight-and of course have Amy waiting at his apartment to console him when he got back. Yes, that was exactly what he was going to do!
However, fate was smiling way up in the clouds and pulling strings to bring all these lives together in a tangled mesh. Because Laurel and her mother were planning to visit the haughty heiress this very night. Ruby had looked Theodora Ames up in the phone book and happily found that she didn't have an unlisted number, as you might have expected from a rich bitch. And she had told Laurel on her noon break to phone Theodora and ask for an appointment this evening after supper. She had coached Laurel very carefully as to what to say. There wouldn't be any reference to the other side of the blanket which Donald Ames had screwed on so many years ago. Laurel was just to say that she and her mother had some information which they thought Theodora ought to have and they would like to see her just for a few minutes.
This same morning, Theodora had had a phone call from her father's attorney, expressing all kinds of solicitude and telling her that she might examine a copy of the will, but that of course the estate would be in probate for ninety days after which time, she, as the only apparent surviving heir, would receive the bulk of the estate. He also sympathetically suggested that Theodora take a trip as a kind of distraction over her great loss. But the black-haired beauty hadn't yet decided what she was going to do. Perhaps she would take a trip after all, but not right away. It was important to find out just what she was going to inherit so that she could make plans. Maybe she would leave Chicago entirely, buy a summer home in Biarritz or Tropez, or maybe even St. Moritz, where all the fashionable people stayed. She had never really liked Chicago too much anyway, and as far as men went, everybody with any brains knew that European men were much more suave, poised and gallant. Thinking that made her remember her last date with Jack Lurton, and she made a grimace of annoyance. Oh yes, he had sent flowers. Well, that was nice of him, but it didn't rate him anything special. He was probably just trying to curry favor and maybe now that he had put two and two together and guessed that she would be very rich, he wanted to get back on good terms with her. Well, that was out, way out.
And so, preparing herself some lunch in the kitchen-which in itself was a kind of condescension for Theodora Ames, she frowned again with annoyance when the phone rang. A few minutes later, she was frowning even more irritatedly. It was Laurel Branton, who, just before making the phone call, had rehearsed to herself aloud exactly what she was going to say. And the upshot of it was that Theodora Ames had grudgingly agreed to see Laurel and her mother at eight o'clock tonight.. . .
"Amy? Jack here. How are you, honey? That's lovely. Tell me, how about tonight? You can? Great! Tell you what, I've got a business call to make this evening first, so why don't you plan to get out to my place about a quarter of ten or so? You'll stay the night, that's understood. Wonderful! See you then, Amy honey."
Jack Lurton hung up and grinned wolfishly at the prospect of sampling the young call-girl's pussy. He would really go at her hammer and tongs tonight, after getting the brush-off from snooty Theodora.
Idly he wondered whether Laurel Branton had a boyfriend. A redhead like that was bound to have a whole swarm of men around her, like bees around a honeycomb. Just the same, even though he hadn't up to now attempted any fun and games with any of the staff of the agency, he thought he just might make one exception in Laurel's favor. To get on top of that long-legged piece of ass and have her wrap her thighs over his behind and crush that teasing mouth of hers against his as her fingernails dug into his back while he plowed deeply into her tight sheath would make a very delightful evening.
After leaving the office, he treated himself to dinner at La Cheminee, a delightful little French restaurant on Dearborn near Division, and relished a savory canard a la'orange, a bottle of excellent Pouilly Fume, and a chocolate mousse. Thus fortified and feeling the blood tingle pleasantly in his veins, he took a cab to Theodora Ames's apartment.
Ruby and Laurel Branton had already been there and were just leaving. The interview had been extremely brief. Ruby had come right out and told Theodora who she was and who Laurel was, intimating that there were some incriminating letters which could be used in court. Theodora, her hands on her hips, her face flushed with anger, had shouted, "That doesn't mean a thing to me, Mrs. Branton! For all I know, you and that daughter of yours could be a couple of chiselers, just out for money which doesn't belong to you because you happened to read about me. I won't give you a cent, and that's final! Now please get out of here before I call the police."
"Come along, baby," Ruby had said sneeringly to her tall coppery-haired daughter, "we'll see her in court."
"Just go ahead and try!" Theodora blazed, stamping her foot till her bubbies jiggled. "I've got a good lawyer, and you don't have a legal claim at all, unless my father put something in the will, which I very much doubt. Besides, I don't even believe your story. And I think it's filthy of you to dream up this nonsense and blacken the character of a dead man who can't defend himself."
"Oh you do, do you, Miss Ames?" Ruby Branton snarled. "Well, let me tell you something, Miss Rich Bitch. If Donald was only half the man he was with me in bed-and you can see the result here in Laurel-, then I'm sure there's going to be something in the will. But even if there isn't, I'm still going to make you pay for your nasty little insults. My daughter may not have had all the advantages you have, but she's more of a lady than you'll ever be. Goodnight!"
And so, fate, once again watching down from the heavens, smiled as Jack Lurton's cab drew up in front of Theodora Ames's building and discharged the handsome brown-haired advertising executive just at the moment that Ruby and her daughter were emerging from the building lobby.
He paid the cabdriver, uttered a gasp of recognition as he saw the luscious new receptionist come out of the door, and hurried up to her.
"Good evening, Laurel. Could I drop you somewhere?"
"Oh-why, hello, Mr. Lurton. Mama, this is Mr. Lurton, he's one of the big bosses at the place I work."
"I'm pleased to know you, Mr. Lurton," Ruby favored him with a warm smile.
"Do you know somebody in this building?" he pursued out of curiosity.
"Well, yes, you might say that, Mr. Lurton," Laurel's mother smiled. "Miss Theodora Ames."
"You do know her? Well, that's really a coincidence, that is."
"And why is that, Mr. Lurton?"
"Well," he chuckled ruefully, "at one time I had hopes that she'd be my girl."
"The more fool you," Ruby Branton said sarcastically. "You're wasting your time with that one, I can tell you. She's selfish and spoiled and she's a real bitch on wheels."
"It so happens that I agree with you." Jack Lurton chuckled. "Cigarette?"
"Thanks, Mr. Lurton. I'll tell you something in confidence."
"By all means. But let's not stand out here on the street, can I take both of you for a drink somewhere? There are lots of nice bars along Rush Street."
"That's very nice of you, Mr. Lurton. Come along. Laurel dear."
He signalled for a passing cab and a few minutes later they got off at Rush Street near Chicago Avenue and entered one of the attractive niteries in that tourist-frequented area. They were ushered to a table, Jack Lurton ordered a round of drinks, and then he leaned forward and eyed Ruby Branton with more than cursory interest. "Now what's this all about, Mrs. Branton? You say you know Theodora Ames. Just how, if I'm not being too prying?"
"Well, in a way you are, but seeing that you're Laurel's boss and she's already mentioned you and what a nice fellow you are, I don't suppose it'll do any harm to tell you. Especially after what you said about that Miss Ames. You see, her father and I-well you know how it was, we had a fling together some years back. Laurel's his daughter."
"Good God! I begin to get the picture."
"I thought a smart guy like you would, Mr. Lurton. Yes, we read up in Minnesota that Donald Ames got killed in Paris, and I figured that there'd be something in his will for Laurel and me. We've had a hard life up there in a little hick town, and so we thought this was our chance to give Laurel a fresh start in life in a big city."
"She's doing very well at the agency, I can tell you that. Everybody likes her. I do too," he said with a smile in Laurel's direction.
"You're nice, Mr. Lurton. But I'm afraid we're going to have to take that Miss Ames of yours to court. She practically threw us out of her apartment. And she said she wouldn't give us a cent. I've got letters from her father, don't think I haven't."
"Well, I'm not a lawyer, naturally, and I don't know whether you've really got a valid claim. It's possible he might have mentioned you in the will, if he knew you had a daughter."
"Oh he knew all right, I wrote him when I was pregnant, and after Laurel was born. He did send one check, but that was only for about five hundred bucks. Of course he wasn't a millionaire then. But he sure died one, didn't he?"
"Yes he did indeed. And I imagine that Theodora gets something from her mother too."
"Sure. And she's been waited on hand and foot all her life and she's a snot nose, and why there shouldn't be a little something left for Laurel and me after what I went through, if there's any justice-well, you figure it out from there, Mr. Lurton."
"I'm on your side. Personally, I think it would have been a great blessing if Theodora had been born poor. What I'd like to do is whale some sense into her, from behind, if you know what I mean."
"Now that's rich," Ruby Branton grinned, showing excellent teeth for her age. "I like you, Mr. Lurton. You're the sort of man that speaks his mind. I'll speak mine, too. It was all I could do to keep from tearing that hussy's hair off when she called us the names she did, poor Laurel and me."
"Yes, Mr. Lurton, she was real nasty," Laurel confided with an alluring smile.
"Well, that's three of us then who'd like to see Theodora's bottom blistered," he grinned as he beckoned to their pretty waitress for another round of drinks.
"Boy, if I could only get that bitch up in my home grounds and teach her a lesson," Ruby Branton said reflectively.
A diabolical, impossible and yet fascinating plan began to evolve in Jack Lurton's mind. "Like what, for instance? Just pretend you could, how would you go about doing it?" he wanted to know.
"Let me have another one of those nice cigarettes of yours, Mr. Lurton. I'd like to call you Jack."
"Please do, Mrs. Branton. Now what were you thinking about?"
Ruby Branton winked as she leaned forward to accept a light from his silver lighter. Then, leaning back, she blew a series of smoke rings towards the ceiling of the noisy nightclub. "Well, you see, I sort of worked in a hunting lodge up in Minnesota. The fellow who owns it, I just found out when I called back home last night, he's sick and in the hospital. So nobody would be up there. But if I could get Miss Theodora Ames up there. Laurel and me would really whack that uppity ass of hers-excuse my French, Mr. Lurton, will you?-until she saw the light of day and parted with a little of that loot she hasn't got any right to."
"Now that's something I'd like to see. I'd even pay the expenses for it," Jack Lurton said impulsively.
"You would? Well, seeing as how you said you wanted to be her boyfriend, I sort of guess she gave you a raw deal. It wouldn't surprise me any if she was a prick-teaser."
"Mother!" Laurel gasped, turning scarlet.
"You hush up, Laurel honey. Mr. Lurton here is a smart guy, he knows what I mean."
"Mrs. Branton, I couldn't have thought of a better term to describe Theodora Ames than you just did. That's exactly what she is."
"Well," Ruby Branton's lips thinned and her eyes narrowed, "let's suppose we got her up there and I went to work on her. I'd just love to tan her hide good, and then you could take over and make her give instead of take all the time, couldn't you? Of course that's just talking out loud. We could go to jail for something like that."
"Not necessarily. That is if we got her up there and nobody knew about it, and then we worked her over until she agreed to be a nice sweet obedient girl. I might even marry her, and you know the law, a wife can't testify against her husband," Jack Lurton's brain was now working feverishly as he began to cope with the ramifications of Ruby Branton's outlandish scheme.
"Say, I'm sure glad I met you, Mr. Lurton. Maybe you could help. I'd be awfully grateful and so would Laurel. I figure it's sort of the poor darling's birthright. You can have Theodora, all we want is a little of the money."
"That sounds perfectly reasonable. Let's talk it over and make some plans. I can take my summer vacation anytime, Mrs. Branton."
"Call me Ruby, Jack honey. I'm real glad I met you. I'm real glad Laurel went to work for a nice boss like you."
"So am I, Mother," Laurel Branton purred as she cast Jack Lurton a you'll-get-pussy-if-you-keep-that-up look that made him almost wish he hadn't made an assignment with Amy tonight. He would have liked very much to have taken Laurel Branton back to his apartment and found out for himself whether the promise of pussy which that sultry look implied was really on the up and up.
And thus the great conspiracy was born, one which was going to turn Theodora Ames from a rich bitch into a humble and very obedient young lady!