Chapter 1
I flung the pile of bills that had arrived in the morning mail on the desk, then sat staring at them in disgust.
When I had launched into business on my own as a private investigator two months ago, I had been way up on Cloud Nine. I had envisioned a new Cadillac, a flock of beautiful broads, all beating a path to my office door, a closet full of expensive tailor-made suits, and membership in the most exclusive country club in the area.
Now, after all this time without a single case, I felt like someone sitting on a bubble just about to burst. Even with Helen, my faithful secretary there was a new twist to an old routine. Instead of me wining and dining her and making with the flowers and the candy, she was loaning me money with which to foot the bills.
That Helen was in love with me, I fully realized. I was very fond of her, that much was sure, but I hadn't yet figured out whether what I felt for her was just strong physical attraction plus high compatibility or the real thing.
The fact that I was letting her advance money to me, and that I had no immediate way of repaying her made me feel like a first-class heel. The only way I could salve my pride was to keep telling myself that something was bound to turn up soon.
Absentmindedly, I crumpled a bill into a tight wad and slipped a rubber band around it. Then I flipped it aimlessly at a design on the rug. At least it was something to do.
Just then, Helen opened the door and walked out, and the paper wad landed down the front of her raincoat. She gave a startled laugh as she removed it, then put her open wet umbrella in a corner to dry.
"What a night! If I had a turned up nose, I would have drowned." She paused and raised her eyebrows.
"I see that my delinquent has found something with which to amuse himself," she added, with a smile.
"Yeah, it was a perfect bulls-eye," I said, with a sheepish grin.
She puckered her lovely full red lips and blew me a kiss, then walked over to me. She was an enticing picture in a white ruffled chiffon blouse and a pencil-slim skirt that caressed her lush curves as would a jealous lover. Her coppery hair billowed out into the latest-style coiffure.
I whistled in admiration. "Some hairdo you've got there, kitten."
"Do you really like it, honey?" she asked, tilting her head from side to side. She was a sucker for a little sweet talk.
"It was designed especially for you," I vowed.
"Do I look like Cleopatra?" she asked, eagerly. "This is the new Egyptian hairdo."
I gave her a light kiss on the nose and tapped her gently under the chin.
"Baby doll, Cleopatra was lucky that she didn't have you to compete with," I assured her. "She wouldn't have had a chance."
Helen fairly glowed. "You're wonderful, Steve! You always say the right thing!"
My eyes involuntarily strayed to the pile of unpaid bills, and my smile faded.
"Down in the dumps again, honey?" Helen asked as I picked up the bills, frowning.
"Bills, bills, bills and no damn money to pay them with," I said, dejectedly. "If something doesn't happen pretty quick, I'll have to get a job as a street cleaner. In the meantime, I keep taking money from you. It isn't right."
"As long as my ex-husband's alimony checks don't bounce, I can get along. So stop worrying, Steve. You were good to me when I was broke and came to you, asking for a job."
"And a helluva job it turned out to be ... all work and no wages!"
"Honey, don't talk like that," Helen pleaded.
"Well ... I don't like it, not a damn bit," I said, sullenly.
She gave me a long, lingering look. I could see the love brightening her eyes.
"I remember the first time I saw you, Steve," she said, quietly. "And I liked what I saw, right up to your six-foot height and your black crewcut."
"You did?"
"You bet I did. And I liked your blue eyes and your crooked smile. And even the slight limp in your left leg, especially when you told me it was from a wound you received in Korea, and that you had a Purple Heart because of it. Remember how I had to draw you out? You were too modest to talk about it, and that made me extra proud of you."
"I had no idea you felt like that, baby."
"Well, I did. And know something?"
"No, what?"
"I knew the very first time I looked at you that I was going to bed with you."
"You're the greatest, Helen!"
"But I want to be your friend, not just your bedmate. Can you understand that, Steve? Even if you didn't want me any more in that department, I would still want you to feel that I was your friend."
"That goes both ways, sugar, and you can bank on that."
"You see, Steve, even though you can't pay me a salary right now, I know you'll get a case one of these days," Helen said, earnestly. "Then we'll look back and laugh at all the bad breaks you've been getting so far."
I pulled her into my arms and hugged her. I loved the feel of her warm, soft body, so close to mine.
"You're marvelous, kitten, just a living doll," I murmured.
Our lips met in a burning kiss. One of my hands roamed down inside the front of her blouse and fondled her breasts, especially those delectable hardening nipples.
"Let's forget about business troubles for now and have a ball, Steve," she said.
Her breath was coming faster, and I knew I had her going.
"That's the best offer I've had so far tonight," I kidded.
Helen began to get out of her damp clothes. As she removed her blouse and skirt and her half slip, I stripped down to my briefs. Then I walked over to the old-fashioned fireplace and poked the logs with a poker. It afforded the only heat in the office, but the warmth was ample. It sent off a warm, comforting glow.
When I turned around, Helen was sitting on the couch, smoking a cigarette. I could tell that she was trying to look a lot more casual than she felt.
I walked over to her and crushed her into my arms. Then I was kissing her firm pointed breasts, taking each nipple in turn into my eager mouth.
"You have lovely breasts, darling," I said, as I rolled her beneath me. She spread her anxious, shapely legs and wound them around my waist.
"Take me, Steve," she murmured. "I can never get enough of you, you big handsome hunk of man!"
That kind of an order, I like to follow. I played a little longer, teasing her, getting her hotter than a pistol, just as ready to go off with a bang.
As I trailed my lips down her throat, over the lush mounds of her ripe-melon breasts, down her quivering flesh clear to her navel, she moaned blissfully, yearningly.
"Do it, lover," she begged.
She began squirming under me and her moans grew sharper, so I figured it was exactly the right time. As I thrust she almost screamed her pleasure, and from then on, it was wild.
I had to go some to keep up with that frantic thrashing about, that greedy, zestful reaching.
We reached zenith together, and I blinked back the showers of colored stars.
After it was over, we fell asleep in each other's arms. Within an hour, we awakened. Helen picked up her blouse from the floor where she had dropped it and I put on my briefs.
Outside, the storm had increased in intensity. Rivulets of rain splashed against the windows. The velocity of the wind lashed around the wooden frame building with the roar of a wounded lion. But inside it was warm ... warm and cozy and inviting.
I unwound Helen's arms from around my neck and glanced over at the logs which were crackling in the open fireplace with a music of their own.
"Let's smoke a cigarette and relax, kitten," I suggested. "Then supposing you make some coffee."
She stretched like a lazy Angora cat, and. her green eyes still gave off tiny sparks of desire.
"Isn't this wonderful, to be here in the office, just the two of us in a world all our own," Helen cooed. "That's the way rain affects me. I feel as though we are cut off from civilization."
I grinned and reached for a pack of cigarettes that had fallen to the floor. Then I lighted two of them and put one into Helen's mouth. She got up and walked toward the small hotplate on one of the wide shelves on the wall. She looked damned cute in the blouse, with no skirt on yet. I started to laugh.
She turned around and smiled.
"What are you laughing at, darling?" she asked. "Did something tickle your funny bone?"
"No. I was laughing at your sexy little ass. It has the imprint of stripes on it from the upholstery."
"Those are jail stripes-I'm your prisonor. And know something, honey? I don't want to escape."
Helen had almost made me forget my problems. She made me forget that I had picked the wrong town in which to operate. If there was anyone living in this burg who cheated, he or she was discreet enough not to let the other citizenry become suspicious and hire me to tail them. And as far as any murder cases go-well as I heard it, no one had been bumped off here in the past twenty-five years.
It was a good thing I had the office to shack up in!
The really ironic feature of it was that all I needed was one case to pull me out of the red. But why kid myself? It was beginning to look as though there never would be any case!
Helen filled a pan with water at the small sink, then put it on the hotplate and turned on the electric switch.
"It won't take long," she called, looking over her shoulder. She reached for the jar of instant coffee and for a couple of cups.
I went over and threw another log on the fire. Helen brought the coffee over to the end table next to the couch and set the steaming cups down.
I could hear the rumble of thunder in the distance. At intervals, streaks of lightning brought their half beautiful, half terrible glare into the room.
"Come on, honey, drink your coffee before it cools," Helen urged.
As I walked toward her, I noticed that her eyes were surveying my body, speculatively. Why it should excite Helen to see me barefooted and in my briefs always astonished me, but it did. but why try to define her reasons? I was glad that she felt as she did about me.
I sat down next to her on the couch and she handed me a cup of black coffee, so hot it was steaming. She was so close to me, the ruffles on her blouse tickled my ear.
"Why don't you take that damn thing off?" I suggested. "You have gorgeous tits ... show them."
Helen put down her cup, and squirmed out of the blouse. Her body looked like that of a Greek goddess, as the glow from the firelight flickered on her smooth, ivory skin, giving it pink undertones. She picked up her cup again and lifted one of her shapely legs over mine.
"You have sexy legs," she said. "They're so muscular and so masculine."
"Are my legs the only thing about me that you dig, kitten?"
"Not exactly," she replied as she finished her coffee, got rid of the cup, then flung her other leg over me.
I gulped down the rest of my coffe, then put the cup on the floor.
Outside, the fury of the storm persisted, and we could hear the creaking of the rafters.
"This night isn't a fit one for man nor beast to be out in," I said, just as the sound of a crashing tree reached our ears.
"Who cares, Steve? Storms excite my senses ... and you excite me even more, and...."
I reached for her desirable, almost naked body, and bending my head quickly, I clamped my mouth down hard on hers, shutting off her words.
Helen reached down and felt me. It was remarkable how she could get a rise out of me every time. In spite of taking her before we had fallen asleep, I was ready to go at it again!
There seemed to be a chemical reaction between us such as I had never experienced with any other woman. After I had had sex with others, they had left me cold.
I pushed her back on the couch and started to work out of my briefs.
She rested her auburn head back against a cushion, making a lovely picture, with her symmetrical, spread thighs that were anticipating the moment when she would be possessed. She was all woman!
I kicked my briefs aside, then flung the weight of my body on top of her. Our mouths met in a searing soul kiss, and her tongue reamed my mouth hungrily as I reciprocated the onslaught of her passion.
The shrill ringing of the telephone came clashing unexpectedly, with a nerve-shattering awareness, into my sex-numbed brain.
"Damn it!" I said, under my breath. "What a time for the phone to ring. All week it sits there, silently collecting dust, and now the son-of-a-bitch has to ring!"
"Probably a wrong number," Helen said, with a note of annoyance in her voice. "Don't answer it, darling."
When a good secretary says that, you've really got her going!
Persistently the phone continued to ring.
The spell already was broken, so I decided I might as well find out who in the hell it was. I got up, went over to the desk, and picked up the receiver.
"Hello ... Yes, this is Steve Donlon ... I just happen to be at liberty, Mr. Grass ... Of course it'll be expensive and I'll want a retainer ... Okay. I'll get out there right away ... Yeah, I know where it is."
When I had hung up, I let out a loud whoop. "Hey kitten, guess what! I've got a case!"
I grabbed her by her tiny waist, and swung her around.
She giggled. "Steve, you fool! Put me down. What kind of a case is it?"
I pulled her onto my lap. "It's that carnival murder that's been in all the papers. And Sam Grass, the guy who owns the carnival, has hired me to find the killer."
"Oh Steve, I'm so excited. Just think, your very first case!" She gave me an impulsive kiss. "Are you going to see him right away?" she asked.
"Yeah kitten. Will you please call the Vista Motel and make a reservation for me? It's across the street from the carnival."
Helen got up, walked over to the window, and looked out. The windows still were streaming.
"Shall I make reservations for a rowboat, too?" she joked. "It looks like a lake out there."
I started to dress, and called over my shoulders, "No, kitten, but you can look in the closet and find my raincoat and boots-and I think there's a trench hat on the top shelf."
By the time I was dressed, Helen had my rain gear laid out.
"Good luck, darling," she said as she kissed me.
I grinned at her, happily. To hell with the weather. I had a case, and this meant I could hold up my head, and feel like a man again.