Read Online Davidian Report by Dorothy B. Hughes - Free Book Online Page B

kept at it even when she came into the place. He heard her speak, “Just coffee, Pepe.” He didn’t hear what else she said, she might have been asking Pepe to throw the bum out. Steve kept reading the paper. Until she came to the table, carrying her coffee cup. Until she sat down with him.
    He didn’t get out of his chair. It wasn’t the custom on Main Street. He said, “You’re off early tonight.”
    “I’ll make it up tomorrow night.” She gulped at the coffee just as if it were good, set the cup down and began fishing in her handbag. “Not that it matters to you.”
    “Have one of mine?” Steve handed over his cigarette pack.
    “So you are paying for information now?”
    He didn’t answer, he lit her cigarette. She loosed her red coat, it was bargain basement but it was red, and she wore it with a flair. Her dress was a cheap shiny satin, too shiny. On her it had more style than Feather Talle would have dressed by Adrian.
    “What story did you give that bum?”
    “He is no bum. He is the assistant manager. I explained to him that you were my cousin and that you became ugly when you drank too much. I would have to get you home or there would be trouble.”
    “And he believed it.”
    “He could observe you had been drinking.” She swallowed more of her coffee. “As could I.”
    “Not that much.” He pushed his crullers to her, she’d eat anything. “Did you tell Davidian that I was looking for him?”
    “I do not know where Davidian is.”
    He caught her wrist in pincer fingers. As if she were handling poisoned barbs, she removed them one by one. “You will not touch me.”
    “Sorry.” He wasn’t. He was in a churn of anger. “But you can stop lying. I’m not the only one who knows better.”
    “I do not lie.”
    He tried again. “You know how to get in touch with him.”
    “No.” He was ready to slam her when she added through an airy swirl of smoke, “He knows how to get in touch with me.”
    He hopped on it too eagerly. “You’ve seen him.”
    “No.”
    “Janni!” She must realize that time couldn’t wait on her tricks. “When will you see him?”
    “When he so chooses.”
    Had they been alone, he might have rattled the truth out of her scornful mouth. They weren’t alone. They were in a restaurant where she was Pepe’s friend and Steve was her drunken cousin. Because she was pleased at infuriating him, he tried patience. “If you had to get to him in a hurry—”
    “There is no way.”
    She lied. She was too clever to let Davidian escape her. She was as experienced as he, more experienced, in the sly twists of the underground. What Steve didn’t get was why Davidian had delivered himself into her hands in the first place. The first contact could have been accidental, but why continue it? Davidian knew her record. It wasn’t much different from his own; two guttersnipes out for what they could get. They’d never trusted each other, their only link had been Steve. And then all at once he did know. Davidian needed an address. Someone to pass on his pay to him.
    He said, “The F.B.I. is after him.”
    She was unmoved. “For what reason? He does not work.”
    “One of their men came to see you today.”
    Pellets of rage flecked her words. “You set that goat on me!”
    “Don’t be a fool,” he advised sharply. “The last thing I wanted was for them to know about you. Haig Armour sent him.”
    She spoke unfamiliar syllables. “Haig Armour.” Her English wasn’t proficient enough to take it other than phonetically. “Who is this?”
    “One of your Berlin playmates.” Anger was coming up into his throat again. “You couldn’t forget Haig Armour. He is rich, important, a magnificent man.”
    “No, I could not forget this kind! It is because I have this rich, magnificent protector that I live in a hovel with the old ones and work at nights on lower Main Street.” She thought about it. “I did not know him.”
    “He knew you were here,” he pointed out. “He