Read Online Dress Her in Indigo by John D. MacDonald - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: John D. MacDonald
Tags: Fiction, General, Suspense, Mystery & Detective, Private Investigators, Political, Hard-Boiled, Fort Lauderdale (Fla.), McGee; Travis (Fictitious character)
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stolid, metronomic efficiency.
I decided that I could risk, for the sake of possible returns, casting a large doubt on our insurance story, and Bruce's statement of having done stage design in New York and set design in California gave me the opening. So at a handy opening, using that-reminds-me, I brought up a Page 29
Famous Female Name in the Industry.
"That wretched bitch!" Bruce said. "The most self-important little slut in the world, believe me. I did one totally commercial job for her. One of those period piece things, where they wrapped her little ass in crinoline, and had her bang her way through half the Confederate Army. I went a little camp with the decor, not to cut the picture, but to make a little gentle fun that only the cognoscenti would catch. So she raised stinking hell about my color patterns being wrong for her. She wants to act, direct, produce, write the script, and design the sets, and she doesn't know one thing about her own trade. The only acting she does that seems authentic is when they have her horizontal. She is one of the reasons, dears, why I tucked away all their abundant bread into very good little securities, and when I had enough to live nicely on for the rest of my years, I told them all what they could kiss." He paused and looked at me with a suspicious glint. "But don't tell me she was buying her insurance in Florida."
"It was something else, Bruce. She partied on a sun deck with a mixed bare-ass group, and somebody with a good telephoto lens tried to get rich quick."
He nodded. "I remember a rumor that she was in that kind of trouble, but nothing happened."
"I got lucky."
"But why would you get involved in something like that, Travis?"
"Because she came around and asked me."
"Why would she come to you?"
"Because I solved another kind of problem for someone she knew."
"Then you aren't really in the insurance business?"
I smiled upon him. "Hell, I don't know. I guess that lady would be willing to say it was a kind of insurance."
"But what are yod trying to do here? Who are you... trying to insure, Mr. McGee?"
"I think that if I had gone around telling people what I was trying to do for the actress, it wouldn't have worked out as well as it did."
Meyer broke in and said, "We just go around helping people, Bruce. I think it's some kind of guilt syndrome. Trouble with those windmills, you stick a lance into one in a good wind, and it will purely toss the hell out of you."
Bundy, after a few moments of narrow-eyed consideration, dropped it. And soon he began moving in on David Saunders' blind side. But first there was a little exchange between Bruce and Becky that went over David's sullen head.
Bruce said, "Becky, darling, Larry told me last week that you. practically gave him that marvelous ceremonial mask from Juchatengo."
I saw her eyes go blank and her mouth purse, and though she recovered in a sparkling instant, I Page 30
felt reasonably convinced that there was no mask, perhaps not even anyone named Larry.
"He seemed to want it."
"It upset him a little. I mean he knew how terribly acquisitive you had felt about it when you first got it, and he didn't want to take advantage of your friendship."
"How silly!" she said. "I was cleaning out my little gallery and I remembered that he seemed to admire it, so I took it over and asked him if he'd like it. My word, had I wanted to keep it, would I have taken it to him?"
"I guess he wanted to be certain it was not just an impulse you'd regret later."
"When you see him, tell him not to worry his little head. Actually, you know, I was very fair with him. I told him when I took it over there that it was really not as first class as I had thought at first. It's very primitive, of course, and quite authentic, but it's just one of those things you tire of seeing every day I suppose because it hasn't much subtlety."
"It's probably more Larry's sort of thing than yours."
"Very probably. I sensed that, I suppose." Transfer
I decided that I could risk, for the sake of possible returns, casting a large doubt on our insurance story, and Bruce's statement of having done stage design in New York and set design in California gave me the opening. So at a handy opening, using that-reminds-me, I brought up a Page 29
Famous Female Name in the Industry.
"That wretched bitch!" Bruce said. "The most self-important little slut in the world, believe me. I did one totally commercial job for her. One of those period piece things, where they wrapped her little ass in crinoline, and had her bang her way through half the Confederate Army. I went a little camp with the decor, not to cut the picture, but to make a little gentle fun that only the cognoscenti would catch. So she raised stinking hell about my color patterns being wrong for her. She wants to act, direct, produce, write the script, and design the sets, and she doesn't know one thing about her own trade. The only acting she does that seems authentic is when they have her horizontal. She is one of the reasons, dears, why I tucked away all their abundant bread into very good little securities, and when I had enough to live nicely on for the rest of my years, I told them all what they could kiss." He paused and looked at me with a suspicious glint. "But don't tell me she was buying her insurance in Florida."
"It was something else, Bruce. She partied on a sun deck with a mixed bare-ass group, and somebody with a good telephoto lens tried to get rich quick."
He nodded. "I remember a rumor that she was in that kind of trouble, but nothing happened."
"I got lucky."
"But why would you get involved in something like that, Travis?"
"Because she came around and asked me."
"Why would she come to you?"
"Because I solved another kind of problem for someone she knew."
"Then you aren't really in the insurance business?"
I smiled upon him. "Hell, I don't know. I guess that lady would be willing to say it was a kind of insurance."
"But what are yod trying to do here? Who are you... trying to insure, Mr. McGee?"
"I think that if I had gone around telling people what I was trying to do for the actress, it wouldn't have worked out as well as it did."
Meyer broke in and said, "We just go around helping people, Bruce. I think it's some kind of guilt syndrome. Trouble with those windmills, you stick a lance into one in a good wind, and it will purely toss the hell out of you."
Bundy, after a few moments of narrow-eyed consideration, dropped it. And soon he began moving in on David Saunders' blind side. But first there was a little exchange between Bruce and Becky that went over David's sullen head.
Bruce said, "Becky, darling, Larry told me last week that you. practically gave him that marvelous ceremonial mask from Juchatengo."
I saw her eyes go blank and her mouth purse, and though she recovered in a sparkling instant, I Page 30
felt reasonably convinced that there was no mask, perhaps not even anyone named Larry.
"He seemed to want it."
"It upset him a little. I mean he knew how terribly acquisitive you had felt about it when you first got it, and he didn't want to take advantage of your friendship."
"How silly!" she said. "I was cleaning out my little gallery and I remembered that he seemed to admire it, so I took it over and asked him if he'd like it. My word, had I wanted to keep it, would I have taken it to him?"
"I guess he wanted to be certain it was not just an impulse you'd regret later."
"When you see him, tell him not to worry his little head. Actually, you know, I was very fair with him. I told him when I took it over there that it was really not as first class as I had thought at first. It's very primitive, of course, and quite authentic, but it's just one of those things you tire of seeing every day I suppose because it hasn't much subtlety."
"It's probably more Larry's sort of thing than yours."
"Very probably. I sensed that, I suppose." Transfer
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