Read Online Kill Your Darlings by Max Allan Collins - Free Book Online

it.”
    She smiled bravely. “I’d like that very much.”
    “It
will
attract some media attention, I’ve got to warn you.”
    “This sounds like the right kind of media attention.”
    “I agree. Enough of that kind of media attention might get Roscoe Kane’s books back into print, where they belong.”
    “That would be nice. I’ll be proud to stay, to accept Roscoe’s award.”
    “Thanks. Besides, if I
am
going to ask some questions around, about Roscoe, I’d like you available, so I can check back with you... you know, compare notes.”
    “That’s probably a good idea.”
    “It would be, if I knew where to start.”
    “Well, nothing was stolen from the room,” she said. “There was five hundred dollars in Roscoe’s suitcase—cash. Plus credit cards and his watch, which was expensive. Some other things.”
    “Your point being?”
    She had taken a tissue from her purse and was dabbing her red eyes. “It wasn’t robbery. It wasn’t somebody looting a hotel room who happened upon somebody bathing in the room or something.”
    “Right. It had to be somebody Roscoe knew. Somebody he knew well enough to be able to let approach him in the tub before he bothered getting up and out.”
    “Not necessarily,” she said. “He could’ve been sleeping in the tub, when whoever it was came in. Or he could’ve passed out, like the coroner’s man said—only with his head against the edge or back of the tub, not in the water.”
    “True. But how did ‘whoever-it-was’ get in?”
    “With a key from the desk, maybe? Why don’t you ask down there. Hotels can be pretty careless, sometimes, about handing out keys.”
    “Good thought. Of course, your husband may simply have left the door unlocked, or even ajar. Particularly if he was expecting somebody.”
    “Yes, but,
who
?”
    “Was there anyone staying in the hotel Roscoe knew?”
    “Some of the mystery writers. Gorman, of course.”
    “Gorman’s here? In the hotel? He lives in a Chicago suburb; why would he stay overnight in the hotel?”
    She shrugged. “I suppose because it’s easier to just stay here, throughout the convention, than drive back and forth. He has a dealer’s table, I understand.”
    There was a book dealers’ room, where rare and current books would be for sale throughout the Bouchercon.
    “How well do you know Gorman?” I asked.
    She grimaced. “Too well. Obnoxious man. I do know Roscoe had business to discuss here with him.”
    “I think I better look that s.o.b. up.”
    “Oh, you’ve met Gregg Gorman, then? He
is
a charmer.”
    “Only if you’re a snake.”
    “Mal, promise me you’ll call that assistant coroner. Myers. Tell him you’ve spoken with me, and that I take this quite seriously. Perhaps that will do some good.”
    “Perhaps. Can you think of anyone else who might’ve had a grudge against your husband, who’s in the hotel, or in Chicago at all?”
    “No,” she said. “But if you’re right about the towels...
somebody
had a hell of a grudge against him.”
    “Maybe I can find that somebody.”
    “I hope to hell you can,” she said.
    She got up and hugged me, gave me a motherly kiss on the mouth, smiled at me.
    “I look a mess, don’t I?” she said.
    “You look terrific. You always look terrific.”
    “You like me, don’t you, Mal?”
    “Of course I like you.”
    “Why don’t you come see me in Milwaukee sometime? In a few months. When we’re both... feeling a little better.”
    “I don’t think so, Mae.”
    “Bad taste of me to mention that, hmm, Mal? No respect for my dead husband? Let me tell you something. I loved Roscoe very much. But our relationship... hadn’t been physical for a long time. I wouldn’t like the world to know that—to know that macho Roscoe Kane couldn’t get it up for his lovely bride—but I don’t think he’d mind you knowing.”
    “I think he would,” I said, feeling creepy suddenly.
    “Maybe,” she admitted; she was still very close to me. Her breath