Read Online Suspicious Circumstances by Patrick Quentin - Free Book Online

Norma were such buddies. Everyone knows that. That’s all it is. We’ll be all right. We’ve got to believe that. So long as it never comes out that the Old Girl was there…’
    Both of us remembered at the same time and at the same moment both of us said, ‘Delight Schmidt.’
    ‘Where did she come from?’ I said.
    ‘I don’t know. She’s an out-of-work dancer. Anny found her at MGM and developed a crush on her after she got bored with Bernice.’
    ‘I know. But who is she?’
    ‘I haven’t the foggiest notion. Did she really say she wasn’t going to tell?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Then why did she tell you?’
    Why had she? ‘I think, maybe, She’s trying to get chummy with me.’
    Pam’s face lit up. ‘Oh, Nickie, how fortunate! Then you can handle her. Make up to her. Charm her.’
    Terribly complicated thoughts were rushing through me, all of them more embarrassing than the next.
    ‘But, Pam…’
    ‘Why not? You and your red-heads. The Old Girl might have picked her especially for you.’
    ‘But — but, Pam, you don’t understand. It’s different now. In Paris…’
    But Pam cut in very sternly, ‘Nonsense. This is a matter of life or death. You’ve simply got to keep Delight Schmidt quiet. From now on she’s your responsibility.’
    At that very moment My Responsibility appeared from the house and came sashaying down the flagged path. For some reason I hadn’t noticed her body until then. To my dismay I saw it was as near perfect as made no odds.
    She saw Uncle Hans first, then she saw us and smiled dazzlingly at me across the pool.
    ‘Anny’s back,’ she called, ‘and lunch is ready. So come and get it.’
    I turned desperately to Pam. ‘Pam, please. I can’t. It isn’t ethical. It…’
    ‘Stuff and nonsense, dear,’ said Pam.
    I dreaded going into the house because going into the house involved meeting Mother and I felt far too mixed up to face her. Part of me had the demoralizing notion that I would see the Mark of Cain scrawled across her brow; the other part had the equally demoralizing notion that she would pierce into my innermost thoughts with those terrible eagle eyes and thunder, ‘Harboring such suspicions about your mother? What have I given birth to? A monster?’
    It was all right, though, for when we went in to lunch, she was exactly as I had seen her before she breezed off to Ronnie — gay, planny, noble, and flawlessly bone-structured. The funeral suit got the eagle-eye, but it passed.
    ‘Really, Nickie dear, how messy though — just to put it on over your other dirty clothes from the plane.’
    The borrowed servants, like all the other borrowed servants, adored Mother and their adoration manifested itself in the most elaborate meals. Lunch that day was so gourmet that I thought I would choke on it — particularly when Mother announced that, since neither Ronnie nor Norma had any relatives, we were to be the family party and all go together to the church with Ronnie. To me this decision seemed to be the height of indiscretion and, to make it worse, Delight Schmidt winked at me through the hideous silver epergne which stood in the center of the table, while Mother went chattering on like that brook which babbles from haunts of coot and hern.
    ‘What time is it? Only two? Then we’ve still got hours and hours, but we can’t afford to waste a minute. Delight, dear, do you have your shorthand pad?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Delight Schmidt and unexpectedly produced a pad from under the table. She must have been sitting on it.
    ‘Good, good, what a thoughtful girl.’ Mother took little bird-pecks at her Poussin Marie Louise or whatever it was. ‘Now, let’s see. Where shall we begin? Photoplay , I think. We really ought to get into the July issue. Timing — so essential. Delight, dear, are you ready? Then take this down. Anny Rood and Norma Delanay dash A True Hollywood Friendship period paragraph I hate to think how long ago it was that lovely autumn morning in Paris