Read Online The Case of the Lady in Apartment 308 by Lass Small - Free Book Online Page B

“It was so it could be he who gave me the…the lecture! He was really…upset.”
    “He didn’t want you wasted.”
    She defended herself. “Nobody was shooting at me, only honking.”
    “You’re beautiful.”
    “I was in my painting coveralls and hat and wearing my glasses. He was not charmed by me…at all.”
    “Did you drive yourself home?”
    She was emphatic. “With great care.”
    Keeping his eyes mostly on the road, Ed briefly glanced at her as he reached over and waggled her head. “I’m glad you weren’t hurt. The cop was probably sweating and worried and a father. Fathers tend to get upset when kids get in physical trouble and come out of it safely.”
    She countered that. “I broke a fingernail.”
    It took him a while to realize that was a bad thing. He asked kindly, “Which one?”
    She held out her left hand and pointed to the little finger.
    With his eyes on the road, he took her hand in his big one and lifted it to his mouth to kiss it. Then he put her hand on his thigh and covered it entirely with his bigger hand, holding it there. It was their first romantic encounter.
    Yeah. He’d kissed her finger. But she hadn’t with-drawn her hand. Her hand was on his thigh under his hand, and hers wasn’t squirming to get away.
    What would she do if he put his hand on her thigh?
    He’d sec.
    He drove across the bridge over the Illinois River and into East Peoria, which is a manufacturing area. There were hotels and motels along the riverbank. And he drove north to the parking lot for the gambling boats. There was an off-duty cop working the entrance of the big pavilion.
    The cop scowled at Marcia.
    Ed looked at Marcia. She was old enough. Why the scowl?
    As they walked on by the cop and entered the pavilion, Ed glanced back at the cop who was looking off, away, in a rather pointed manner.
    Ed asked Marcia, “Who’s the cop? Do you know him?”
    “He’s the one who objected to my going backward down the thruway.”
    “A stickler.” Ed nodded in agreement with his words.
    “The worst kind.”
    Ed was holding the hand with the shortened fingernail.
    With other arrivals, the couple came to the split halls in the building. One way was to the dining room. Ed asked, “Would you like dessert here? I don’t believe they serve any dessert on board.”
    Marcia replied, “Not now. I want to see the boat. That would be dessert enough for me.”
    So they went down the other hall. At one of the wire-enclosed cashier cages, Ed paid for tickets to board the gambling boat.
    They went up some stairs and then up the covered gangplank and on to the first deck. There were open covered decks on each level and a big paddle wheel was at the back of the boat.
    They walked around so that Marcia could see everything.
    Ed mentioned, “I can’t believe you’ve never been here before. If you don’t gamble, it isn’t expensive.”
    “Who’d come to a gambling boat and not gamble?”
    “Me.”
    She frowned. “How can you not?”
    He opened his hand out and replied, “I watch people lose money.”
    “Some win.”
    “Not very many.”
    Off the top deck, inside, there was a big gambling room with specific kinds of gambling. From the lower deck they found an oval bar in the middle of the slot machine room. A sandwich bar was to one side.
    First the venturing pair went strolling around, hand in hand, along the open decks. The boat left the mooring and went upriver. Being on a wide river is a pleasure.
    She told Ed, “We all love water because we came from the sea.”
    “I hadn’t realized that.”
    She scoffed, “What a neutral reply.”
    He held her hand between them and glanced at her tolerantly. It was a beautiful night. A special time. There was a moon.
    They mostly watched the water’s wake, the turning of the large wheel at the back of the boat, and they watched each other.
    Then they went into the gambling rooms to see what all was offered. They watched some of the high rollers.Neither had an alcoholic