Read Online The Scarlet Letters by Ellery Queen - Free Book Online Page A

how has your day been?”
    â€œSurprisingly surprising. How about meeting me for dinner?”
    â€œWhy, Mr. Q.”
    â€œMake it Louis and Armand’s as close to seven as you can get away. Don’t keep me waiting too long, because I’ll be at the bar, and you know how conscientious Pompeia is.”
    â€œNo, but I know you. Three drinks and you’re the Human Fly.”
    â€œI’m climbing no walls this night. It’s serious business, Nikki.”
    Nikki said fervently, “I can hardly wait,” and hung up.
    Nikki said, “Van Harrison,” as if it were the name of a loathsome disease. “What can she see in him? I thought he was dead.”
    â€œUnkind, Nikki,” murmured Ellery. “I can testify that Mr. Harrison is no corpse. And–I’m afraid–so can Martha.”
    â€œBut he’s an old man.”
    â€œNot so old. It wasn’t more than a dozen or so years ago that he was jamming the theaters with standees and having to fight his way out of the stage door. That profile still packs a wallop, Nikki. Terrific personality.”
    â€œI could strangle him,” said Nikki, panting. “Martha in a hotel room! Where’d she ever meet him?”
    â€œBroadway is a small town. Maybe he applied for a part in one of her productions. I made a few inquiries at the Lambs after I phoned and I’m told he’s seen every once in a while still trying to break down the Broadway ban on him. I don’t suppose you remember that. He went on a prolonged drunk in his last starring play for Avery Langston, and Langston had to close down at the height of a run. Harrison hasn’t had a job on Broadway since. That must have been ten or twelve years ago.”
    â€œThen what’s he living on, his old press notices?”
    â€œHe doesn’t have to work at all. He made a fortune in his lush years, but you know actors. He still takes an occasional radio and TV job, and once in a while he gets a character part in some film. It’s probably keeping him alive. That magic voice and romantic profile of his will lure women of Martha’s age when he’s tripping over his beard.”
    â€œBut Martha.”
    â€œWhat about Martha?” said Ellery coldly. “What’s so different about Martha? She’s in her middle thirties, she has a husband who’s making her life hell with his crazy jealousy, she has no children and no family to hold her back, and she’s stagestruck. Why, Martha’s duck soup for an operator like Harrison! He can give her what Dirk can’t, or won’t–flattery, attention, mastery, glamor. He can give her happiness, Nikki, even if it’s only a cheap substitute in a hotel room.”
    â€œBut Martha’s always been so level-headed. Can’t she see he’s a phony?”
    â€œWho’s real in this world? And maybe he’s in love with her. Martha isn’t so hard to take.”
    Nikki was silent.
    â€œIn other words,” said Ellery after a while, “it’s one hell of a mess, and I’m for getting out.”
    â€œNot now.”
    â€œNow is the only time. Later we may not be able to.”
    â€œNot while it’s going on.” Nikki shivered. “Not while there’s a chance of Dirk’s finding out.”
    â€œI take it, then, you’re for continuing to hole up at the Lawrences’.”
    â€œEllery, I have to.”
    Ellery grunted. “Why did I ever let myself be conned into this?” He kept drumming on the cloth. Nikki watched him anxiously. “Of course, the sensible thing is a girl-to-girl talk. After all, there is the basis for it, Nikki. We came into this because Martha said Dirk was being jealous for no reason. The situation has changed. He now–fortunately still unknown to him–has the best reason in the world. She’s cut the ground away from under us. If we’re to continue to help