Private Dick Casefile 01 - Lily White Rose Red

“She’s not here. Hasn’t been for two weeks.” She started walking away from me and unpeeling her banana skirt at the same time.
    I caught up with her. “Know where I can reach her?” She stopped and examined my face. “You seem like a sweet guy.
    You don’t want to hook up with her, take my word for it.”
    “Why, was she trouble?”
    “She was okay. It was her boyfriends who were trouble.”
    “Look, can I buy you lunch? Maybe you could tell me a little about her.”

    Lily White, Rose Red: Grey Randall, Private Dick Casefile #1
    57

    She snorted. “Sure, go to the luncheonette around the corner and grab me a cheese and pickle sandwich on white. Then I won’t have to change for the break, sugar.”
    I went and got a sandwich for myself as well as two Cokes and some donuts. When I came back, the geezer was gone, and I just waltzed right in. Could have saved the fin by getting here later. And they say the early bird gets the worm. Well, I guess it was true—for him.
    The dressing room was filled with half naked girls, none of whom seemed too upset when I walked in. I averted my eyes politely from their various states of disarray and went to where my dark-haired dancer was sitting with her feet propped on her dressing table in very uncomfortable-looking stilettos.
    She called out, “See, girls! I told you, he’s a bunny.” I scowled at her. “I’m a private dick. Hard-boiled. Grey Randall.” She giggled and stuck out her hand. “Suzy Velvour. You’re going to have to work on your image, Grey. You’re adorable when you’re blushing.”
    I put the stuff down and shook. After a quick glom at me, the rest of the girls had gone back to chattering and powdering their noses. The din was deafening. “There’s your lunch, Miss Velvour. Stage name?”
    “Ya think? Thanks for the Coke.” She slid a drawer open without moving her legs and leaned forward to take out a bottle opener. She had frightening abs. “Aren’t you even going to ask?” I opened both bottles and handed her one. “Sure, spill it.”
    “You’re a bunny because you look at my eyes when you talk to me, not my tits.” She shook her shoulders, making her breasts shimmy.
    Now that she pointed it out, she was only covered by a skimpy brassiere top that didn’t look equal to the challenge her boobs were putting it to.
    “My mother raised me polite,” I growled. Somehow I didn’t cotton to being described as fluffy and cute.

    58

    CATT FORD

    “She did a good job.” Suzy tipped the bottle and swallowed.
    “Unless you’re a gaycat.”
    I decided it was time to get the spotlight off me. “Marguerite Saint-Ville. Her boyfriends?”
    “What about them?”
    I rolled my eyes in exasperation. “You said they were trouble.”
    “Is she in trouble?”
    “You don’t read the newspapers much, do you?”
    “Only the show-biz section. What happened to her?” I thought if I told her all about it right away, she might clam up or start leaking tears. “She’s in a jam. I’m trying to get a handle on it, but I don’t have an end to pull on. Tell me a little about her.”
    “I don’t know her very well, but she sat right next to me, so you sort of chat between numbers, you know?” Suzy started unwrapping her sandwich. “Most of the girls I’ve run into here and there since I’ve been in this business. You know, in one show or the next, but Miss High-and-Mighty just blew in here one day and started dancing like she owned the place.”
    “You didn’t like her?”
    Suzy shrugged and chewed. “She could dance, I’ll give her that, but she hadn’t earned the right to act like a star or anything.”
    “How did she act like a star?”
    “Didn’t really talk to the girls much. Talked hoity-toity like she went to boarding school or something. Heaven knows she was too good to socialize with the rest of us. Always had a date, always had men sending her flowers.” She paused to take a bite and added thoughtfully,
    “Her clothes were too good, you know? And if her earrings weren’t real, I don’t have a close, personal relationship with rhinestones.” Maybe Suzy was smarter than I’d given her credit for after that crack about me being a bunny. “What about her boyfriends? Who were they?”

    Lily White, Rose Red: Grey Randall, Private Dick Casefile #1
    59

    “That’s just it, I never saw any of them. Maybe she was ashamed of them, or maybe she was into married men.” Suzy shrugged. “Not like it’s a stigma around