Nothing to Lose But My Life Read Free Page A

been looking at a wall decoration. But somehow I knew she was not. She was looking at me with the same intensity that I was using on her. And her interest came through to me as plainly as if she had spoken.
    The Hoop party was down to the dessert by the time my steak arrived. I had made a decision and so I ate more hurriedly than I liked, gave up the anticipated brandy and coffee, and made it to the lobby before they left the dining room. As they sailed through, I went directly up to the Colonel.
    “Colonel Hoop, sir?” I put a thread of Texas drawl I had deliberately cultivated into my voice. “I believe I recognize you from the newspaper pictures Cousin Malcolm used to send us.”
    Hoop was staring at me and having a hard time hiding the mixture of surprise and fear on his countenance. His reddish jowls took on a faint greenish tinge, and then that went away as what I had said seemed to penetrate.
    “Cousin Malcolm?”
    “Allow me to introduce myself, sir. Lowry Curtis.”
    “You’re related to Malcolm Lowry?” He didn’t sound as if he approved of the idea.
    “Kissing kin on my mother’s side,” I said modestly. “But we haven’t heard from Malcolm for some while, and since I was out this way, I thought I’d inquire. He mentioned you highly in his letters. I was planning to look you up when I saw you here.”
    I wasn’t sure that it wasn’t a foolish move. On the other hand, a bold stroke is sometimes the best defense. That was one reason I had decided to do this. The other was that I wanted the Colonel to start remembering Malcolm Lowry.
    He seemed to take in all I said and swallow it. “Uh—Malcolm Lowry left some years ago, Mr. Curtis. I haven’t heard from him since.”
    The others were looking at me with a good deal of interest and, I thought, speculation. Charles Conklin stepped forward. “As a matter of fact, Mr. Curtis, your cousin left here with a rather unsavory reputation.”
    I let my eyebrows crawl up. “A fact? I didn’t know he had spunk enough to get any kind of reputation.”
    Tanya Mace gave a low, soft laugh. “You might introduce us, Colonel.” So she flattered him by calling him Colonel instead of John.
    He made the introductions, obviously without much enthusiasm. I think he was afraid I would attach myself to the party. I got a perfunctory handshake from Charles Conklin and a boring look from those hard, pale blue eyes. I met it equably and then turned to his wife. She gave me her fingertips. I bowed over them, repeated the process with Enid, who was measuring me openly, and then accepted Tanya Mace’s long, strong hand.
    “Tanya?” I said. “Russian, Mrs. Mace?”
    Her green eyes mocked me. “Just kissing kin on my mother’s side,” she said. “White Russian.”
    I turned almost rudely away from her. The woman bothered me, and I could not afford to be bothered at a time like this. I excused myself for intruding and let them go on out. Then I took myself to the bar and grill for my delayed brandy and coffee. I stayed there, killing time until it would be late enough to go to Nikke’s. I felt good now; I had started things moving.
    Shortly before ten, Tanya Mace came in alone. She walked directly to me as if she had been hunting me. I rose and asked her to sit down. She was wearing a magnificent sheath-tight green dress that was molded to her handsomely proportioned figure. When she threw back the small fur she was wearing and reached her arms up to adjust her knot of hair, I looked hastily around for a waiter. She was the first woman since Jen that I was afraid of. Jen, I had loved. I had given her my self-possession willingly. Tanya Mace was different. She threatened to take my self-possession by force.
    “Whiskey and water,” she said. She had a husky, rounded voice. When the drink came, she took half of it before setting down the glass. “I came looking for you, Mr. Curtis.”
    “Because we both have kissing kin?”
    Her full mouth curved up in a smile.