The Blue Movie Murders Read Free

day it opens.”
    â€œPlease don’t judge it until you’ve seen it, my dear. Movies are my life. I’ve seen a great many of them, and I tell you The Wild Nymph is a classic.”
    â€œYou certainly make me want to see it,” McCall remarked.
    â€œMaybe I can arrange it sometime. I own one of the few prints in existence.”
    A slim woman with a rounded face appeared out of the crowd to join them. “We should be leaving, Mr. Sloane. It’s a long drive up there.”
    â€œYou’re right,” the producer said. “Mr. McCall and ladies, my secretary—Susanne Walsh.”
    There were greetings all around, but it was obvious that Suzanne Walsh was much too efficient a secretary to be put off the track. She’d interrupted to spur Sloane on his way, and in another five minutes they were gone.
    â€œI have to be going too,” McCall told his hostess.
    â€œSo soon, Mike?”
    â€œAfraid so.” He turned to Cynthia Rhodes. “Can I drop you anywhere?”
    â€œI get around on my own, Mr. McCall.”
    â€œSorry. I forgot. Will I be seeing you again?”
    She tossed her head to get the hair out of her eyes. “Probably sooner than you’d like. Tomorrow morning, bright and early. In front of the Governor’s mansion.”

TWO
    Wednesday, May 12
    When McCall arrived at the Governor’s mansion in the morning, he found the main entrance already blocked by a lengthening serpentine queue of female demonstrators. Cynthia Rhodes was in the lead, wearing her familiar black slacks and shirt, followed by a dozen or so ardent supporters who’d apparently made the trip with her.
    It was obvious at once that the demonstration was well organized, and even as McCall watched, the line of marchers grew longer. Cynthia’s hard-core followers were being joined in a steady flow by local women, many of them carrying handprinted signs that lacked the professional neatness of their leaders’ placards but still got their message across.
    As McCall attempted to cut through the line he was almost hit by one sign reading Pornography Degrades Women . A large moon-faced woman in her forties blocked his path, waving another sign that read Females Fight Filthy Films .
    Suddenly Cynthia spotted him and yelled to the others, “That’s McCall! Let’s get him!”
    McCall tensed, imagining himself fighting for his life beneath a horde of militant women with bouncing breasts and tight jeans. But Cynthia and the others merely surrounded him while she pinned a large button on his coat. He could read the words upside down: Cynthia’s Raiders —the same as on the bright new button she wore herself.
    â€œWelcome to the club,” she told him. “We’ll have more than a hundred women here by noon.”
    â€œI’ll tell the Governor.”
    â€œAnd tell him to get those blue movies out of the theatres.”
    McCall stood his ground, facing her. “You’d object to Snow White .”
    â€œDamn right I would! Doing housework for all those dwarfs!”
    He broke free and forced his way through to the door. Cynthia Rhodes was a wild woman when she had an audience, and he wasn’t about to give her any more openings.
    The guard on the door gave him a rueful grin. “They want trouble, Mr. McCall. I might have to get the police down here.”
    â€œDon’t do anything until I’ve talked with the Governor.”
    He found Sam Holland in his private office, hidden away in the executive wing of the mansion. This was not the greeting room, or the meeting room, but simply a place where he could work alone, without interruption. Its walls were almost bare, except for a single nearly unrecognizable picture of the Governor in a college track uniform.
    He glanced up as McCall knocked and entered. Then, seeing the button pinned to McCall’s coat, he sighed. “Can’t I even get away from them in