The Nothing Man Read Free Page B

little, her ankles were over-thin, the calves of her legs larger than the norm. But it was all right on her. On her it looked good. She preceded me to the street, the outsize hips swinging on the too-slender waist-or was it the slenderness of the waist that made her hips seem outsize?
    One thing was certain, there was nothing at all wrong with Mrs. Chasen's bank balance. Not, that is, unless she'd given Saks Fifth Avenue and I. Magnin a hell of a kidding.
    We reached the sidewalk and I started to take her by the elbow. She turned and looked up into my face.
    "Have you," she said, "been drinking, Mr. Brown?"
    "Why," I said, drawing away a little, "what makes you think I-why do you ask that?"
    I didn't know what to say. The question had caught me completely off guard, and I still couldn't make up my mind whether she was stupid or only appeared to be.
    As I say, I never could make it up.
    "It's pretty early in the day to be drinking," I hedged.
    "Not for me," she said, "under the circumstances. I'm going to have a drink, Mr. Brown. Several drinks, in fact. And you can come along or not come along, just as you please. As far as I'm concerned, you and your dear Mr. Lovelace-"
    "Tut," I said. "Tish and pish, Mrs. Chasen. You have just said a naughty word, and there is only one thing to be done. We shall have to wash out your mouth."
    "What"-she laughed a little nervously-"what do you-?"
    "Come, Mrs. Chasen," I said. "Come with me to the Press Club."
    I made a Charles Boyer face, and she laughed again. Not nervously, now. Rather, I thought, hungrily.
    "Well, come on!" she said.

3
    She leaned back in the booth, her green eyes crinkled and shiny with laughter, her breasts under the sheer white blouse shivering and shaking. I'd used to visualize breasts like those, but I never thought I'd live to see any. I'd considered them-well, you know- physically impractical. Something that looked very good in the blueprint stage, but impossible of achievement.
    It just went to show-as Mr. Lovelace often remarked. Yes, sir, here was the proof; there was no problem too big for American genius and know-how.
    "… You crazy thing, Brownie! Do you always talk so crazy?"
    "Only with people I love, Deborah. Only with you and Mr. Lovelace."
    "You said it, Brownie! You said it that time!"
    "So I did," I said, "and I shall take my punishment with my elbows firmly on the table… Close-order drill?"
    "With a barrage, Brownie! A big barrage!"
    "Jake," I called, "advance with artillery."
    Perhaps she hadn't been too tactful about it, but she'd had a right to be sore at Mr. Lovelace. Her late husband, late and elderly ("_but he was a fine man, Brownie; I liked him a lot_"), had been an oil man. The Lovelaces had often visited them at their place in Oklahoma. Then, six months ago, her husband had died, and she had found herself with a great deal of money and even more than she knew what to do with… Money and time and a growing suspicion that she was not highly regarded in the circles she had formerly moved in. ("_And why not, Brownie? I was good to him. I waited on him hand and foot for ten years_. ")
    She had fought back; she had delivered two snubs for every one she received. But you lose at that game, even when you win. There is no satisfaction in it. Finally, she had begun to travel-she was on her way to the Riviera now-and today she had stopped off here. And Lovelace, of course, had given her the firmest brush-off of all. ("_But I'm glad I stopped, Brownie. You know?_") She was lonely as hell, though not the kind to admit it. The chances were that she would always be lonely. Because that manner of hers-whatever its motivation-was not something that would ordinarily win friends and influence people.
    I had a hunch that she had even got under the Lovelace hide.
    I stole a glance at my wrist watch and looked back at her. Thus far, she was holding her drinks very well. But train time was four hours away-she was catching the four-fifteen into Los Angeles. So