Kept Women Can’t Quit

“Then Standley came along. He was good to me and the guy was loaded with money. I don’t know where he was making it, but I have a pretty good idea. He was in partnership with someone and they were running a betting service. He fell for me like a ton of bricks. He was going to do a lot for me — he said. He gave me quite a bit of money and I thought there was going to be lots more where that came from. He kept promising me complete financial security. He said he was going to make a settlement on me of sixty thousand dollars.”

“Fifty or sixty?” I asked.

“Sixty,” she said.

I said, “Keep talking.”

All the time she was talking I was writing. I wrote a message:

They can hear everything we say. They’re probably making tape recordings. I have to leave here. That’s the thing they’d like to have me do because then they would claim it was flight and evidence of guilt. Now, what I want you to do is to pretend that you’re leaving, but I’ll be the one that leaves. I’ll close the door and you can pretend it’s you going out. Say good-by to me and all that stuff. Then you come back and start making sounds. Turn on the television. Leave it on for a while but change stations every so often so that they can hear there is someone in the room. Flush the toilet. Cough — but of course don’t let them hear your voice. You’ll have to sit up until midnight and keep the television going, changing stations once in a while. Then, if I’m not back, go to bed. From time to time, wake up and cough. Leave the door unlocked so I can get in. Can you do this? I think I can help you if you do it, and I know one thing for sure — you can help me.

She read the note and kept right on with her talking, saying, “Donald, I think you’ve been perfectly wonderful. I don’t know why it is that a woman will take a look at some man and feel she can trust him. I guess sometimes it’s a bad way to feel because you get hooked, but I feel I can trust you. I’d do anything for you, anything at all.”

She backed up her statement by nodding her head.

“You don’t think,” I said, “there was any chance that Standley was in partnership with Baxley and that they robbed that—”

“Don’t be silly, Donald,” she interrupted. “Standley wasn’t that kind of a man at all. He was a gambler, and, frankly, Donald, I think he was some sort of a con man. I don’t know. He had some way of making money and it just rolled in. I’ve never seen a man who was as loaded with money as Standley Downer.

“I liked him. At first, I guess I was in love with him and I probably would have stayed in love with him if it hadn’t been for the way he acted with Evelyn.

“However, I came to know him pretty well after we’d had our so-called marriage. Standley was restless. He was a man who was never satisfied with anything except motion and change. He had to be going from one thing to another just as fast as he could. He could never settle down. He couldn’t settle down with anyone.

“What makes me mad about Evelyn is that she was just a gold digger. Oh, I know... I’m not supposed to be anything but a gold digger myself. But I can tell you, Donald, that’s been my trouble. I haven’t looked out for Number One enough. I’ve always gone along with some guy and... well, that’s the way it is — that’s the way I am.”

“How many guys have you gone along with?” I asked.

“Too many,” she said. “Not many in one way, but too many in another. No one’s going to come along and propose marriage to me and expect me to wear a white bridal veil walking down to the altar. No one’s going to propose marriage to me, period. I’ve been a kept woman and kept women can’t quit.”

“I can understand how you felt about Standley,” I said.

“I knew you could, Donald. You’re understanding.”

I nodded my head and pointed to the door.

“Well, Donald,” she said, “I’ve got to go. I just had to see you, I wanted to talk with you and... I don’t know, Donald. I want you to understand me.

“Now, I’ve got to go down to my room and write some letters and then get some beauty sleep. Will I see you in the morning?”