Lay Her Among The Lilies

“Where exactly are you?” she said, and sounded as unexcited as if I had asked her the time.

“Beach Road. Come as fast as you can,” I said, and hung up.

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LAY HER AMONG THE LILIES

I left the Buick outside the drug store and walked to the corner of Beach Road. From there I

could see Eudora Drew’s cabin. I propped myself up against a lamp standard and kept my

eyes on the gate of the cabin.

Nine o’clock. I had three hours to wait, and I wished I had asked Paula to bring some

Scotch and a sandwich to help while away the time.

For the next twenty minutes I lolled against the lamp standard and never took my eyes off

the cabin. Nobody came out. Nobody went in. Several tough-looking homhres emerged from

other cabins and either walked away or drove away. Three girls, all blondes, all with strident

voices, came out of the cabin next to Eudora’s and strolled down the road towards me

swinging their hips and ogling anything in trousers within sight. As they passed me they all

looked my way, but I kept my eyes firmly on the cabin.

A nice neighbourhood this, I thought. Not the kind of road Mrs. Bendix’s bunny-faced pal

would care to walk down.

Paula’s smart little two-seater came bustling out of Princess Street and headed towards me.

It pulled up and the door swung open. Paula looked very trim and slightly glacial in her grey,

pin-head suit. She was hatless, and her brown eyes looked at me enquiringly.

“Where now?” she asked, as I settled beside her.

“Drive up here nice and slow and stop on the bend. Eudora’s place is that white and blue

abomination on the right,” I said, and as the car moved forward I rapidly told her what had

happened. “I have an idea she might communicate with someone,” I concluded. “I may be

wrong, but I think it’ll be worth while keeping on eye on her for the next couple of hours. The

only way to watch the house without getting the neighbours in an uproar is for us to be a

courting couple. That’s something they all understand in this district.”

“Pity you had to pick on me,” Paula said coldly.

“Well, I couldn’t very well pick on Kerman,” I said, a little peeved. “Let me tell you some

girls would jump at the opportunity.”

“Can I help it if some girls have queer tastes?” she asked, pulling up on the bend. “Is this

right?”

“Yeah. Now for the love of mike, relax. You’re supposed to be enjoying this.” I slid my

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LAY HER AMONG THE LILIES

arm round the back of her neck. She leaned against me and stared moodily down the road at

the cabin. I might just as well have necked with a dressmaker’s dummy. “Can’t you work up

a little enthusiasm?” And I tried to nibble her ear.

“That may go down big with your other girl friends,” she said icily, jerking away, “but it

doesn’t with me. If you’ll open the glove compartment you’ll find some whisky and a couple

of sandwiches in there. That might keep you more suitably employed.”

I unwound my arm from her neck and dived into the glove compartment.

“You think of everything,” I said, beginning to munch. “This is the only thing in the world

that’d stop me kissing you.”

“I knew that,” she said tartly. “That’s why I brought it.”

I was working on the second sandwich when an olive-green Dodge limousine came tearing

down the road. I didn’t have to look twice to see it was the same olive-green Dodge and the

same big tough driving it.

I wormed myself down in the seat to be out of sight.

“That’s the guy who’s been tailing me,” I said to Paula. “Keep an eye on him and see

where he goes.”

“He’s stopped outside Eudora’s place, and he’s getting out,” she told me.

Cautiously I lifted my head until my eyes were level with the windshield. The Dodge had

stopped as Paula had said outside the blue and white cabin. The big tough got out, slammed

the door with so much force he nearly knocked the car on its side, and went pounding down

the path to the front door. He didn’t knock, but turned the handle and marched in: a man in a

hurry.

“And that, bright eyes, is called a hunch,” I said to Paula. “I thought she would either go

out or telephone. Well, she telephoned. Big Boy has arrived for a consultation. It certainly

looks as if I’ve tipped my hand. What happens from now on should be interesting.”

“What will you do when he leaves?”

“I’ll go in and tell her I couldn’t raise five hundred. Then we’ll see how she plays it.”

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LAY HER AMONG THE LILIES

I had finished the sandwich and was just starting on the whisky when the front door of the

cabin opened and Big Boy came out. He had been inside eleven and a half minutes by the

clock on the dashboard. He looked to right and left, scowled at Paula’s parked car, but was

too far away to see who was in it, walked leisurely up the path, vaulted over the gate, climbed

into the Dodge and drove quietly away.

“Well, that didn’t take long,” I said. “If everyone transacted business as fast as that there’d

be an awful lot more work done. Come on, honey, we may as well make the call. At least,

you drive me over and wait outside. I wouldn’t like her to get nervous.”