Over My Dead Body

"Have a drink," Miss Reade insisted. "I have never had a drink with a detective, and especially such a darned good-looking detective." She patted the divan and tugged at the negligйe to cover a knee. "Sit here by me and have a drink."

"Don't be a damned fool," Barrett told her.

Zorka tittered. "She only wants to make you jealous, Donald. Because you make her jealous of the Tormic girl."

"Bah," said Miss Reade. "Have a drink! What's your name?"

"Call me Archie." It struck me that a little reinforcement might help, so I stretched for the bottle and a glass. Then I drew back and turned to Barrett. "But excuse me. If you're the host…"

"This is Miss Reade's apartment," he said stiffly. "But you came here-"

"Please have a drink," the lady begged me.

"Thanks, I will." I poured a good one and tossed it off, and then advised Barrett, "You ought to have a shot yourself. You're under a strain." I confronted Zorka. "The idea is this. After you phoned me at Nero Wolfe's office and told me-"

"What? After what?"

I went closer so she could focus easier. "After you phoned and told me you saw Miss Tormic putting something in my overcoat pocket-"

"But I didn't! I? I phoned you?" She waved her glass at Belinda, spilling a drop or two on the rug, and said in a hurt tone, "Don't let him have another drink! He says I phoned him!"

"Maybe you did, darling. You phone so many men. I wouldn't blame you for phoning him. I like him."

"But I didn't!"

"Well, you should have." Belinda used the blue eyes on me. "Have a drink, Percy."

"Not Percy, Archie. Percy was the one that got murdered."

"Oh." She frowned at me. "That's right. That's why we started drinking, to forget about it. Brrrh." She shivered, "And I called you Percy! How funny! Don't you think that's funny, Donnyhoney?"

"No," Barrett declared curtly. "This fellow-"

"But of course it's funny! I like Archie, and why should I call him Percy?" She shivered again. "It was perfectly terrible! Simply awful! The porter yelling and Percy lying there on the floor, and the police and-" She stopped and stared at me with her lips parted. "Why! I forgot! You son-of-a-gun! It was you that wouldn't let me out of that door! You dirty bum!"

Barrett tapped me on the shoulder. "You know, you came-"