The Mike Hammer Collection

I stepped back and let York go to work when the butler returned with a first-aid kit. It was the first good chance I had to give Miss Malcom the once-over all the way from a beautiful set of legs through a lot of natural curves to an extraordinarily pretty face. Miss Malcom they called her.

I call her Roxy Coulter. She used to be a strip artist in the flesh circuit of New York and Miami.

CHAPTER 2

But Roxy had missed her profession. Hollywood should have had her. Maybe she didn’t remember Atlantic City or that New Year’s Eve party in Charlie Drew’s apartment. If she did she held a dandy deadpan and all I got in return for my stare was one of those go ahead, peek, but don’t touch looks.

A peek was all I got, because Billy came around with a groan and made an effort to sit up. York put his hand against his chest and forced him down again. “You’ll have to be quiet,” he cautioned him in a professional tone.

“My face,” his eyes rolled in his head, “jeez, what happened to my face?”

I knelt beside him and turned over the cold compress on his forehead. His eyes gleamed when he recognized me. “Hello, Mike. What happened?”

“Hi, Billy. They beat up on you. Feel any better?”

“I feel awful. Oh, that bastard. If only I was bigger, Mike . . . damn, why couldn’t I be big like you? That dirty . . .”

“Forget about him, kid.” I patted his shoulder. “I handed him a little of the same dish. His map’ll never be the same.”

“Cripes! I bet you did! I thought something funny happened down there. Thanks, Mike, thanks a lot.”

“Sure.”

Then his face froze in a frightened grimace. “Suppose . . . suppose they come back again? Mike . . . I—I can’t stand that stuff. I’ll talk, I’ll say anything. I can’t take it, Mike!”

“Ease off. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be around.”

Billy tried to smile and he gripped my arm. “You will?”

“Yup. I’m working for your boss now.”

“Mr. Hammer.” York was making motions from the side of the room. I walked over to him. “It would be better if he didn’t get too excited. I gave him a sedative and he should sleep. Do you think you can manage to carry him to his room? Miss Malcom will show you the way.”

“Certainly,” I nodded. “And if you don’t mind, I’d like to do a little prowling afterward. Maybe question the servants.”

“Of course. The house is at your disposal.”

Billy’s eyes had closed and his head had fallen on his chin when I picked him up. He’d had a rough time of it all right. Without a word Miss Malcom indicated that I was to follow her and led me through an arch at the end of the room. After passing through a library, a study and a trophy room that looked like something out of a museum, we wound up in a kitchen. Billy’s room was off an alcove behind the pantry. As gently as I could I laid him under the covers. He was sound asleep.

Then I stood up. “Okay, Roxy, now we can say hello.”

“Hello, Mike.”

“Now why the disguise and the new handle? Hiding out?”

“Not at all. The handle as you call it is my real name. Roxy was something I used on the stage.”

“Really? Don’t tell me you gave up the stage to be a diaper changer. What are you doing here?”

“I don’t like your tone, Mike. You change it or go to hell.”

This was something. The Roxy I knew never had enough self-respect to throw her pride in my face. Might as well play it her way.

“Okay, baby, don’t get teed off on me. I have a right to be just a little bit curious, haven’t I? It isn’t very often that you catch somebody jumping as far out of character as you have. Does the old man know about the old life?”

“Don’t be silly. He’d can me if he did.”

“I guessed as much. How did you tie up in this place?”

“Easy. When I finally got wise to the fact that I was getting my brains knocked out in the big city I went to an agency and signed up as a registered nurse. I was one before I got talked into tossing my torso around for two hundred a week. Three days later Mr. York accepted me to take care of his child. That was two years ago. Anything else you want to know?”

I grinned at her. “Nope. It was just funny meeting you, that’s all.”

“Then may I leave?”

I let my grin fade and eased her out through the door. “Look, Roxy, is there somewhere we can go talk?”

“I don’t play those games anymore, Mike.”

“Get off my back, will you? I mean talk.”

She arched her eyebrows and watched me steadily a second, then seeing that I meant it, said, “My room. We can be alone there. But only talk, remember?”

“Roger, bunny, let’s go.”

This time we went into the outer foyer and up a stairway that seemed to have been carved out of a solid piece of mahogany. We turned left on the landing and Roxy opened the door for me.

“In here,” she said.

While I picked out a comfortable chair she turned on a table lamp then offered me a smoke from a gold box. I took one and lit it. “Nice place you got here.”

“Thank you. It’s quite comfortable. Mr. York sees that I have every convenience. Now shall we talk?”

She was making sure I got the point in a hurry. “The kid. What is he like?”