This Way for a Shroud

"Janey . . . Conrad," Janey said, remembering that Paul had said she was easily recognized and deciding at the last moment not to give her maiden name.

"Well, there you are," Seigel said. "We now know each other. Simple, isn't it? Let's have a drink."

She watched him snap his fingers at the bartender, and saw how quickly the bartender came out from behind his bar to take Seigel's order. She noticed, too, the drinks came with miraculous swiftness, and the martini the bartender placed before her was unrecognizable from the one she had ordered and had to wait for.

"I wish I were a man," she said, as the bartender went away.

"You get all the service. The last drink I had was disgusting."

"I'm glad you aren't a man," Seigel returned, giving her his famous bold look. He had always wondered how Conrad had got hold of such a lovely wife, and now at close quarters he wondered still more. "Didn't I see you here a few nights ago?"

Janey nodded.

"I look in sometimes. I like this place. Do you know it well?"

"Pretty well," Seigel said, and laughed. "It's the best of the night spots in town." He picked up the martini. "Here's to a long and beautiful friendship." He drank the martini, emptying his glass in one swallow. "Down the hatch with it," he went on, "and let's have another."

Janey was ready to comply, and the bartender immediately served two more martinis without being asked. She was not slow to notice the frank admiration in Seigel's eyes as he looked at her. She was experienced enough to know Seigel was dangerous. He wouldn't be content just to sit and talk. Before very long the inevitable suggestion that they should go somewhere alone together would be made, and Janey's heart beat a little quicker as she tried to make up her mind just how far she would allow him to go. It didn't occur to her that when the time came, she might have no choice. She had plenty of confidence in herself to handle any situation, but then she wasn't to know that Seigel was a difficult man to stop, once he got going.

Talking to him, seeing the way he was looking at her, feeling the effects of the martinis and hearing the dance band in the restaurant, brought back to Janey the exciting days before she married. She had really kicked the can around in those days, she thought. After all, it wasn't all that long ago: three years.

"You have a wicked thought running through your mind," Seigel said. He had the knack of reading a woman's mind. It was because he invariably knew the right moment to make his advances that his success with women had become a bye-word amongst his friends.

Janey flushed. "I haven't!" She finished her martini and put the glass down on the table with a defiant little click. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Seigel grinned.

"Oh, yes, you do. You're wondering what my next move will be, and if I'm going to suggest you come back to my place to look at a valuable etching I've just bought."

Janey stared at him, for a moment nonplussed, then she laughed.

"I was thinking nothing of the kind!"

He leaned forward. There was an animal magnetism in his strength and looks that left Janey a little breathless.

"Are you interested in etchings?"

She shook her head.

"Not a scrap. Are you?"

"No. I've never found an etching was necessary." His smile widened. "A good dinner, a little dancing, discreet lights and soft music are far ahead of any etching." He pushed his chair back. "Shall we eat?"

Janey looked at him and hesitated. She suddenly sensed that this big, goodlooking man might be taking too much for granted, and he might, as the evening wore on, become much more difficult to handle than she had first imagined. But she knew if she refused his invitation he would leave her flat, and then she would have to go back to the dreary, empty house and the still more dreary television set.

"You're talking in riddles," she said, "but I'm hungry, so I will eat."

"Fine. While you're powdering your pretty nose," Seigel said, "I have a phone call to make. Let's meet here in five minutes."

"It'll take me longer to powder my nose than five minutes," Janey said, refusing to be ordered about.

"In five minutes," Seigel said, smiling, and walked quickly across the bar to the lounge where a row of pay booths were discreetly concealed.

He dialled a number, and while he was waiting for the-connection, he lit a cigarette.

Janey puzzled him. If he hadn't known who she was, and that she was married to Conrad, he would have been certain that she was inviting seduction. Was she playing with him? he wondered, or was she really a push-over? Was Conrad going to appear suddenly just when Seigel was ready to move in for the kill? Was that the idea? Would Conrad let his wife come here on her own and act like this just for a chance of making trouble for Seigel? Seigel doubted it, but he decided to play his hand carefully.

A click sounded in his ear and Moe Gleb's growling voice snarled, "Wadyawan' ?"