388
SUSAN SONYA&
Her suppliant, Inspector Jug, first accosted her some months
later while the roof of her mouth was burning from an impetuously
gobbled slice of pizza-with-pepperoni. They were squeezed side
by
side in an all-night eatery in Times Square.
"Gee, Laura," he sighed, wheezing. "It's been a long time
catching up with yer."
"I've nothing to say
to
you," she said, wiping her mouth
with
a paper napkin.
"You don't hafta say nothin' to me. Just clear me with
my
boss. That guy's awful mad at me."
"How's your shoulder?" asked Miss Flatface with routine
sympathy.
"Poorly, Laura."
"Well, I can't help you. I've got to look after myself,
think
of myself first.... Anyway, stop passing the buck. Be a man!
What
do you care what he thinks? Don't you know this
is
a free country?
You're free, So am
I.
And"-a litde sententiously-"I intend
to
make use of the liberty which God and the Constitution have
awarded me."
Inspector Jug looked distinctly crestfallen at this militant
declaration.
"Anyway, are you on the level?" asked Miss Flatface. "I mean,
is this the real reason, the only reason you've been following me
around? I did get that smutty wire
in
New Orleans, you know. I
just didn't see any reason to answer it." She ordered another slice
of pizza.
"Well, little lady.... I reckon not. I really like yer. For yerseH.
You've got spunk. Guts. I sorta thought we might team up, Laura,
maybe start a litde agency, with you as a full partner. Lots of
divorce cases, stuff like that. A lady investigator does even
better
than a man. How about it?"
"You mean you've been following me all over the country
to make me a business proposition!" The spirits of John Brown and
Dashiell Hammett whispered hoarsely in her ears, beckoning and
forbidding.
"Well, I admit
it
ain't just that. I'm attracted to yer, I ad–
mit it.... Why don't we go to my hotel now and..."
"Look," said Miss Flatface. "I meant it when I said this
was
a
