Читать книгу Kisses of Death - Henry Kane - Страница 4

ONE

I WAS seated in my briefs in the kitchen having breakfast. It was Saturday, June 17, nine-thirty of a hot day in spring. Friday night’s newspaper was propped against the sugar bowl and I was sipping coffee and reading about murder, rape, divorce, delinquency, and political missile rattling, when the phone rang. I relinquished the literature, went to the living room, picked up the phone, said, “Hello?”

“Mr. Chambers?” It was a woman.

“Yes,” I said.

“Peter Chambers?”

“Yes,” I said.

“May I see you, Mr. Chambers? On business?”

“Yes, of course. When would you like?”

“Right away, if you please.”

“Who is this?”

“Mrs. Kiss.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Mrs. Valerie Kiss.”

“Do I know you, Mrs. Kiss?”

“No.”

Kiss. It is a name. It is not somebody making a joke at nine-thirty in the morning during breakfast. Once before, several years ago, I had had a client by the name of Kiss—Justine Kiss. I had then checked the Kisses in the Manhattan telephone book. There had been eighteen Kisses listed. Kiss is a name.

“Are you a relative of Justine Kiss?” I said.

“No. Why?” She sounded annoyed.

“Just that Kiss is an unusual name. I thought perhaps Justine had recommended—”

“Mr. Felix Davenport recommended you to me.”

Felix Davenport was an old friend, a well known actor on the Broadway stage, but for the past three years Felix had been living on the West Coast wasting his talent but earning a huge income as the straight man to a comic in a television series.

“Oh,” I said, “you’re from Hollywood?”

“I’m from New York.”

“But Felix—”

“Look, please, Mr. Chambers, it’s very important that I see you as quickly as possible. May I come over?”

“Sure. Do you know the address?”

“Yes.”

“How soon will you be here?”

“Fifteen minutes all right?”

“Fine,” I said.

“Thank you,” she said and hung up.

I was showered and shaved. I cleaned up the kitchen by putting the dishes into the sink. That took two minutes. I dressed quickly but carefully as is fitting when the client is a lady and the lady is a stranger. That took ten minutes. With three minutes to spare, I was about to light a cigarette, when the bell rang. My lady was either prompt by habit or the matter was as urgent as she had intimated.

The matter was as urgent as she had intimated.