I flicked the ash off my cigarette. “Just that,” I said, slowly putting myself in a position so that I could get up quick if she started anything. Something told me that she was likely to start something. “Maybe we better get introduced, baby,” I went on. “I’m Nick Mason.”
Just for a second she gave herself away, but then she came back again. “You aren’t tight, darlin’?” she asked. She had pulled a pillow from the bed and was holding it against her.
I said, “Suppose we come down to earth. We might start by leaving out the darlings… they give me a pain.”
She got to her feet and walked over to the door where a wrap was hanging. She put the wrap on quickly. As she fastened the sash I could see her fingers were trembling.
“You crazy or something?” she said. “You get out of here.”
“Don’t get tough,” I said, still sitting on the bed. “This morning you came to my apartment and took five grand off me. You hand that back an’ we’ll call it quits.”
She put on a good act. Her eyes opened wide and she actually managed a laugh. “You’re crazy!” she said. “I’ve never seen you and I don’t know where you live.”
I got slowly to my feet. “Listen, baby,” I said gently, “you ain’t goin’ to get anywhere with bluff. I’ve got you where I want you, an’ I’m having that dough if I have to take this joint to pieces to get it. You ain’t goin’ to get tough, because I could twist your neck for you with one hand. Now come on an’ be pice.”
She stood hesitating, then she shrugged. “If that’s the way you feel about it,” she said, “maybe I’d better let you have it.”
I almost laughed. I let her get to the small chest of drawers and pull open one of the drawers, before I shot over the bed and smothered her. My arms went round her, pinning her arms to her side, and I jerked her away from the chest. I was glad I’d taken the precaution. I had just time to see a gun lying in the top drawer before she came at me.