“I guess she is, all right. She never comes out of her room. Mrs. Briggs is a trained nurse and she does everything for her. You know what I think? I think she’s a hop-head.”
“Mrs. Briggs?”
“No; Mrs. Stallings. I’ve seen Briggs sterilizing a hypodermic two or three times.”
“Lots of nurses give their patients shots.”
“But there’s something funny about it,” Lucile insisted. “Briggs tries to keep it a secret from the rest of us. Sometimes I think maybe it’s the girl uses it. She acts dopey enough, if you ask me.”
“Helen?”
“Yes. There’s something funny about her, all right. Boy, the things I could tell you if I was to cut loose.”
“Go ahead,” Shayne encouraged her.
“Damn you, you’re just working me for information. I ought to have known.” She jerked herself away from him.
Shayne drew her back gently. “You’re crazy,” he said in a soft, indulgent voice. “You know the reason I’m not loving you to death. That’ll have to wait until later. We can keep our minds off of what we’re missing by talking about something else. Helen, for instance. She’s dopey, huh?”