She opened a door that led off the passage and stood aside, “Mr. Kruger will be in a minute.”
“But, you’re not leaving me?” I said, wandering into the room.
The cobalt blue eyes looked sultry, but she didn’t say anything. She closed the door behind her and left me in the room which was large and lined with books.
I glanced round with interest. The library was made up of the most complete collection of crime books I’d ever seen. Even police headquarters couldn’t compete with it. The books ranged from sixteenth century crime to modern crime. There were books on poison, forensic medicine, murder, blackmail, kidnapping, assault and, in fact, something of everything.
I was just getting interested in the second volume of Havelock Ellis when the door opened and Peppi came in.
All right, I admit I startled me. I hadn’t seen him for a couple of years and then, as I’ve already told you, that was when he was rum running.
Now, of course, he had come up in the world. I expected a change, but not such a change as this.
He was dressed in a grey silk dressing gown with a scarlet cord. Under this, he seemed to be wearing white silk pyjamas. His face was smooth and unwrinkled as if he’d had all the electric massage in the world working on him. His small white hands were soft and well cared for and his finger nails manicured. But his eyes were the same. They were the same small pebbles of blue stone and his large bald head was the same except it shone as if he had polished it with beeswax.
We looked at each other, then he shut the door and came further into the room.
“You’ve got a swell library, Peppi,” I said, saying the first thing that came into my head.