The ice-cold nude by Brown, Carter, 1923-1985

of the dame as being sexy and flamboyant didn't influence my decision by more than 95 per cent at the most. Her apartment building was kind of ritzy and, if it had been a cooperative on New York's East Side, the doorman's uniform would have cost around a hundred clams a month in maintenance alone. She hved on the sixth floor. Within a couple of seconds automation had dehvered me there with a contemptuously efficient hiss. I thumbed the buzzer beside her door and waited, but not for long. The door was suddenly jerked wide open and a king-sized character stood framed in the open space, glaring at me like I'd just insulted his sister. A guy in his middle thirties, with thick, coarse black hair that fell down almost over his eyes, and an equally coarse face to match. While I was stm recovering from the sudden shock of his repulsive features at close range, his massive hands reached out, grabbed the lapels on my coat, and Uterally lifted me inside the apartment. "Okay, wise guy," he grated in a sandblasted voice. "So now I'll find out who's been beating Marty's time with the broad. 16 Out of the comer of my eye I caught a ghmpse of a long-haired blonde who looked worth a considerably more detailed inspection, but right then I had other things on my mind, like this bum ruining the coat the Brothers Brooks had labored on with such loving care. "I hope you won't mind me speaking frankly, even if we haven't been introduced?" I asked poUtely. "So take your stinking hands off me before