“Good work, Connors,” Durango patted him on the shoulder.
“I don’t know why I bothered. I should have let her go and saved the state the expense of frying her.”
Durango looked at the figure huddled on the floor. “I don’t think they will fry her,” he said. “She’s a cinch to cop an insanity plea.”
“She sure seems bugs all right,” Connors agreed.
“Hell yes! She fits Dr. Mavis Golden’s description to the group of the one most likely to murder her to a T. A paranoid dyke all right.”
“Funny, she’s the last one I would have picked,” Connors admitted. “She sure doesn’t look like a killer.”
“She does to me,” Jonnie O’Faye interrupted. “It’s those little, cuddly married ones are the ones to watch every time.”
“You’re all against me,” Annie Yolan moaned from the floor. “My husband Paul set you all against me. He and Dr. Golden working in cahoots! She masterminded it! But I could have outwitted them if he hadn’t stopped me!” She stared daggers at Connors. “I took care of Dr. Golden and I could have escaped the rest of you. I know, you’re all in on it!”
“Nutty as a fruitcake,” Connors said.
“Yeah,” Durango agreed. “You want to take her and book her for me? And oh, yeah, take our sticky-fingered friend here, too.” He looked at Karen. “You got off pretty lucky,” he told her.
“Oh, sure. All I’ll get is five-to-ten,” she told him sarcastically. “Some lucky!”
“You could have been the pansy,” Durango told her. “Count your blessings.”
She shrugged her shoulders and let Connors lead her from the room by the arm. His other hand was fastened firmly on Anne Yolan. The murderess was still muttering to herself as he led her out.
“Okay,” Durango said, “I guess the rest of you can go now.”
They filed out silently.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” Durango asked Debbie. She hadn’t moved from the chair beside his desk .
“You,” she told him.
“Me? What do you mean?”
“You’re not going to book me, are you?”
“You mean on a prostitution rap? Nah. Why should I bother? I’ve already got a murderer and a thief all in the one night. You’re a small fish. I’m throwing you back.”
“Then I owe you something,” Debbie said softly.
“You don’t owe me anything. You’ll be back turning tricks tomorrow, and you’ll probably get yourself picked up again within a week.”
“Could be,” Debbie admitted. “Still, I’m grateful. I’d like to show you just how grateful.” She moved from the chair now and slid onto Durango’s lap.
“I told you! I don’t like queer dames!” Durango stood up suddenly and she tumbled to the floor.
“And I told you! I’m not queer!” she shouted up at him
“So you swing both ways. It adds up to the same thing.”
“Never again!” she told him. “From what I, saw of those poor dykes you had in here tonight, I’m through making it with women!”
“Gonna reform, are you?” Durango jeered.
“I didn’t say I was gonna reform. I only said I was through turning queer tricks!”
“Well, that’s half a reform,” Durango pointed out.
“More than half, if you want to know the truth. I’ll tell you something, Tomas, I’ve never been able to make it with a man, only with women.”
“Maybe you never met the right man,” Durango said speculatively.
“Maybe.” She looked up at him challengingly. “How about it?” she asked after a moment. “You gonna be a gentleman and see me home?”
“Against my better judgment,” Durango said. “Come on.”
A half-hour later Debbie was pouring him a drink in her apartment. “Are all Maltese small like you?” she asked conversationally.
“I don’t know. I never took a poll.” He was obviously annoyed at the question.
“Now don’t go getting your feelings hurt, little man,” Debbie said. “It was only an observation.”
“Well, keep your observations to yourself. And don’t call me ’little man’ .”
“Then show me how grown-up you can act.” Debbie bent over him and her breasts grazed his cheek.
“Damn you, you little tease! I will!” Durango set his drink down hard on the table and pulled her to him. His lips fastened forcefully on hers.
The kiss lasted a long time. Her breath mingled hotly, with his and their tongues fought a duel of rising passion. “Oh! You’re growing up fast,” she gasped when the kiss was finally over.
“You talk too much,” he told her. His hands moved over the surface of her low-cut blouse, seeking out the tips of the fast-rising breasts beneath. He found them, and his fingers plucked at them gently until their rigidity distended the material and twin drops of moisture darkened it.
Debbie moaned. Her lips found his ear. Her breath seared it. Her tongue was a quick-daring flame, her sharp little teeth the instruments of sweet-nibbling torture. Her hands pushed against the backs of his, pressing them harder and harder against her breasts.
Durango became excited. In the heat of his passion he ripped Debbie’s blouse down the center and her plump breast sprang free. “I’m sorry,” he murmured.
“It doesn’t matter. It was an old blouse. I was tired of it anyway. Don’t stop! Please don’t stop!”
His fingers continued to play with the bright red buds glistening in the lamplight. Then he lowered his head and his mouth moved expertly over her bosom. Debbie’s fingers clawed at his neck, urging him to continue.
Her moans became louder and took on a rhythm. Her hips picked it up and began moving in little up-and-down thrusts. Durango’s lips followed the rhythm, and then his hands.
They reached under the hem of Debbie’s tight skirt and caressed a silken knee. They pushed the skirt higher and then one finger circled the top of her stocking where it was connected to her garter-belt. Still higher and he was caressing the burning whiteness of her thighs eagerly. Debbie raised her hips, and then the skirt was up around her waist.
Durango touched her still higher and then looked down to confirm what he’d felt. No, she wasn’t wearing any panties. He reached around her and her buttocks contracted as his hand squeezed the plump flesh. Her hips moved faster now and Durango gently slid his other hand down her belly.
“Now!” she gasped aloud as Durango found his mark. “Let’s do it now!”
“No,” Durango told her calmly. “That’s the trouble with you pros. You always want to rush things. You’re always in such a hurry to turn the next trick it’s no wonder you never make it. Just you take it slow now.”
He continued to caress Debbie. She was rapidly becoming beside herself with the force of her mounting desire. But he continued to tease her and pause before she could find satisfaction.
“Oh, now! Please,” Debbie whimpered.
Durango took his hand away. Then he had to grab Debbie’s as it reached down to replace it. He wasn’t going to let her settle for anything less than complete womanly satisfaction.
“Come on. Let’s get undressed and get into bed,” he told her. “We don’t have to wrestle on the couch here like a couple of kids trying to get through before the folks come home and catch them.”
Debbie was in the bedroom and out of her clothes in a flash. She lay naked and writhing with impatience as Durango — purposely slow—undressed. She gasped and her eyes grew large as he finally dropped his underwear.
“My gosh! You’re Certainly not small all over are you?” she said admiringly.
“Good things come in small packages,” he told her.
“And that’s some thing! Who’da thunk it!”
“You still talk too much,” he told her. “Shut up now.”
He got into bed beside her and turned off the lamp on the nightstand. He kissed her and his hand slipped down and found her even more pulsating and eager than she’d been before they came into the bedroom. Slowly he moved over her.