«Oh you doll … one more time and that's all for now,» Carol said, repeating the act, then walking to flick on the noisy and inadequate air conditioner. Like everything else in the borderline-shabby, one- bedroom apartment … in fact, the whole building, yes, the neighborhood, too … it had pretty near outlived its usefulness. It rattled and groaned back at her, as if promising nothing but an exhausted attempt. Carol sighed and began unbuttoning her blouse. Survival in the close, Southern California summer heat meant wearing next to nothing whenever possible, she had learned in one short week of local residence.

Of course, she hadn't been forced to leave her parents' humble home in San Francisco. They had begged her to stay, find work there and make a new life among the old friends and schoolmates she'd grown up with. The darlings, bless them … what they hadn't realized was that there were no old friends nor schoolmates whom she wanted any part of, and vice versa, she'd quickly came to know. Carol Dorsett was the famous Jonny Gains's ex-wife, the piece he had shed once success struck, the wild girl who had run away with him without benefit of marriage and everything she deserved. No, there was no life for her there in her old neighborhood … but she was twenty-five and there had to be one someplace for her!

She might have gone a thousand miles or two even, had she had the money. Los Angeles seemed as likely as any city under the limited circumstances, and she wasn't yet sorry that she'd chosen it, though her job-hunting discouragement and the immediate stifling surroundings of her seedy three rooms and bath weren't helping to reinforce her decision …

The sound of the apartment buzzer startled Carol. Sultan's ears stood erect, a little growl sounding in his throat as his mistress quickly rebuttoned her blouse and approached the door. Peggy White's husband Ed, the apartment manager stood filling the doorway with his big, broad-shouldered frame when she opened the door inward.