The Damsel (1967) – Macmillan – DonaldWestlake.com

A Grofield Predicament (#1)

___Grofield opened his right eye, and there was a girl climbing in the window. He closed that eye, opened the left, and she was still there. Gray skirt, blue sweater, blond hair, and long tanned legs straddling the windowsill.
___But this room was on the fifth floor of the hotel. There was nothing outside that window but air and a poor view of Mexico City.
___Grofield’s room was in semi-darkness, because he’d been taking an after-lunch snooze. The girl obviously thought the place was empty, and once she was inside she headed straight for the door.
___Grofield lifted his head and said, “If you’re my fairy godmother, I want my back scratched.”
___She jumped a foot, landed like a cat, and backed away to the far wall, staring at him. In the dimness her eyes looked as white as stars, gleaming with panic.
___Grofield hadn’t expected that big a reaction. He tried to calm her, reassure her, saying, “I mean it. I’m stuck in this bed and my back itches like crazy. If you’ve got a minute while you’re passing through, you could scratch it for me.”
___She said, “Are you one of them?” Her voice was scratchy with panic.
___“That depends. Sometimes I’m one of them and other times it doesn’t seem worth the effort. I haven’t been one of them lately because I haven’t been well.”
___The glitter was slowly fading from her eyes. In a more human voice she said, “What are you talking about?”
___“Be damned if I know. Are we supposed to be talking about something?”

Buy it here:

Macmillan, 1967 (HC)
Signet, 1969 (PB)
Countryman Press, 1990 (PB)
University of Chicago Press, 2012 (PB)
E-Book, 2012
Audio Book, 2013