Heaven Ran Last

Chapter XI

After he left I went down to the bar in the lobby and had a drink or two. The alibi had worked swell. Marie was set now to clear me if anything broke.

I felt pretty good, but I couldn’t get my mind off wanting Alice. I didn’t know what she was going through and I wanted to be with her. But that was out. There were other things on my mind, too. Harrigan, for one. I hadn’t liked the way he had figured Frank was innocent. That was too sharp and too close.

There was some work I should have been doing but every time I tried to work my mind started twisting around, figuring angles and imagining things that could go wrong. I had to get some cash soon. I hadn’t sent Marshall his check and that would be another thousand dollars. That would just about clean me. On top of that there was a hotel bill of almost three hundred, the garage bill and a lot of other expenses.

All of that had to be taken care of but when I got thinking about doing it, a lot of other things crowded into my mind and all I could think of was getting a drink.

I must have been sitting there about an hour when Banghart came in and sat down beside me. He smiled and said hello in his quiet voice, and ordered himself a Tom Collins. Banghart was a medium-sized guy, about forty-five, with neat grey hair, good clothes and a face that had the sharp strong look of a steel trap.

He was a big wheel in town, one of those half-honest guys who own breweries, trucking companies and things like that. He wasn’t in the rackets, but he wasn’t far out.

We talked for a little while about things and then he asked me how the horses were going.

“Plenty of suckers around,” I said.

He smiled. “I’d like to join the list. There’s a horse tomorrow at Hialeah that I want to get on. It’s Adelaide, in the sixth race, I believe.”

“I didn’t know you played the horses.”

“I don’t, as a rule, but this is sentiment. Adelaide is my wife’s name, so maybe I’ll be lucky.”

“I thought you were divorced,” I said.

“I am,” he said. He smiled and took out his wallet. “I was lucky enough to get rid of her, so maybe I’ll be lucky on the horse.” He counted out ten one-hundred-dollar bills from a roll that would never miss them and laid them on the bar. “Put that on the nose,” he said.

“Okay.” I put the money away and listed the bet in a book I carry for that purpose. “Hope you’re lucky,” I said.

“Thanks. Another drink?”

We had a couple more and then some guys came in and I guess Banghart was meeting them because he said good-bye to me and joined them at their table.

I went back to my room. The first thing I did was check on Adelaide. She was about a ten to one bet usually and she hadn’t won any races as a three year old. It looked like a sucker bet. But Banghart wasn’t that kind of a guy.

There was a chance the fix might be in, which is what makes it tough for bookies. They go along taking honest bets, but then a couple of owners get together and set up a race and the books get clipped, not only by the smart money, but by a lot of dumb money that’s just lucky enough to be on the right horse.

I made a few calls to guys who usually know what’s going on but nobody knew anything about Adelaide. Maybe everything was all right and Banghart was just making a hunch bet. Maybe.

I couldn’t afford to hold the bet, because if Adelaide came in at ten to one I’d be on a spot. I knew I should call the syndicate wire right then and lay off the whole damn bet.

I even got as far as the phone. I picked it up and then I stuck my hand in my pocket and felt those crisp hundred-dollar bills.

I put the phone back down slowly. What I was thinking about was dangerous. I was thinking about hanging onto this bet and taking a chance that Adelaide would run out.

I needed the dough bad. And right then I knew I was going to take a chance. There wasn’t anything else I could do. I was caught in a squeeze.

The first thing I did was write a check for five hundred dollars payable to Marshall and I wrote a note telling him I’d send the other five hundred over in a few days. I addressed an envelope to him and stuck on a special delivery stamp. When I dropped the letter in the mail chute beside the elevators I felt better. After Marshall cashed the check I’d have seven hundred left in the bank, and I had ten hundred dollar bills in my pocket. That wasn’t a lot of money but it was something to work on.

I tried to push everything else out of my head then and I worked straight through the afternoon. About five-thirty I quit and took a shower. The date with the blonde was for eight o’clock and that would give me time to have dinner and a few long drinks.

I was liking the idea of the date with the blonde. She was easy to impress, and I got a kick out of taking her places where they knew me and playing the big shot. I’d never been able to do that with Alice. We couldn’t go any place we might be seen and recognized, and those kind of things never impressed her much anyway.

We’d had to stay in little joints out on the West Side or take a week-end trip to Michigan or Wisconsin. That didn’t make much difference though. The blonde was nice but I didn’t need her the way I needed Alice, and that was the real difference.

I was tying my tie when the phone rang. I froze there in front of the mirror and then I swore out loud. My nerves were shot to pieces. Every time the phone rang or there was a knock on the door I started winding up inside.

I picked up the phone. It was Alice.

“I’ve got to see you,” she said.

“That’s out, baby. You know why,” I said.

“I’ve got to see you tonight.” Her voice was flat and tight.

I didn’t know what had happened but the way her voice sounded made me suddenly afraid.

“Where are you now?” I said.

“At the apartment. Johnny, get out here. Do you understand?” Her voice rose suddenly.

“Take it easy. I’ll be out, baby.” I looked at my watch. “It’s six now. Take a walk over to Sheridan Road and walk north on the east side of the street. I’ll be along and pick you up in about twenty minutes. Got that?”

“I’ve got it,” she said and hung up.

I put the phone down and I could feel myself shaking. What in hell could have happened? I started for the door and then I remembered the blonde. I had to call her and break the date for tonight and I knew that might start another explosion.

But her old man answered the phone. Marie wasn’t home yet so I told him to tell her I couldn’t make it tonight and that I’d call her later.

I took the elevator down to the garage, got into my car and headed out north. When I passed the Edgewater Beach I started watching for Alice. I spotted her about a block past Thorndale. She had on a white dress and was walking slowly.

I pulled up to the curb and opened the door. She walked quickly to the car, got in and slammed the door. I let the clutch out and got away fast.

It hadn’t taken five seconds. I looked in the rear vision mirror and the nearest car was a couple of blocks back. I went straight out north on Sheridan, through Wilmette and Glencoe and pretty soon we were out in the country, with nothing but a lot of trees and beaches around.

I swung off on a graveled road that wound through some trees and stopped at the edge of a slope that rolled down to a wide beach, from where you could see miles and miles of the smooth green lake. When I cut the motor the silence came down on us, thick and heavy. There were just a few noises, the whispering noise of bugs as they went past, and the sound of the water about a hundred yards away, but that just seemed to make it quieter.

There were a few stars out now and the edge of a new moon showing over the lake. Everything was peaceful and quiet, but between us there was something ready to explode.

I said, “Well, what’s it all about?”

“Harrigan was out to see me this afternoon.” She said it like it meant everything.

“So?”

She turned a little and looked at me. Her face was in the shadow and I couldn’t see her expression, but her voice was flat and hard. “He came to see me after he left you. He told me about the girl that came up to your room. The one wearing the big shiny engagement ring. That’s what this is all about, Johnny.”

“What else did he say?”

That stopped her a little. She waited a second or so and I could hear her breathing unevenly. “That’s enough for a start, isn’t it?”

“Goddam,” I said. “Is that why you had to see me?”

“That isn’t all. He said you told him I had been intimate with Lesser.”

“What if I did?”

She drew away as if she’d been struck. “You did, then. Have you been reading the papers, Johnny? Do you know what I’m being called by every paper in town? Do you think it’s enjoyable being treated by the people in the building as if I had leprosy?”

Her voice was unsteady and she was almost crying.

I grabbed both her arms and pulled her close to me. “Listen, you silly little fool. What those people think and say about you doesn’t mean a damn thing. All we’ve got to worry about is getting away with this deal. Nothing else matters.”

“That’s all right for you,” she said. She struggled wildly against me for a minute but I gripped her arms hard and held her tight against me and then she began to cry and it came from deep inside her and went through me like a knife.

“You can say nothing matters,” she said hoarsely. “You’ve got that little blonde waitress to play around with, and nobody is treating you as if you were something filthy.”

I put my arms around her then and the fear I felt was the worst I’d ever know. While she was talking I knew we were doing the one thing that would tear everything apart. Once we started fighting and doubting each other we were through. We were stuck together by a murder and when you tear away from something like that it rips everything along with it.

The fear that made me feel sick was there because Harrigan was starting to tear us apart.

Maybe he didn’t know what he was doing, but if he ripped us open, he’d know everything. He was working now on the wrong end of the angle, figuring someone had tried to get rid of Lesser, but when that fell through he’d start wondering if someone wasn’t trying to get rid of Frank. And that might start him after us and unless we stuck together like glue he’d have us cold.

“Listen to me, baby,” I whispered. I was talking into her hair and my voice was low and muffled. I pulled her closer to me and ran my hands over her bare arms and after a while she stopped crying, except for a little sob every now and then, and finally she was quiet in my arms.

“Baby, baby,” I said. “The blonde is just a cover-up to keep anybody from getting any ideas that you and I might be hooked together. They won’t think a guy planning to get married has any other ideas. The ring was just part of the plan. About you playing house with Lesser, well that doesn’t mean anything. Harrigan asked me what I thought and I just made a normal crack. I couldn’t say you hadn’t because he might wonder how I knew. Every angle is touchy now, baby. After Frank goes up for his stretch, things will settle down and we can get away.”

While I talked to her I kept kissing her occasionally, soft little kisses that didn’t mean anything, but she quieted down in my arms, and by the time I finished she was curled up next to me and the meanness was gone from her face and her lips were curved in a sad little smile.

We sat there for a long time, watching the stars come out and feeling the cool fresh wind off the lake. Finally it got dark and colder but we stayed there, huddled close together and not talking at all.

We seemed a million miles from everybody in the world. It was peacefull and quiet and it was easy to believe right then there wasn’t going to be any more trouble. But that was just a dream. We both knew we’d have to leave pretty soon and drive back into our regular lives where there was worry waiting for us.

“Let’s go and lie on the beach, Johnny.”

“You’ll get sand in your shoes, baby.”

“I don’t care.”

A long while later we drove back to Chicago. I dropped her at Sheridan and Granville. She held my hand tight for a minute before walking quickly away.

I went on downtown. When I got to my room I saw three telephone messages under the door. They were all from the blonde. She had called at eight-thirty, at ten and at eleven.

There wasn’t anything to do about them now so I tore them up and went to bed.