A Gambling Man

Chapter 30

“This looks like a nice place. Are you sure you can afford it?”

Callahan glanced around the interior of the restaurant called Burbanks. It was all brick with a drive-through portico, white-jacketed and — gloved valets, gas lanterns providing flickering light, and a parking lot full of high-dollar cars. It was after seven and the place was packed with the well-heeled of Bay Town in all their glory.

“Not to worry. Remember, I’m a workingman now.” He took out his PI license and held it out to her.

“Wow, Archer, this looks official and everything.”

“Hey, if I needed you to vouch for me, sign a document saying I was okay in your book, would you do that?”

She handed the license back to him. “Why do you need me to do that?”

“Apparently, it’s part of being an honest-to-God PI in California.”

“But I thought you were already licensed. Isn’t that what the card said?”

He slipped it back into his jacket. “It’s sort of complicated, Liberty.”

“Everything with you is sort of complicated.”

“Look who’s talking.”

“Yeah, sure, I’ll do it. Then maybe you can put in a good word for me with Warner Brothers,” she quipped. “Now, let’s go eat. I’m starving.”

They walked arm in arm into the dining area, where they were met by the hostess, who was draped in a silky white number that fell off one shoulder and was barely clinging to the other. Her cleavage was so prominently revealed that even Callahan looked taken aback. The shimmery hostess glided through the sea of tables like a siren to a floundering ship as she led them to a private corner alcove with a built-in banquette seat. She positioned them side by side and looking out at their fellow diners.

She bent down and placed the menus in front of them, giving Archer another peek at her bosom. She whispered in a working-class British accent, “You look to me like a gent that doesn’t like having his back exposed. Am I right, guv?”

Archer thanked her with a nod and she sashayed off for her next victims.

Archer eyed the drinks section of the menu and glanced at Callahan. She was dressed in a pale blue polyester skirt and jacket with black trimmings with a white blouse underneath and dress gloves. A hat with a short veil tacked up to the rim and black four-inch heels over sheer stockings completed her outfit. Every man in the room had given her the eye, even those there with other women seated across from them.

“What’s your poison?” asked Archer.

“Champagne cocktail, for starters.”

“Remember, we have to work tonight.”

“You think a champagne cocktail is going to put me under the table, Archer? Where have you been since we met?”

The waitress came over, and Archer ordered the champagne cocktail for Callahan and a martini for himself.

“Bring the onions and hold the olives,” he tacked on.

They pulled out their cigarettes and lit up, dropping ash into the bowl provided on their table.

“How’d you find this place?” she asked.

“Just looked west of Sawyer Avenue and there it was. Like shooting fish in a barrel.”

“You talking code or something?”

“Or something.”

Their drinks came and they toasted Archer’s new job.

“So how did this afternoon go?” she asked. “Have you solved the case yet?”

“Not exactly. When I do you’ll be the second to know, right after Willie Dash, unless he gets there first.”

“So how’s it going with him? You think you’re going to learn a lot?”

“The guy’s good, knows the town and the people in it. For the most part.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means for the most part.” He picked up the menu. “What looks good?”

“You order for me, Archer.”

He shot a glance. “Really? Why’s that?”

“I’m not used to nice places like this. In Reno, we just had crap, really.”

“And you think I’m used to them?”

“No, I mean, I don’t know. But you can tell the people in here are somebody. They have class. The men probably all went to college for an education, and the women probably all went to college to find a husband.”

Archer eyed the woman closely because this was the first real hint of insecurity he had seen in her.

He tapped her hand. “You’re as good as all of these people, Liberty, and don’t think you’re not.”

“Sure, sure, Archer, and I’m the queen of England, too.”

“Where is this coming from?” he asked. “Until we walked in here I never would have thought you had an ounce of self-doubt or gave a damn what anybody thought about you.”

“Shows how good an observer you are.”

“I guess,” he said.

They both ended up with the trout, which was moist and tender. And rice pilaf and a green vegetable that was not readily identifiable to either of them. But it was good if oversalted. Their cocktails were followed by a bottle of wine, recommended by a short man wearing a bow tie and holding a cork opener on a chain. It cost three dollars, which almost gave Callahan a fit and amused Archer.

Archer examined the bottle’s label. It had the silhouette of a woman on it that looked familiar to Archer. The wine was called the BK. On the back he read off the name of the vineyard that had produced it. “Kemper Enterprises. BK must stand for Beth Kemper.”

Archer explained who she was and what they were investigating. “Her hubby has a vineyard and he named the wine after her.”

“Well, wasn’t that sweet? I guess the louse figures he owes her after cheating on her.”

“Could be, yeah. Although I probably shouldn’t have told you that, so keep it to yourself.”

She gave him the eye. “Gee, what’s it worth to you, Archer?”

“See, you keep charging and I keep retreating. Thing is, I don’t want you to be disappointed. You have such a high opinion of me and everything.”

“You’re actually getting funnier, and I mean that.”

They finished their meal, retrieved the Delahaye, and drove out of town toward Midnight Moods.

It was well dark now and cool enough to ride with the top up.

“No mountains, right?” said Callahan. “Scout’s honor.”

“You were no Boy Scout.”

“What do you have in that thing?”

She had earlier placed a small, hard-sided piece of luggage on the seat between them.

“Things for the job interview, Archer.”

“Okay.”

They reached Midnight Moods forty minutes later. It was very different from earlier in the day. The parking lot was packed, the façade of the building was ablaze in neon and spotlights, and the sounds inside reached all the way to the parking lot as they pulled in.

“Gee, this place is dead,” said Callahan sarcastically.

He found a space in the back of the parking lot and Callahan grabbed her bag. They walked in and looked around. Mabel Dawson, now bedecked in a black sequined number with shoes that matched, greeted them at the door.

“Oh, the puppy dog came back,” she said to Archer before giving Callahan the long eye. “And who is your friend?”

“Liberty Callahan,” said Callahan, putting out her gloved hand. “Archer said you might be looking for some new girls.”

“Is that right, Archer?”

“New blood,” said Archer. “Can’t hurt to take a look.”

She turned to Callahan and gave her an even longer scrutiny. “So what’s your shtick?”

“Singing, dancing, acting, skits. You name it, I can slot it. And that includes the fast hands and lousy stage timing from the guys.”

Dawson pursed her lips and inched up her nose like a smell had come along she didn’t care for. “You strike me as being overly confident.”

Callahan put a hand on her hip and stuck it out wide like a door opening. “And you strike me as the sort that if I can’t cut it here, you’ll gladly throw me out on my very cute derriere.”

Dawson lit a cigarette and blew a lungful of smoke at Archer. She eyed Callahan through the mist. “Sure, I’ll see what you got. But if you get the gig, there’s no drinking or drugging on company time. You’re here, you serve the house. You get paid a salary. Tips are your business. Whatever else you can earn on your own time, that’s your business, too.”

“I’ve heard the song before.”

Dawson eyed the bag. “Your working clothes in there? We got some of our own.”

“But these show me off the way I like.”

Dawson again blew a lungful of smoke at Archer. “You can really find them, Archer. And where’s your gumshoe twin?”

“Thinking.”

“Right.” She looked at Callahan. “Okay, let’s go back to the dressing room, and I can put you through your paces. Sound good?”

“You sure you can spare the time now? You look busy.”

“I can teach a monkey to greet people at the door. And I’m not just saying that. I have. Shirley!” she called out.

A little minx with bushy red hair flew out of some hidey-hole like a mouse stirred by a cat’s charge and stood cringing in front of her boss.

“Yes, Miss Dawson?”

“Take Archer here, get him a drink on the house, and find him a seat at the next show. I’ll wait here until you get back, and then you got greeter duty for the next half hour.” She glanced at Callahan and said in a syrupy tone, “That enough time for you, honey, or are you a slow starter?”

“That’ll do,” said Callahan.

“Where you coming in from?”

“Reno.”

“Casinos?”

“Sort of.”

“Well, don’t ‘sort of’ perform for me or you will get tossed out on that very cute ass. And I’ll be the one doing the tossing.”

“Just so long as we know where we stand,” retorted Callahan.

Dawson said, “Don’t worry, Archer, I’ll have her back to you in half an hour, one way or another.”

Before Shirley led him away Archer said anxiously to Callahan, “Hey, you okay with this?”

She smiled. “Not only am I okay with it, Archer, I’m really looking forward to it.”