Benny Muscles In

Chapter Twelve

Before breakfast, before Pat woke up, he made another call. He called New York, he talked fast and urgently, and then he hung up. No word from Alverato.

The bad news made him edgy, but he didn’t find out just how bad it was till he joined Pat at the table. He sat down, they looked at each other, and then he saw it. She wasn’t through with him yet.

He thought he knew why. Of the men she had known, only Tapkow had been a stranger. He hadn’t wanted a thing. He had stood back, holding back, and that alone made him special.

“Let’s go,” he said, and put the change on the table. She followed him to the car without having asked where they were going.

He was sullen behind the wheel, and they took off with a sudden jerk, the wheels spitting gravel. He too didn’t know where he was going.

“Back to Dad’s place?” she said after a while. She had lit a cigarette, dragged on it, and then offered it to him. He took it without thinking. “Well?”

He had heard the question and hoped he wasn’t figuring it wrong. “No,” he said. “Not his place.”

It wasn’t a mistake. She sidled over and leaned against him, one arm along his back. He could feel her through the blouse. “Three days, Benny?” He could tell by her voice she was smiling at him.

“Three days,” he said. “You and me.”

“We’ll have some excitement?”

“Sure.” His short smile was automatic. He was trying to think. She was crazier than he had thought, half stone, half woman, only it had been easier before. He’d get her back on the old tack, the mean bitch who was so cold it would probably need a blast furnace of excitement to make an impression on her. Not like now, when even his shortest smile seemed to please her, but one big, impersonal blast of excitement-and then he remembered about Tober, crazy Tober. He’d been somebody once, before Benny’s time. He’d been with Old Man Ager for a while and he had helped Benny find the spot with Pendleton. Tober had been friendly. Benny was hoping that Tober was still that way. He hadn’t seen him for a while, ever since Tober quit, rich and bored. He’d moved to that place he had on the Gulf and stayed there most of the year. He’d imported his excitement, being rich and bored.

“Where are we going, Benny?” she asked again.

“Down the road a piece.”

“Excitement?”

“No tea and crumpets,” he said.

“Where?”

“You’ll see. Some party-time people I know.”

They drove for another hour. A private drive took them off the highway through neglected land. Dead swamp grass and crooked trees covered the view on both sides, but suddenly it changed to rich green growth and a tended row of palms. Another bend showed the house, which sprawled in all directions with little pillars, balconies, and a lot of green stucco. There were cars all over the wide yard, but nothing else.

“Where is everybody?” Pat was leaning out and looking.

“You stay here while I go see.”

Benny got out of the car and walked into the house. The big hall looked empty. He walked to the back, where the ocean was, and looked down the veranda.

“Looking for someone?”

The voice was high and fast, almost like the ping from an air rifle. Benny turned. “Tober, you old crook, it’s good to see you!” Benny pumped a limp hand.

Tober burst out in a shrill laugh when he saw who it was, and his hand became strong like a claw. “Benny the Tapkow! How have you been, how have you been? Come sit and have a drink. Christ, wait till the rest of them get a load of you! Say, man, what happened to your hat? No hat, Benny, I see no hat.”

Tober had talked with that rapid excitement in his voice which happened to him three times a day. Three times daily Tober was a pistol, sharp, fast, and full of noise. His shiny eyes glittered back and forth, and his long, stooped body looked tense.

“You high, Tober?” Benny tried to see the man’s pupils.

“Like a rocket, Benny, like a red, white, blue, and purple rocket. But for you slow-witted squares I got tamer stuff. How about some Scotch, how about some hipscotchdipscotch Scotch splashed over rocks, Benny boy?”

“Slow down, Tober. Listen, I got a guest. You mind if I bring a guest?”

“I’ll make two hipscotchdip-”

“Tober, pay attention. This is kind of a special deal. She and I got to stay under wraps for a day or so. I thought-”

“Benny boy, this is the place to stay under a wrap, if that’s the kind of thing you fancy. Where is this delight?”

“Outside. I’ll get her.”

Benny walked to the front door and waved Pat to come in.

“It’s O.K.?” she asked.

“Is it O.K.? Is it O.K.!” Tober rushed out to grab her by the hand. “I’d say, being a judge of such,” and he looked her up and down.

“Tober, you were going to get some drinks.” Benny took the girl by the arm and watched Tober rush into the house.

They went to the back, where a long veranda faced the Gulf, and sat down.

“Who’s Tober?” Pat asked.

“Just somebody I know.” Benny thought for a moment about the Tober he used to know, fifty pounds heavier, a quiet guy.

“Is he a little crazy?”

“Sometimes. He made too much money. Drives him crazy now and then.” He walked back and forth. “Where in hell are those drinks?”

There wasn’t a soul around, but a piano was being played someplace in the house.

“Let’s look for the piano player, seeing that Tober disappeared.” Pat got out of her chair.

They followed the sound of the music, which was alternately plinking and crashing with a fast rhythm, but it wasn’t so easy to find. They walked through one room where a man was sleeping on a couch. He had a three-day growth of beard and his cheeks puffed out like a bellows when he breathed. They saw a blonde who was sunning herself on a sun deck. She was stark naked and waved at them as they passed. When they finally reached the room with the piano, they found Tober, sitting there on a stool and hitting the keyboard as if he were chopping wood. He stopped when he heard them.

“The drinks!” he yelled, and ran out of the room.

“You sit here.” Benny pushed Pat onto the couch. “I better watch him.”

He could feel her following him with her eyes and then he closed the door behind him.

He wanted Tober to stick around, take some of the work off his shoulders and help put this thing on a business basis.

Tober was in the big kitchen, breaking ice cubes out of a tray.

“A delight,” he said without transition. “A lovely sight of delight.”

“Yeah.”

“Romantic Benny!” Tober said. “Here-warm yourself on an ice cube.”

“Listen, Tober. Anybody here from your old crowd?”

“All dead,” Tober said, “except me. I’m recharged daily.”

“Anybody here knows Pendleton and those people of his?”

Tober looked up and his eyes were almost normal. “I thought I knew her,” he said. “The Pendleton kid!”

“Yeah.”

“An ill-fated romance, Romeo Tapkow, an ill-”

“Business,” Benny said. “I’m just bringing it up so you can tell me to blow. This is like dynamite.”

“A snatch? An old-fashioned abduction?” Tober started to shake with laughter. It stopped as unaccountably as it had started and then he winked. “And doesn’t she know it?”

“Hell, no.”

“Bring the ice, Benjamin.” Tober picked up the tray with the bottle and glasses. They walked down the long corridor that led to the room where Pat was waiting.

“Tober, listen to me. Don’t tell her. It would foul-”

“Benjamin!” Tober stopped, balancing the tray like a mad juggler. “Dear Benjamin, what do you take me for? A hophead?” and then he started to laugh again.

Back in the room Tober made two highballs on the piano and handed them to Pat and Benny. “To the lovers!” he yelled, and watched them hold their glasses. Then he stepped close to Pat. “Meet anybody else yet?”

“Do I have to?” When she caught Benny’s eye she gave him a short smile.

He turned away.

“Pattypat,” said Tober, “you’re not heisting your highball.”

“And you?”

“Tober doesn’t drink,” Tober said.

“You don’t?” She sounded as if she hadn’t heard right.

“I am beyond drink.” He sounded confidential. “I don’t heist highballs, just heist balls.”

“You what?”

“Heist balls, baby. It’s higher than high ball. It’s the highest ball!” He giggled.

Pat laughed too.

“And I don’t often do this,” Tober was saying, “but for a high-built baby like you I’ll fix one.” He started to drag her out of the room.

“Benny,” she called. “What’s a heist ball, Benny? Tober, let go. Benny, he wants to-”

“Go and find out,” he said.

Pat stood still for a moment and her tongue made a nervous movement along her teeth, but she didn’t say anything. Then she turned abruptly. “Show me the thing you can make, Tober,” and she walked out of the room.

Benny watched them leave and sipped at the drink he’d been holding. Let Tober carry the ball if he wanted to. As long as Pat stayed around-two days at the most; as long as he could finish the deal and deliver the goods in the end, let Tober think he was taking over.

He walked out into the hall and found a phone. It took a while to get New York. He lit a fresh cigarette from his stub and sucked on it as if it were his first one in days. Then he said, “Hello, Wally? Tapkow. Well?”

“Hi, Benny. He sent a cable.” A group of maniacs came charging into the hall. They were all chasing a short, squealy blonde who was wrapped in a wet sheet; apparently the idea was to get the sheet off her. The way they were all yodeling and yelling, she really must have been something under that sheet, but Benny wasn’t thinking of that. He watched the chase, hoping she’d lead them down the hall to hell or someplace. The blonde made it.

“Yes-Wally? I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening.”

“He sent a cable, Benny. Two of them.”

“So let’s hear.”

“Well, I didn’t know where you was when the first one came, so I answered it. The first one he asks is everything O.K. so I wire back sure, you got her and everything’s under control. I figured you’d want it that way, and besides, it is, ain’t it?”

“Come on, come on, what else?”

“Nothing else, Benny. And then he sends the second one.”

“Well?”

“He really thinks you’re the nuts, Benny, really proud of you.”

“Christ, get to the point, Wally. When’s he coming back?”

“He says he’s proud of you and have yourself a ball while he’s gone, seeing that you deserve it and he’s doing likewise. You know, he’s got this other dame on board, the one who got switched, and she really musta-”

“When’s he coming back, goddamnit?”

“I can hear ya, I can hear ya. He says a week or so. Keep her under wraps a week or so and that’ll really stew her old man. After a week or so Pendleton’s going to be ripe for anything.”

Benny burned his mouth on the stub he was holding and cursed. He cursed with a hard cramped throat while his hand clenched the phone as if it were the straw that might keep him from drowning.

“What’s his cable address, Wally?”

“He didn’t leave one. He’s cruising around the Caribbean or something.”

A week or so, another week of stalling for time, watching every move she made for fear she’d do the unpredictable. Thousands of minutes while that crazy female turned into a leech boring at him. And Alverato. Big fat Alverato getting soft in the head over a spinster with a home permanent. The dumb bastard was losing his grip. If he didn’t have his reputation to coast on and his army of hoods-But the anger didn’t get Benny anywhere.

He stomped at the butt that was still smoking on the floor and walked back to the room with the piano. The bottle and ice were still sitting there but the room was empty. He wasn’t after a drink. He had to find Pat, stay close by, to watch his property.

He found Tober on the terrace.

“Where’s Pat?” Benny stopped in front of the thin man.

“Asleep, Tapioca. And don’t shout. Things are jangling enough without you stirring the air.”

It was that time of day and Tober was running down.

“Where, Tober?”

“In bed, where else?” Tober sounded edgy.

“Come on. Up, Tober. I want to see where she is.”

“Jesus, Benny!” Tober jumped out of his chair, pulling back. “Don’t touch me, whatever you do,” and he stood making nervous gestures with his hands.

“You need a pop, don’t you?” Benny stood watching the man.

“Gad, yes!” Tober turned to go but Benny blocked his way.

“First I want to see Pat.”

They went upstairs together but Tober was distracted and couldn’t find the right room. They walked from one to the other, finding several things, but no Pat.

“Tober, think!” Benny held the thin man by one wrist. “What did you do with her?”

Tober winced, but then he remembered. “I made her a heist ball. That’s all, Benny. I fixed her a little drink and she said, ‘Aah, how nice and bitter,’ and then-”

“Bitter? What do you mean, bitter?” Benny’s voice got hard. “You lousy junkhead, did you give that kid a jolt? Answer me, or I’ll break your wrist!”

Tober almost fainted with confusion, but then he got himself straightened out. “Just a wee pinch, Benny. Such a wee pinch in a big glass of something. Grapefruit juice, I think. No, Martini! Such a Martini, Benny boy!”

“You crazy sonofabitch-” But he didn’t finish the sentence because his breath came in a grunt when his fist swung hard against the side of Tober’s jaw.

Tober collapsed in tears. There was no point in doing any more, so Benny stood and waited. He was breathing hard and his hands were working. She wasn’t crazy enough without being doped up in this nut house.

“Tober, on your feet Where is she?”

They found her in the next room and Tober had been right. She was sleeping. She was lying on Tober’s rumpled bed with her clothes on and her sleep was like a thick unconsciousness.

Benny looked at the still figure and his mouth was mean. “Tober, how much did you give her? If that kid-”

“Jesus, Benny, I swear. Just a pinch.”

Benny grabbed Tober’s arm again. “Bring her around, you bastard.”

“God in heaven, let go my arm. Can’t you see she’s sailing and having the time of her life? Benny, let go. I got to have my jolt. These crazy neckties-” He was tearing at his open collar.

Benny let him go. Tober wasn’t any good this way, without his dose, and Benny watched him rush to the bathroom, where he tore open the door to the medicine chest.

When Tuber came out again he was a different man. His black eyes were glittering and he carried his thin frame like a man of strength.

“All right, Tober, let’s try again.” Benny got up from the bed and stopped in front of the man. “Bring her around.”

Tober glanced at the bed, then smiled at Benny. “No need of that. It wasn’t enough to do any harm. You never know how it hits the first time, but often they go to sleep. She’s all right. She’ll sleep it off like a drunk. Except no hangover, Benny. The beauty of-”

“Yeah, I know. I just saw you in one of those no-hangover states. Does she know she took heroin?”

“Of course not. I was very discreet Please, Benny, I don’t know what came over me.”

“Forget it. Show me an empty room.”

He picked her up carefully and followed Tober across the corridor. He moved his arms once so her head wouldn’t hang. He thought for a moment that he hadn’t known how limp she could be.