Heaven Ran Last

Chapter VIII

I hadn’t put the car in the garage so I went around to Madison Street where it was parked and drove out North. It wasn’t quite dark yet and it was cool and nice.

I tried to stop thinking. I tried to make the tight cold feeling inside me go away, but when you start thinking about murder I guess that feeling goes along with it, and stays with you.

It was just a little before eight when I pulled up in front of the apartment on Winthrop. I went into the vestibule and rang the bell and when I reached the steps to the second floor landing Frank was standing there. He was wearing a blue suit and he had a clean shave. His red hair was damp with water and slicked down and he looked just like what he was; a big Irishman wearing a cheap suit and ready to go away to do some fishing.

He said, “Well you’re right on time.”

“Sure. You all set to leave?”

“Yeah, I’m all set,” he said. “Come on in. I got a few things to do yet, but it won’t take me more than a minute.”

I followed him into the front room. His suitcase was in the middle of the floor. Alice was sitting in one of the big chairs.

“Hello, Johnny,” she said.

“What’s all this?” I looked at Frank and then back at her with a lot of surprise on my face. “Aren’t you coming along?”

“No, she’s not going,” Frank said. He looked at her and his expression was stubborn and angry.

“Well, how come?”

She put the magazine down in her lap and said, “I’ve got some work at the office to take care of. It came up at the last minute and I simply couldn’t get away. I’m taking the noon train tomorrow.”

“You could have told them to go to hell,” Frank said. He was still looking at her and his face was flushed.

Alice looked up at him and I thought she was going to rip wide open. She looked cold and hard. She didn’t have any make-up on except a smear of bright lipstick and it made her skin look white and drawn. Everything about her looked pulled in tight.

“There’s no point in going over all that again,” she said. “I’m coming up tomorrow. That’s only one day.”

“That’s not it,” he said stubbornly. “You think more about the people down at your office than you do of me.”

I knew they’d been having a bad time. There was something between them that was close to hate right now.

“Well,” I said. “It’s eight o’clock now. Too bad about Alice, but if we’re going to catch that train we’d better hurry.”

He looked at her for another few seconds and then he let out his breath and said, “All right. I’ve got a few things to pack. I’ll get at it.”

He went out of the room and Alice looked after him without any expression on her face. She tossed the magazine on the floor and made a gesture of cutting her throat.

“Animal!” She said it soundlessly.

I gave her a sign to let up on that, then went closer to her.

She put a cigarette in her mouth and I struck a match. When I leaned over her I said, “Everything all set?”

She nodded slowly and looked up at me with her eyes shining. She was ready for this thing. She couldn’t wait. There didn’t seem to be any fear or nerves in her body. She was like a spring wound to the breaking point, ready to snap and lash out at any second.

We didn’t talk anymore. I still had that tight cold feeling inside. It was almost eight by now and I knew Lesser was due at eight-fifteen. I wanted to get the hell out.

Frank came back then carrying a tooth brush, a comb and a jar of shaving cream. We put them in and closed the grip.

I moved to the door. “All set?”

“Yeah.” He was standing now, looking at Alice. “I’ll see you tomorrow night,” he said.

“All right,” she said.

“Be sure and make that train,” he said. “I’ll be waiting.”

“All right.”

He went over to her, a little uncertainly. When he bent to kiss her on the mouth she turned her head just enough so that his lips touched her cheek.

“Good-by,” he said.

She picked up the magazine from the floor and went looking through it while he was going to the door. “Goodby,” she said. She wasn’t acting then. She hated him and he should have seen it.

He pulled the door closed and went downstairs to the car. He put the suitcase in back and climbed in front next to me. I drove over to Sheridan Road, and we didn’t say anything until we passed the Edgewater Beach. He just sat there staring straight ahead.

I was wondering how I was going to start my end of the deal.

He made it easier by saying in a tired, discouraged voice, “You see how it is, Johnny? Right when we seem to be getting along all right she pulls a deal like this. She could have come along tonight if she wanted to.”

“I wouldn’t let it worry you,” I said. I turned at Foster and headed for the Outer Drive. “She’ll be up tomorrow, won’t she?”

“That not the idea. She could have come tonight.”

I didn’t say anything for a block or two. I was tense and cold. My hands on the wheel were slick with sweat. This was the big moment and I was almost afraid of it, because once I opened my mouth there wouldn’t be any turning back.

“Yeah,” I said, keeping my voice as casual as I could make it. “It’s too bad Lesser couldn’t have picked another night for the work.”

There it was and I could tell from the way he stiffened that I had socked it in hard. He didn’t say anything, but he was looking at me, and from the corner of my eye I saw his hand clench until the knuckles were white.

I fished out my cigarettes and held the pack toward him.

“Smoke?”

“What do you mean?” he said slowly.

I stared at him surprised. “About what?”

“About what you said. About Lesser and Alice working tonight.”

I let him know I was puzzled. “Well what about it? That’s why she didn’t come home with you tonight, isn’t it?”

“Pull off and park somewhere,” he said.

“What the hell—”

“Goddammit, you heard me!”

“Are you out of your head, Frank? We only got about twenty minutes to make that train.”

“To hell with the train!” He caught my arm and squeezed until I almost yelled. “You hear me?”

“All right, all right,” I said. “But I wish you’d let me in on what’s going on.”

He didn’t say another word. He just sat there staring straight ahead.

I turned off at Belmont and went down a side street until I found a parking place. I cut the ignition and he turned and looked at me.

“Now give it to me, quick and straight,” he said.

I said, “Frank, I met Lesser the other day and he said he was going to see Alice tonight. About some work, I thought. I knew you and Alice were going to Wisconsin and I figured he just had the dates mixed up, or something. Tonight, when Alice said she wasn’t going up until tomorrow, I just figured she had to see him and get the work out of the way. I just thought it was tough he couldn’t have picked some other time. But you know all that. You were talking to her about it while I was there.”

His face looked mean now. “Sure I knew all about it,” he said. “But not that way. The story I got was that she had to do some work at the office tomorrow morning.” He smiled without humor. “Nothing was said about Lesser coming over at night. I guess that’s when they’ve been doing most of their work.”

“Now wait a minute,” I said. “I feel like hell, Frank. I don’t want to cause trouble between you and Alice. I should have kept my big yap shut.”

“That doesn’t matter,” he said harshly. “I’d have found out from somebody. Take me back there.”

“Don’t go off half-cocked on this thing. I’ll take you back but think what you’re doing first.”

“Take me back,” was all he said.

I started the car and drove around the corner and headed north on the Drive. The tight cold feeling was still with me but the nervousness was gone. The thing had started now, and it was out of my hands.

When we passed the Edgewater Beach Hotel going back, I said, “Now listen Frank. Maybe I got things mixed up. Maybe Lesser did say he was seeing her tomorrow morning instead of tonight. Hell, I wasn’t paying much attention. Why don’t you wait out front and see if he shows? If he doesn’t, then I was wrong. And Alice won’t ever know you came sneaking back like this.”

He didn’t answer. When I got to Bryn Mawr, I turned off Sheridan Road and went down her street. I parked on the opposite side of the street where we had a good view of the building.

Her apartment was dark. The dashboard clock said eight-fourteen.

We sat there in the dark for about a minute. He looked up at the windows and said. “What time was he supposed to be here?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know anymore than I’ve told you already.”

Another minute passed. There wasn’t much traffic on the street. A couple of cars went by and each one made me break out in sweat.

Finally a car slowed down at the corner and angled over to the curb in front of the building. It was a green Chevrolet. The driver cut the motor and the lights, climbed out of the car and slammed the door.

We watched him as he went up the walk to the entrance. He was small and about all we could see was the back of his head and the neat, brown gabardine suit he was wearing.

“Is that him?” Frank said quietly.

“I can’t tell.”

It was Lesser, all right. I could see enough to tell me that. When he went into the vestibule, I could see his black hair shining in the light. He punched a bell and stood there until he got a buzzer and pulled open the door and went up the steps.

I looked up at Alice’s windows. Frank was looking up there, too. When the light snapped on in her apartment he said something under his breath, short and dirty.

He glanced at me and looked like hell. He tried to swallow but couldn’t make it. He rubbed both hands over his face. “Johnny, take me where I can get a drink, will you?”

I hadn’t figured that. I figured he’d go right in after Lesser.

I said, “Sure, but—” I let it hang there.

He was looking up at Alice’s windows again. She came over to them and we could see her shadow as she started pulling down the shades.

“Still want that drink?” I said.

“I got to think. Get me out of here,” he said.

There wasn’t anything to do but drive to the nearest bar. We went inside and ordered beers and he picked up a nickel from the change and walked back toward the telephone booth.

I sat there wondering what the hell to do and how I could have figured everything so wrong. Everything had worked perfectly up to where he had just taken a good long look and done nothing.

He came back after a while. When I saw his face I stopped worrying about the plan not working. I’ve seen guys throw all their money on a horse and steal more to throw after it, and when they lose I’ve seen how they react. I’ve seen guys when they find out they double-crossed the wrong people and the heat is on, and I know how they react. Desperate, wild, ready to blow apart any minute.

That’s the way Frank looked.

He sat down and pushed away the beer and ordered a straight rye. All the time he was waiting for it his big hands were twisting around like they had hold of something they hated and were trying to rip it to pieces.

“I talked to her,” he said softly. He drank his drink and his hands started working again. “She said she was alone. Said she got out of bed to answer the phone.” He looked straight at me and his face began to twist as if something was hurting him inside. “She lied, Johnny. You saw that guy go up to her apartment. You saw her when she pulled the shades down.” His voice went up a little. “You saw that, didn’t you Johnny?”

“Yeah, I saw it.”

He stood up and closed his hands once or twice before he said, “I got to go, Johnny.” I don’t think he saw me. His eyes were like marble. What he was thinking made them cold and glassy.

He went out the door and I waited about twenty seconds then followed him out to the street. It was dark by this time but I could see him walking fast toward her place. He only had a block and a half to go.

My car was on the other side of the street and I started for it but right then something made me change my mind. Everything was set to blow wide open, just like we’d planned, and I should have gotten the hell out of the way.

But I didn’t. Don’t ask me why. It was crazy and dangerous but I started after him, using the other side of the street.

I had to be there and know for sure it would work.

There weren’t many people on the streets. I passed a young couple but they were too busy with each other to notice me. The street was pretty dark but I could see him whenever he passed a street light. His shoulders were hunched up and he was hurrying.

I stopped across the street from her building. The lights were on in her apartment and the shades were still drawn. I saw Frank go up to the entrance and fumble in his pocket for the keys. He opened the door in the vestibule and I saw his thick back disappear up the stairs.

My heart was pounding so hard it hurt. This was the last step. Everything else had worked perfectly and now this last thing had to work out my way.

I was pulled up tight inside. My stomach, my muscles, my nerves all seemed to be straining, and I knew that every part of me was waiting for the sound of a shot.

When that shot sounded I was going back to my car and get back to the blonde in my room.

A minute or two passed. Maybe it was more. Time gets confused when you’re waiting for something to explode and there’s no clock in the world that can measure it.

Then I saw Frank again. I saw his legs coming down the inner stairs, then the light in the hall shining on his red head. He came down the walk, his big shoulders hunched queerly, and he seemed to be staring at the ground. He turned right and went up the street, walking stiff-legged.

I stayed where I was for a minute, then went across to the street door of the building and stopped inside the small, tile-floored vestibule. There wasn’t a sound anywhere. All I could hear was my heart. This wasn’t part of my plan. I wasn’t supposed to be here. I was supposed to be with my blonde. But Alice and Lesser were upstairs and there hadn’t been any shot. I was going to blow wide open unless I knew what had happened up there.

I rang her bell twice but there was no answer. I rang it again, holding my finger against the button. From above I could hear the bell ringing faintly, but there was no answering buzz at the door. I kept pushing the button while the sweat gathered under my arms and ran down my sides.

I made up my mind fast. I jabbed the first floor button, and when the buzzer sounded, I jerked the door open and went up the steps three at a time.

I was part way up the second flight when a door opened in the hall below. I froze.

A woman’s voice said, “Who is it?” There was a minute of silence and then she said angrily. “Must be them kids,” and then I heard the door slam.

I waited a few seconds more, then went on up the steps. The door of her apartment was open, the light shining through onto the landing.

I went inside and walked into the living room. Lesser was flat on the floor, groaning a little, and there was blood on his lips and a blue bruise under his right eye.

Alice was sitting on the floor, her back propped against the sofa. She was out cold. There was a red mark along her jaw, the kind of a mark that follows a slap in the face.

One of her slippers had fallen off and the house coat had opened up the middle and her right leg was doubled back under her. The other was stretched out straight. Her hair was hanging over her forehead and when he’d hit her the lipstick had smeared over her chin. She looked like hell.

He was just as bad. He was a little guy, with fancy clothes, and his lips were broken and puffy and the mouse under his eye would be king-sized in an hour or so.

I looked around. His coat was hanging over the back of a chair and there were a couple of drinks on the coffee table.

There wasn’t any mystery about what had happened. Frank had walked in on them, just as Alice and I had planned. But instead of going for the gun, he’d taken a swing at both of them and walked out.

The thing we’d planned had gone to pieces and all the worry and fear and hope was for nothing.

And right then it hit me. All at once I had it. I didn’t have to think about it, or figure out details.

I went over and closed the front door very quietly; then I went into the bedroom and started rummaging through the drawers. I scattered his shirts and socks around and dug through her stuff but I didn’t find what I wanted.

I went on looking anyway, starting to sweat by this time. This had to be done right away or it couldn’t be done at all. I went through the closet and a little desk next to the dresser before I tried the small table next to the bed. I pulled out the drawer and there was the gun, shining and compact.

It was of German make. Alice had mentioned it, saying he had brought it back as a souvenir. I checked the clip and saw that it was loaded. I slipped off the safety and went back into the front room.

The clock on the mantel said eight-twenty-nine. Frank hadn’t been gone more than two minutes. That was close enough to fix him.

Lesser was moaning a little now and starting to roll his head back and forth. Alice was still out, the smeared lipstick like blood against the whiteness of her skin.

There wasn’t any time to think about what I was going to do. Maybe that was a good thing.

I raised the gun, pointed it at Lesser’s head and pulled the trigger twice. The gun made a lot of noise in the room. He started kicking when the bullet hit him, but that didn’t last long.

I took a handkerchief from my breast pocket and wiped the gun carefully. Then I tossed it on the floor and went quickly toward the back door.

There was a little porch outside the kitchen door with stairs leading to the back yard. I went down them as fast as I could. I wasn’t feeling anything right then. I just wanted to get away.

The yard was dark and I had to go slow in finding my way to the alley, but when I got there I ran the whole length of the block and came out on a cross street not far from where I’d parked the car.

I went past Alice’s place, walking on the opposite side of the street and on to my car. Once I looked over my shoulder up at the second floor and it looked like some more lights had come on in the houses on either side.

No one was near my car when I got in and I didn’t waste any time getting away. I turned right at the first corner so I wouldn’t have to pass her place and then got over onto Sheridan Road and headed for the Loop.

By the time I had gone a block the car was doing fifty. I knew that was wrong. I eased down to twenty-five and held it there. The night had gotten colder and I could feel little chills going over me. I ran the windows up but that didn’t help. I was still cold.

I didn’t think about what I’d done. I just kept my eyes on the road and my mind on driving the car. The dashboard clock said eight-forty. When I got downtown it was almost nine o’clock.

I parked the car on a side street and went into the hotel. The lobby was full of people and there were half a dozen people waiting for elevators.

On my way into the elevator I stuck behind a couple of guys so the operator wouldn’t notice me. Even if he had he was pretty busy and it wasn’t likely he’d remember the time.

The time was important. I had to have an alibi for eight-thirty. That was when I’d shot Lesser and I had to be able to prove I was somewhere else at that time, if anything went wrong. The way I figured, they’d grab Frank for it and he wouldn’t have a chance. But if there was some angle I had missed I had to be in the clear.

When I opened the door of my room the blonde looked up from the chair where she was reading a magazine. She looked sleepy and sullen.

“Well, it’s about time,” she said. “I thought you said an hour.”

I could feel the tightness coming back. I closed the door, trying to keep anything from showing. “That’s right,” I said. “Was I longer than that?”

“It seems like I been waiting a year,” she said. “I woke up right after you left, I guess.”

“I’m sorry. I was a little longer than I thought. It must be eight-thirty by now.”

“Eight-thirty? It’s closer to nine-thirty if you ask me.”

I felt my fingers starting to shake. This had to be fixed or it was going to mean trouble. “You’re way off,” I said. I smiled and tried to sound like it didn’t mean anything. “Matter of fact I saw a clock in the lobby. I think it was about eight-thirty-five.”

“The clock is crazy.”

“Well, let’s don’t argue about it,” I said. I went over and started mixing a couple of drinks. I made mine stiff and all the while my mind was twisting around and doubling back on itself, trying to figure some way to fix it so she’d alibi me for the time.

I gave her the drink and bent over and kissed her. “Don’t be mad, baby,” I said. An idea was in my head. It was chancey, but I had to use it. “Go put a new face on and you’ll feel better.”

“I’m not mad, Johnny. But gosh, it seemed a long time waiting for you.”

“All right. We won’t talk about it any more.”

She got up unsteadily and went into the bathroom and closed the door.

I went over and picked up the phone. When the hotel operator answered I kept my voice low and said. “Look will you find out for me what time the play at the Selwyn opens? I got tickets for tomorrow night and I want to be on time. It’s either eight-thirty or twenty of nine, but I want to be sure.”

She said, “All right, Mr. Ford. I’ll let you know right away.”

I put the phone back and sat on the edge of the bed and lit a cigarette. A minute or two passed. I tried to keep cool. This wouldn’t work unless the blonde were there with me when the operator called back. I wondered what was keeping her.

“Hey,” I called, “what’s the delay?”

“Just a minute.”

The phone rang then and I swore under my breath. I let it ring a second time while I kept watching the bathroom door. It started the third ring when the blonde opened the door and came out.

“The phone’s ringing,” she said.

“Come here,” I said. I picked up the receiver, then put my arm around Marie’s waist and pulled her down beside me.

“What time is it?” I said into the phone.

“It’s eight-thirty, Mr. Ford.”

“What?”

I shoved the receiver against the blonde’s ear and I could hear the operator say again, in a clear voice, “It’s eight-thirty, Mr. Ford.”

I took the phone back, said thanks, and hung up. I turned and smiled at the blonde. “Did you hear that? Now aren’t you ashamed of yourself for raising hell with me?”

“She said it was eight-thirty, didn’t she?”

“That’s right.”

She gave me a funny look, then snuggled herself closer to me. “What difference does it make? You’re here now.”

Everything else faded away. I knew I’d let myself in for trouble. I knew there was a lot to fix before everything was the way I wanted. But right now I wanted the blonde. For some reason the worse mess a guy is in the more he needs a woman.

I stretched out and pulled her down beside me and kissed her a few times. She had her eyes closed and the tight little blonde curls made her like a baby. I wanted her and it wasn’t because of anything she did to me but just because of the way I felt.