I'm a fool to kill you

THIRTY-EIGHT

Surprising what living in a town that never sleeps can do for you. I’d learned a long time ago to get by on naps. After three hours on that sofa, a shower in the second bathroom, and a change of clothes, I felt refreshed.

I sent Jerry to bed in one of the bedrooms, told him I’d wake him at eight a.m. That was four hours. He told me he’d made a pot of coffee, and left me a sandwich. I was surprised to find I was hungry.

I went to the kitchen, unwrapped the sandwich — brisket on a Kaiser roll — and started eating. Poured myself a cup of coffee and carried both into the living room with me. I took a peek out the front window, didn’t see anything.

I sat on the sofa with my sandwich and coffee and went through my options. I could have sent Jerry and Ava to Vegas in one of the roadsters, but I really didn’t know what I’d do in L.A. I wasn’t a detective. I was a pit boss who was also a fixer. But most of my fixing was done in Vegas, which was my backyard. So we’d all go to Vegas, make sure Ava was safe, and then figure out what to do.

As it turned out I really only had one option. Get a car, get to Vegas.

I finished the sandwich, went to the kitchen to refill my coffee cup. I don’t know how Jerry did it, but he made the best damn coffee I’d ever tasted.

I turned the radio on. There were no more reports about the manager’s death. I turned it off. I thought about watching TV, but I was the one who had mentioned the shadows that could be seen from outside.

After about two hours I got hungry again. Jerry was a bad influence on me. I looked in the refrigerator and found a knish. I wondered if Jerry had been saving it for breakfast. I ate it cold. I figured if he got upset I’d make it up to him. We’d go out for breakfast after we picked up a car.

I took out the card Louie had given me. It read: USED CARS and at the bottom had an address and phone number. On the back Louie had written ‘Freddy.’ That was it. From Louie’s body language I assumed that everything Freddy did at his car lot was not on the up-and-up. That was fine with me. It would work to our advantage if nobody asked any questions.

I sat at the kitchen table and played solitaire by the light of the flashlight.

At seven-thirty a.m. Ava came down. She was once again wearing her terrycloth robe. She ran her hands through her hair as she entered the room.

‘How old is that coffee?’ she asked.

‘Almost four hours.’

‘Good enough.’

She waved me away as I started to get up, got a cup and poured herself some coffee. Then she joined me at the table. She smelled great.

‘Jerry’s sleeping peacefully,’ she said. ‘I passed his room.’

‘I’m gonna wake him at eight,’ I said. ‘I was gonna wake you at the same time.’

‘Then what?’

‘You guys get dressed, we go and rent a car and head for Vegas.’

‘And then what?’

‘Once I’m sure you’re safe,’ I said, ‘I’ll try to find out what happened during those missing forty hours.’

‘How are you going to do that?’ she asked. ‘Are you a detective?’

‘No, but I have a friend who is. He’s a private eye named Danny Bardini, lives and works in Vegas. I’ll put him on it. If anybody can find out what happened, it’s him.’

That seemed to satisfy her for the moment.

‘Red Six on black seven,’ she said. ‘I’ll go get dressed. You want me to wake Jerry?’

‘No. I’ll do it. You gotta do it carefully with the big guy. He sleeps with his.45.’

She stood up with her coffee cup.

‘Very happy to leave that to you, then,’ she said. ‘On top of everything else that’s gone wrong in my life, I don’t want to get shot.’

I didn’t blame her.

I crept into Jerry’s room, stood back from the bed and called out to him, trying to wake him as gently as I could.

‘Fresh coffee,’ I said to him.

He jerked his head up, but didn’t go for his gun.

‘Hey, Mr G. That time already?’

‘Yep,’ I said. ‘We’ve got coffee, but that’s all. We’ll get something when we go out.’

‘OK.’ He sat up, put his feet on the floor.

‘Get showered and change into some of those nice clothes Ava bought you.’

He made a face.

‘They ain’t my style,’ he confided, ‘but I didn’t wanna hurt her feelings.’

‘I don’t blame you,’ I said. ‘See you downstairs.’

In the morning light we were able to move about the house more normally, but continued to stay away from the windows.

Jerry came down and had some coffee. We were both sitting at the kitchen table when Ava entered, holding a gun.

‘Ava. .’ I said, warily.

‘What do you think of this, Jerry?’ she asked, and handed it to him.

It was a pearl handled automatic. That was all I knew. It looked tiny in Jerry’s hands.

He ejected the clip, smelled the gun, worked the slide, put the clip back.

‘Could use a cleanin’, Miss Ava, but it should work.’ He handed it back to her. ‘Kinda small for my taste, but it’s a lady’s gun.’

‘And I’m a lady,’ she said. ‘It’s been here in the house for a long time, since Frank first bought it for me.’ She dropped it in her purse. ‘I think I’ll take it with me.’

‘That’s fine, Ava,’ I said, ‘but do me a favor, don’t take it out unless Jerry takes out his. OK?’

‘OK,’ she said, ‘I won’t show him mine until he shows me his.’

I was shocked to see Jerry blush.