I'm a fool to kill you

FORTY-NINE

Over breakfast I filled both Danny and Ava in on my meeting with Frank.

‘Sounds to me like Dean swung it for ya,’ Danny said.

‘Dean can usually calm Frank down,’ Ava said. ‘Well, this makes me feel better. Now what?’

‘Danny’s gonna start workin’,’ I said. ‘You need to tell him everything you can remember, from Spain to New York to L.A. and anything else.’

‘Now?’

‘Right now.’

She continued to work on her omelet while she talked. I ate my scrambled eggs, but Danny couldn’t take his eyes off Ava’s face the whole time and his eggs were getting cold. The only time he did look away from her was to make some notes in a little book he carried.

‘OK,’ Danny said, taking a bite of his toast, ‘is that it?’

‘I know it’s not much,’ she said, ‘but it’s all I can remember.’

Danny looked at me. She hadn’t given him any more than she’d told me. It seemed to me Danny was going to have to start in New York, where she woke up with blood on her.

‘OK,’ he said. ‘I guess I have all I’m gonna get. Time to get to work.’

He started to slide out of the booth but Ava put her hand on his arm to stop him.

‘Thank you so much, Danny.’

He smiled and patted her hand.

‘You do everything Eddie tells you to do, Ava, and we’ll figure this out. OK?’

‘OK.’

Danny stood up and headed for the door, pausing only to slap Jerry on the back. The waitress came by and refilled our coffee cups.

‘Is Danny done?’ she asked, pointing to Danny’s plate.

‘Yeah, you can take it away.’

She grabbed the plate and carried it away. I saw her sneaking glances at Ava, but she’d been working in Vegas too long to make a fuss.

‘He’s very good-looking,’ she said.

‘And he knows it.’

‘Is he good at his job?’

‘Very good. I’ve known him since we were kids. We can trust him.’

‘I trust you,’ she said. ‘If you trust him, that’s fine with me.’

She toyed with her omelet. Something was obviously on her mind.

‘Ava?’

She looked at me.

‘I want to call my sister, Bappie.’

‘Bappie?’

‘Her name’s Beatrice, but I call her Bappie. She needs to know where I am.’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘Eddie-’ For a moment she worried, or was she feeling guilty? Or just upset that I wouldn’t let her call her sister.

‘You can call her,’ I said, ‘tell her how you are, but don’t tell her where you are, Ava. We need to keep that to ourselves.’

She bit her lower lip.

‘All right,’ she said, ‘but can’t we find someplace else to stay?’

‘You don’t like my house?’

‘It’s a nice house, Eddie, but it’s your house. It’s too small. Where did you sleep last night?’

‘At the Sands.’

‘You need to be able to sleep in your own bed.’

I hesitated, then said, ‘I guess I could find another place — but give me a day or two.’

‘Sure.’

I looked over at Jerry. He was working on another stack of pancakes, but keeping his eyes on us, and all over the room at the same time.

I had wondered briefly if Ava’s voracious appetite for sex would end up consuming Jerry, but he never would have been able to look me in the eye if that had happened. In fact, I’m not even sure he would have gone for it. Jerry’s got his own code that he lives by, and it’s based on the word ‘loyalty.’ I say this because it occurred to me at that moment to ask Ava about it, but I quickly decided not to bring it up.

‘What are we going to do now?’ she asked.

‘We can’t interrupt Jerry during his meal,’ I warned. ‘When he’s done we’ll go back to the house. I’m going to pack a few things to take to the hotel with me, just for a day or two, until I find you a new place.’

‘OK.’

‘Ava,’ I said, ‘you know the Cal-Neva wouldn’t be a bad place for you to go, but. .’

‘. . we’d have to tell Frank, and I don’t want to do that. But you know, I think Howard owns some homes in Tahoe, and here.’

‘Howard?’

‘Hughes,’ she said. ‘I know you don’t want to tell anyone where I am, but I mean, who knows more about privacy than him?’

‘Why don’t we put that idea on the back burner, ‘I suggested. ‘Let me look around first.’

‘OK, Eddie,’ she said. ‘Whatever you say.’

I doubted she would be this cooperative all the time, but for the moment I appreciated it.

‘You know,’ she said, ‘you could come home, spend the night in your own bed. . with me.’

‘Not with Jerry on the couch,’ I said.

‘You don’t think he’d actually tell anyone, do you?’

‘I wouldn’t want to test Jerry’s loyalties,’ I said. ‘I wouldn’t want him to have to make that decision.’

‘No,’ she said, thoughtfully, ‘no, neither would I. That would kill him.’

I was impressed that she already knew that much about him.

Jerry came over at that point, carrying a cup of coffee. He sat across from us. He was right about him and booths. Ava and I had to move our legs closer together for him to fit. She also rested her hand in my lap.

‘Everythin’ OK?’ he asked.

‘You done?’ I asked.

‘Yup.’

‘Will that hold you?’ Ava asked.

He grinned at her and said, ‘For a while.’ Then he looked at me. ‘Where to, Boss?’

‘Back to the house,’ I said. ‘Then I’m going to the Sands.’

‘You takin’ the Caddy again?’

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘You and Ava aren’t goin’ out, remember?’

He looked at Ava.

‘We better buy some more cards,’ he told her. ‘The ones we’re usin’ are soggy.’

‘Well,’ she said, with a smile, ‘this is the town for cards, right?’

Jerry laughed. I tried not to jump when she gave me a not so gentle squeeze through my trousers. Having sex with Ava had been a mistake — and I knew I’d do it again in a second.