Ladies of Chance

Chapter 15

I had Cherry on my mind when I woke up the next morning. Not that I wanted to have her on my mind. But I woke up thinking about her. Lay in bed and smoked two cigarettes while I kept on thinking about her.

It was a lousy mess that drew girls like Cherry, Janet, Kitty, Dolly, Lucile, and Jane into it. A filthy, stinking mess.

Thinking about Cherry in connection with it gave me the jimmies. There was something about that girl that didn’t fit into the picture. I smoked my cigarettes and tried to fit her in.

In the first place, I knew goddamned well she wasn’t weak. Not like the other women who got panicky after taking the first step. I couldn’t figure Cherry getting dragged into anything against her will.

I liked that thought. Dwelt on it for a time. I haven’t any use for weak women. Give me one that knows where she’s going, and goes there.

Still — it was damned nasty. I kept seeing Cherry’s gray eyes through the curling smoke. Sentimental? What man isn’t, lying in bed in the morning?

I didn’t have to dig down very far to know I could go for Cherry in a big way without half trying.

That made it tough. I was just about ready to crack down on the whole gang. A lot of people were going to get burnt when I cracked down. Cherry among them.

I figured on ways to keep her out of it. She didn’t seem to be in very deep. A hint dropped in her ear might be enough.

But that wouldn’t work either. I couldn’t see her taking a runout powder. I didn’t want to see her that way.

My thoughts went around in circles and didn’t get anywhere. What about the mysterious Sandra? I needed a line on her. Cherry had dropped a hint. That was all I had. Hints.

A woman at the top of it was hard to swallow. What sort of a female could she be? Plenty hard, evidently. I had a hunch Cherry knew more about her than she told me.

Just a hunch. Something in her eyes when she mentioned her. Under other circumstances I would have read it as jealousy. It didn’t add up that way.

And there was Blattscomb. What in hell was his card doing at Cherry’s place? How did he tie in? Checking things over, I saw I was walking a pretty shaky rope. Trying to be all things to all men wasn’t in my line. About a dozen different people had a dozen different stories from me. Sooner or later, two of them were going to get together and compare notes. It was going to be too bad for Mrs. Barlow’s only son when that happened.

I put out my second cigarette and got up. I called Cherry’s number and had to wait a few moments before hearing her voice. She sounded sleepy. “Hello. Who is it?”

“How are you this morning, sweet?”

“Fair. Who is it?”

“Did I wake you up?”

“Yes. Who is this speaking?”

“I’m sorry. You sound as though you had a hard night.”

“Is it any concern of yours what sort of a night I had?”

“Of course it is, darling. This is Ed Barlow.”

“Oh... and you’ve appointed yourself to check up on my nights?”

“That’s it. And days. I’m coming over.”

“You must be crazy. I’m not even dressed.”

“Neither am I. So there’s no advantage there.” I hung up on her gasp of astonishment or anger.

I dressed and stopped at a grocery store for bacon and eggs, butter and coffee.

Cherry opened the door looking sweet as a dew-kissed rose. She was all ready to blast me down for my presumption, but she looked at the brown paper bag of groceries in my arms, and laugh-crinkles formed about her eyes.

I brushed past her to the kitchen, set the sack on the table and turned to find her facing me in the doorway, hands on hips.

“You look kissable as hell, Cherry.”

She smiled. “So early in the morning?”

“That’s one of the very best times for kissing.” I was going toward her, all mixed up in my feelings.

She didn’t back away. Didn’t lift a finger to fend me off.

I stopped before I got to her, feeling foolish all at once. “It’s a treat,” I told her. “Didn’t know whether you kept any food in this dump or not. So I brought breakfast makings along.”

A dimple came in her cheek and stayed a moment. “I’ll do my face while you do breakfast.”

Just like that. I put on coffee water, broiled bacon, and scrambled eggs. I liked girls who don’t ask silly questions and interpose a lot of silly objections.

It didn’t take her as long to do her face as it did me to do breakfast. She put up a card table in the living room, with a frilly cloth on it and a vase of rosebuds.

Sitting across from her with a cup of steaming coffee after bacon and eggs was pretty swell. I told her so.

She leaned back in her chair and there weren’t any shadows in her eyes.

I got up and put my hands on her shoulders. She leaned her head back and looked up at me.

“Why don’t you get out of it, Cherry?”

She didn’t ask what I meant. She knew. Her eyes were wide and candid. They looked honest to me. She said. “What is it to you?”

“Don’t you know?”

She shook her head slowly.

“You’re a liar. You know I’m nuts about you.”

“So what?” Her eyes challenged me.

My fingers bit into her shoulders. “Get out of it, baby. Before you get in too deep. You don’t know what you’re doing to those women you take there.”

“You’re hurting me. Yes I do.”

“I intend to hurt you. You can’t know.”

“I do. It’s their own fault if they gamble more than they can afford to lose.”

“That’s a lousy argument.”

“I haven’t asked you to argue the matter with me.”

“What’s Stormy got to do with you being in it?” I guess my voice was pretty hoarse. My fingers were going deeper into the flesh of her shoulders. She didn’t flinch.

She said: “I’ve only known you since yesterday.”

“That’s a lie,” I told her flatly. “You’ve known me always.”

She wasn’t looking at me any more. Her neck was stiff and she was staring across the room. I had a little struggle to keep from kissing her just below the lobe of the ear. I won.

She asked: “What am I supposed to say to that?”

“Admit you know it’s true.”

“That I’ve known you always?”

“You have. I saw it in your eyes the first time I met you at the Axelrod tea. Remember? You were frightened because you felt it too.”

“Are you trying to tell me you’re psychic?” Her voice was as cool as though she were asking the time.

I let go her shoulders. “All right. Be a little fool about it if you want.” I went around and sat down opposite her.

A tear slid down her cheek. Just one. I watched its downward path and waited for her to raise her lashes so I could see her eyes. She didn’t raise them. She said:

“Are you through insulting me?”

“I’d do it some more,” I told her angrily, “if I thought I could snap you out of it.”

“I’m quite sure you can’t.” The tremor was going out of her voice. She had her hands in her lap and I couldn’t see them.

“No,” I told her. “You’re the sort who’ll go on to hell in your own way and to the devil with anyone who tries to stop you. I’m a nut to want to.”

“Isn’t all this rather melodramatic? After all, your hands aren’t exactly clean.”

“It’s different with a man,” I argued. “It’s a job.”

“I know it’s different with a man.” She obstinately refused to look at me. “There are all sorts of inducements for you, aren’t there? Such as the one I saw you walking out with last night.”

“She was just a crazy girl who had gone hysterical and tried to bump herself. I was taking her out to cool her off.”

“That’s not the way Stormy told it to me.”

“What?”

“Take time to think up a good answer,” she told me scornfully.

I did a lot of fast thinking in a few seconds. It was pretty thin ice but I had to skate over it. “No matter what Stormy spilled to you... that’s how it was.”

“I’d just as soon let it go at that. Your personal affairs are your own. And mine are mine.” Her chin came up at a determined angle.

“If that’s the way you feel about it...” I got up.

“It is. Thank you for the breakfast.”

“You’re entirely welcome.”

I got my hat, moving slowly enough to give her time to change her mind. She didn’t. She didn’t say anything. She let me walk out without saying she would be disappointed if she never saw me again.

I went back to my hotel. There was a message asking me to call Mr. Parker at a certain number. I went up to my room, had an after-breakfast snort, and called him.