Ladies of Chance

Chapter 7

The telephone awoke me at two o’clock the next afternoon. I stumbled out of bed, half-awake, and tilted the receiver against my ear.

The woman’s voice coming over the wire brought me out of my trance in a hurry. With the words, “Oh darling!” Lucile managed to say as much as a woman like Dolly could put across in a string of paragraphs.

I said, “Shoot,” and braced myself against the wall.

“I have to see you right away, Ed.”

Her tone kept me from asking any questions. “All right. Shall I come over?”

“No! Not here, Ed.”

“Hold everything. Can you talk... or is someone listening?”

“I can talk. But I can’t tell you over the phone.”

“Want to come to my place?”

“I can’t do that.”

I asked her what she could do.

“Suppose you meet me in the park in half an hour.”

“Bayfront Park?”

“On the walk at the foot of Flagler.”

“In half an hour,” I promised, and hung up.

I sloshed some cognac in a water glass and put it down, sitting on the edge of my bed in pajamas. I had Lucile figured as not the jittery sort. Take the evening before, for instance. After I dragged Green out, she didn’t waste time on post mortems or attempted explanations.

No, she wasn’t the sort to go jittery without plenty of cause. I took a cold tub and got dressed without asking myself too many questions. After all, I hadn’t dodged the issue in my interview with Green.

She was waiting for me when I parked my car on the near end of Flagler. She looked like hell before breakfast.

Her left eye was an ugly bluish-green. The whole left side of her face was angry and swollen. She hadn’t put on any rouge or powder, and the hem of a white slip showed beneath her blue tailored skirt. She looked for all the world like a stevedore’s sweetie who had unsuccessfully tried to get away with a bit of two-timing.

I said, “What the hell?” and began chuckling.

She grabbed my arm, hard, and led me to an unoccupied bench behind a clump of oleanders. There wasn’t a spark of mirth in her eyes as we sat down together.

“It’s nothing to laugh about, Ed.”

“Green must have recovered from the solar plexus knockout,” I guessed.

Lucile nodded. She touched the shiner with her fingertips. “He gave me this... when I refused to give him your address.”

“What would he have given you if you hadn’t decided to cough up the address?”

She started violently. “How did you know...?”

“He didn’t impress me as the sort of a bird who would stop at a shiner.”

She shuddered. “He would have killed me, Ed.”

“When can I expect a visit from him?”

“That... depends. I promised I’d try to get you to meet him some place where you could be alone.”

“What,” I asked her, “is the plot?” I gave her a cigarette and took one. Lit them both. She puffed on hers half a dozen times, grimacing with her bruised lips.

“Before God, I wish I knew.”

“Jealousy?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “It’s rather late for that.”

“Then what’s it all about?” I asked roughly.

She looked away from me. Stared across the bay. Her thickening lips twitched. “I think he intends to kill you.”

“Sure, I know that. But why?”

“What you did to him last night is enough reason for Harry Green.”

“Why did he jump me last night?”

She asked drearily: “Don’t you know?”

“I haven’t the faintest idea.”

“All this doesn’t matter.” She grabbed my arm again. “You’ll have to get out of Miami, Ed.”

“I like it here.”

“Enough to... want to stay always?”

“I’d just as soon be buried here as anywhere.”

“No, Ed! My God!” She was shaking uncontrollably. “It’ll be my fault.”

I stretched out my legs and puffed on my cigarette. “I’m too old to learn to run from things I don’t understand.”

“But he’ll kill you. You don’t understand. It’s not only Harry. It’s...” She caught in her breath sharply.

I pretended not to notice. “I’m stubborn as hell. And as curious as an old maid about what’s under a man’s shirt tail.”

“He’ll... not stop with you, Ed.” The words came faintly. She was twisting a lace handkerchief into a wispy string.

I lit another cigarette from the butt of my first one. “Here’s the way I get the picture: Green has some reason for thinking I’m in his way — not only so far as you’re concerned. Am I right?”

Lucile nodded.

“Just to be on the safe side,” I went on conversationally, “he decides to rub me out... and at the same time he’s likely to make it tough on you.”

Another nod. The tip of Lucile’s pink tongue was caressing her swollen lips. She seemed to be studying my words carefully — as though they were more important than I was making them sound.

“I still like Miami,” I told her.

She cupped her chin in her hands, resting her elbows on her knees, gazing out through a rent in the foliage to the blue of Biscayne Bay rippling to the feel of an inshore breeze.

“Let’s take a ride up to your hotel.” I took hold of her arm and pulled her up.

She drew back. “We’d better not.”

“Afraid Green might be keeping tabs?”

She nodded nervously.

I said, “To hell with Green,” and pulled her toward my car. With her riding beside me, I went on: “You can call him as soon as we get there. I’ll tell you what to say later.”

She didn’t answer. I saw her looking at me out of the corners of her eyes. I was doing a lot of figuring in a hurry and it didn’t add up right.

Lucile put her hands on my shoulders as soon as the door of her room closed behind us. Lifted her face to mine. “Don’t mix up with Harry. Please darling. Take my word for what he is.”

She tried to pull my face down to hers. I pushed her away. “What the goddamn hell is all this about?”

She walked over to the window and stood beside it, looking out across the bay.

I said: “Don’t bother to put on a show for me. I’ve got the layout down pretty well. Just how does this Green stack up with the gang you’re playing ball with?”

She whirled on me. All of her face was white except for the bruised place. “What do you mean? Who are you?”

“Barlow’s the name.”

“But... what made you say that other?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “That’s the only way I can hook up Green’s play.”

“How much do you know about that?” she demanded.

“Not a lot about anything. I’m using the brains God gave me and I know there’s something besides jealousy behind Green trying to put me on the spot. He looks like a guy with too much sense to fight over a skirt.”

Color flamed into her cheeks. “So, you don’t think I’m worth fighting over?”

“Hell no. No split-tail is.”

“All right.” She was breathing hard. “Read the cards if you’re so wise.”

“I figure Green for the trigger-man in the gambling racket you’re fronting for. Somebody’s made a mistake and put the finger on me. Maybe you.”

She was staring at me as though I had just come into her life. “So Harry was right. You are wise.”

“Plenty.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Why the hell should I do anything?”

“Harry thinks you’re a dick.”

I snorted. “That guy doesn’t think.”

She came close to me. “Honest to God, Ed, I don’t give a damn, see. I like you. That’s plenty. But it isn’t enough for Harry. It’s his job to be suspicious of everybody and everything.”

“So he decides to rub me out on suspicion? And, after it’s all over... you will have fingered me?”

She shuddered and put her arms around my neck. “I’m taking a chance on getting it myself by warning you.”

“You’re all right.” I kissed her ear and she liked it. “But Green is all wet. If he’ll let me put my cards on the table, I can prove to him that I’m a right guy.” I took her hands down from around my neck so she could get her mind back on important things.

“He was going out to the salon on Weston Avenue. Maybe you could see him there.”

“What’s the address?”

She gave it to me. And told me the password for the week was Walla-Walla.

I frowned and shook my head. “That’s too much like walking into something. He might not give me a chance to talk. I’d like to meet him on neutral ground.”

How the hell to do it? I went back and forth across the carpet while Lucile mixed us both a drink. I asked her if anyone knew about Green beating her up.

“I rang for the porter,” she admitted. “He came up and Harry left.”

I thought that over. She went into the bathroom and closed the door after putting her drink down. The bedroom door was open. I stepped in softly and went to the bureau. A pair of soiled white gloves lay there. I put one of them in my pocket. And picked up one of a pair of flashy emerald earrings.

I was standing by the table sipping my drink when she came out of the bathroom.

“You’d better call Green,” I told her. “Make a date to meet him at the north end of Lummus Park on the beach just after dark. Tell him it has to do with me.”

“What’s it for, Ed? What are you going to do?”

“I’ll see him and have a chat.”

“You’ll be careful?” She came close to me. The drink had put a sheen in her undiscolored eye. Her hands crept up to my shoulders.

“Sure I’ll be careful. Think I want to stop breathing now?” I reached around and patted her.

She smiled at me and pouted out her lips.

“Business before pleasure.” I pushed her toward the telephone.

She called a number and waited. Then asked for Mr. Green. Listening a moment, she covered the mouthpiece and told me he wasn’t in.

“Leave the message for him,” I directed her.

She left a message for Mr. Green to meet Mrs. Travers at the north end of Lummus Park shortly after dark.

That was all to the good. A witness to the fact that Green had gone to meet her wouldn’t hurt my plan a bit.

I broke away right after that was fixed up. She was all set to have me stay for another go-round, but I had to get away from where I could look into her eyes.

I satisfied her with a promise to come back that night, and got out.

At my hotel, I told the clerk I had been called to Jacksonville on business and would leave that night, explaining that I’d keep my room and be back in a day or so.

He looked up train schedules for me and found an F.E.C. going out at seven that carried a day coach. That was what I wanted. I asked him to get a ticket for me, and told him I would bring a bag down to be checked.

I packed a bag and left it in the lobby, then went out and walked up the street to a travel agency and picked up an F.E.C. folder. The seven o’clock train made a stop at Little River and one at North Miami Beach. I knew there was an ocean drive running north from Lummus Park to North Miami Beach on which I should be able to make good time after dark.

But I wanted to be damned sure there wasn’t any slip-up, so I drove over to the north end of Lummus Park and timed myself to North Miami Beach.

I made it in ten minutes less than the train schedule. Coming back, I parked my car in front of the hotel and went to my room where I poured a slug of cognac down me and called the Bugle.