Potshot

Chapter 8

BACK AT THE Jack Rabbit Inn I went to the bar. I liked air-conditioned bars on hot afternoons, when there weren't many people there and it was quiet and sort of dim. They had Coors on draught. I ordered some and it arrived in a chilled glass. Perfect. When I had drunk half of it, I turned and rested my elbows on the bar and looked around the room. The walls were paneled in bleached oak. There were some Georgia O'Keeffe prints. Behind the bar was a mirror, with the booze stacked in front of it, backlit so it looked enticing. Above the mirror was a large painting of a nude woman with a red silk scarf over her pelvis. I finished the beer and ordered another one. The doors to the bar were bat-winged. Posted on the wall to either side were an assortment of fake wanted posters.

The whole look made me want to wear my gun low in a tooled holster. Except the gun was real.

"No one should drink alone," someone said, and Bebe Taylor slid her good-looking butt onto a barstool next to me.

"So I'm volunteering," she said.

"Tough dirty work," I said.

"But someone has to do it," Bebe said. "I drink gimlets."

I gestured the bartender down and ordered for her.

"Why aren't you out selling a house?" I said.

"I came down here to see you," she said.

The gimlet arrived, and she picked it up and held it toward the light.

"I think one reason I like these is that they look so nice," she said.

"Any reason's a good one," I said, just to be saying something. "Why did you want to see me?"

"Your nose has been broken," she said.

"Thank you for noticing," I said.

"I like a man whose nose has been broken," she said.

"That's why I had it done."

"And," she said, "I like men who are silly."

"Well, little lady, you've got the right hombre."

She smiled. Each of us drank.

"You know, you're something of a hunk," Bebe said.

A middle-aged couple in shorts and tank tops came in and sat at the end of the bar and ordered vodka and tonics, and something called Alamo burgers.

"What the hell is an Alamo burger?" I said to Bebe.

"A cheeseburger with a chili pepper on it."

"Let the good times roll," I said.

"You're a big one, aren't you," Bebe said.

"Just the right size for my clothes," I said.

Bebe leaned back a little and looked me over as if she might buy me.

"You're not fat at all," she said. "How'd you get so big?"

"Practice," I said.

She reached over and squeezed my bicep.

"Oooo," she said.

"Oo?"

"You must be very strong."

We drank again, which took care of Bebe's gimlet. I nodded to the bartender and he brought her another one.

"Are you in town alone?" she said.

"Yes."

"Is that because you are alone?"

"You mean do I have a person?"

"Yes."

"I do." I said.

"What's her name?"

"Susan," I said.

"You married?"

"Not exactly."

"Not exactly? What does that mean?"

"It means not exactly," I said.

Bebe tasted her new gimlet. Quite a lot of it.

"Leaves you room to maneuver," she said.

I saw no reason to explain Susan and me to Bebe, so I nodded.

"She pretty?"

"No," I said. "She's beautiful."

"Well aren't you gallant?" She put the stress on the last syllable.

"I'm accurate." I stressed the last syllable, too.

"Is she as beautiful and sweet as Lou Buckman?" Bebe said.

"Do I hear irony in your voice?" I said.

"Of course not," Bebe said.

She finished her second gimlet in another big swallow. I nodded at the bartender.

"Lou is very beautiful… and very sweet."

She looked at her empty glass and looked up at the bartender. She saw that he was putting the finishing touches on her next gimlet, and looked relieved.

"As sweet as you?" I said.

Bebe grinned. She was already a little sloshed.

"Almost," she said.

The bartender put her third gimlet on a napkin in front of her. She picked it up promptly and drank some.

"And how sweet are you?" I said.

"Maybe you'll find out," she said.

"Okay, so how sweet is Lou?"

Bebe giggled.

"Maybe you'll find that out, too. You wouldn't be the first."

"I thought she was blissful in her marriage," I said.

"Sometimes."

Bebe had a little gimlet.

"Tell me about it," I said.

She looked at my half glass of beer.

"You're not staying up with me," she said.

"I started before you," I said.

"You don't like to get drunk?" she said.

"I find it hampers me when I do."

She giggled.

"Wouldn't want you hampered," she said and bumped her knee against mine.

I tried to look seductive.

"Tell me about Lou and Steve."

"Them," she said.

I nodded encouragingly.

"Well I know at least two men she had flings with. I assume they weren't the only two."

"I'll be damned," I said. "Who were they?"

Bebe slugged in some gimlet.

"The men she had flings with," I said. Spenser, you old gossip.

"Well Mark, for one, and dear old Dean-o for another."

"Mark Ratliff?"

"Un-huh."

"And the cop?"

"Dean Walker," she said.

"And how do you know this?" I said.

Bebe smiled as serenely as she could, being fairly well bagged.

"Men like to kiss and tell," she said. She might have said, "kissh."

"These guys just stopped by the office one day and told?" I said.

"Not exactly," she said.

"Am I to gather that you were flinging a little yourself?" I said.

She giggled and drank.

"I like to kissh and tell, myself."

"Don't we all?" I said.

She finished her gimlet.

"You got a room?" she said.

"Sure do," I said.

"Let's go see it," she said.

"Let's," I said.

I was trying to leer, but she was too drunk to notice. I signed the tab and took her arm and we went out of the bar and into the lobby and up the stairway to my room.

Inside, she looked around the room.

"So neat," she said. "Whyn't you have room service bring us up a drink? I gotta freshen up a little."

"You bet."

She was in the bathroom for a long time. When she came out I could see that she had worked on her hair a little, and there was a fresh smell of newly sprayed perfume.

"Room service come yet?"

"Not yet," I said.

"Well maybe we should lie on the bed and wait for them," she said.

"That would be swell," I said.

She walked over to the bed, and lay down on it. She smiled at me and patted the bed beside her.

"Come on," she said. "I won't bite."

I sat on the edge of the bed next to her.

"So tell me a little about Steve Buckman," I said.

She stared up at me. Her eyes were unfocused. Her pupils looked very big.

"Steve?"

"Yes, what was he really like?"

She kept looking at me.

"Come on," she said. "Let's do it now."

"You think Steve was different than he seemed?" I said.

Her eyelids drooped. I thought she might be trying to look vampish. Then her eyelids shut. I was saved. She was asleep. I straightened her out a little, put the