The Long Wait

Chapter Eight

She was just slipping out of the dress, a tan velvet animated thing partially hidden by the swirl of the translucent fabric. The lights from the dressing table behind her brought out the strong surge of youth in her body, the firm, sweeping curves of her breasts underlined by a stomach so flat it looked almost sucked-in and held in place with a play of muscles that danced as she moved.

This is the way her act should have ended. I thought. It would have been pure art. She almost had the thing off when the band outside hit a chord and she knew the door was open. The second she saw me she looked like a frightened fawn ready to bolt, then she had the dress up in front of her and backed away from me with her eyes wide.

I grinned because she was worried about the inevitable and it had stayed hidden. I said, “You do remember me, don’t you?”

She licked her lips and a frown worked its way into her eyes. “Okay, kid, don’t drop dead from fright on me, will you? I’ve seen you like that before only it was better in the moonlight.”

“You... startled me, Johnny. You should’ve knocked.”

“It occurred to me too late.”

“Well, if you don’t mind, play the gentleman for a second and turn your back. Moonlight and unshaded bulbs are two different things.”

She threw me one of those funny smiles and I turned around. Women can sure get some screwy ideas. I said, “Got any plans for tonight?”

I guess she took me wrong. The way she said no was as if I’d just slapped her across the jaw.

“Not those kind of plans, Wendy. I meant were you figuring on doing anything tonight.”

“Just go home to bed. I’m pretty tired.”

“Like to take in the town some?”

She didn’t say anything. I turned around and she was bent over peering into the mirror with a lipstick in her hand. The harsh light of the naked bulbs made her hair look like it had been painted on, but not deep enough. It was showing dark down around the scalp. I said, “Well?”

“Not... tonight, Johnny. I’m too tired.”

“It’s pretty important.”

The lipstick poised an inch away from her mouth. “Go on.”

“The last of the unholy trio who tried to dump me in the quarry is out on the main highway in two pieces.”

Her face made a grimace of horror before she spoke. “Did you...”

“I would’ve if I could’a caught him. He wrapped his car up.”

“But what’s that got to do with tonight?”

I looked at her and grinned a little bit, then slid into a wicker chair and lit a butt. “He had a thousand bucks in his pocket. All nice, new bills. It was pay-off dough.” I blew a finger of smoke into the lights and watched it roll up toward the ceiling. “He got that dough from a guy named Eddie Packman. I want to find that boy. Tonight.”

“And you want me to go with you?”

“Uh-huh.”

“No.” She turned back to the mirror and drew the lipstick across her mouth slowly. Our eyes met in the mirror and held. “Johnny... look, I know how you feel and all... but I like to live. You’re trouble, bad trouble. You haven’t been here any time at all and already three people are dead.”

“It’s only the beginning, kid.”

“I... know.” She dropped her head, then turned away from me quickly. “Do you... mind too much?”

I shrugged carelessly. “Not that much, sugar. A guy can do more when he’s not solo, that’s why I want company. Hell, half those fancy clip joints won’t even let you on the floor when you haven’t got a babe under your arm.”

She slipped the lipstick back in its case and stared at it. Her head came up in a slow arc and she let her eyes roam over my face. “Sometimes...” she began.

“Yeah?”

“Maybe it would have been better if you had stayed away, Johnny.”

“Better for who, sugar? Better for a slob of a killer who’s out enjoying himself?”

“I didn’t mean that.”

Maybe it was the light that made her eyes look so misty. I couldn’t be sure so I stepped up to her for a better look and it wasn’t the light at all. They were misty and getting wetter until they swam in their own sadness. She smiled a little crookedly and reached for my hand.

“I’m a sad sack, aren’t I?” she said. “I haven’t got any shame... any sense. I’m sorry I’m silly, Johnny.”

“You aren’t silly.”

Outside, the band swung into a slow waltz, a tired song that drifted in through the walls like a vapor and wrapped around us. She had the light behind her like the sun filtering through a haystack and a tear was ready to roll down each cheek. “You aren’t silly,” I said again.

“I was doing fine until you came along. There’s a hundred men out there who’d love to make love to me and the only one I want is you.”

I wanted to answer her, but there wasn’t any room for words. Her mouth was a fiery cushion against mine, her body a warm curve that melted and flowed into mine, pressing so tightly I could feel every tremor that ran in excited little ripples from her lips to her feet.

My fingers caught in her hair and pulled her head back. “You’re a good kid, Wendy,” I grinned at her.

She didn’t grin back. The corners of her eyes tilted with an obscure humor, but that was all. “Good? You know how good I am. I was good then I grew up. By the time I got smart it was too late. I was a tramp and I’m not making any bones about it. Take a long look, Johnny, and you’ll see it all, every bit of it. You’ll see a gal who’s been kicked around and did a lot of kicking herself. Now I put on an act that shows a little skin and I’m some sort of a success and until you came along I was pretty contented. I have a house, a car and a couple of good friends and I thought I had enough. See what you did to me?”

“Nuts, you’re still a good kid.”

This time she did grin. Just a little. “I can’t be. If I was I wouldn’t be so stupid and so perfectly frank as to stand here telling you that I was a tramp and almost in love with you to boot.”

I tried to say something, but she wouldn’t let me get in a word. “Don’t worry about it, Johnny. Let me be stupid, but don’t feel sorry for me. If there’s any loving to be done, let me do it I’m not that stupid. I won’t tie you down no matter how many kisses you want. Is that plain enough?”

For a good ten seconds I did nothing but stand there and look at her. It was the first time her soul was in her face and it wiped out all the hard lines around her eyes. I said, “Yeah... I guess it is.”

“By the way... I have news about your Vera West.”

I hardly heard her. “Tell me.”

“I asked around like you told me to and one of the entertainers saw her up at the State Capital a few years back. She was playing around with some local character.”

“How’d they know it was Vera?”

“Because she had seen her with Servo when she was booked in some of the clubs in Lyncastle.”

I grunted something and nodded. When I thought about it I said, “Was that before or after she broke up with him?”

She pinched her tongue between her teeth, then, “When she vanished she vanished completely, didn’t she?”

“Looks that way.”

“Then it must have been before.”

I thought it over but my mind couldn’t fit it in anyplace. So she took a flyer on Lenny and so what. Maybe she was tired of his games. I shoved her away gently, holding her out where I could look at her. “Keep asking. Maybe something good’ll turn up. Sure you won’t change your mind about tonight?”

“Please... not tonight.”

I liked that about her, too. I tossed the butt into an ash tray and opened the door. The tail end of the waltz rushed in on a wave of applause, echoing off the walls. When I looked back she was still standing there watching me. “Kid,” I said, “I’m not so interested in virgins that I’d trade a real woman for one.”

He smile was beautiful this time. Then she stuck her tongue out at me and I shut the door.

Louie met me coming out and waved me over to the bar for a drink. Without being told the bartender shoved some thing that bubbled under our noses and we raised the glasses in a silent toast. Louie smacked his lips and crooked his head at me. “Tell me something. You take Wendy away from here?” He caught the question in my glance and added, “I see her watch you alla time. Me, I know. I have the wife. Lots of pretty girls before that too, you betcha!” He let out a series of grunts and patted himself in the belly in pleasure.

“Look, Louie, you don’t want to lose her, do you?”

“Hell, Wendy goes and my trade goes too.” He grunted again. “Maybe not. Men, they like to see the naked women. Sometimes I don’t think they care what she’s like as long as she’s female.”

“You’re quite a philosopher. Wendy’s not a naked woman.”

“Sure, that’s even better. She’s better’n a stripper. Let her show one extra inch and these men think they really see something... Not so good to show it all at once. Wendy, she’s a good girl.” He peered at me knowingly.

“That’s what I told her, Louie.”

“She’s had it rough you know.”

“Sure.”

“But she’s a nice girl. You understand?”

“I understand.”

“You treat her rough and you know what happen. You understand that, too?”

If he hadn’t been so damn serious he would have sounded funny. Like her father or something. I raised the glass and drained down the last of the bubbly water. “Don’t worry, Louie, she won’t get treated rough. I kind of like the kid, see?”

“Sure, Johnny. I know. Me, I guess I worry too much. She’s here long time now. We two good friends. Old Nick, he’s good friend too. In that town back there...” he waved a thumb over his shoulder, “... is all kinds of no-good things. Here it’s pretty good and we like it that way. You know.”

I played with the glass a little bit. The bartender tried to fill it up but I held my hand over the top. “You know much about those bad things, Louie?”

“Some. I don’t shop for trouble. I see who goes in and who comes back. Lotsa trade goes through this place.”

“You know a guy named Eddie Packman?”

At first I didn’t think he was going to answer me, then he said, “Why?”

“He’s a wise guy.”

“He’s a tough guy too.”

“Not that tough. Know where I can find him?”

“He’s gotta joint...”

“Nope. He’s on the town tonight.”

“Then he’s gotta woman. You go to the Ship’n Shore. You find him there. He’s a big stuff with a woman. Always he has one two feet bigger than him. You taking Wendy?”

“No.”

“That’s good. You find trouble with somebody else.”

“Yeah, Wendy suggested the same thing. Okay, Louie, thanks for the info. I’ll see you later. Take care of my girl.”

I slid off the stool and waited for a couple to unblock the aisle. Louie’s beefy fingers snagged my arm. “Johnny... you ever kill anybody?” His voice was almost lost in the hubbub.

My face tightened up all by itself and my stomach felt hollow. It was something I didn’t like to answer, but the answer must have been right there because he added, “You get tough with this Packman... somebody die all right. Somebody get killed quick.”

I nodded and he let go of my arm. “It won’t be me,” I said.

“No, it won’t be you, Johnny.”

The band started another noisy piece that cleared the bar of dancers long enough for me to squeeze through. I stopped by the door and lit another smoke, trying hard to unscramble the ends and put them together long enough to lead me some-wheres.

Somebody wanted me out of the way. Somebody put a thousand bucks in the pocket of a guy who tried to do it. That somebody could be Packman, and if it was Packman he could supply a lot of answers. Like where was Vera West, for instance.

My mind started turning over fast and I dug some change out of my pants. There was an empty row of phone booths off to one side and I grabbed the one on the end. The operator took my nickel for the unlisted number in the red light section, then rang it twice until that voice sounding like a tall, cool drink said hello.

I said, “I’m the guy who pulled the tassel, remember?”

Her laugh was the drink spilling over. “Yes, I certainly remember. You seemed startled.”

“I never pulled a tassel before.”

“What a pity.”

“Look, you said you’d ask around...”

“That’s right, I did. Do you...” she hesitated a moment, “think we can discuss the matter in say, a half hour?” In the background I heard the low murmur of voices and the chink of ice in a glass. I caught it fast.

“A half hour’s fine. Do we talk there or some other place?”

“Yes... please...”

“Okay, I’ll be parked down the street from your place in a half hour. I’ll have the dimmers on. You’ll see me.”

She was saying good-by when I hung up.

It didn’t take me long to get there. Both sides of the street were lined with heaps from battered pickups to flashy convertibles, out-of-state license plates predominating. A black Buick was pulling away from the curb and I slid into the slot it left.

I still had fifteen minutes to go, so I dragged out the butts and lit up. The second one was down to my fingers when a shaft of light hit the sidewalk as the door to the house opened. Venus in a tailored suit was framed there for a brief second before the door closed and the darkness swallowed her again.

Her heels made little tapping sounds on the pavement as if they were keeping time with some inaudible music. I switched the dimmers on and off twice then left them on and watched her walk into their soft glow. When she was opposite the car I pushed the door open and waited.

Then Venus with her heavenly aroma slid in next to me and plucked the butt out of my fingers for a last drag before flipping it out the window. “I feel like a schoolgirl,” she smiled.

“Sneak out?”

“More or less.”

“Sorry if I interrupted something.”

“Oh,” her eyes slanted a little and grinned at me, “it wasn’t that important. As a matter of fact, I was looking for an excuse to get away when you called.” She leaned over and turned the switch on the radio, then fiddled with the dial until the throbbing beat of a symphony filled the car. “The Philadelphia... mind?”

“Not at all.”

Venus was quite a woman. Quite. Red light de luxe but loved her symphonies. She sat with her head back on the seat, her eyes half closed, breathing in every note.

I let her listen to the last of it. Fifteen minutes of sitting there not saying a word until only the echo was left then I shut it off. She dreamed on for a minute longer before her head came up and another smile leaned in my direction. “You’re a pleasure to be with, man.”

I said thanks kind of dryly, waited, then: “You didn’t come out to listen to that, did you?”

This time she laughed deep in her throat and without any kind of coyness slid her hand under mine. “You don’t know much about women, do you?”

“Enough, I guess.”

“I said women.”

“Is there a difference?”

“You’d be surprised.”

“Then I guess I don’t know much.” She didn’t know how much truth was in that statement. You don’t learn much in just a few years. Not even a lifetime.

“You’re about to learn, man,” Venus grinned. Her hand squeezed mine just enough so I’d know exactly what she meant. Not that it was necessary. The devil had been there in her voice and her eyes warming me with the thought. She reached for the cigarettes in my pocket without taking her eyes from mine. “Not now of course,” she added. “Later. In style.”

“Of course,” I tried to say knowingly.

It sounded like a croak.

She pulled the dash lighter out, held it to the tip of her cigarette a moment and stuck it back. Through the smoke she said, “You wanted to know about Vera West.”

The warm feeling I had went away. Fast. “That’s right.”

“Everybody wants Vera, don’t they?”

“Jack tell you?”

She nodded. “I didn’t learn much until he did. The girls were a little afraid to talk about it, but I gathered that they had been approached by several men and quizzed.”

“Who?”

“The men weren’t identified. Frankly, I believed the girls when they said they didn’t know them, but from what was said, the men weren’t exactly strangers in town.”

I mulled it over a minute and she anticipated my next question. “No description. The girls were tanked at the time and weren’t paying any attention to the men. They... see a lot of men, you know.”

“Yeah, but hell, why pick on them? How would they know about Vera?”

“One,” she told me softly, “happened to be a girlhood friend of Vera’s. The other happened to be a pet flame of Eddie Packman’s when Vera and Servo were making a big thing of it. At the time they were quite friendly.”

“You question them?”

“Without any results. When Vera went she went completely. Nobody seems to know what happened to her.”

“Any chance of her being... dead?”

“You know...” her lip went under her teeth momentarily, “I thought of that and would’ve considered it a possibility if it hadn’t been for one thing.”

“Yeah?”

“Servo didn’t break with Vera like he did with the others. It was the other way around. In fact, Lenny Servo was pretty upset about it from what I heard. He had it pretty hard for that girl. Later, of course, he acted like it was all his doing. The guy’s neck-high in pride especially where women are concerned. No, I don’t think Vera’s dead at all. I think she disappeared of her own will.”

“Why?” I asked.

“That’s something I haven’t figured out yet. If she had something on Lenny and proposed to use it she certainly wouldn’t have gone off like that. That is, if she was smart enough to protect what she had so Lenny couldn’t touch her. No, I don’t think that was it at all. She had another reason for leaving.”

“She could have been afraid of somebody,” I said.

“Maybe, but it would have had to be Lenny. Nobody else could scare her into leaving.”

“Why?”

She shrugged her shoulders eloquently. “Lenny Servo is still boss in this town and as long as you’re on his side nobody bothers you. Lenny would take care of them quick. Certainly if someone was after her for some reason she would have told Lenny and that would have ended it right there.”

She was right. She had it down pat, every bit of it, and it all made sense. I flipped my butt out the open window and stared at her. “There’s only one catch to it.”

“There is?”

“Don’t you see it?”

“Well... no.”

“Maybe Lenny isn’t the boss.”

Her lips parted in a faint sarcastic smile. “Man, you just don’t know Lenny Servo.”

“No, but I will, chicken, I will. In fact, I’m very anxious to know Mr. Servo. It’s going to be one of the big moments of my life. The second big moment.”

“What’s the first?”

“Finding a crumb named Eddie Packman”

“Brother,” she whispered, “have you got a case.”

“Like to come along?”

“I’d love it, man, just love it. I’m really interested in finding out whether you’re a jerk or not.”

“And if I’m not?”

“Then you’ll find out what a real woman’s like. In style of course.”

This time I said, “Of course,” and it didn’t come out a croak. I kicked the starter in and pulled away from the curb. Behind me a little coupé grabbed the space before my fenders cleared the car in front. Business was good tonight.

Down at the comer I made a U-turn and headed back toward town. My lovely zombie turned her head questioningly in my direction and asked me, “Where are we going?”

“To a place called the Ship’n Shore. Know where it is?”

“Umm. We’re really going fancy. Stay on the River Road. You can’t miss it. That where you expect to find Eddie Packman?”

“Maybe.” I switched the radio back on again, only this time no symphony. Just a nice sexy rumba instead. “By the way, what do I call you?”

She looked at me sleepily. “Oh, any pet name will do.”

“Don’t you have a real one?”

“I did, man. That was a long time ago.”

“Okay, Venus.”

“Okay, man.”

“The name is Johnny. Johnny McBride.”

“Okay, Johnny.” Her eyes touched my face speculatively a second and something like a grin pulled at her mouth. “I’m in fast company, aren’t I?” She mused. “I thought there was something familiar about you. That picture in the paper didn’t do you justice.”

The grin got very real. “But never mind, a lot of my best friends have had overnight accommodations in our official hostelry.”

This time she curled her arm around mine and pulled herself over closer, leaning her head on my shoulder. I liked it that way. Her hair was so black it was invisible in the darkness, but I could feel little feathers of it brushing my face and smell the flowers that seemed to be growing there.

A signpost told me where to cut off on the River Road and a neon-trimmed sign said the place we were after was only two miles ahead. Long before we got there the aurora of the lights showed up like a false dawn while the breeze carried the throbbing rhythm of “Bolero” through the air.

It had been another long day and it wasn’t over yet. Logan with that back history of mine. Lindsey and Tucker and the boys from Washington with all their science and gadgets. My hands were still sore. A murder I didn’t have anything to do with for a change. A screwy ad in the paper and a screwier phone call then a dead man I did have something to do with.

Thinking about the phone call was what got me. Who the hell was so interested in me and why? I gave Venus a poke with my elbow. “You awake?”

Her hand squeezed my arm.

“You know anybody named Harlan?”

First she didn’t do anything. Then she tilted her head forward and glanced at me with her face wrinkled up. “Just Harlan?”

“That’s as much of it as I know.”

“There was a girl once... a long time ago. That was her name. Funny you should mention it.”

I took my foot off the gas and let the heap slow down some. “Go on,” I said.

“She was a dancer... we were in a show together. I know that Harlan was her stage name, but I never knew her other.”

“When was this?”

“Oh, a long time ago. Ten years. Both of us were new at the time. When the show closed I never went back on the stage, but I remember reading about Harlan occasionally. For a while she was pretty successful, then I never heard any more about her. Why, Johnny?”

“That’s what I’d like to know. Why. Why a lot of things? Remember what she looked like?”

“Dressed or undressed?”

“Both.”

“Dressed she was very beautiful. However, like most of the show-lovelies, she was a very plain base upon which make-up showed to the best advantage. There was nothing to hide; everything added was an improvement. Understand?”

I nodded to show that I did.

“She was about my size, brown hair, no distinguishing features that might set her apart after all these years. Oh yes, she was dumb. The genuine beautiful-but-dumb type. She was quite a doll as long as she kept her mouth shut. When she voiced an opinion all her admirers got sick to their stomachs.”

“She sounds great. Would she be in Lyncastle?”

“Not if I know Harlan. I’ve never seen her around.”

“Maybe it’s a different woman. That is, if Harlan is a woman.”

I let out a couple of dirty words under my breath and shoved the gas pedal down again. There was the answer all right. Harlan was either a man or a place. Great, I was doing fine again. And for a couple of minutes it all looked so good, too.

Venus lost herself in thought before she spoke again. “Someplace at home I have a picture of the old chorus lineup. The Harlan I knew is in it. Just for kicks I’ll dig it up.”

I muttered an okay and pulled the Ford around a curve. Up ahead was the Ship’n Shore looking like a grounded houseboat, alive with lights and sound. On the near side was a two-acre parking lot crammed to the fences with not a sign of anybody even thinking about going home.

A colored attendant waved me into a slot near the gate, took the four bits for his wave with an unconcerned nod and went back into his stuccoed cabana. You didn’t need a guide around the place, not with all the neon fixtures that told you just what was where. The bar was in the front of the place with the main lounge directly behind it protruding out over the water. Every table was packed, the dance floor was a blur of motion and out over the water on the open deck you could see the flashes of white that were faces merging with other flashes of white.

But the gimmicks were upstairs. The place had a second story that had windows all around except for a section in back and nobody tried to hide the chant of the croupiers or the whir of the wheels. You could even see the clusters of people hovering over the tables, straightening up when the throw was made, reaching for more moola to keep in the game.

Venus didn’t give me any choice. She nudged me into the bar, smiled a smile that got us a rail position and immediate service and ordered up a pair of highballs. They were two bucks each but I wasn’t bothering about money. Not with those nice, crisp bills tucked away in my wallet.

I laid a new hundred-buck bill on the mahogany, watched it get changed into some old ones, shoved the bartender a fin for his trouble and downed the drink. Venus was about two swallows behind me. We had two more quickies when I noticed the gang lined up at the bar giving me and Venus the business with the eyes. I gave her a second look myself. Before, it was dark and she looked good.

Under lights she was really something.

Ever see a babe pass on the street who was all smooth curves with enough skin showing in spots to make it exciting? The kind you wanted to whistle at but couldn’t get your mouth puckered up fast enough? That was Venus. To make it rough on the boys she didn’t bother to wear anything under the jacket and where it dropped off in a long V before the buttons grabbed it together was something that made your breath catch m your throat. It wasn’t what you saw, but what you knew was there, and the business I was getting with the eyes was because it was there for me.

But that wasn’t all.

They knew damn well who she was all right. You could tell that. The boys weren’t above dropping down to her block occasionally. So tonight they were here and supposedly respectable, and the eyes made the business you’d give a slut when she walked into a church social. When I caught the angle I felt like knocking them all on their lily-white tails.

I guess the bartender took me for a hick on the town with his harvest wages because he was giving Venus the big look that meant she had a sucker in tow and upstairs was the place for the suckers. He waited until a quarter of the hundred was in the till then angled over in our direction polishing glasses.

He looked at me with a faint grin and said, “You can double that roll upstairs, friend.”

“I can?” I must have played it innocent enough because he nodded solemnly.

“Sure thing. Guy came through here last week and left with twenty-five grand.”

“Say now,” I nudged Venus with my knee. “That sounds pretty hot with the cubes, mister. Think there might be any big-money men up there who like to gamble? Really gamble, I mean?”

My boy played it cute. He leaned over confidentially. “All the big boys are upstairs, friend. All, I said. You’ll get your money’s worth.” He winked at Venus. “The lady too. Drinks on the house upstairs”

That was all I needed. I shoved the change in my pocket and the two of us edged back through the mob and followed the waiter who had come up at the bartender’s nod to show us the way. I gave him a fin, too.

It was fancier than I expected. A million bucks worth of chrome and pine paneling and not a cent of it going to waste. A bar ran the entire length of the room with tables along the other side if you felt like taking a ten-minute break. Every other inch of space was taken up with some kind of game with the biggest play being given the roulette that occupied the center position.

Up here Venus wasn’t so undressed. Most of the dames in evening dresses were going to catch cold on their lungs tomorrow. I changed another hundred for a stack of chips and started edging in on a dice table.

Venus grabbed my arm. “Ever meet Lenny Servo?” I didn’t like the quiet way she said it.

“We’ve met.”

She looked at me first, then her eyes went across the room to a faro spread. The background was supposed to be Western and the single light bulb that dangled inside the reflector over the table made the mouse under Lenny’s eye seem to take up the whole side of his face. He was talking to the dealer and when he looked up he saw Venus standing there and waved casually. Just as casually she waved back.

Me, I had two dames in front wide enough to block me off. Lenny didn’t see me and I wasn’t about to go over and shake his hand. Eddie Packman I wanted first. Then Lenny. I’d always find time for Lenny.

Nobody had to tell me about guys like him. Everything was written on his face and if something was left out you saw it in the way he strutted standing still. Servo was a little general, a brain, a whip, a sloppy son of a bitch and I felt like smearing him right there.

That gives you an idea of the kind of guy he was. A mug. A mug from way back. But a smooth mug with money to buy what he didn’t have even if it was somebody’s death.

When he turned back to the table again I pulled Venus over to me. “Now show me Packman.”

“I don’t see him yet.”

“Think we’d do better circulating around?”

“Perhaps. He can get lost in a crowd pretty easily.”

I reached in between a couple of hips and covered a number on the table. The wheel went around, the voice chanted and I lost. I tried again and lost again.

I had better luck at the dice table playing the field numbers. At least I recouped what I lost. We made our way around the room trying to act like just part of the crowd, but it didn’t do much good. Venus didn’t locate the guy and I didn’t see any tall babes who could have been his dish. By the time we made the complete circuit I had dropped a couple of hundred and was tired of playing tag with Servo. Every once in a while she’d point out a couple of prominent joes in the mob and give me a quick run-down. One was the mayor. He wasn’t with his wife, either. Two members of the city council were at the bar talking politics with what appeared to be a couple of businessmen. In each of the four corners were oversized lugs in tuxes that didn’t fit. Standard accessories in any joint, only two of them happened to be city cops picking up a few bucks in off-duty hours.

I had about as much of it as I could stand. I grabbed Venus and said, “Let’s get out of here.”

She tossed a couple of bucks on the table. “One more roll.” I waited, watched the cubes spin out and heard the stickman call it off. Venus turned around and grinned at me. “See, last rolls are lucky. Let me lose this then we’ll go.”

“Go ahead,” I told her. Hell, it wasn’t my dough.

She didn’t lose. Ten minutes later she was raking in the cabbage like dried leaves and half the room was over watching her do it. She got up past the twelve thousand mark and I started to get interested and if my damn head hadn’t been up and locked I would have seen what was coming.

He was a big guy and he wasn’t kidding. He had another guy just as big along to back him up and when he tapped me on the shoulder and said, “The boss wants to see you,” I played rube and fell in the middle between them and lockstepped through the crowd. I had to stop once to let a dame swish by and what prodded me in the back wasn’t the end of a finger.

We went out through a pair of swinging doors, down a corridor to a walnut-paneled door and the guy in front knocked twice sharply, waited until somebody called out to come in, then shoved the door open.

“You first.”

So I went first.

Lenny Servo was in the same position he had been in his own office, perched on the end of the desk. The guy in the swivel chair beside him was a greasy little fat boy with no hair and pig eyes and he looked like he was all set to enjoy himself. The other guy was a pimply-faced brat hardly out of his teens and he was having a great time testing the action on an oversized automatic, trying to make like he was tough.

With a motion he must have studied in front of the mirror, Lenny plucked a cigarette from a gold case, edged it into his mouth and lit up without looking at it. It was very neat. When he took a drag on it he said, “Hit him,” soft and easy like, and right on cue the three pair of eyes in front of me went a little bit to my right and behind me.

There was that much warning and it was enough. I turned under the swing, yanked the bastard off balance and kicked his buddy in the guts before he could get the gun out of his pocket. The puke spewed out of his mouth, but I was in back of him by then and didn’t worry about it. In fact, I wasn’t worried about anything. I had his gun in my fist and hoping like hell somebody would try something.

Lenny was funny. He couldn’t believe it had happened. His face was slack with surprise and he turned around to look at Pimples who still had the automatic in his hand. Pimples wasn’t so tough after all. The rod made a “thunk” on the carpet and little beads of sweat formed on his head and ran in crooked rivulets down through the maze of pimples.

Only the big guy on the floor tried something. He was so damn mad he was all set to take me, gun or no gun. His mouth was pulled back showing more gums than teeth and he crouched in front of me like a tackle ready to charge. Maybe he didn’t appreciate it, but I saved his life. I kicked him right in the neck and he went out like a light.

Pig eyes said, “Cripes! Lenny, you said...”

Lenny’s butt dropped on the carpet and the stink of singed wool filled the room. He was watching me with the surprise all gone, the skin over his cheekbones a little tighter than usual, but that was all. I had the gun pointing smack at his belly, but he wasn’t a bit scared.

Curious was the word.

“You needed enough help, Lenny,” I sneered.

He didn’t answer me.

“How many times are you going to try before you get smart? You better start reading the papers. There’s a lot of dead men lying around lately.”

The muscle in his cheek twitched. “It’s pretty hard to teach you a lesson, isn’t it?”

“Damn hard, pal.” I let the gun come up until it was pointing at his head. “I asked you a question the last time. Where is she?”

The color seemed to drain out of his face. He was absolutely white, a crazy mixture of impotent rage and bewilderment that held him tight as a bowstring. “Damn you, McBride,” he grated, “I’m going to get the both of you if it’s the last thing I do!”

I let him get it out of his system then wiped the muzzle of the rod across his jaw with a crack that knocked him on his knees. He squatted there, moaning softly, covering his face with his hands.

Fat boy behind the desk couldn’t keep his lips wet. His tongue was a pink streak licking out of his mouth while his hands were white blobs gripping the edge of his desk.

I said, “You don’t want to try a stunt like this again, do you?”

His jowls flapped as his head jerked from one side to another.

I looked over at Pimples and grinned at him. It must have been a hell of a grin. He fainted.

The two boys on the floor were making signs of getting up. I opened the gun, kicked the shells out and threw it beside the one I took it from. Lenny’s head came up out of his hands and he stared at me with all the hate he could muster up.

“You’ll die for that,” he said.

I felt like kicking him in the teeth. I should have instead of telling him, “That’ll be the day, Lenny.”

When I got back to the room Venus was still at the table, but the crowd was gone. She only had a little pile of bills left and the stickman had stopped sweating. I poked her in the ribs with my thumb and she jumped to attention. “From rags to riches and back again, huh?”

“Damn it, where’d you go? If you had stayed around I could have left with a fortune.”

“Sorry. What I had to do wouldn’t wait.”

“Oh.” She raked in what she had left and stuck the bills in her pocketbook. “Ready to go?”

“Any time.”

I steered her to the door and we had a nightcap in the bar downstairs. One of the off-duty cops spotted me and wrinkled his face as if he were puzzled. I wasn’t for sticking around long enough for something else to happen, so we took a quick tour of the dance floor just for luck. But if Eddie Packman was around he wasn’t where we could see him and they didn’t have rooms for rent in that joint.

Venus looked as disappointed as I felt. “Lousy try, huh?”

“Stinking,” I agreed.

“Want to try anyplace else?”

“Where?”

“Ah, there are a lot of places he might be. I think you’d do better to try the hotels. Unless he’s with a woman who’s giving him a hard time, he won’t be wasting the night floating around the clubs.”

“Ah, the hell with it. Tomorrow’s another day. I’ll find him.”

“But I wanted to see it happen,” she pouted.

“You’re a bloodthirsty devil.”

“Aren’t I though?”

She laughed up at me, her teeth flashing in the night. I bent over and let my mouth lean against hers. She didn’t kiss me. Her fingers grabbed my arms and she bit my lip then took the sting out of the bite with her tongue.

All so damn fast it was like being struck by a snake whose venom was a vicious, poisonous pleasure that left you rigid and trembling in your shoes.

Her breath came so fast the words tumbled out. “Don’t... ever do that again. Not you... not when there’s people around!”

I knew just how she felt. I slid my hand under her arm and made her walk to the car, feeling her leg touching mine, deliberately keeping pace with me, knowing her eyes were crawling over me. Venus knew how to make it rough on a guy.

When I got behind the wheel the boy came out of his little cabaña, waved me out for another four bits and I turned back toward town.

This time he earned his four bits. For a curious second he flashed his torch on the car that came roaring up behind me with the headlights off and I caught the reflection in the rear-view mirror. I didn’t have the chance to jump the Ford into high when the big job slammed into the back bumper then darted past on the right with the roaring slam of a heavy gun spitting holes in my windshield.

I did the only thing I could; tried to duck and wrench the wheel over as hard as possible, then jarred forward into the wheel when the tires hit the sand on the shoulder of the road. The rear wheels went up into the air as the nose tipped forward, then smashed back and bounced the car around in a quarter-arc before coming to a shuddering standstill.

Venus was jammed against me covered with splintered glass, the marks of it traced in blood on her cheeks. I couldn’t get my voice to say anything except “Damn, damn!”

The blood was there on her chest too, a dark trickle moving into the V of her jacket. I grabbed the lapels and tore them apart. The button held, then ripped loose and she was shamefully naked from the waist up and I was screaming mad because such beauty had to be wasted. My hand went out to stop the bleeding... do anything to keep her alive. My fingers probed for an ugly hole that should be swelling and didn’t find any so I wiped the blood away with the flat of my palm to look for it.

And it wiped away clean. There wasn’t any hole. I said, “Damn!”

Then her eyes opened and she whispered, “You can say that again.”

So I said it again, only this time with a grin.

“But you can keep looking if you want to,” she added softly.

I did that, too, looking and thinking how nice and round she was where it seemed so necessary, and so damn glad she was very much alive. Just why, I couldn’t figure. I could still hear the hum of those bullets passing in front of my nose.

She didn’t want to, but I made her close the jacket again.