Mitch knew quite a bit about them-all of it unpleasant. What he didn't know was how they had ever managed to live so long.
He took a taxi back through town and on to the airport. After lunch, and after wiring Red of his plans, he caught a plane for Big Spring in West Texas.
It would be a several hours' drive from there to the Lord ranch, but it was the only nearby town large enough to have a car rental service. Also he had a friend in Big Spring… a man who just might be of help to him.
19
Having passed her fortieth year, Teddy was just about out of the business of turning tricks. She didn't need the money- for all her wild spending she could not begin to get rid of her blackmail from Mitch. Moreover, she could seldom recapture the excitement which the excesses of her body had once given her. And never at all unless the buyer of her favors was very young and very handsome. Unfortunately, the young and handsome men who were in the market for prostituted flesh invariably chose to buy it from young and pretty women. Which- whatever else could be said for her-Teddy was not.
She still had a good figure; not as extravagantly exciting as it had been, but good. She still had a reasonably good face. But forty is forty, or, rather, it is much more than forty for a whore, and to the young it is ancient. To her own generation of males, or those preceding it, Teddy still appeared a highly desirable woman. But just as she was rejected by the young, she also rejected the old-and she looked upon any man as old who was not a great deal younger than she. Such 'old' men had always been repugnant to her. But what had once been a strong distaste for them was now a phobia. They filled her with a sickish terror, a feeling of incestuous violation, and she would almost choke with revulsion if one even came near her.
Women normally reach their peak of sexual desire in their early forties, so Teddy still wanted and needed men. But they had to be young. That was all that she asked of them-youth, not money. She was ready to give them money along with herself, if they were young and handsome.
Her need had led her into some unusual experiences.
Once she had hustled a guy on the street, a prim-looking youngster who wore white socks with black shoes, and she had taken him home with her, and there-of all things!-he had begged her to go down on her knees with him and pray for her soul.
Another time she had picked up a prospect in a bar, and taken him back to the apartment, and for a while it looked like he was going to be all right. He talked the lingo like an old head, and talk could be pretty exciting in itself. He sent out for a couple of jugs of good booze, and that was all right, too; Teddy's appetite for the whiz had increased with her years. But the hours went by, and she began to itch with her craving, and still he didn't get down to business. And finally when she was on the point of taking it away from him, he gave her his card-even Teddy recognized the name of the psychiatric clinic-and he also gave her fifty dollars. And he told her there would be another fifty for her, twice each week, when she reported to the clinic.
Teddy was outraged. An amazing case-history, was she? An untapped treasure of sexual source material! Why- why-!
Teddy had stopped the outside hustling after that. There was just no telling what you might run into. She stayed in her apartment, and occasionally some former customer would drop by-someone who had been very young to begin with, and was still acceptably young. Occasionally, when the intervals between customers became too great, she would find surcease in a messenger or delivery boy, or a bill peddler or- or-or any youngster who chanced to stray near her door. Once she had tried to hook the fourteen-year-old kid who delivered the newspaper, and the little bastard had yelled and run home to his parents. There might have been plenty of trouble about it, but fortunately for her no one paid any attention to the complaints of niggers.
Today, she was standing nude in front of the living-room's full-length mirror, fresh from her bath and critically admiring her body as she patted it dry with a towel, when she heard the knock on the door. It was one of those tricky little wiseguy knocks, a knock that suggested all sorts of exciting things to Teddy. Hastily, she snatched up a robe, her flesh already prickling with anticipation. She cracked the door open an inch, and peered Out, and then she flung it open wide. And delight welled up in her until she almost laughed out loud.
Two of them! Not one but two! And what a two they were! Black-haired, olive-skinned, and oh so beautifully, wonderfully young! Why, they hardly looked to be twenty, and they were laughing and carrying on like schoolboys. Their white linen jackets crackled with freshness, their shoes gleamed with polish and their trousers were flawlessly cleaned and creased. They were fresh and gay and boyish-looking, and yet they were obviously very much men. They were just what Teddy would have ordered if masculinity had been on order.
She didn't know who had referred them to her. The word got around in time, and who the hell cared how they had got here? All that mattered was that they were here, and making the most of every delicious moment of their stay.
Frankie turned the latch on the door. He snickered, winking at Johnnie, and Johnnie snickered and winked at him. Then they greeted Teddy in unison.
'Hi,' they said.
'Hi,' Teddy said.
'Hi,' they said again. And then the three of them laughed together at having such good clean fun.
Teddy let the robe slide from her. She cast a provocative glance at them, and asked who would like to come in the bedroom with her first. They said they usually did everything together, but Teddy put on a little pout at that. She said she thought it would be much nicer, if they were good little daddies and were nice for their nice little mama, and maybe they'd better match for turns.
'Sure, we'll flip for it,' Johnnie said. 'What'll you take, heads or tails?'
'Tails,' Frankie said.
'I'll take tails too,' Johnnie said.
'Now, wait a minute,' Teddy laughed happily. 'You both can't take tails.'
They said of course they could; tail was what they had come for. And Teddy laughed again.
'I know, but-but you have to take different things, darlings. You see…'
They had been advancing casually, as the banter went on. Moving forward and sideways, so that they were now separated by several feet and she was forced to turn from one to the other. Thus, she was looking at Johnnie when Frankie spoke to her.
'How come,' he asked, snickering, 'you've got your asshole under your nose?'
'What?' Teddy gasped. 'What did you-'
'He asked you if you were a stud with tits,' Johnnie giggled, and she whirled in his direction.
'Now, look you two! Don't you-'
Frankie suddenly slugged her in the guts. She turned white, a greenish white. The air went out of her with a rushing sound, and she doubled slowly and sank down on the floor, on her face. She felt paralyzed, unable even to groan. She still made no sound when Johnnie gave her a vigorous kick in the butt.
'See?' he cackled. 'It came up tails. We both won.'
'She's all ass,' Frankie said. 'How can you tell the front from the back?'
He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her upright. Thrusting his face close to hers, he ordered her to come clean with him. 'You ain't really a dame, are you? Huh? You're one of those bitchy studs, ain't you?'
'Sure, she's a dame,' Frankie said. 'Look at them bubbies on her.'
Johnnie said that that didn't mean anything; studs were always buying rubber bubs for themselves so that they could pass for dames. 'Look,' he said. 'See what I mean?' He swung his hand viciously, whipping it
