“Not so old.”
She sipped at the tea in her hand. “How did you happen to cross Renzo?”
It hurt to think about it. “Tonight,” I said, “it had just gotten dark. A guy asked me if I’d run a message to somebody for five bucks and I said I would. It was for Mr. Renzo and he told me to take it to the Hideaway Club.
“At first the guy at the gate wouldn’t let me in, then he called down that other one, Johnny. He took me in, all right.”
“Yes?”
“Renzo started giving it to me.”
“Remember what the message said?”
Remember? I’d never forget it. I’d hope from now until I died that the guy who wrote it did everything he said he’d do.
“Somebody called Vetter said he’d kill Renzo,” I told her.
Her smile was distant, hard. “He’ll have to be a pretty tough guy,” she said. What she said next was almost under her breath and she was staring into the night when she said it. “A guy like that I could go for.”
“What?”
“Nothing, Joe.” The hardness left her smile until she was a soft thing. “What else happened?”
Inside my chest my heart beat so fast it felt like it was going to smash my ribs loose. “I…heard them say…I would have to finger the man for them.”
“You?”
I nodded, my hand feeling the soreness across my jaw.
She stood up slowly, the way a cat would. She was all mad and tense but you couldn’t tell unless you saw her eyes. They were the same eyes that made the Finney guy jump. “Vetter,” she said. “I’ve heard the name before.”
“The note said something about a guy named Cooley who’s dead.”
I was watching her back and I saw the shock of the name make the muscles across her shoulders dance in the light. The tightness went down her body until she stood there stiff-legged, the flowing curves of her chest the only things that moved at all.
“Vetter,” she said. “He was Cooley’s friend.”
“You knew Cooley?”
Her shoulders relaxed and she picked a cigarette out of a box and lit it. She turned around, smiling, the beauty I had seen in the car there again.
“Yes,” Helen said softly, “I knew Cooley.”
“Gee.”
She wasn’t talking to me any more. She was speaking to somebody who wasn’t there and each word stabbed her deeper until her eyes were wet. “I knew Cooley very well. He was…nice. He was a big man, broad in the shoulders with hands that could squeeze a woman…” She paused and took a slow pull on the cigarette. “His voice could make you laugh or cry. Sometimes both. He was an engineer with a quick mind. He figured how he could make money from Renzo’s tables and did it. He even laughed at Renzo and told him crooked wheels could be taken by anybody who knew how.”
The tears started in the corners of her eyes but didn’t fall. They stayed there, held back by pride maybe.
“We met one night. I had never met anyone like him before. It was wonderful, but we were never meant for each other. It was one of those things. Cooley was engaged to a girl in town, a very prominent girl.”
The smoke of the cigarette in her hand swirled up and blurred her face.
“But I loved him,” she said. With a sudden flick of her fingers she snapped the butt on the rug and ground it out with her shoe. “I hope he kills him! I hope he kills him!”
Her eyes drew a line up the floor until they were on mine. They were clear again, steady, curious for another moment, then steady again. I said, “You don’t…like Renzo very much?”
“How well do you know people, Joe?”
I didn’t say anything.
“You know them too, don’t you? You don’t live in the nice section of town. You know the dirt and how people are underneath. In a way you’re lucky. You know it now, not when you’re too old. Look at me, Joe. You’ve seen women like me before? I’m not much good. I look like a million but I’m not worth a cent. A lot of names fit me and they belong. I didn’t get that way because I wanted to. He did it. Renzo. I was doing fine until I met him.
“Sure, some young kids might think I’m on top, but they never get to peek behind the curtain. They never see what I’m forced into and the kind of people I have to know because others don’t want to know me. If they do they don’t want anybody to know about it.”
“Don’t say those things, Helen.”
“Kid, in ten years I’ve met two decent people. Cooley was the first.” She grinned and the hate left her face. “You’re the other one. You don’t give a hang what I’m like, do you?”
“I never met anybody like you before.”
“Tell me more.” Her grin got bigger.
“Well, you’re beautiful. I mean real beautiful. And nice. You sure are built…”
“Good enough,” she said and let the laugh come out. It was a deep, happy laugh and sounded just right for her. “Finish your tea.”
I had almost forgotten about it. I drained it down, the heat of it biting into the cuts along my cheek. “Helen…I ought to go home. If Mr. Renzo finds out about this, he’s going to burn up.”
“He won’t touch me, Joe.”
I let out a grunt.
“You either. There’s a bed in there. Crawl into it. You’ve had enough talk for the night.”
***
I woke up before she did. My back hurt too much to sleep and the blood pounded in my head too hard to keep it on the pillow. The clock beside the bed said it was seven-twenty and I kicked off the covers and dragged my clothes on.
The telephone was in the living room and I took it off the cradle quietly. When I dialed the number I waited, said hello as softly as I could and asked for Nick.
He came on in a minute with a coarse, “Yeah?”
“This is Joe, Nick.”
“Hey, where are you, boy? I been scrounging all over the dump for you. Gordon’ll kick your tail if you don’t get down here. Two other guys didn’t show…”
“Shut up and listen. I’m in a spot.”
“You ain’t kidding. Gordon said…”
“Not that, jerk. You see anybody around the house this morning?”
I could almost hear him think. Finally he said, “Car parked across the street. Think there was a guy in it.” Then, “Yeah, yeah, wait up. Somebody was giving the old lady some lip this morning. Guess I was still half asleep. Heard your name mentioned.”
“Brother!”
“What’s up, pal?”
“I can’t tell you now. You tell Gordon I’m sick or something, okay?”
“Nuts. I’ll tell him you’re in the clink. He’s tired of that sick business. You ain’t been there long enough to get sick yet.”
“Tell him what you please. Just tell him. I’ll call you tonight.” I slipped the phone back and turned around. I hadn’t been as quiet as I thought I’d been. Helen was standing there in the doorway of her bedroom, a lovely golden girl, a bright morning flower wrapped in a black stem like a bud ready to pop.
“What is it, Joe?”
There wasn’t any use hiding things from her. “Somebody’s watching the house. They were looking for me this morning.”
“Scared, Joe?”
“Darn right I’m scared! I don’t want to get laid out in some swamp with my neck broken. That guy Renzo is
