Lib smiled slightly.
Grover cleared his throat. “Are you intimating that I’ve been the victim of some kind of confidence game?”
“Well, haven’t you?” Shayne said. “You’re the administrative assistant to a big man in the legislature. Sometimes that title doesn’t mean a hell of a lot. But when it’s all in the family, when the guy works for his father and everybody trusts everybody, he’s usually the bagman who handles the off-color money, and who incidentally catches most of the stink when a deal goes sour. I can see why the judge thought it would be smart not to be here tonight.”
“As a matter of fact,” Grover said stiffly, “if you have any interest in the truth, he had to go home to mediate a wrangle about a post office appointment.”
“On the last night of the session? That’s crap, Grover, and you know it. He wanted to be miles away when this party explodes. You’re all acting like amateurs, for Christ’s sake. I’ve only been here ten minutes, and I’ve already bumped into a picture-taking setup and had a girl hold a gun on me. And I haven’t started to circulate. What did they tell you, Sam and Lib, when they asked if they could use your place?”
Grover, still very stiff, clutched his knees. “They aren’t the first lobbyists we’ve had here. They may be the last, because Father’s decided not to run for reelection. What did they tell me? They asked me to introduce them to a few key people who haven’t decided yet how they’ll vote tomorrow. Sam Rapp is a friend of mine, and he really doesn’t have two horns and a tail. That’s all we’re attempting to demonstrate. And is it so awful?”
Shayne snorted. “Lib, how’d you luck into this guy?”
“Damn it,” Grover insisted, “I resent the insinuation that there’s anything sinister or underhanded about what is essentially a social situation. Tallahassee is full of lobbyists. I don’t consider lobbyist a dirty word. Every citizen has a right to appear before the appropriate legislative body and present his views. It’s a standard part of our democratic procedure. Sam Rapp is lobbying on behalf of legalized gambling in Dade County. You and your friends are lobbying against it. To me it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other.”
“Sam spent a good many years building a front, and he’s done a good job of it. But there are some other people in the business who haven’t had time to mellow. Do you know a guy named Boots Gregory, from St. Pete?”
“I know of him.”
“He’s in town. I’ve run into him a couple of times today. And one of his boys is on the critical list with a gunshot wound. Another who was in good health at two o’clock this afternoon is dead.”
“Dead,” Grover repeated blankly.
“You’ll read about it in the morning paper.”
“Grover,” Lib said quickly before he could speak, “Mike’s trying to scare us, and I think I’d better talk to him alone.”
“Nonsense. I don’t have to be protected from the facts of life. If a man is dead-”
“I didn’t mean it that way. But Gregory was supposed to stay out of this, and let us handle it. Mike wouldn’t be here if he didn’t intend to dicker. Grover, you’ve been sweet, you couldn’t have been sweeter, but that isn’t your department.”
“I don’t want anybody twisting your arm. But if you say so-”
“Don’t tell Sam Mike’s here. He’s already about to blow, with his blood pressure. Maybe I can talk Mike into leaving the same way he came in, probably through a window.”
“I’ll be outside on the balcony. Holler if you need me-”
“Grover, go down and see if anybody needs a drink. Mike’s just fishing.”
Grover hesitated, gave Shayne a wary look and went out. Lib crossed to the door. After a moment she opened it a crack and looked out.
“Talk about trouble,” she said, coming back. “If I’d known what we were getting into-”
Shayne pulled her down and kissed her. She was surprised.
“Honey,” she said a moment later, “you’ve been smoking some of our good grass, haven’t you?”
“Yeah. You can’t really be worrying, Lib. You look great.”
“Do I?” She studied him. “I haven’t been getting enough sleep. I thought it showed.”
He assured her that she looked as well as he had ever seen her, which was perfectly true. She was wearing a dark dress of some slithery material. She led an indolent life, and her body seemed formed for indolence, its curves slow and full. She relaxed as he talked.
“Well, those are nice things to hear,” she said. “Everybody’s been so tense and ticky, but that’s not what life is all about, is it, Mike? I can tell by the way you move that you like being alive. So does Sam. Hell, I don’t know what I’m saying. I wish you’d stayed out of this. How much do we need to pay you to go home?”
“It’s too late for that, and too early for anything else. I killed a guy. His name was Ramon Elvirez. I got his neck in my hand and I was too drunk to do anything else but hang on. If that’s going to mean anything I’ve got to find out what’s happening. What was your deal with Boots Gregory?”
She thought about her answer for a moment. “No special deal. He made a small contribution to help cover our expenses, and our expenses have been brutal, incidentally. Some of these public servants are very grabby. If the bill goes through Boots will have to stand in line for a license, like everybody else. There are only going to be so many. Sam will get one. The others are still open.”
“Will Sam sponsor him?”
“Maybe not now. The one thing everybody agreed on was to leave it to us. Boots shouldn’t be within a hundred miles of here. Because… what a clown! I mean, it was bad enough the first time he tried to grab you, but then to try again and muff that one, too, how much special treatment does he deserve? You understand it’s not up to me. But the publicity has been bad, and now he’s got you mad at us. Do you really mean there’s nothing we can offer you to get you to lay off?”
“That’s what I mean.”
“Why did you come, then? Just to make trouble so you can get a story in the papers?”
“That’s the least that can happen, Lib. I haven’t had any real conversations with Sam for a couple of years, so I don’t know if he’s getting senile. It happens fast sometimes.”
“Sam is not getting senile,” she said flatly. “In any way.”
“Then I’ll cross out that possibility. Here’s another-that somebody’s sabotaging him.” With the tip of one finger, he traced a line running down her breast to the tip. “Somebody about your cup-size. He can’t last forever, and who’s going to take over when he goes? Boots Gregory would like to move up. Tampa and St. Pete are low- money towns. He may be a little slow in the I.Q., but he’s big and ballsy. He’s the kind of creep who does one-arm pushups to keep in shape. He says he has cash. He’s tattooed, which some women like.”
“Ecch,” Lib said.
“Is that all you want to say?”
She leaned forward to look at him. “Boots Gregory isn’t half as sexy as he thinks he is, and I love Sam.”
Shayne grinned.
She went on, “It’s an old word. Nobody uses it anymore. But goddamn it, I do love that man.”
“And he hasn’t killed anybody since you were two years old.”
“It was a war in those days, Mike. That doesn’t count. And it was a long time ago. People change.”
She returned his look evenly.
“If that’s the truth,” he said, “I need a new theory.”
“It’s the truth. He’s been wonderful to me.”
“Can you hold Judge Kendrick through the vote tomorrow?”
“We hope so. The word is that we have a four-vote margin in the senate, assuming that our jerky friend from St. Petersburg hasn’t scared anybody off. And assuming that you don’t pull any rabbits out of the hat in the next twelve hours.”
“You’ve got too much of a head start,” he said regretfully. “You won’t mind if I go on trying?”
“How can we stop you?”
“Not by paying me off. That kind of thing always leaks out, and it would affect my standing. But I try to be realistic, and you people seem to hold all the cards. You’ve got money and organization, and you’ve probably been working on it for months. This isn’t my ballpark and I don’t know what rules they play by around here. But I have to think about how I’ll operate after the bill goes through. I need friends in my business.”
