enough, lie pulled in and stopped not fifteen feet from the phone booth. I le cut his lights before he even stopped rolling. He'd probably figure he was getting close to the payoff I le was, but not the kind he expected.
lie climbed out of his car in a hurry, took a quick look around the silent intersection, then started to trot back to the cot net he'd just turned. He didn't want to lose me. He didn't.
I was between him and the corner, and I stepped out from between the buildings and intercepted him, the .38 in my hand. 'Hi, Red,' I said. 'How're things in Mobile?'
It would have stopped the average man's heartbeat. This was a different breed of rooster. Even in the poor light I could see him straightening his face out. 'You got me wrong, Jack,' he protested, deadpan.
'Walk up to the phone booth,' I told him. I wanted to see his face in better light when I asked him the question that was bothering me. I followed right behind him, shoving the gun under my armpit. 'Get inside it,' I said when he reached the booth. 'Make out you're dialing.' He took down the receiver before he turned to look at me again. 'Don't make the mistake of putting your hand into your pocket for change.'
'You're akin' a big—'
'You must be the wheelman who wanted the Ford,' I cut him off. 'Did Manny tell you that you could have it if you kept tabs on me for him?'
It must have rocked him, but he still didn't lose his nerve. 'I don't know any Manny,' he said sullenly. He was eyeing me, wondering where the gun had gone. He had a thin, pale face with a scattering of freckles.
'Have you called Manny since you followed me to Hudson, Red?'
He dropped all pretense. 'Manny says you're a tough boy,' he sneered. 'You don't look so tough to me.'
'One more time, Red,' I told him softly. 'Have you called Manny since—'
'Up your ass with a meat hook!' he snarled. He snatched the booth door closed with his left hand while he went for the gun in his shoulder holster with his right. His hand was still on its way under his lapel when I put one in his chest and one in his ear. Both of them took out glass before they ticketed Red. He did a slow corkscrew to the booth floor, his freckles stark in his white face. I emptied the Smith & Wesson into the booth, spraying it from top to bottom. I put the last bullet into the light. Nobody was going to call this one a sharp shooting job.
I walked back to the Ford at a good clip. I backed up to the next corner without putting on my lights, then reversed the way I'd driven in there. I put my lights on just before I reached the blinker. Around me lights were popping on in houses as I turned left and headed for the Lazy Susan.
The intersection's citizenry would be a while finding Red with the booth light out. When they did, they'd be another little bit jawing while they tried to unscramble the jigsaw puzzle. I put the .38 on the seat beside me in case I had to pitch it if anything came up behind me.
Nothing did.
Kaiser greeted me at the motel room door.
He stretched out at my feet and watched for twenty minutes while I cleaned, oiled, and reloaded the Smith & Wesson.
I didn't know whether Manny knew where to find me or not.
He wasn't going to if he didn't.
I went to bed.
I took Kaiser along with me on my next trip to the Dixie Pig. There was the usual sprinkling of a dozen cars in back, including Jed Raymond's sportscar. I went in with Kaiser padding sedately beside me. Jed waved from a booth. I was two-thirds of the way across the floor before I saw Lucille Grimes seated opposite Jed with her back to me.
Jed, with his fey grin, tried to maneuver me into sitting beside Lucille. I pushed him over and sat down beside him. 'Good evening, all,' I greeted them.
Lucille smiled but didn't speak. She was eyeing Kaiser nervously. Jed reached under the table to pat the big dog. I watched closely, but Kaiser didn't take any offense. 'Hey, there, big boy,' Jed said to him. He glanced at me. 'Who's your gentleman friend, Chet?'
'Kaiser, meet Jed,' I introduced them. I noticed that Lueille's long legs were as far withdrawn beneath the booth as she could manage. 'Well, folks, what's the chief topic of conversation?' I inquired.
'The star-spangled, unmitigated dullness of life in a small town,' Jed replied promptly. 'Right, Lucille?'
Her thin smile was noncommittal. 'Perhaps Chet hasn't always lived in a small town.'
Jed got me off that hook. 'They're all small,' he asserted. 'How much town can you live in? A couple of blocks near where you work and a couple of blocks near where you sleep, even in New York. The rest is as strange as Beluchistan. I'll take little ol' Hudson.'
I thought Lucille looked tired. There were dark circles under her eyes. She kept watching the parking lot through the booth window. She hadn't long to wait. A two-tone county sheriff's department cruiser swung slowly through the lot and down the driveway on the other side. The blonde ritualistically gathered up gloves and handbag. 'Excuse me, gentlemen,' she said, rising. 'Good night.'
'For a guy slaverin' for blonde meat you don't move very fast,' Jed accused me when Blaze Franklin drove Lucille away.
'Pay attention,' I told him. 'You could learn something. Your hurry-up technique is all wrong.'
'Not since I got out of high school it hasn't been,' he said cheerfully. He turned serious. 'Listen, don't let me needle you about the widow. She's—well, there's a damn sight better fish in the creek. Why don't you let me slip you a number or two from my little black book?'
'All this just because a county cruiser circled the parking lot, Jed?'
He nodded. 'So you saw it, too. Blaze Franklin—' Jed hesitated. 'Blaze is a little bit primitive. You know? Like he's rednecked all the time. Who needs it to get involved with a thick turd like that?'
'So he's the jealous type.'
'In spades, he's the jealous type.' Jed pushed his glass around in the wet circles on the table without looking at me. 'I've heard some stories about Blaze.' He loosed his quick grin at me. 'Some of 'em might even be true. Hey, Hazel!' he hollered over to the bar in a quick change of subject. 'Bring on the fatted calf!'
We ate diligently. Jed fed small cuts of his steak to Kaiser, who accepted them with dignity. 'You'll spoil him,' I said.
'He can stand spoiling. That's a lot of dog. I like his looks.' Jed glanced at his watch. 'Duty calls. Five-foot- two, eyes of blue.'
When he left, I sat around waiting to see if Hazel was going to be able to get away from the bar long enough to visit. I got a surprise when she did. She'd changed to a dress. It was the first time I'd seen her in anything but the skintight Levis. She'd done something to her hair, too.
'What's the occasion?' I asked. She set a drink down in front of me and one on her side of the booth, too. I'd never seen her take a drink before.
'No occasion.' Her voice sounded husky. 'Every once in a while I take a notion to give the animals somethin' to think about besides my ass.' She plunked herself down across from me.
Her eyes indicated that the drink in front of her wouldn't he her first of the day. I remembered Jed's warning,. and I wondered if the storm signals were up. Hazel was no shrinking, violet. Every once in a while a half-splashed customer would get carried away by a sudden biological urge in connection with the contents of the Levis.
Hazel always fractured the house with her rebuttal. 'What's with you, fella?' she'd rasp in her deep voice. 'Your insurance paid up? Nobody told you I got my own cemetery out back for wise guys snatchin' a feel?' It took a hardy ego to survive that little speech intact.
She tossed oil her drink in a swallow and accepted my light for her cigarette. She still wore her cowboy boots, and out heel tapped steadily. Kaiser's ears pricked forward as In stretched out on the floor beside me.
Hazel picked up my drink and downed the remainder of it. She stated at me across the table as she set down the glass 'I'm not a blonde,' she announced defiantly, 'but whatever she's got I'll double an' throw away the change. I'm closing early tonight. Come back and pick me up. Twelve-thirty.'
I opened my mouth, and closed it again. 'Twelve-thirty,' I said finally.
She nodded, ground out her cigarette in the ashtray, then got up and went back to the bar. She didn't return.
I had time to kill. I drove into town, thinking about Hazel. I liked her. She was good company, and she had a caustic sense of humor. When she took the trouble to fix herself up, she was a damn fine-looking woman.
But—
