easy. I had a rich daddy and I never really had to worry about anything. He could always bail me out. Even the serious things weren't serious.'
'Then what happened?'
'He killed himself.'
'How?'
'Sat in the car in a closed garage with the motor running. What's the difference?'
'None, I guess. I always wonder how people do it, that's all. Doctors usually use guns, did you know that? They have access to the simplest, cleanest ways in the world, an O.D. of morphine, anything like that, and instead they generally blow their brains out and make a hell of a mess. Why did he kill himself?'
'Because the money was gone.' She picked up her glass, but paused with it halfway to her mouth. 'That was why I came back east. All of a sudden he was dead, and instead of money there were debts. There was enough insurance so that my mother can live decently. She sold the house, moved to an apartment.
With that and Social Security, she gets along.' She took a long drink now. 'I don't want to talk about it.'
'All right.'
'If you took those pictures to Kermit, you wouldn't get anything. You'd just queer your own pitch. He wouldn't buy them, because he wouldn't care about my good name. He'd just care about his own, which
would mean getting rid of me and finding a wife as bloodless as he is.'
'Maybe.'
'He's playing golf this week. A pro-am tournament, they have them the day before the regular tournaments. He gets a professional golfer for a partner, and if they finish in the money the pro gets a few dollars out of it. Ketmit gets the glory.
It's his chief passion, golf.'
'I thought you were.'
'I'm nicely ornamental. And I can act like a lady. When I have to.'
'When you have to.'
'That's right. He's out of town now, getting ready for this tournament. So I can stay out as late as I want.
I can do as I please.'
'Handy for you.'
She sighed. 'I guess I can't use sex this time, can I?'
'I'm afraid not.'
'It's a shame. I'm used to using it, I'm damned good at it. Hell. A hundred thousand dollars a year from now is a lot of money.'
'It's also a bird in the bush.'
'I wish to hell I had something to use on you. Sex doesn't work, and I don't have money. I have a couple of dollars in a savings account, my own money.'
'How much?'
'About eight thousand. I haven't had the interest entered in a long time.
You're supposed to take the book in once a year. Somehow I never got around to it.
I could give you what I've got, a down payment.'
'All right.'
'A week from today?'
'What's wrong with tomorrow?'
'Uh-uh.' She shook her head emphatically. 'No. All I can buy for my eight thousand is time, right? So I'm going to buy a week with it right off. A week from today you'll have the money.'
'I don't even know you've got it.'
'No, you don't.'
I thought it over. 'All right,' I said finally. 'Eight thousand dollars a week from today. But I'm not going to wait a year for the rest of it.'
'Maybe I could turn some tricks,' she said. 'Like four hundred and twenty of 'em at a hundred dollars a throw.'
'Or forty-two hundred at ten.'
'You fucker,' she said.
'Eight thousand. A week from today.'
'You'll get it.'
I offered to put her in a cab. She said she'd get her own and that I could pay for the drinks this time. I stayed at the table for a few minutes after she left, then paid the check and went out. I crossed the street and asked Benny if there were any messages. There weren't, but a man had called and not left his name.
