'So what can I do?'
'You got that gun, don't ya? You think them men's gonna beat bullets?'
'They armed too, both of em.'
'All you gotta do is make sure they don't see ya comin'. Just like in the war, man. Make believe you is the night.'
'But how I even find'em t'sneak up on? What you want me t'do? Look in the phone book?'
'You know where Joppy live, right? Les go look. An' if he ain't there you know they gotta be with Albright.'
Joppy's house was dark and his bar was padlocked from the outside. The night watchman on duty at Albright's building, a fat, florid-faced man, said that Albright had moved out.
So I made up my mind to call information for every town north of Santa Monica. I got lucky and found DeWitt Albright on my first try. He lived on Route 9, in the Malibu Hills.
I drove past Santa Monica into Malibu and found Route 9. It was just a graded dirt road. There I found three mailboxes that read: Miller, Korn, Albright. I passed the first two houses and drove a full fifteen minutes before getting to Albright's marker. It was far enough out that any death cry would go unheard.
It was a simple, ranch-style house, not large. There were no outside lights except on the front porch so I couldn't make out the color. I wanted to know what color the house was. I wanted to know what made jets fly and how long sharks lived. There was a lot I wanted to know before I died.
I could hear loud male voices and the woman's pleading before I got to the window.
Over the sill I saw a large room with a darkwood floor and a high ceiling. Before the blazing hearth sat a large couch covered with something like bear skin. Daphne was on the couch, naked, and the men, DeWitt and Joppy, stood over her. Albright was wearing his linen suit but Joppy was stripped to the waist. His big gut looked obscene hanging over her like that and it took everything I had not to shoot him right then.
'You don't want any more of that now do you, honey?' Albright was saying. Daphne spat at him and he grabbed her by the throat. 'If I don't get that money you better believe I'll get the satisfaction of killing you, girl!'
I like to think of myself as an intelligent man but sometimes I just run on feelings. When I saw that white man choking Daphne I eased the window open and crawled into the room. I was standing there, pistol in hand—but DeWitt sensed me before I could draw a bead on him. He swung around with the girl in front of him. When he saw me he threw her one way and he leaped behind the couch! I moved to shoot but then Joppy bolted for the back door. That distracted me, and in my one moment of indecision the window behind me shattered and a shot, like a cannon roar, rang out. As I dove for cover behind a sofa chair I saw that DeWitt Albright had drawn his pistol.
Two more shots ripped through the back of the fat chair. If I hadn't moved to the side, down low, he would have gotten me then.
I could hear Daphne crying but there was nothing I could do for her. My big fear was that Joppy would come around outside and get me from behind. So I moved into a corner, still hidden, I hoped, from Albright's sight and in a position to see Joppy if he stuck his head in the window.
'Easy?' DeWitt called.
I didn't say a word. Even the voice was silent.
We waited two or three long minutes. Joppy didn't appear at the window. That bothered me and I began to wonder what other way he might come. But just as I was looking around I heard a noise as if DeWitt had lurched up. There was a dull thud and the sofa chair came falling backwards. He'd heaved a lamp at the top of its high back. The lamp shattered and, even as I pulled off a shot where I expected him to be, I saw DeWitt rise up a few feet farther on; he had that pistol leveled at me.
I heard the shot, and something else, something that seemed almost impossible: DeWitt Albright grunted, 'Wha?'
Then I saw Mouse! The smoking pistol in his hand!
He'd come into the room through the door Joppy had taken.
More shots exploded. Daphne screamed. I jumped to cover her with my body. Splinters of wood jumped from the wall and I saw Albright hurl himself through a window at the other side of the room.
Mouse took aim but his gun wouldn't fire. He cursed, threw it down, and got a snub-nose from his pocket. He ran for the window but in that time I heard the Caddy's engine turn over; tires were slithering in the dirt before Mouse could empty his second chamber.
'DAMN!!' Mouse yelled. 'DAMN DAMN DAMN!!!'
A cold draft, sucked in through the shattered window, washed over Daphne and me.
'I hit him, Easy!' He was grinning down on me with all those golden teeth.
'Mouse,' was all I could say.
'Ain't ya glad t'see me, Ease?'
I got up and took the little man in my arms. I hugged him like I would hug a woman.
'Mouse,' I said again.
