“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. I’ve got to think. But it’s better than going alone, isn’t it.”
Shepard’s breath came out in a rush. “Oh, hell, yes,” he said, and finished the bourbon.
“Maybe we can talk them into an extension,” I said. “The more time I got, the more chance to work out something.”
“But what can we do?”
“I don’t know. What Powers is doing, remember, is illegal. If we get really stuck we can blow the whistle and you can be state’s evidence against Powers and get out of it with a tongue-lashing.”
“But I’m ruined.”
“Depends how you define ruined,” I said. “Being King Powers’ partner, rich or poor, would be awful close to ruination. Being dead also.”
“No,” he said. “I can’t go to the cops.”
“Not yet you can’t. Maybe later you’ll have to.”
“How would I get Pam back? Broke, no business, my name in the papers for being a goddamned crook? You think she’d come back and live with me in a four-room cottage while I collected welfare?”
“I don’t know. She doesn’t seem to be coming back to you while, as far as she knows, you’re up on top.”
“You don’t know her. She’s always watching. Who’s got how much, whose house is better or worse than ours, whose lawn is greener or browner. You don’t know her.”
“She’s another problem,” I said. “We’ll work on her too, but we can’t get into marriage encounter until this problem is solved.”
“Yeah, but just remember, what I told you is absolutely confidential. I can’t risk everything. There’s got to be another way.”
“Harv,” I said. “You’re acting like you got lots of options. You don’t. You reduced your options when you dipped into the escrow, and you goddamned near eliminated them when you took some of Powers’ money. We’re talking about people who might shoot you. Remember that.”
Shepard nodded. “There’s got to be a way.”
“Yeah, there probably is. Let me think about it. What time’s the meeting tomorrow?”
“One o’clock.”
“I’ll pick you up at your house about twelve forty-five. Go home, stay there. If I need you I want to be able to reach you.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to think.”
Shepard left. Half sloshed and a little relieved. Talking about a problem sometimes gives you the illusion you’ve done something about it. At least he wasn’t trying to handle it alone. Nice clientele I had. The cops wanted Pam and the crooks wanted Harv.
I went out to the pool. Susan was sitting in a chaise in her red-flowered one-piece suit reading The Children of the Dream, by Bruno Bettelheim. She had on big, gold-rimmed sunglasses and a large white straw hat with a red band that matched the bathing suit. I stopped before she saw me and looked at her. Jesus Christ, I thought. How could anyone have ever divorced her? Maybe she’d divorced him. We’d never really talked much about it. But even so, where was he? If she’d divorced me, I’d have followed her around for the rest of our lives. I walked over, put my arms on either side of her and did a push-up on the chaise. Lowering myself until our noses touched.
“If you and I were married, and you divorced me, I would follow you around the rest of my life,” I said.
“No you wouldn’t,” she said. “You’d be too proud.”
“I would assault anyone you dated.”
“That I believe. But you’re not married to me and get off of me, you goof. You’re just showing off.”
I did five or six push-ups over her on the chaise.
“Why do you say that?” I said.
She poked me with her index finger in the solar plexus. “Off,” she said.
I did one more push-up. “You know what this makes me think of?’‘
”Of course I know what it makes you think of. Now get the hell off me, you’re bending my book.“
I snapped off one more push-up and bounced off the chaise the way a gymnast dismounts the parallel bars. Straightening to attention as my feet hit.
”Once you put adolescence behind you,“ Susan said, ”you’ll be quite an attractive guy, a bit physical but… attractive. What did Shepard want?“
”Help,“ I said. ”He’s into a loan shark as we assumed, and the loan shark wants his business.“ I got a folding chair from across the pool and brought it back and sat beside Susan and told her about Shepard and his problem.
”That means you are going to have to deal with Hawk,“ Susan said.
”Maybe,“ I said.
She clamped her mouth in a thin line and took a deep breath through her nose. ”What are you going to do?“
