Fifty-to-One

“Then open the window so I can,” Tricia said. “And when he gets here, say hello to Uncle Nick for me.”

Charley gave her a murderous stare, spat on each of his palms, planted his feet and tried to wrench the window up. When his first try failed, he gave two more heaves, grimacing furiously each time. The third, true to form, was the charm. Tricia, meanwhile, slipped the gun into the pocket of her dress, next to the box of photos. It was a tight fit, even though she’d kept the smaller of the guns for herself.

“Okay.” She stuck her head out the window, looked down, wished she hadn’t. Not that she could see much in the dead of night, but the little she could see didn’t make her want to climb out on the window ledge.

She climbed out on the window ledge.

Charley gripped her legs with both hands. Holding on tight to the window frame with her left hand, she fished for the rain gutter with her right. Her fingertips brushed it twice before she was able to get a good grip.

“Okay,” she said. “Let go.”

“You sure?” Charley said. He sounded dubious.

“Yes.” Stretching out one leg to the side, she found the nearest of the metal brackets that anchored the pipe to the wall and when she felt reasonably secure putting her weight on it, she brought her other hand and leg over.

“Nothing to it,” she said, or tried to, but her teeth were chattering too much and she gave up.

“You think it can hold both of us at once?” Charley said.

She would’ve shrugged but didn’t want to chance it. Instead, she started carefully inching her right leg along the pipe, feeling for the next bracket down. It was too far beneath her, especially with her legs constrained by the way she was dressed. (Slacks, she thought. Why couldn’t I have worn a nice pair of slacks?) But she knew the bracket was there, just inches below her toes. So holding tight to the pipe with both hands and both knees and thinking of all the trees she’d climbed as young girl in Aberdeen, she let herself slide slowly—slowly!—down to the bracket. She rested there for a moment, flexed her fingers slightly, then tightened her grip and let herself down to the next one.

As she went, she kept her eyes focused on the bricks immediately before her. This was about feeling her way, not seeing where she was going. Slide; stop. Slide; stop.

Down had to be easier than up, at least. That’s what she kept telling herself. But her hands had already started to hurt. Her chest, too, from tension and the drumbeat of her racing heart. She chanced a look up, saw Charley’s legs and posterior a few feet above her. He was on the pipe too, now. Once again she found herself with nowhere to go but down.

I’ll never tell another lie as long as I live. I swear it. I’ll never write another book about gangsters. Only friendly, happy subjects, like trips to the beach and picking flowers. I promise. Just let me not die here in this airshaft. Let me make it down. Please.

Slide. Stop. Deep breath. Slide. Stop.

“You know something?” Charley’s voice was weak; she imagined she could hear his teeth chattering too. “It’s not eleven floors.” He let himself down to the next bracket above her head, made sure of his footing. “It’s only ten.”

“What?” Tricia managed to say.

“We only have to make it to the roof of that news peddler’s place,” Charley said. “That’s the second floor. So we’re only going ten floors, not eleven. And,” he added with a hopeful tone, “a fall from just one floor up probably wouldn’t kill us. So it’s really only nine that we have to worry about. And,” he said, “we must be at least halfway there already.”

“Charley,” she said.

“Yes?”

“Shut up and climb.”

Two stories later, Tricia lost her grip. Her left hand, sweaty and tired, slipped off the pipe. She felt herself tilting backwards, her feet losing their purchase on the bracket. Desperately, she tried to wedge her entire right arm between the pipe and the wall, but thin as it was, it wouldn’t fit. She scrabbled with her feet, tried to hold on with just one hand, but found herself falling. She meant to scream, but somehow nothing came out, and as she fell she only had time to think, So, this is it.

Then she hit, and though the breath was badly knocked out of her, she was somewhat astonished to find that the life wasn’t. She lay where she’d landed, flat on her back, just eight or nine feet below where she’d lost hold of the pipe.

“Tricia!” Charley called. “What happened? Are you okay?” When she didn’t answer, he looked down. “Oh, thank god.” He quickly slid the rest of the way to the bottom. “You see? We were more than halfway.”

Looking up at him from where she lay, she nodded very slightly and concentrated on breathing in and out.

“Come on,” Charley said, inching over to the chicken wire-laced window above the toilet. “It looks like there’s a light on.”

27.

The Peddler

Tricia forced herself to get up, brushed off her hands and the seat of her dress, which was smeared now with god only knew what. The smell here was dismal, and though she’d made up the rat for the chapter in the book, she didn’t doubt that there were various sorts of vermin here, biding their time in the darkness.

While Charley pried open the window and let himself down, Tricia checked her pocket. The gun and the photos were still there. The gun hadn’t even gone off and shot her in the thigh, and for that small miracle she was thankful. She limped over to the skylight, where Charley’s arms were sticking out, reaching up for her. She let him lower her down, and they stood together in the tiny bathroom.

There was a light on, not here in this little closet of a room, but outside—you could see it leaking through around the door. Tricia tried to remember, from her many nights at the Sun, whether she’d ever seen this place open at 2AM—she didn’t think so. How many people could possibly want a newspaper or a coffee at 2AM?

There was nothing to do about it, though. They couldn’t stay in here much longer. For one thing, their entrance had probably been heard. And even if it hadn’t, if there were people outside someone would eventually come in to use the toilet, and then what would they say?

Charley grabbed a handful of the coarse brown paper towels the owner had set out and, wiping his hands, pushed the door open.

“Gentlemen,” he said. Tricia followed him out. There were two men in the small space, a heavyset character, gray at the temples, sitting at the counter with a mug in front of him, and a skinny one standing behind it, wearing his usual canvas apron, the pocket in front loaded down with coins. The door to the street was closed, a shade drawn over the glass. Charley seemed to be deciding, for a moment, whether to bolt or stay—were they safer in here or out on the sidewalk? Finally he went to one of the two empty stools, motioned Tricia to the other.

The men stared at them. They both seemed to have been caught in mid-sentence.

“Jerry,” Tricia said to the man in the apron, “this is my friend Charley. Charley, Jerry. Jerry’s always very nice to me any time I come in.”

“How’d you get in there, Trixie?” Jerry said nervously. “You weren’t there ten minutes ago.”

Tricia shrugged. There was no good answer, and why give a bad one?

“You don’t mind,” Charley said, “we’d both do well with a cup of coffee.” He dug a few coins out of his pocket, dropped them on the counter.

“Actually,” Jerry said, his eyes darting toward his other customer.

“Actually,” the customer said, turning on his stool to face them, “we were transacting some private business, and I don’t like being interrupted.” He reached inside his suit jacket as though to pull out a wallet or change purse, but what he came out with was a gun. And here they were, Tricia and Charley, both of them with their hard-won armament tucked away safely in their pockets.

“Now who are you,” the heavyset man said, “and what were you doing spying on us?”

“Spying?” Charley said. “Nothing of the sort. We were just...well, you know. Using the room.” He bent toward Tricia, kissed her lightly on the neck. Startled, she jumped a little. She felt a blush shoot up her cheeks.

“But how did you get in there?” Jerry said, still stuck on the logistics like a kid