have a stitch of clothes on. She's standing there--what would you do? I mean if she wasn't a friend of yours. Wait a minute. No, I thought Mark sent her up, that was it.' Woody shoved peanuts into his mouth. The hand came away and paused. 'Listen. You know who that is? The only guy in show business can get away with talking a song. You know what I mean? Instead of singing it. Rex Harrison as Doctor . . . you know, what's his name.'
'Professor Higgins,' Chris said. 'You walk in the bedroom, Miss Wyatt's there . . .'
'Who is?'
'Ginger. You throw her on the bed . . .'
'I didn't know she was a friend of yours. I thought, the way she was acting, you know, she was putting it on. Some of them go for a little rough stuff, they love that. But I didn't hurt her or anything, it was a mis--you know-- understanding.' Woody was nodding, convinced. 'That's why I don't know why she got mad. Let's forget it. I think twenty-five thousand is fair, don't you? Yeah, I thought my brother sent her upstairs.'
'Twenty-five thousand,' Chris said.
'Doesn't that sound about right? It's based on what my time is worth. I think that's how we did it.' Woody was nodding again. 'Yeah, that was it. So I don't have to spend time in court, time being the . . . you know, what it's based on. If it's worth it to me, it ought to be worth it to her. Don't you think?'
'Twenty-five thousand dollars,' Chris said.
'Donnell said she would probably like cash instead of a check.'
'You mention this to your lawyer?'
'My lawyer? No. We don't need him for this kind of thing. He's with a law firm, they've been around forever, they deal with city attorneys, with big development groups, up on that level. Donnell says they can talk to big people, they're the same. But if they tried to talk legal to this little girl they'd take six months and charge me an arm and a leg for it.'
'So Donnell's handling it?'
Woody paused, reaching for the peanuts, and gave Chris what might be his shrewd look, a squint with a grin in it.
'Donnell only went to the tenth grade, but he knows how to talk to people. He's smart. He'll surprise you.'
Chris said, 'Kind of fella you can rely on.'
Woody nodded, eating peanuts. 'You betcha.'
Chris said, 'Can I ask you a question?'
'Sure, go ahead.'
'Does having a lot of money--does it worry you?'
'Why would it worry me?'
'I just wondered.' Chris got up from the table. He said to Woody, 'Rex Harrison isn't the only guy who talked a song. What about Richard Burton in Camelot? Richard Harris, in the movie.'
Woody said, 'Wait a minute,' with his dazed look. 'Jesus Christ, you're right. Listen, sit down, have a drink.'
Chris shook his head. 'I have to go.'
Woody said, 'Well, come back sometime you're in the neighborhood. Yeah, hey, and bring your friend. What's her name? Ginger.'
Chris opened the front door and stepped outside. Donnell, in a suede jacket, hands in his pockets, stood against a stone lion.
'Been admiring your Cadillac.'
'You like it?'
'I think you have taste. I think me and you, we both from the street, dig? We see what is. I'm not telling you nothing you don't know. You look at Mr. Woody, you don't see a man you give a shit about or what happens to him. What you see looking back at you is pickin's, is opportunity. Am I right?'
'You think I'm gonna shake him down?'
'I think it's in your head.'
'How do you work it? He sends you out to buy a new limo, you keep the change?'
Donnell's brows raised, fun in his eyes. 'Shit, it won't take you no time.'
Chapter 16
Here they were driving up Woodward Avenue, Robin still yelling at him about taking her mother's Lincoln. She didn't say 'without permission,' but that's what it sounded like. She told him she absolutely couldn't believe it and would like to know what he was thinking. She told him when he got back to the house he was to put the car in the garage and leave it there. All this while they're creeping along, getting stopped at just about every light. That was annoying too, the stopping and starting.
Skip said, 'You know what I did at Milan three and a half years? I was a chaplain's assistant.'
Robin asked him, now with a bored tone, what that had to do with his taking her mother's car.
'I'll tell you,' Skip said. 'It taught me patience. If I wanted to stay in a nice clean job, out of trouble, it meant I had to listen to this mick priest and his pitch to win my soul morning, noon and night. There was nothing I could do about it, I was in a federal lockup doing five to ten. Hey, Robin? But I'm not in one now, am I? I can listen to bullshit, or I can stop the fucking car right here and get out. And you can do whatever you want with it.'
Robin was silent.
'I did some stunt work, too. I tell you that? They pay you thirty-five hundred to roll a car over, smash it up,' Skip said. 'Less withholding and social security it comes to about twenty-six hundred. I have that check and another one for twelve something. But I can't cash either one. I can open a bank account, if I want to wait two weeks to write a check on my own money.'
Skip paused to give Robin a turn. She smoked a cigarette, staring at the cars up ahead, shiny metal and brake lights popping on and off.
'What I'm saying is, if I keep paying forty a day for a rental, I may as well give the checks to Hertz. So I took your mom's car. But then what do I find out? I'm gonna have to spend my last eighteen bucks on gas.'
Robin said, 'Gee, at least she could have left you a full tank.'
That was encouraging; even though she didn't look at him, she was lightening up, dropping that pissy tone.
'Look at it this way,' Skip said. 'If we get caught, what difference does it make whose car we're driving? We could even lay it on your mom, say the whole gig was her idea.'
That got a reaction. Robin said, 'Far out,' squirming a little, flicking cigarette ash and missing the ashtray, not giving a shit. Good.
They drove along this wide avenue in the pinkish glow of streetlights, Skip trying to think of things to say that wouldn't rile her. They had already talked on the phone about the little asshole blowing himself up. Robin called as soon as she saw it on the TV news. 'Now what do we do? Goddamn it.' Spoke of time wasted and hinted around that it was Skip's fault: if he'd only waited for Mark to get the key to the limo. That's what she was upset about, the scheme was blown. Then had laid into him about taking her mom's car so she could at least hit him with something. Skip believed women were often fucked up like that in their thinking. Get you to believe they're irritated about one thing when it's another matter entirely.
'Woodward Avenue,' Skip said. 'This's the only town I've been to where the whores parade around on the main drag. Look at that one.'
Robin said, 'You don't know she's a whore.'
Skip glanced at Robin puffing on her cigarette, still showing him some muscle. He said, 'You're right. Ten o'clock at night this colored chick puts on a sunsuit to get a tan.'
'It's a miniskirt and halter.'
'I'm wrong again,' Skip said. 'How about, you hear the one about the guy that got bit by the rattlesnake right on the end of his pecker? The guy's up north deer-hunting with his buddy--'
'I heard it,' Robin said, 'years ago.'
