more. He threw half of the little white envelopes back.
Benny was waiting when Tober came back.
They crept down the hall to the rear and took the stairs that went to the kitchen. It was dark.
“Hey, Benny,” Tober whispered. “Wish me luck?”
There was no answer in the dark, only the breathing. Then Benny was in the open. The night air was cool and the palm fronds overhead made a dry sound.
“Benny-”
“Shut up. Stay with her and shut up.”
The girl’s form was on the ground now while Benny was circling the yard. There was only a dim light from the main entrance of the house and a small red glow near one of the cars, like a red point where someone stood by the car. Benny crept up quietly, and when he swung at the figure waiting there, there was no sound but a dull thud. A scattering of little red sparks blinked on the gravel.
Benny went back and picked up the girl and ran across the yard. By the time Tober had followed, Benny had backed the convertible out with a sharp squeal.
“Benny, wish me luck?” Tober called into the wind that rushed by.
The car was already dipping around the turn when Benny looked back. “Luck!” he called.
Chapter Fifteen
Once during the night he stopped to close the top of the car. He reached back to fold Pat’s arm that had swung over the edge of the seat and he moved her head a little. Then he drove again.
When the morning light was still nowhere and only a gray pallor had come up, she began to stir. Benny pulled the car to the side of the road and watched her wake up. She came up suddenly, with a strong shiver running through her body, her eyes looking wide and confused.
“Benny,” she said, “what are you doing?”
“Did you sleep good?”
She looked at him, her face drawn. “I don’t know,” she mumbled. “I don’t know, Benny,” and she shivered again.
He opened one door and folded the front seat back. “Come on up front, Pat. It’s warmer.”
She came around. She curled on the seat next to him, waiting for the blast from the heater to loosen her stiffness.
Benny drove again. He lit a cigarette for her and watched her smoke. There was no point in waiting any longer. “Pat, are you listening?”
“I’m listening.” She had leaned back, staring at the canvas above.
“Do you remember last night?”
“I remember.” She smoked, looking up.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sure. We know each other.”
He wished she’d look at him, show what went on.
“You know me, or else you wouldn’t have done it,” she said. “And I know you, so I’m not surprised you did it.”
“Pat. Understand this. Sometimes there comes a-there is a place you come to and nowhere to turn. A god- awful thing chasing from behind, a black drop in the front. It’s like murder to jump, but you got to. So you go ahead. You do something like murder to get out, and it’s over. Never again. It worked, and it’s done.”
“You’re talking about your business deal, I think?”
“Pat, did you understand what I tried to say?”
“Of course. It’s the same with me.” She paused. “A god-awful thing chasing me and a black pit in front. So I do something like murder. I take dope.”
The answer made him crawl, or perhaps it was the way she had said it. She was still leaning back, and her eyes looked at the canvas roof as if it were a fine long view.
“Pat, listen. How long’s this been going on?”
“I stopped. I never took much and then stopped. That is, till a few days ago.”
He took a deep breath and felt a stiffness in his neck. The stiffness clamped his throat when he tried to talk again. “No more, Pat. I’ll help you.”
“Like last night?” She shifted her eyes for the first time. “Like last night, when you held me down?”
“No! Forget that Christ, they were after us and you were lying there all scrambled and crazy with it. Don’t you see that? And don’t you remember before, you and I-”
She had moved to sit up and then she stopped. Her face came down, pressing into his sleeve. “Benny, I don’t-I feel rotten, Benny, rotten.” He could feel her hands working the cloth of his sleeve.
“You’re all right, kid. You’ll be all right. Lie down, Patty. Sleep some more. It’ll be all right, Patty, from now on.”
After a moment she relaxed. She even smiled at him. “I believe you,” she said, and a little later she went to sleep.
He thought about what he’d said to her, how he’d meant every word of it. He never thought of the little white envelopes that sometimes made a small noise in his pocket. Nor did it occur to him to let go of the girl who was the hub of his deal. It was one hell of a big deal and that point he never questioned.
When they crossed into Louisiana she was still sleeping. On the other side of Haute Platte he cut off the highway and headed toward Malcotte. The land looked flat and dull. Sometimes it was dry and barren, sometimes there were swamps, and Malcotte was in between, simmering in the sultry air that moved up from the Gulf. Now and then cars would come through the town, making the loop that saved them from going through Haute Platte. That’s why Malcotte had a motel. It looked deserted and strictly homemade.
They took the cabin in the rear where the live oaks crowded in. Benny pulled the car under the trees so it couldn’t be seen from the highway. He turned off the key and let his hands drop from the wheel.
“Aren’t you getting out?” She stood by the side of the car, waiting.
“In a minute. Let me be for a minute.” He was half dead from lack of sleep. He saw the dust standing in the low sun where the car had wheeled it off the ground. He heard the slow crackling of the hot metal under the hood. When he shook his head and got out of the car, he saw that Pat had gone inside.
There was a bed, a rocker, and a chipped bureau. Benny let himself fall on the bed. Shower sounds came from the bathroom. Pat’s clothes were all over the floor. She always threw her clothes all over the floor. She took hot showers in the late afternoon. Benny could see the steam seeping in.
She turned the shower off and remembered the other cabin where she and Benny had been. And the room in Tober’s place, and Benny talking to her in the car. When she came back into the room she looked flushed and glistening. She looked beautiful. Then the sharp line showed between her eyes. On the bed she saw Benny, clothes wrinkled, and even his shoes were still on. He also had one hand in the pocket where the car keys were.
Chapter Sixteen
When he woke up he thought for a moment that he had just lain down. The sound of the shower came from the bathroom and he could see the steam creep out under the door, but now the low sun came from a different side. He jumped up fast, wondering about the night. There was an ash tray full of butts near the bed and some of them had burned out on the floor.
When the shower stopped he watched the door, but it was several minutes before it opened. Then Pat came in, dressed. She hadn’t left her clothes all over the floor this time.
He looked at her and he saw it wasn’t good.
“Saint Benny,” she said.
