change on the counter.
“What if your name is really John?” she was saying. “What if you’re John the Ripper instead of Jack and here…”
“One moment. Just one moment.”
The lawyer was turning to leave when he spotted me. He barely nodded, being either discreet or distracted, but when I waved at him to come over he came. He said, “Hi, Jack.”
I looked at the girl to make sure she had heard that. “So you’re Jack the Ripper,” she said.
“You tell my friend Doris,” I said to the lawyer, “that I’m actually in the music business. Tell her.”
“Hehe,” he went. Just like that. “Yeah,” he said, and “hehehe.”
He was either completely distracted or had some ridiculous notion that he should be discreet Either way, the next thing was, Doris did the same thing. “Hehe,” she went, and, “What nice friends you have.”
The lawyer gave a small bow, as if he had just heard a compliment. He was distracted all right. Then he looked at me and said, “You’re coming, aren’t you?”
“I am neither coming nor going. It’s been like that for a while now.”
“The party,” he said. “I’m just going up now.”
“No,” I said. “You go. I’m not.”
He nodded and left, discreet and distracted.
“What kind of a party is that?” asked the girl.
“We’re not going.”
“What I mean is, here he has to come in for a quick shot before going there.”
“It’s a lousy party and we don’t need it.”
I didn’t need it The first thing she would learn, I wasn’t a talent promoter. The next thing Lippit would learn, I had private business connections. And the least thing the girl would find out, St. Louis was a very poor liar. To hell with Lippit’s party.
“There’s a band in the next room,” Doris was saying. “You hear it?”
“Nice beat,” I said, “I know the drummer.”
“My kind of music,” she said.
Then it hit me I had made another mistake. I had the wild fear that she wanted to sing with that band, that I should go ask the boys if they’d let her sing just one number, her favorite number, for me-big promoter. It was true I knew the drummer, but what price friendship?
“And I love dancing,” she said.
We went into the next room and danced. It was very good. She held on well, she felt good, she moved very nicely and stayed as close as was needed. I forgot about all my bad times after a while and my plans for the evening took a happier turn.
Then they changed again.
“I’m sorry,” said Doris, “but there’s no cutting in here, you know.”
She said this past my ear and across my shoulder, so I turned around to see who was doing this flattering thing.
There was Pat, Lippit’s Pat, but the way she was smiling and being polite it would have been gauche to say anything but Patricia to her.
“Why, dear,” she said. “Dear Jacky. And here I had thought, the way that lawyer was talking, that you must be involved in some miserable kind of business. But you aren’t, are you?”
“This is Doris,” I said, “who was a friend of mine, and this is Pat. Likewise.”
They smiled at each other like two Cheshire cats. I was the mouse.
It took a little arguing-not too much-and Pat took us along to the party. We walked the two blocks to Lippit’s apartment and there was conversation all the time. I don’t remember just what. It was that polite.
Lippit’s party, any other time, might have been a very nice thing. Lippit was loud and cheerful, liquor and things were spread three rows deep, the foreman was there and some other people, and there were even two girls whom I didn’t know. As it stood, I had enough with the two I did know.
First thing, Pat introduced Lippit.
“This is Mister Lippit,” said Pat to Doris, “your host and Jack’s boss.”
Doris was sweet. She hung on my arm, staying close, and said, “You must be the Lippit who doesn’t like Benotti. Jack here was telling me about that.”
“He was?” said Lippit.
“Well, what I mean is, not in so many words. But I could tell by the way he acted. Like this morning, you know. I work right next to Benotti’s place.”
Lippit laughed very loud. He went hawk, hawk, hawk, and wasn’t that something. Then Pat took Doris to the liquor table.
“Tell me something,” said Lippit “Maybe I should have invited that cop captain from this morning, too?”
Of course, he wasn’t laughing any more when he said that.
Then Doris came back, and Pat, and Lippit went away. On the way he went hawk, hawk, again and gave Doris a fatherly wink.
“Doris tells me,” said Pat, “that you’re a promoter.”
“What she means…”
“That you’re trying to help her with her singing career.”
I said, “Why didn’t you bring a drink for me?”
“We forgot,” said Doris. “We were talking.”
“Yeah. I know.”
“And I was telling Doris,” said Pat, “what a sweet dress she is wearing. Did you notice, Jack, that it doesn’t have any zipper?”
“I’m going to get me that drink.”
I had to wait at the liquor table because a fellow named Dick was ahead of me, and two girls with him. There was a blonde and a redhead and one was in front of the other. The one who stood in back was fiddling with the dress of the other.
“You got some material jammed into it,” she said to the blonde, “and I can’t get it to move up or down.”
Then she looked at me. I turned around and left without a drink.
Lippit was at the piano and Pat and Doris were, too. I could see Lippit sit down on the bench and I could see Pat talking to Doris. Then, as might happen when the party is informal and friendly, Lippit worked the piano and Doris started to sing. The girl sounded good.
Pat put her drink down on the piano because I was sure she meant to clap any moment.
Doris did not have a sweet voice. She was a belter. I should have known. But she was good.
Pat, who was smiling like never before, came over and leaned by the wall next to me.
“You like her?” she asked.
“Like her?”
“Her singing, Jack.”
“I can’t tell. There is so much talking.”
“Just shop talk,” she said. “Like between you and her.”
“She and I were dancing. She and I were just dancing.”
But Pat had her topic.
“What label is she going to sing on, promoter?”
“How do I know? All I ever said…”
“I think she said Blue Beat. Could that possibly be, Jack?”
“No. That could not be, Pat.”
“I didn’t think so either, Jack. I mean, she would almost have to know somebody there, don’t you think?”
“Yes. Such a voice.”
“Yes.”
Doris finished and Pat clapped very hard. She was the hostess. She went to the piano, took Doris by the arm, and brought her over to me.
