“Jack thinks,” Pat was saying, “that something can really be done with your talent. Isn’t that so, Jack?”
I didn’t have to answer. They both took care of the talking. They twittered back and forth for a while and before Pat went someplace else in the room, being hostess, she asked Doris to be sure and tell her everything I might explain, about how it’s done, making a singing career.
“You start with a good promoter,” said Doris.
“Yes. Of course. That’s the problem,” and then Pat went away.
I took my other nemesis out to the balcony because I felt like breathing a lot of air. We stood at the railing, six stories up, and I looked at the dark sky and Doris looked down at the lights of the city.
“What did she mean, Jack, about my dress not having any zipper?”
I said, “Just a minute,” and went inside to the table with liquor where I got a drink same as at the bar. Only much bigger. I took it back out to the balcony but had some of it on the way.
“Because actually it does have a zipper. Only hidden,” said Doris.
I had more of the scotch, getting down to the halfway mark, and paid attention to the stuff spreading inside like summer sunshine.
“Aren’t you going to answer?”
“To hell with that,” I said. “From now on, little sweets, I set the topic.”
Almost all of the evening had gone to pot. Pat catching on to my record connection, Doris catching on to my Lippit connection, and the only one missing all the connections, Jack St. Mouse. I put my drink on the railing, my hand on the girl’s back, and gave her a smart turn in my direction. When the angle was right I nipped down and hung on for a right, regular kiss.
It caught her on the point of wanting to say something or other but she gave that up. She met the change in demand and hung on, too. After a while we let go, but not too far apart. Though we had nothing to say to each other. So she moved in again, with a lot of purpose, and we did it again, like before, only feeling much more familiar.
I held the back of her neck, where the skin was lovely, I held her arm, where the skin was lovely, and I felt her cheek from close, also lovely. The summer night and the city below and the party hum must have all been romantic, though the thought is an afterthought because I paid no attention. And the girl didn’t either, I think, because she said nothing about it. When we did talk it was just to check plans.
“Like the party?” she asked.
“Lousy party.”
“I think so, too.”
“But you sang nice.”
“Don’t talk business now.”
“I’m done promoting.”
“I was noticing,” she turned a little, to look into the room. “And something else.”
“Who?”
“Your friend, Pat.”
“Coming this way and smiling like a Cheshire cat.”
“Except,” Doris said, “this one will not disappear.”
“Lousy party,” I said, and we let go enough to be able to walk. We walked back into the apartment, to the kitchen where Lippit was getting ice. We said good-bye to him first.
“Leaving already?”
“Doris has got to go to bed.”
“Already?”
“Yes.”
Then we walked out of the kitchen and almost into Pat who had been following not too far behind.
“Leaving already?”
“Doris has got to go to bed.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
In the elevator we had six floors to keep checking plans.
“You’re not tired, are you?”
“No,” she said. “Do I act tired?”
“No. But you’re going to bed.”
“I know.”
That doesn’t seem like much conversation for six floors of a city apartment, and it isn’t Then we drove to my place, she over there, me over here and both hands on the wheel. I never drive fast one-handed. I live five floors up but this time we didn’t talk at all.
Doris was wearing a little jacket and while I got the key into the door she took it off. The simple gesture, because of the state I was in, made me very tense. When the phone rang in my apartment, I almost broke off the key in the lock.
We looked at each other. Doris still had one arm in her jacket and didn’t take it out.
“I bet that phone’s right next to your bed,” she said.
“I don’t know. I think it jumped off the night table and is coming this way.”
“You’re not going to look?”
“I’m afraid to look. It might be smiling, like a Cheshire Cat.”
“It heard you,” said Doris, because right then the phone stopped ringing.
We went inside, into the bedroom, and I turned on the light. Doris still had one arm in her jacket. I went over and tore the phone out of the wall and Doris dropped the jacket on the ground.
Like I said once, her dress didn’t interfere much with the girl underneath, and in a short while it didn’t at all. Then nothing did. She sat down on the bed and waited.
“Leave the light on,” she said.
I did. I just turned the phone around because I didn’t like the look on the dial face.
“May all my affairs end like this one.”
Peter Rabe
Murder Me for Nickels
Chapter 11
I had a time waking her in the morning but she had to be at work. When she was good and awake I had a notion she should stay in bed a little bit longer, but she said I should take her home or she would never come back. The thought was new to me but it was a good one.
I took her home first, to change, and then to her office. The Benotti place, I could see from across the street, showed some activity. There was somebody with a broom and somebody else with a clip board and pencil and what they were working on must have been inventory.
Then I drove off, top down, for some morning air and deep breathing, a refreshing way of starting the day and more harmless, it is my feeling, when done in a convertible, than in the fanatic’s manner, such as calisthenics or hikes.
At eight-thirty I had ham and eggs, at nine o’clock it was still too early for anything. Lippit, after all, had been having a party. I spent twenty minutes or so calling a few of our places and the word was peace in each case and we’re glad it’s over. I had chitchat with a few of them-what is called customer relations work-and it was, “Why don’t you drop in sometime,” and, “Sure, Jack, the machines are fine.” In two places our service hop with the change of records was late but that happened sometimes and was not a real complaint.
At ten o’clock I rang the bell of Lippit’s apartment.
“The door’s open!”
The morning paper was in front of the door and I brought that with me.
But they didn’t pay any attention to me. I stood there with the paper in my hand and watched Lippit try to get
