?He?s got a brain, that boy,? I drawled. ?It?s nice to have your picture on the wall. He played the girls for slobs and they never knew it. He knew damn well that a lot of them traveled with the moneybags and would pull them into his joint. When word got around that there was open gambling to boot, business got better and better. Now he gets the tourists too. They think it?s all very smart and exciting . . . the kind who go around hoping for a raid so they can cut their pictures out of the papers and send them home to the folks for laughs.?
She stared at me, frowning.
?I wonder who he pays off?? I mused.
?Who??
?Clyde. Somebody is taking the long green to keep the place going. Clyde?s shelling out plenty to somebody with a lot of influence, otherwise he would have had the cops down his throat on opening night.?
Juno said impatiently, ?Oh, Mike, those tactics went out with the Prohibition era . . .? then her voice got curious. ?Or didn?t they??
I looked across the table at this woman who wore her beauty so proudly and arrogantly. ?You?ve only seen the best side of things so far, kid. Plenty goes on you wouldn?t want to look at.?
She tossed her head. ?It seems incredible that those things still happen, Mike.?
I started to slap my fist against my palm gently. ?Incredible, but it?s happening,? I said. ?I wonder what would happen if I shafted my old buddy Dinky Williams?? My mouth twisted into a grin. ?Maybe it?s an angle. Maybe . . .? I let my sentence trail off and stared at the wall.
Juno signaled the waiter and he came back with another round of cocktails. I checked my watch and found myself in the middle of the afternoon. ?We?ll make these our last, ok??
She leaned her chin on her hands, smiling. ?I hate to have you leave me.?
?It?s not a cinch for me, either.? She was still smiling and I said, ?I asked another beautiful girl who could have had ten other guys why she picked me to hold hands with. She gave me a good answer. What?s yours, Juno??
Her eyes were a fathomless depth that tried to draw me down into them. Her mouth was still curved in a smile that went softer and softer until only a trace of it was left. Full, lovely lips that barely had to move to form the words. ?I detest people who pamper me. I detest people who insist upon putting me on a pedestal. I think I like to be treated rough and you?re the only one who has tried it.?
?I haven?t tried anything.?
?No. But you?ve been thinking of it. Sometimes you don?t even speak politely.?
She was a mind reader like all good goddesses should be and she was right. Quite right. I didn?t know what the hell was going on in my head, but sometimes when I looked at her I wanted to reach across the table and smack her right in the teeth. Even when I thought of it I could feel the tendons in the back of my hand start twitching. Maybe a goddess was just too damn much for me. Maybe I?d been used to my own particular kind of guttersnipe too long. I kicked the idea out of my mind and unlocked the stare we were holding on each other.
?Let?s go home,? I said. ?There?s still some day and a long night ahead of me.?
She was wanting me to ask her to continue this day and not break it off now, but I didn?t let myself think it. Juno pushed back her chair and stood up. ?The nose. First I must powder the nose, Mike.? I watched her walk away from me, watched the swing of her hips and the delicate way she seemed to balance on her toes. I wasn?t the only one watching, either. A kid who had artist written all over her in splotches of paint was leaning against the partition of the booth behind me. Her eyes were hard and hot and followed Juno every step of the way. She was another one of those mannish things that breed in the half-light of the so-called aesthetical world. I got a look that told me I was in for competition and she took off after Juno. She came back in a minute and her face was pulled tight in a scowl and I gave her a nasty laugh. Some women, yes. Others, nix.
My nose got powdered first and I waited by the door for her after throwing a good week?s pay to the cashier.
The snow that had slacked off started again in earnest. A steady stream of early traffic poured out of the business section, heading home before the stuff got too deep. Juno had snow tires on the heap so I wasn?t worried about getting caught, but it took us twice the time to get back uptown as it did to come down.
Juno decided against going back to the office and told me to go along Riverside Drive. At the most fashionable of the cross streets I turned off and went as far as the middle of the block. She indicated a new gray stone building that stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the others, boasting a doorman in a maroon uniform and topcoat. She leaned back and sighed, ?We?re home.?
?Leave the car here??
?Won?t you need it to get where you?re going??
?I couldn?t afford to put gas in this buggy. No, I?ll take a cab.? I got out and opened the door. The maroon uniform walked over and tipped his hat. Juno said, ?Have the car taken to the garage for me please??
He took the keys. ?Certainly, Miss Reeves.?
She turned to me with a grin. The snow swirling around her clung to the fur of her collar and hat, framing her face with a sprinkling of white. ?Come up for a drink?? I hesitated, ?Just one, Mike, then I?ll let you go.?
?Okay, baby, just one and don?t try to make it any more.?
Juno didn?t have a penthouse, but it was far enough up to make a good Olympus. There was no garishness about the place, big as it was. The furnishings and the fixtures were matched in the best of taste, designed for complete, comfortable living.
I kept my coat and hat on while she whipped up a cocktail, my eyes watching the lithe grace of her movements. There was an unusual symmetry to her body that made me want to touch and feel. Our eyes met in the mirror over the sofa and there was the same thing in hers as there must have been in mine.
She spun around with an eloquent gesture and held out the glasses. Her voice was low and husky again. ?I?m just a breeze past thirty, Mike. I?ve known many men. I?ve had many men too, but none that I really wanted. One day soon I?m going to want you.?
My spine chilled up suddenly and the crazy music let loose in my head because she had the light in her hair again. The stem of the glass broke off in my fingers, tearing into my palm. The back of my neck got hot and I felt the sweat pop out on my forehead.
I moved so the light would be out of her hair and the gold would be gone from it, covering up the insane hatred of memory by lifting my hand to drink from the bowl of the broken glass.
It spoiled the picture for me, a picture that should be beautiful and desirable, scarred by something that should be finished but kept coming back.
I put the pieces of the glass down on the window sill and she said, ?You looked at me that way again, Mike.?
This time I forced the memory out of my mind. I slipped my hand over hers and ran my fingers through her hair, sifting its short silky loveliness. ?I?ll make it up to you sometime, Juno. I I can?t help thinking and it hasn?t got anything to do with you.?
?Make it up to me now.?
I gave her ear a little pull. ?No.?
Why?? .
?Because.?
She pouted and her eyes tried to convince me.
I couldn?t tell her that it was because there was a time and place for everything, and though this was the time and place she wasn?t the person. I was only a mortal. A mortal doesn?t undress a goddess and let his eyes feast and his hands feel and his body seek fulfillment.
Then too maybe that wasn?t the reason at all. Maybe she reminded me of something else I could never have.
Never.
She said it slowly. ?Who was she, Mike? Was she lovely??
I couldn?t keep the words back. I tried, but they were there.
?She was lovely. She was the most gorgeous thing that ever lived and I was in love with her. But she did something and I played God; I was the judge and I the jury and the sentence was death. I shot her right in the gut and when she died I died too.?
Juno never said a word. Only her eyes moved. They softened, offered themselves to me, trying to convince
