?They say if you get bitten often enough it?ll kill you.?
I stood up and tugged my coat on. ?You might at that. What are your plans for the rest of the evening??
Pat waited for me by the door while I hunted up my hat. ?Since you?ve gotten my schedule all screwed up I have to clean up some work at the office. Besides, I want to find out if Rainey?s two pals have been found yet. You know, you called it pretty good. They both disappeared so fast it would make your head swim.?
?What did they do about the arena??
?They sold out . . . to a man who signed the contracts and deeds as Robert Hobart Williams.?
?Dinky . . . Clyde! I?ll be damned.?
?Yeah, me too. He bought it for a song. Ed Cooper ran it in the sports column of the
?I?ll be damned,? I said again. ?It tied Rainey in very nicely with Clyde, didn?t it??
Pat shrugged. ?Who can prove it? Rainey?s dead and the partners are missing. That isn?t the only arena Clyde owns. It now appears that he?s a man quite interested in sporting establishments.?
We started out the door and I almost forgot what I came for. Pat waited in the hall while I went back to the bedroom and pulled out the dresser drawer. The Luger was still there wrapped in an oily rag inside a box. I checked the clip, jacked a shell into the chamber and put it in half cock.
When I slid it into the holster it fit loosely, but nice. I felt a lot better.
The snow, the damned snow. It slowed me to a crawl and did all but stop me. It still came down in lazy fashion, but so thick you couldn?t see fifty feet through it. Traffic was thick, sluggish and people were abandoning their cars in the road for the subway. I circled around them, following the cab in front of me and finally hit a section that had been cleared only minutes before.
That stretch kept me from missing Velda. She had her coat and hat on and was locking the door when I stepped out of the elevator. I didn?t have to tell her to open up again.
When she threw her coat on top of mine I looked at her and got mad again. She was more lovely than the last time. I said. ?Where you going??
She pulled a bottle out of a cabinet and poured me a stiff drink. It tasted great. ?Clyde called me. He wanted to know if that was `later.? ?
?Yeah??
?I told him it might be.?
?Where does the seduction take place??
?At his apartment.?
?You really have that guy going, don?t you? How come he?s passing up all the stuff at the Inn for you??
Velda looked at me quickly, then away. I reached for the bottle. ?You asked me to do this, you know,? she said.
I felt like a heel. All she had to do was look at me when I got that way and I felt like I was crawling up out of a sewer somewhere. ?I?m sorry, kid. I?m jealous, I guess. I always figured you as some sort of a fixture. Now that the finance company is taking it away from me I get snotty.?
Her smile lit the whole room up. She came over and filled my glass again. ?Get that way more often, Mike.?
?I?m always that way. Now tell me what you?ve been doing to the guy.?
?I play easy to get but not easy to get at. There are times when sophistication coupled with virtue pays off. Clyde is getting that look in his eyes. He?s hinting at a man-and-mistress arrangement with the unspoken plan in mind of a marriage license if I don?t go for it.?
I put the glass down. ?You can cut out the act, Velda. I?m almost ready to move in on Clyde myself.?
?I thought I was the boss,? she grinned.
?You are . . . of the agency. Outside the office I?m the boss.? I grabbed her arm and swung her around to face me. She was damned near as tall as I was and being that close to her did things to me inside that I didn?t have time for. ?It took me a long time to wise up, didn?t it??
?Too long, Mike.?
?Do you know what I?m talking about, Velda? I?m not tossing a pass at you now or laying the groundwork for the same thing later. I?m telling you ?something else.?
My fingers were hurting her and I couldn?t help it. ?I want you to say it, Mike. You?ve played games with so many women I won?t be sure until I hear you say it yourself. Tell me.?
There was a desperate pleading in her eyes. They were asking me please, please. I could feel her breath coming faster and knew she was trembling and not because I was hurting her. I knew something was coming over my face that I couldn?t control. It started in my chest and overflowed in my face when the music in my head began with that steady beat of drums and weird discord. My mouth worked to get the words out, but they stuck fast to the roof of my mouth.
I shook my head to break up the crazy symphony going on in my brain and I mumbled, ?No . . . no. Oh, good God, I can?t, Velda. I can?t!?
I knew what the feeling was. I was scared. Scared to death and it showed in my face and the way I stumbled across the room to a chair and sat down. Velda knelt on the floor in front of me her face a fuzzy white blur that kissed me again and again. I could feel her hands in my hair and smell the pleasant woman smell of cleanliness, of beauty that was part of her, but the music wouldn?t go away.
She asked me what had happened and I told her. It wasn?t that. It was something else. She wanted to know what it was, demanded to know what it was and her voice came through a sob and tears. She gave me back my voice and I said, ?Not you, kid . . . no kiss of death for you. There?ve been two women now. I said I loved them both. I thought I did. They both died, but not you, kid.?
Her hands on mine were soft and gentle. ?Mike . . . nothing will happen to me.?
My mind went back over the years-to Charlotte and Lola.
?It?s no good, Velda. Maybe when this is all over it?ll be different. I keep thinking of the women who died. God, if I ever have to hold a gun on a woman again I?ll die first, so help me I will. How many years has it been since the yellow-gold hair and the beautiful face was there? It?s still there and I know it?s dead but I keep hearing the voice. And I keep thinking of the dark hair too . . . like a shroud. Gold shrouds, dark shrouds. . . .?
?Mike . . . don?t. Please, for me. Don?t . no more.?
She had another drink in my hand and I poured it down, heard the wild fury of the music drown out and give me back to myself again. I said, ?All over now, sugar. Thanks.? She was smiling but her face was wet with tears. I kissed her eyes and the top of her head. ?When this is settled we?ll take a vacation, that?s what we?ll do. We?ll take all the cash out of the bank and see what the city looks like when there?s not murder in it.?
She left me sitting there smoking a cigarette while she went into the bathroom and washed her face. I sat there and didn?t think of anything at all, trying to put a cap over the raw edges of my nerves that had been scraped and pounded too often.
Velda came back, a vision in a tailored gray suit that accentuated every curve. She was so big, so damn big and so lovely. She had the prettiest legs in the world and there wasn?t a thing about her that wasn?t beautiful and desirable. I could see why Clyde wanted her. Who wouldn?t? I was a sap for waiting as long as I had.
She took the cigarette from my mouth and put it in her own. ?I?m going to see Clyde tonight, Mike. I?ve been wondering about several things and I want to see if I can find out what they are.?
?What things?? There wasn?t much interest in my words.
She took a drag on the cigarette and handed it back. ?Things like what it is he holds over people?s heads. Things like blackmail. Things like how Clyde can influence people so powerful they can make or break judges, mayors or even governors. What kind of blackmail can that be??
?Keep talking, Velda.?
?He has conferences with these big people. They call him up at odd hours. They?re never asking . . . they?re always giving. To Clyde. He takes it like it?s his due. I want to know those things.?
?Will they be found in Clyde?s apartment, baby??
?No, Clyde has them . . .? she tapped her forehead, ?here. He isn?t smart enough to keep them there.?
?Be careful, Velda, be damn careful with that guy. He might not be the pushover you think he is. He?s got connections and he keeps his nose too damn clean to be a pushover. Watch yourself.?
