He wanted the five, but he shook his head. 'Brother, nobody tells Lou nothing. You tell 'im.'
'Say it's important business, and he'll come. He won't like it if he doesn't get to hear what I have to tell him.'
The guy licked his lips and reached for the five. He left the tray on the table, disappeared around a bend that led to the service bar and kitchen, came back for his tray and told me Lou was on his way.
Out on the floor another stripper was trying to earn some persuasion dough herself so the outside of the room was nice and clear with no big ears around.
Lou came around the bend, looked at the bus boy who crooked a finger my way, then came over to see who the hell I was. Lou Grindle was a dapper punk in his forties with eyes like glass marbles and a head of hair that looked painted on. His tux ran in the three-figure class and if you didn't look for it you'd never know he was packing a gun low under his arm.
The edges of his eyes puckered up as he tried to place me and when he saw the same kind of a gun bulge on me as he had himself he made the mistake of taking me for a cop. His upper lip twitched in a sneer he didn't try to hide.
I kicked another chair out with my foot and said, 'Sit down, Lou.'
Lou sat down. His fingers were curled up like he wanted to take me apart at the seams. 'Make it good and make it quick,' he said. He hissed when he talked.
I made it good, all right. I said, 'One of your butt boys got himself killed tonight.'
His eyes unpuckered and got glassier. It was as close as he could come to looking normally surprised. 'Who?'
'That's what I want to find out. He was holding your coat in a crap game the other night. Remember?'
If he remembered he didn't tell me so.
I leaned forward and leaned on the table, the ends of my hand inside the lapel of my coat just in case. 'He was a medium-sized guy in expensive duds with holes in his shoes. A long time ago he worked for Charlie Fallon. Right now I'm wondering whether or not he was working for you tonight.'
Lou remembered. His face went tight and the cords in his neck pressed tight against his collar. 'Who the hell are you, Mac?'
'The name's Mike Hammer, Lou. Ask around and you'll find what it means.'
A snake wore the same expression he got just then. His eyes went even glassier and under his coat his body started sucking inward. 'A goddamn private cop!' He was looking at my fingers. They were farther inside my coat now and I could feel the cold butt of the .45.
The snake look faded and something else took its place. Something that said Lou Grindle wasn't taking chances on being as fast as he used to be. Not where he was alone, anyway. 'So what?' he snarled.
I grinned at him. The one with all the teeth showing.
'That boy of yours, the one who died... I put a slug through his legs and the guy who drove the car didn't want to take a chance on him being picked up so he put the wheels to him. Right after the two of 'em got finished knocking off another guy too.'
Lou's hand moved up to his pocket and plucked out a cigar. Slowly, so I could watch it happen. 'Nobody was working for me tonight.'
'Maybe not, Lou, maybe not. You better hope they weren't.'
He stopped in the middle of lighting the cigar and threw those snake eyes at me again. 'You got a few things to learn, shamus, I don't like for guys to talk tough to me.'
'Lou...' His head came back an inch and I could see the hate he wore like a mask. '... if I find out you had a hand in this business tonight I'm going to come back here and take that slimy face of yours and rub it in the dirt. You just try playing rough with me and you'll see your guts lying on the floor before you die. Remember what I said, Lou. I'd as soon shoot your goddamn greasy head off as look at you.'
His face went white right down to his collar. If he had lips they didn't show because they were rolled up against his teeth. The number on the floor ended and the people were coming back where they belonged, so I stood up and walked away. When I looked back he was gone and his chair was upside down against the wall.
The cab was still there with another two bucks chalked up on the meter. It was nearly three o'clock and I had told Velda I'd meet her at two-thirty. I said, 'Penn Station,' to the driver, held the kid against me to soften the jolts of the ride and paid off the driver a few minutes later.
Velda isn't the kind of woman you'd miss even in Penn Station. All you had to do was follow the eyes. She was standing by the information booth tall and cool-looking, in a light gray suit that made the black of her hair seem even deeper. Luscious. Clothes couldn't hide it. Seductive. They didn't try to hide it either. Nobody ever saw her without undressing her with their eyes, that's the kind of woman she was.
A nice partner to have in the firm. And someday...
I came up behind her and said, 'Hello, Velda. Sorry I'm late.' She swung around, dropped her cigarette and let me know she thought I was what I looked like right then, an unshaven bum wringing wet. 'Can't you ever be on time, Mike?'
'Hell, you're big enough to carry your own suitcases to the platform. I got caught up in a piece of work.'
She concentrated a funny stare on me so hard that she didn't realize what I had in my arms until it squirmed. Her breath caught in her throat sharply. 'Mike... what...'
'He's a little boy, kitten. Cute, isn't he?'
Her fingers touched his face and he smiled sleepily. Velda didn't smile. She watched me with an intensity I had seen before and it was all I could do to make my face a blank. I flipped a butt out of my pack and lit it so my mouth would have a reason for being tight and screwed up on the side. 'Is this the piece of work, Mike?'
