small talk, Mr. Hammer.'
I turned around and smiled at him, a nice dead kind of smile that had no laugh behind it and I could see him go tight from where I stood. I said, 'I wasn't after talk, Carl. I wanted to see your face. I wanted to know it so I'd never forget it. Someday I'm going to watch it turn blue or maybe bleed to death. Your eyes'll get all wide and sticky and your tongue will hang out and I won't be making any mistake about it being the wrong joe. Think about it Carl, especially when you go to bed at night.'
I turned the knob and opened the door.
The two boys were standing there. All they did was look at me and it wasn't with much affection. I was going to have to remember them too.
When I got back outside Michael Friday spotted me and waved. I didn't wave back so she came over, a mock frown across her face. I couldn't get my eyes off her mouth, even when she faked a pout. 'Bum steer,' she said, 'no business?'
She looked like a kid, a very beautiful kid and all grown up where it counted, but with the grin and impishness of a kid nevertheless. And you don't get sore at kids. 'I hear you're his sister.'
'Not quite. We had the same mother but came from different hatches.'
'Oh.'
'Going to join the party?'
I looked over at the group still downing the drinks. 'No thanks. I don't like the company.'
'Neither do I for that matter. Let's both leave.'
'Now you got something,' I said.
We didn't even bother with good-byes. She just grabbed my arm and steered me around the building, talking a blue streak about nothing at all. We made the front as a car was coming up the driveway and as I was opening the door of my new heap it stopped and a guy got out in a hurry, trotted around the side and opened the door.
I started wondering what the eminent Congressman Geyfey was doing up this way when he was supposed to be serving on a committee in Washington. Then I stopped wondering when he took the woman's arm and helped her out and Velda smiled politely in our direction a moment before going up the path.
Michael said, 'Stunning, isn't she?'
'Very. Who is she?'
She stayed deadpan because she meant it. Her head moved slightly as she said, 'I don't know. Most likely one of Bob's proteges. He seems to do very well for himself.'
'He doesn't if he overlooked you.'
Her laugh was quick and fresh. 'Thank you, but he didn't overlook me, I overlooked him.'
'Nice for me,' I grinned. 'What's a congressman doing with Carl? He may be your brother, but his reputation's got spots on it.'
Her grin didn't fade a bit. 'My brother certainly isn't the most ethical man I've known, but he is big business, and in case you haven't known about it, big business and government go hand in hand sometimes.'
'Uh-uh. Not Carl's kind of business.'
This time her frown wasn't put on. She studied me while she slid into the car and waited until I was behind the wheel. 'Before Bob was elected he was Carl's lawyer. He handled some corporation account Carl had out West.' She stopped and looked into my eyes. 'It's wrong someplace, isn't it?'
'Frankly, Friday gal, it stinks.'
I started the engine, sat and listened to it purr a minute then eased the gearshift in. All that power under the hood was dying to let go and I sat on it. I took the heap down the drive, rolled out to the street and swung toward the center of town. We didn't talk. We sat and rode for a while and watched the houses drift past. The sun was high overhead, a warm ball that smiled at the world, a big warm thing that made everything seem all right when everything was so damned wrong.
Pretty soon it would come. I thought about how she'd put it and how I'd answer it. It could come guarded, veiled or in a roundabout way, but it would come.
When it did come it was right out in the open and she asked, 'What did you want with Carl?' Her voice sounded sleepy and relaxed. I glanced at her lying back there so lazily against the cushions, her hair spilling down the back of the seat. Her mouth was still a wet thing, deliciously red, firm, yet ready to vibrate like the strings on a fiddle the moment they were touched.
I answered her the same way she asked it, right out in the open.
'He had a girl once. She's dead now and he may be involved in her murder. Your big-business brother may have a Mafia tie-up.' Her head rolled on the seat until she was looking at me. 'And you?'
'When I get interested in people like your brother they usually wind up dead.'
'Oh.' That's all. Just 'Oh' and she turned and looked out the window, staring straight ahead.
'You want me to take you back?' 'No.'
'Want to talk about it?'
Her hand reached over and took the deck of Luckies from the seat beside me. She lit two at the same time and stuck one in my mouth. It tasted of lipstick, a nice taste. The kind that makes you want to taste it again, this time from the source.
'I'm surprised it took this long,' she said. 'He used to try to fool me, but now he doesn't bother. I've often wondered when it would happen.' She breathed in deeply on the smoke, then watched it whip out the half-opened ventilator. 'Do you mind if I cry a little bit?'
'Go ahead.'
'Is it serious trouble?'
'You don't get more serious than killing somebody.' 'But was it Carl?'
Her eyes were wet when they turned in my direction. 'I don't know,' I said.
'Then you're not sure?'
'That's right. But then again, I don't have to be sure.' 'But... you're the police?'
'Nope. Not anybody. Just such an important nobody that a whole lot of people would like to see me knocked off. The only trouble is they can't make the grade.'
I pulled the car to the curb, backed it into the slot in front of a gin mill and cut the engine. 'You were talking about your brother.'
She didn't look at me. She worked the cigarette down to a stub and flipped it into the gutter. 'There isn't much to tell, really. I know what he's been and I know the people he's associated with.
They aren't what you would call the best people, though he mixes with them too. Generally he has something they want.' 'Ever hear of Berga Torn?'
'Yes, I remember her well. I thought Carl had quite a crush on her. He... kept her for a long time.'
'Why did he dump her?'
'I... I don't know.' There was a catch in her voice. 'She was a peculiar sort of girl. All I remember is that they had an argument one night and Carl never bothered with her much after that. Somebody new came along.'
'That all?'
Michael nodded.
'Ever hear of the Mafia?'
She nodded again. 'Mike... Carl isn't... one of those people. I know he isn't.'
'You wouldn't know about it if he was.'
'And if he is?'
I shrugged. There was only one answer to a question like that.
Her fingers were a little unsteady when they picked up another cigarette. 'Mike... I'd like to go back now.'
I lit the butt for her and kicked the motor over. She sat there, smoked it out and had another. Never talking. Not seeming to do anything at all. Her bottom lip was puffed up from chewing on it and every few minutes her shoulders would twitch as she repressed a sob. I drove up to the gateway of the house, leaned across her and opened the door.
'Friday ...'
'Yes, Mike?'
