The Girl Hunters

'No.'

'You're going to leave me now, aren't you?'

'Yes, I am.'

'Will you come back?'

I couldn't answer her.

'It's between the two of us, isn't it?'

'The girl hunters are out,' I said.

'But will you come back?'

My mind was far away, exploring the missing point. 'Yes,' I said, 'I have to come back.'

'You loved her.'

'I did.'

'Do you love me at all?'

I turned around and looked at this woman. She was mine now, beautiful, wise, the way a woman should be formed for a man like I was, lovely, always naked in my sight, always incredibly blonde and incredibly tanned, the difference in color--or was it comparison--a shocking, sensual thing. I said, 'I love you, Laura. Can I be mistaken?'

She said, 'No, you can't be mistaken.'

'I have to find her first. She's being hunted. Everybody is hunting her. I loved her a long time ago so I owe her that much. She asked for me.'

'Find her, Mike.'

I nodded. I had the other key now. 'I'll find her. She's the most important thing in this old world today. What she knows will decide the fate of nations. Yes, I'll find her.'

'Then will you come back?'

'Then I'll come back,' I said.

Her arms reached out and encircled me, her hands holding my head, her fingers tight in my hair. I could feel every inch of, her body pressed hard against mine, forcing itself to meet me, refusing to give at all.

'I'm going to fight her for you,' she said.

'Why?'

'Because you're mine now.'

'Girl,' I said, 'I'm no damn good to anybody. Look good and you'll see a corn ear husked, you know?'

'I know. So I eat husks.'

'Damn it, don't fool around!'

'Mike!'

'Laura--'

'You say it nice, Mike--but there's something in your voice that's terrible and I can sense it. If you find her, what will you do?'

'I can't tell.'

'Will you still come back?'

'Damn it, I don't know.'

'Why don't you know, Mike?'

I looked down at her. 'Because I don't know what I'm really like any more. Look--do you know what I was? Do you know that a judge and jury took me down and the whole world once ripped me to little bits? It was only Velda who stayed with me then.'

'That was then. How long ago was it?'

'Nine years maybe.'

'Were you married?'

'No.'

'Then I can claim part of you. I've had part of you.' She let go of me and stood back, her eyes calm as they looked into mine. 'Find her, Mike. Make your decision. Find her and take her. Have you ever had her at all?'

'No.'

'You've had me. Maybe you're more mine than hers.'

'Maybe.'

'Then find her.' She stepped back, her hands at her side. 'If what you said was true then she deserves this much. You find her, Mike. I'm willing to fight you for anybody--but not somebody you think is dead. Not somebody you think you owe a debt to. Let me love you my own way. It's enough for me at least. Do you understand that?'

For a while we stood there. I looked at her. I looked away. I said, 'Yes, I understand.'

'Come back when you've decided.'

'You have all of Washington to entertain.'

Laura shook her head. Her hair was a golden swirl and she said, 'The hell with Washington. I'll be waiting for you.'

Velda, Laura. The names were so similar. Which one? After seven years of nothingness, which one? Knowing what I did, which one? Yesterday was then. Today was now. Which one?

I said, 'All right, Laura, I'll find out, then I'll come back.'

'Take my car.'

'Thanks.'

And now I had to take her. My fingers grabbed her arms and pulled her close to where I could kiss her and taste the inside of her mouth and feel the sensuous writhing of her tongue against mine because this was the woman I knew I was coming back to.

The Girl Hunters. We all wanted the same one and for reasons of a long time ago. We would complete the hunt, but what would we do with the kill?

She said, 'After that you shouldn't leave.'

'I have to,' I said.

'Why?'

'She had to get in this country someway. I think I know how.'

'You'll find her then come back?'

'Yes,' I said, and let my hands roam over her body so that she knew there could never be anybody else, and when I was done I held her off and made her stay there while I went inside to put on the gun and the coat and go back to the new Babylon that was the city.

Chapter 11

And once again it was night, the city coming into its nether life like a minion of Count Dracula. The bright light of day that could strip away the facade of sham and lay bare the coating of dirt was gone now, and to the onlooker the unreal became real, the dirt had changed into subtle colors under artificial lights and it was as if all of that vast pile of concrete and steel and glass had been built only to live at night.

I left the car at the Sportsmen's Parking Lot on the corner of Eighth and Fifty-second, called Hy Gardner and told him to meet me at the Blue Ribbon on Forty-fourth, then started my walk to the restaurant thinking of the little things I should have thought of earlier.

The whole thing didn't seem possible, all those years trapped in Europe. You could walk around the world half a dozen times in seven years. But you wouldn't be trapped then. The thing was, they were trapped. Had Velda or Erlich been amateurs they would have been captured without much trouble, but being pros they edged out. Almost. That made Velda even better than he had been.

Somehow, it didn't seem possible.

But it was.

Hy had reached the Blue Ribbon before me and, waited at a table sipping a stein of rich, dark beer. I nodded at the waiter and he went back for mine. We ordered, ate, and only then did Hy bother to give me his funny look over the cigar he lit up. 'It's over?'

'It won't be long now.'