Terry opened his eyes. He was amazed to learn that a man could, without physical exertion, become completely exhausted in a couple of minutes.
CHAPTER 2
A few days later, Terry was thinking over all this in a bar around the corner from a burlesque theater. On the wall behind him were dozens of slick stills: the cuties who took it off for a living. Someone crawled onto the stool on his right and said, “Mine’s better, Terry. My chassis, I mean.”
He set his glass down carefully on the bar. “I’ll bet it is,” he said. “What I’ve seen of it, I admire. I admire it very much. But I like it living, not dead. Incidentally, I like my own, such as it is, the same way. Now go away, please, Liza.”
“That isn’t a very nice welcome.”
“Look, baby, I’ve told you. I’ve spelled it out so a kid could get it. Listen carefully, and I’ll try again. After our little interlude the other day, Guy Sebastian had me in for a drink and a lesson in manners.”
“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
“Oh, sure. Famous last words. For your information, there isn’t a hell of a lot that Guy Sebastian doesn’t know. About the things that concern him personally, there isn’t anything at all be doesn’t know. Besides, what about me? What about the things I’d know? I don’t usually object to sharing what I have, but some things I like to keep private. I’m greedy that way.”
“You’re a proud guy, Terry. Me, I’ve got no pride left. I want you any way I can get you. Even on shares.”
His voice was defensively harsh. “Look. I’m just a so-so guy. Not even so-so, really. A parasite on a louse, I think we decided. I don’t rate a grand passion. On me, it looks funny. Now be a good girl and peddle your fleshpots to the guy who buys the mink.”
“I’d give it all back, Terry. He can have it all back and welcome—the mink, the diamonds, all the fancy junk together. I’m leveling, Terry. For maybe the first time in my life, I’m honest-to-God leveling. I followed you here to this dump just to tell you. Just to try to get you to see it. We could run, dear, if we had to. It’s a great big wide world, and Guy Sebastian can’t be everywhere in it.”
“Anywhere he’s not, he can damn soon get.” He turned away from her, looking into his empty glass through the drying traces of stale scum. Then he spun back to face her. “I’ve tried to be nice about it. I’ve tried to be a little gentleman. Now let’s get straight for good. You’ve got plenty of attractive stuff to offer. Ordinarily the possibilities for fun would be overwhelming. Ordinarily, I’d be eager to play. But not the way things are now.”
She slipped off the stool and stood silently beside him. He returned his eyes to the glass and waited for her to leave. After a long time, he felt her hand on his arm. Her voice was a hoarse whisper.
“You mean it? You really mean it?”
“I mean it. If you want, you can make me sweat for it. If you want, you can foul me up with Guy. If it comes to liquidation, there’s not much question about whether it’d be you or me.”
She backed off a couple of steps. “You believe I’d do it. Frame you with Guy just to salve the wounds you’ve made in my precious pride? I told you I didn’t have any pride left. And anyway, I’d never do you any harm if I could help it. I’d never do it, Terry.”
Then she turned and went out, and he pushed the empty glass across the bar and said. “Draw another.”
The bartender filled his glass and raked off suds with the back of a knife. He slid the glass down the wet surface deftly.
A thin man in a loose cord suit had claimed the stool on Terry’s left. He was wearing a soiled panama hat that looked too big for his head, and the skin of his face had the same loose look as his suit. The skin was tinged with yellow, almost jaundiced in appearance. The man ordered a beer and waited until the bartender had moved out of hearing range.
“Who’s the dame?” he said.
“Her name’s Liza Gray. Guy Sebastian’s fiancée.”
“How come she was here?”
“Followed me, I guess.”
The man said, “Oh?” He swallowed beer and waited.
Terry shrugged angrily. “I guess you listened in. You heard what she said.”
“I heard, all right. You think she’s straight?”
“Maybe.”
“She suspect anything?”
“I don’t think so. At any rate, nothing like the truth.”
“You think she could have been set onto you by Sebastian?”
“No.”
“We’ve been building this up for a long time, Terry. Too long to have it wrecked by a dame.”
“I know how long it’s been. No one knows better.”
“Sure. You’ve done a neat job. You any farther along with Sebastian? Any indication of letting you inside?”
“No. I’m strictly for kicks. I run errands and stuff. Most of all I jazz up the great ego. I pick up information, however.”
“I know, I know. It’s been tough. Now it’ll be tougher. We’ll have to do it the hard way. Before the night’s over, if things go right, you ought to be out of it. Anything changed?”
“No. The plane will land at Municipal Terminal at midnight. The courier’s on it. I know the guy by sight. As I told you, he’s medium height, getting bald, and has a thin black mustache and a slight limp in his left leg.”
“It still checks. Ever since you put us onto the guy, we’ve had him under observation. We could’ve grabbed him then, of course. If we had, we’d have small fry. We’d have a lousy courier in the can, with his lips buttoned and the big shot gone free. Guy Sebastian’s the boy we want. We want him real bad.”
The thin man in the
