ladened breath: ‘You don’t want to waste good money on the cabaret, friend. It’s the worst swindle in town, and that’s saying a lot.’
‘No girls?’
He made a face.
‘Well, yes, there are girls, if you can call them girls.’
I twiddled my glass.
‘I heard this Lane dish is worth catching.’
He sucked up some of his rum and lime juice, and then closed a heavy eyelid.
‘If you could catch her, I’d say she would be pretty satisfactory, but she’s hard to catch. I’ve tried, and all I’ve got out of it is a couple of evenings listening to her sing, and that’s something she can’t do.’
‘So what’s good about this joint?’
He looked over his shoulder to see if anyone was listening, then leaning close and lowering his voice, he said: ‘Between friends, they have a roulette table upstairs. The table stakes are up to the ceiling. All the rest of the muck here is just a front. But keep it under your hat, friend. I’m doing you a favour, telling you.’
‘Maybe I might see what I can lose.’
He lifted his fat shoulders.
‘They’re pretty strict who they let up there. It’s strictly illegal. You might have a word with Claude: he manages the joint. You can mention my name if you like: Phil Welliver.’
‘Thanks. Where do I find him?’
He nodded across to the bar to a door.
‘In there.’ Then he pushed himself away from the bar. ‘I’ve got to move along. I promised the wife I’d take her out tonight. Went right out of my mind until five minutes ago. I’d better not be too late.’
I watched him lurch across the bar, and when I was sure he had gone, I went the same way, again aware of the twenty staring eyes on me as I walked to the exit.
I found the restaurant on the left of the passage: an oval-shaped room with dim lighting, rose-pink mirrors and blue decor. There were about sixty people finishing dinner, and the room was full of the hum of voices and cigarette smoke.
The head waiter, a jaded young man with red-gold wavy hair, came up to me, his face set in a professional smile.
‘I wanted to catch the cabaret,’ I said, ‘but I don’t want the dinner.’
‘Certainly, sir: perhaps a drink and a sandwich…?’ He let his voice die away as he waved his hands apologetically.
‘Sure,’ I said. ‘I’ll have a whisky sour and a chicken on rye bread.’
He led me around the back of the tables to a small table a little too near the band for comfort, but I didn’t argue about it.
He went away and I sat down.
The band was a four-piece job: four well-built Negroes: a trumpet, drums, double bass and a saxophone. They played as if they needed a vacation and were going to strike at any moment if they didn’t get it.
After a while the waiter brought my chicken sandwich and my drink. The rye bread was a little dry and the chicken looked as if it had had a sharp attack of jaundice before departing the earth. I let the sandwich lie. I’ve drunk worse whisky sours in my time, but not much worse.
Around quarter to twelve, the floor was cleared and four girls came prancing in. They wore Gstrings, halters and guards-men’s hats. They were pretty terrible, and there was one of them who had dirty knees. They were strictly for the drunks, and after they had shown themselves off and made eyes at the habitues they bounced out more enthusiastically than they had bounced in. As my rum and lime juice friend had said: as a cabaret, it was a swindle.
A little after midnight, Dolores Lane came in and stood holding a microphone the way a drowning man hangs on to a life-belt.
She was wearing a gold lame dress that fitted her like a second skin, and she looked pretty good as she stood there under a white spotlight. She sang two Latin-American songs. Her voice was small, but at least she could sing in tune. Without a microphone, no one would have heard her. She sang listlessly as if she were bored with the whole thing, and the applause she collected could have been packed into a thimble without overflowing.
She went away, her eyes glittering, and then the crowd began to dance again.
I found a scrap of paper in my wallet and wrote the following message:
Will you have a drink with me? I hope you didn’t get sand in your shoes this morning.
A nutty note to send her; but I had an idea it might book her. I grabbed a passing waiter, gave him the note and a five-dollar bill and told him to get some action. He made sure the bill was for five dollars before he said he would fix it.
I was working on my second whisky sour when the waiter came back.
‘She’ll see you in her dressing-room,’ he said and gave me a curious stare. ‘Through that door, turn left, and it’s the door ahead with a star on it.’
I thanked him.
He paused just long enough for me to reach for my wallet if I felt inclined, but as I didn’t, he moved off.
I finished my drink, settled the check which was three times too much, and then, made my way through the door the waiter had indicated into a typical behind-the-scenes passage.
Facing me was a shabby door with a faded, gold star on it. I rapped and a woman’s voice said: ‘Come on in.’
I turned the handle and stepped into a small room with a lighted mirror, a small dressing-table, a cupboard, a screen in a corner, two upright chairs and well-worn carpet on the floor.
Dolores was sitting in front of the mirror doing things to her face. She had on a red silk wrap which fell open above her thighs to show me her sleek legs in nylon stockings.
On the dressing-table was a bottle of gin, half-full, and a glass with either gin and water in it or just gin.
She didn’t turn, but looked at my reflection in the mirror as I closed the door and moved over to the upright chair.
‘I thought it would be you,’ she said. ‘Want some gin? There’s a glass somewhere around.’
I sat down.
‘No, thanks. I’ve been on whisky. The idea was for me to buy you a drink.’
She leaned forward to peer at herself in the mirror. She picked up a rabbit’s foot and dusted the powder off her dark eyebrows.
‘Why?’
I had an idea she was a little drunk, but I wasn’t sure.
‘I liked your act. I thought it was worth a bottle of champagne,’ I said, watching her. ‘Besides, I wanted to talk to you.’
She put the rabbit’s foot down and drank from the glass. By the way she grimaced, and then shuddered, I knew the glass contained neat gin.
‘Just who are you?’
Her eyes were slightly glassy and slightly out of focus. That told me she was three parts drunk, but not drunk enough not to know what she was saying or doing.
‘The name’s Chester Scott. I live and work in this city.’
‘Scott?’ Her eyebrows came down in a frown. ‘Chester Scott? Where have I heard that name before?’
‘Have you?’
She screwed up her eyes, grimaced, then shrugged.
‘Somewhere… so you liked my act?’ She held out her hand. ‘Give me a cigarette.’
I gave her one, gave myself one and lit hers, then mine.
‘The act was fine, but the background didn’t jell.’
‘I know.’ She blew smoke to the ceiling, then took a little more gin. ‘Did you hear the way they applauded? You would think to hear them, they had blisters on their hands.’
