A Hell of a Woman (Crime Masterworks) (13 page)

"Of course, I don't really know anything," he said. "All I've got to go on is what some of the fellows around here have said. Could be a lot of lies, and probably is."

I took another swallow of my drink. I said, well, I didn't know about that. "The way I figure, where there's so much smoke there's got to be fire."

"Well… "His smirk started to spread again.

"She didn't get them breastworks from chinning herself. I wonder how a guy would go about getting some?"

"Well, they tell me it's pretty simple. From what I hear-and I got no reason to doubt it-all you got to do is give her the old proposition."

"Yeah? Just like that, huh?"

"So they tell me. They tell me it's just a matter of howsabout it, toots, and you can get out the coal shovel."

He nodded, giving me another wink.

I picked up my change-every damned penny of it-and left.

I drove around a while, got myself some coffee and ate a handful of mints. It was that time, by then, so I went to the store and checked in. There was no hurrahing or needling from Staples. He had a dinner date, I guess, or maybe he'd decided that there wasn't anything he could nose out. Anyway, he checked me out fast, and I went home.

Everything was about like it had been the night before. A good dinner; Joyce being sweet and nice despite the way she was worried about the money. I couldn't think of much to say to her talk, so I just let her ramble on. At one time I got to frowning, unconsciously, staring around the living room and frowning. I wasn't really thinking about it at all, you know, but she thought I was.

"I'm sorry, darling," she apologized. "I've been meaning to clean house from top to bottom, but I've been so-well, never mind. I'll get busy on it the first thing in the morning. You won't know the place when you get home."

"Oh, hell," I said. "Let it go. It looks okay to me."

"No," she said, "I'm going to do it. It'll help to take my mind off of.. of She didn't finish.

The next day was Thursday. Like the other days sinceJoyce had come back, it started off good. Breakfast was ready and waiting for me.Joyce was swell. There was no mention of the mur-of the case-in the morning papers.

I thought, well, everything else is so good, that goddamned Staples will probably give me a hard time. But I was dead wrong about it. I was the first guy he checked out, and he didn't waste any time about it.

I went back around the corner, and climbed into my car. I backed away from the curb, and- I don't know where she'd been hiding, waiting. Back in some doorway, I guess. But suddenly there she was-Mona was-piling into the car with me. Stammering scared. So scared that I could hardly understand her.

"S-something's w-wrong, D-Dolly! T-t-the p-police are f-f-following me…"

My foot slipped off the clutch, and the car leaped forward. I jammed my foot down on the gas. Inside of two blocks I was doing seventy, right through the early morning traffic, and God, I don't know how I kept from being pinched or from smashing into someone. Then, I began to think again, and I slapped on the brakes. But I didn't stop.

The hell the police were following her! I knew damned weil they weren't. But I wanted to get her away from the store neighborhood. If Staples saw us together, it would be just as bad as if the police were on our tail.

"Now, what's this all about?" I said, finally, heading the car toward the country. "I know the police aren't watching you. I
know,
see."

I told her about the afternoon before, how I'd wanted to see her but I wasn't the kind of guy to give way to my emotions. The important thing was to take care of her, make sure that everything was okay. So I'd taken time off from my job, gone to all kinds of trouble, and done it.

"B-but they don't do it in the daytime, Dolly. J-just at n-night. Tuesday night and last night. I was afraid to call you or g-go to your house, and I knew you wouldn't be there during the day, s-so…"

Well, that was a break. It would have been a hell of a note if she'd come busting in on me and Joyce.

"Never mind," I said, pretty damned disgusted with her. "Never mind the trimmings. You say the police have been watching you. How do you know they were police?"

"W-well, I-" She hesitated. "I d-don't know, but I supposed-"

"Tell me what happened. Start with Tuesday night."

"Well, I-I was just going out for a walk, Doily. That house. – . I get so scared in it now. I've hardly been able to sleep s-since-"

"Never mind, dammit. Just tell me what happened."

"This car. It was p-parked up at the next corner. Right where they-whoever was in it-could watch the house. And just before I got to it they turned the lights on me. I went on by and they started up-I m-mean, the car started up. It turned around in the street and began to follow me. I walked five or six blocks and it followed me until I turned the corner to go home."

"Well?" I said.

"Well-" She looked at me, looking like I was supposed to turn flipf lops or something. "Well, I went for a walk again last night, and the same car was there. It was over on the other side of the street and they didn't turn the lights on, a-and-and I started walking pretty fast, so I didn't hear it when it started up. But I'd only gone a block when-"

"Yeah, sure," I said. "Oh, sure. And it followed you back to the corner again?"

"Yes. Well, no, not quite. You see, there were quite a few cars passing, and-"

"I see," I said. And, boy, did I want to paste her. Scaring hell out of me; coming down around the store where Staples might have seen her. "Are you even sure that it was the same car? What kind of car was it, anyway?"

"I-Id-don't know. I don't know much about cars. I t-think it was the same as this one."

"You do, huh?" I said. "And do you know how many cars there are like this one on the road? Well, I'll tell you. Just about eight million!"

"Then you don't t-think-?"

I shook my head. I couldn't trust myself to speak. She saw how I felt, apparently, and she shut up, too.

Stupid. How stupid could you get, anyway? It wasn't enough that she was a tramp, she had to be stupid on top of it.

There were a lot of college guys out in that section of town. One of 'em-or some guy-had tried to pick her up. He sees a swell-looking kid out by herself at night, so he follows her, thinking she'll give him a tumble. And all he'd have to do was say how about it, toots, and she'd probably have jumped into his car. But he didn't know that, so -. –

Well, anyway, that's what had happened. Something of the kind. It had given her a hell of a jolt, naturally, being scared and having a guilty conscience and having to stay in that house where everything had happened. But still she shouldn't have acted like this. This was a hell of a stupid way to act.

I drove along toward the country, calming down. I began to feel sorry for her, to think that I couldn't really blame her for losing her head. It might have jarred anyone that was in the spot she was in. Even me, I might have been jarred myself. And I'm a guy that's used to taking it.

I started talking again, dropping in a sweet word now and then. I explained to her what had happened- that there wasn't a thing in the world to be scared about. She couldn't believe it at first. She'd been knocked for such a loop that she couldn't see the truth when it was pointed out to her. And proved to her. But I went on talking, and finally she did.

We were in the country by then. I turned off the highway, and parked. She leaned toward me a little, smiling kind of timidly. I put my arms around her. The coat she had on was worn thin, and all she had on underneath was one of those wraparounds. I could feel her, the warmth and the softness.

"Well?" I put my mouth to her ear and whispered. "Howzabout it, toots?"

"W-what? Oh," she said, and she blushed. "You mean here-in the d-daytime."

"What the hell?" I said. "You know the score. You ought to know it, anyway."

She didn't say anything, but something happened to her eyes. They went sick, so sick, as sick as a sick dog's. And I moved my hands away from where they had been, and just hugged her tight around the shoulders.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I talk pretty rough, you know, and I just wasn't thinking how it sounded."

"I-it's-it's all right, Dolly."

"Forget I said it, huh? Because I didn't mean a thing; just a manner of speaking. Hell, I knew all about you-everything there was to know in the beginning, didn't I? And it didn't make a damned bit of difference, did it?"

"I n-never wanted to, Dolly. With you, yes. Everything was different and I wanted to give you everything that I-"

"Sure. Don't you suppose I know that?" I smiled at her, gave her a big hug-and for a moment I forgot all about Joyce. "You're the sweetest, nicest girl in the world, and we're going to have a swell life together. We'll hang around town two or three weeks longer- just to make sure-and then we'll pull out. And there won't be any past, baby, just the future, and…"

She snuggled up against me. After a while, I ran out of words, so I just held her and patted her. I kept it up for, weil, maybe fifteen or twenty minutes. Then, a string of cars started to go by, and we had to move apart.

"Dolly. I hate to-I don't like to bother you, but-"

"You
couldn't
bother me," I said. "You just tell old Doily about it, and if he can fix it up he will."

"Well, could I see you tonight? Just for a little while. I get so s-scared in that house! If I could see you for just a little while b-before I went to bed…"

There was still some of the sickness and hurt in her eyes. Not a whole lot, but it wouldn't take much to make it into a lot. I couldn't have her think I was slapping her down again.

"Well, I'd sure like to," I said, "but it might not be too smart, see? If someone should spot me over there around your place-"

"Let me come over to yours, then! P-please, Dolly. Just for a few minutes and I won't ask you again until-until it's all over."

Well…

Well?

"You weren't-you meant that about the police? You're sure they're not watching me? You're not afraid to have me-"

I said sure I was sure; I wouldn't snow her about a thing like that. "You see it's this way, honey. Here's the rub. My boss, this character Staples-the guy you took the bail money to-well, he drops out a lot in the evening. To talk about the work, you know. And if he saw you there, it would blow things higher than a kite. He was pretty suspicious about that dough, anyway. I wasn't supposed to have any, see, and you're sure not supposed to have any. We're not suppose to mean a thing to each other. So if he found out-"

She was nodding almost impatiently. She understood about Staples. But that still didn't take me off the hook.

"I could come later, Dolly. Anytime-midnight. He wouldn't be there that late."

"Well, yeah, sure," I said. "But-uh-"

"Oh," she said, dully.

"Now, wait a minute," I said. "I'm trying to explain, honey. You see, well, it's kind of hard to put into words, but-uh-uh-"

"I understand," she said.

I couldn't have her feeling that way. It made me squirm, and it just wasn't safe. Not now. Not at this stage of the game, anyway, when she was still so shaky that she could hardly cast a shadow.

"Why don't we do this?" I said. "Suppose you come over around nine o'clock, and I'll meet you outside. I'll say-in case someone's there-I'll say that I want to get some cigarettes, and I'll meet you down the block there from the wrecking yard. On the corner there by the drug store."

"Well… If you're sure you want to."

"I'd love to. Ijust wanted to play it safe, see, that's all. Hell, baby, there's nothing Ilike better than being with you."

I made her believe it. I said I'd been worried about her being without dough, and I started to reach back to my sample case. And, then, I caught myself, and took out my wallet. I didn't want her to know! had the loot with me. The way she'd been feeling, just a little doubtful about me, she might decide to ask for a cut.

I gave her five bucks of my own money. We talked a little longer, and then I drove her to the bus stop and let her out.

I didn't feel like working that day, either, but I put in a few hours, just to pass the time. I took in around twenty dollars, padding it out with forty from the satchel. The rest of the day, Ijust fooled around; and at six I checked in.

Staples was okay. I mean, he didn't give me the needle. I was out of the store in ten minutes, and on my way home.

The gravel cars had been pulled off the siding, and three gondolas of coal were there tonight. One of the cars was sticking half way out into the street, and it was a close squeeze getting the car past it. I finally made it and I parked and went into the house.

I called out to Joyce. Her voice came back to me faintly from the bedroom. I glanced into the dinette.

Dinner was ready. It was on the table, but there was only one place setting. Mine.

I set down the sample case, took off my hat and coat. I hesitated, and then I went back to the bedroom. I paused in the doorway-it didn't seem like I could go any further-and stood looking in at her.

She was in bed with the covers pulled pretty well over her, but I could see she had on her nightgown. She was facing the wall, her back to me, and she didn't turn around.

"Y-you"-I cleared my throat-"You sick or something, honey?"

She didn't answer for a moment. Then, she said, her voice muffled, "I don't feel too well. Go and eat your dinner while it's hot, Dolly."

"Well, hell," I said. "Where are you sick, anyway? What's the matter?"

"Eat your dinner," she said-pretty crisply. "We can talk afterward."

"Well, okay," I said. "Maybe I'd better."

I didn't have much of an appetite for some reason, but late. late slow, taking my time, and I drank three cups of coffee afterwards. And when I couldn't hold any more coffee, I started smoking, lighting one cigarette after another.

She called to me.

I called back, "Yeah, I'll be there in a minute, honey."

I finished my cigarette. I got up and went down the hail toward the bedroom. And I got there. And I couldn't make myself go in. I said, "B-be -. – be with you in a minute, baby," and I went into the bathroom and closed the door.

I looked around in there, and it was like I'd never seen the place before. No, nothing had been changed, nothing had been done to it, but something had happened to me. Everything seemed strange, twisted out of shape. I was lost in a strange world, and there was nothing familiar to hang onto.

Nothing. No one. No one I could talk to, explain things to.

I sat down on the edge of the tub, and lighted a cigarette. I crushed it out in the sink without thinking; and then I got up and crumbled the butt into shreds and washed the shreds down the drain. I washed the sink out real good until there wasn't a spot or a stain left on it.

I sat down on the toilet, and lighted another cigarette.

I stayed there in the bathroom. It was a strange world, but it was even stranger outside. I could sit here and explain to myself, and hell, it was clear as daylight. But I couldn't explain to her.

She called to me.

I yelled that I'd be out in a minute – -. and I stayed where I was.

She called again; I yelled again. She came to the door-finally-and knocked. And I yelied, for Christ's sake, what's the hurry, anyway? And she turned the knob and came in.

She'd been crying; so much and so long that she was cried out. And now her face was drawn, streaked with tears. But her yes were clear, and her voice was steady.

"I want to know, Dolly. I intend to know, so don't try to lie to me. Where did you get that money?"