She said: “You’re afraid of me because I met you through Rucci. Isn’t that it?”
“Of course not, kitten.”
“I just met him casually. That’s all. I’ll prove I’m no friend of his. I heard him say to his brother ‘Tonight’s the night for that Irish bastard.’ ”
“That’s supposed to be me, babe?”
“You’re Irish, aren’t you?”
I laughed.
“And what did you mean when you said ‘Oh, oh’? When I said that Rucci’s brother came out with Crandall?”
“That was a slip, lamb.”
She got away from me and back to the shaker. She snapped: “All right. Don’t tell me anything. I went out there just because I thought you were in trouble with Rucci and because I thought I could maybe help you by finding out something.”
“I appreciate the spirit, babe.”
She put the shaker and glasses on a tray and tossed her head while she headed toward the front room. But when she got to the door she stopped and said: “You might talk to Hazel and see what you can find out. Mrs. Wendel was sore about that business of last night and she was doing a lot of talking.”
“Don’t ever say you don’t help me, sweet.”
“I tried. Shean.”
I said: “Let’s go in the other room.”
Lester and Hazel were sitting on the davenport and Lester looked a little mussed. I figured Hazel had probably been holding him in her lap; she was big enough to do the deed comfortably. He looked relieved when he saw us and she looked about half mad. I poured her three Martinis, as fast as she could get them down, then sat down by her and said: “Did you hear about the little stunt Wendel and I pulled last night on his old lady? That was funny.” To prove it I laughed.
Hazel said: “Heard it! I heard nothing else all afternoon. It’s a wonder you both weren’t arrested.”
“We were.”
“She didn’t tell me that. She said she didn’t even know where her husband was.”
I thought of the Carson City jail but didn’t say anything about it. I said: “Chances are he’s around someplace. He may be keeping inside, so she doesn’t have a chance to raise hell with him.”
“She’s the kind that would. But she’s so mad at him she won’t even talk to him. She told me he was mixed up with some girl here, but that she doesn’t want to use that against him. He beat her up last night, too, she says.” I said: “Nuts!”
“Well, if I was him I wouldn’t go out to the Three C any more. Or you either. They think a lot of her out there. She’s there all the time.”
I said: “Probably on account of young Rucci. The one that came out with her lawyer today.”
“Well, she knows him of course. She must have met him lately though; she’s from New York and he’s from Sacramento.”
“That’s probably it.”
The shaker went dry and she looked at it, very wistfully. I said: “Toots and I’ll go out and fill it up again.”
She was reaching for Lester when Spanish and I went through the kitchen door. Spanish said: “Well, did you learn anything?”
“Sure. Of course.”
“I didn’t hear her say anything.”
“You didn’t know what to listen for, hon.”
She shook her head and said: “Secrets.” She was about half mad and about half worried about me and I kidded her out of both before we went back in the parlor.
Lester looked a lot more mussed than he had the time before. And a lot more worried. He kept shooting me pleading glances and, finally, when Hazel got up and lumbered away to the bathroom, he came over and whispered:
“Let’s go home, Shean! She’s getting tight again.”
I said: “You might as well learn to take it if you’re going to marry the girl. My, won’t life be a wonderful thing!”
“Rub it in,” he said. “Let’s go.”
We had the shades pulled down and I’d been watching the doors all the time. Every time Spanish or Hazel got close to one I’d sit so I could get at the gun under my coat. Just in case there was something to what Spanish had heard at the Club. I didn’t think she’d have cracked about me calling her that night but there was that possibility and I didn’t want to be caught and not have a chance. I said to Lester:
“You take my car and take Hazel back to the hotel. I’ll go out the back way and walk to my place.”
“I don’t want to take her home alone, Shean. She’s too drunk.”
“I thought you were strong for her.”
“That’s just when I’m not with her.”
I said: “That’s the way most married men feel, you dope. This is business; I think maybe somebody’s waiting for me to come out of the place here. Get it?”
He said: “Well, all right, but I hate to do it. I’m sort of afraid of her.”
“You’re all right as long as she don’t fall on you,” I told him.
He looked sad and waited for her to come back from her pilgrimage.
Chapter Nineteen
I left the place two hours after Hazel and Lester had taken my car away and I went out the back way. Quietly. That is, comparatively quietly. I’d have done better if the Spanish hadn’t been hanging to me and begging me to stay the rest of the night where I’d be safe. She argued that all I could lose was sleep, if I stayed, and I told her that she had something there, undoubtedly, but that I had work to do.
I got to the Palace without seeing a soul that looked like anyone I shouldn’t see and I went in the side door of the place as quietly as I could. But not quietly enough to keep Maude, the landlady, from hearing me. She came out of the kitchen, with a wrapper around her, and said:
“I told you it was trouble, mister. They’re up in your room waiting for you.”
“How many of them?”
“Two. One of them is Billy Montez and the other guy I don’t know. He’s a tough baby, or I’m wrong. I watched them sneak in the place.”
“Who’s Billy Montez?”
“He’s Mexican. He smokes the weed. He’s on the junk, besides that, but not bad I hear. He’s a knife man, I hear. The other one is the guy that was waiting across the street for you this afternoon.”
I started up the stairs and she grabbed me by the arm and said: “Oh, no you don’t. I won’t have trouble in my place. I won’t have the spot hotted up because you want to start something you maybe can’t finish. Two to one don’t make sense, mister. I tell you they’re waiting for you.”
“What d’ya want me to do?”
“Use your head for once. Call Mac. How can you lose? I’ll get him for you.”
She went to a phone she had in the kitchen and got Mac, where he stayed. She naturally knew his number. I talked to him and told him what was going on and he said he’d be right over. So I sat in the kitchen and waited for him. He came in as quietly as I had, and said to her: “Now it’s all right, Maude. I’ll take ’em out with no fuss or confusion and there won’t be a come-back on the place.” And to me: “Let’s do it.”
“What’ll you do with ’em after you got ’em?”
“Put ’em where I put Wendel. I’ll have that jail filled up, first thing I know.”