Allie pirouetted prettily. The changing-room attendant beamed at her and then at Neal. They were such a cute couple.
“Do you approve?” Allie asked him.
“I approve.”
She tilted her head in a parody of fashion-magazine models. She looked drop-dead gorgeous. The new dress was a simple black sheath, off the shoulders and cut just low enough to hint at the pleasures of intimacy. A gold necklace highlighted the dress, her hair, and her eyes. The makeup was subtle.
“Will there be anything else?”
Neal looked to Allie.
“It’s your movie,” she said.
“That will be all, thanks.”
“Come on then, dearie, we’ll get it all wrapped up.”
As soon as the saleslady turned around, Allie stuck her fingers in her mouth, pulled her lips apart, and stuck her tongue out at Neal. Then she went to change.
Out on Oxford Street, he asked her to lunch.
“I didn’t know crooks went to lunch,” she said.
“Don’t do me any favors.”
“I’m hungry. Where do you want to go?”
“New York.”
“For a burger, right? I know what you mean.”
“They have good burgers in Stockton?”
“They have McDonald’s.”
They found a funky little French place that didn’t care he wasn’t wearing a tie or she was wearing jeans.
She knew her way around the menu, he noticed with amusement. Stockton is famous for its continental cuisine. She ordered the vichyssoise, a fillet, tarragon chicken, and apricot mousse. She also suggested the wines. He had what she had.
Maybe there was still tine to do this the easy way, he thought.
“Ever think about going home?”
“What for?” she said through a mouthful of potato soup.
“Burgers.”
She shook her head.
“Family?”
“That’s what I ran away from.”
“Maybe it would be different.”
“It wouldn’t be.” She took a sip of the white wine and sat back in her chair. “Anyway, what about Colin?”
“I dunno. What about Colin?”
She gave him a cold smile, a practiced, ambiguous gesture meant to indicate simultaneous interest and indifference. A poker player calling but not raising the pot.
“Are you coming on to me?” she asked.
“No.”
“Good.”
She went back to her soup.
“How come you don’t like me?” he asked. “What did I do?”
“I like you. Let’s just say I haven’t had a real good experience with men, okay? Nothing personal.”
“Okay.”
“Okay.”
During the chicken, she said, “I’m in love with him.”
“With him or with his dope?”
“What’s the difference?”
None.
It was a great lunch and the bill said so. He paid it and left a generous tip.
“Thank you for lunch,” she said when they got outside.
“What did you say?”
“I said thank you. It was nice of you. Not part of the bargain.”
“You’re welcome. Thanks for the company. You want to take a walk in the park?”
She looked at him hard and smiled. “You are coming on to me,”
“I’m just saying you have options.”
“Yeah? What kind of options?”
“You can take a walk… in the park.”
“If I told Colin you came on to me, he’d kill you.”
“He’d try. You’re a valuable piece of property.”
“He loves me.”
“Sure, why shouldn’t he?”
“It’s not just for the money I make.”
“Yeah? What’s your share. of this job? What is he cutting you in for? Five thousand? Three? Two? We’re running out of numbers here, Alice.”
She blushed. “Colin handles all the money. He takes care of me.”
Neal laughed at her. “He takes care of you?”
“He says I won’t have to do that anymore after tonight. He promised… no more dates.”
“Until he needs money again… then he’ll turn you back out, and he will need money. You’ll shoot it all up your arm.”
He saw her wince and watched her think.
“Which park?”
“There’s another option right there.”
She signaled a cab. “St. James’s Park,” she said. “By Horse Guards Road.”
He let her lead him to the tea kiosk there, where she bought two huge sweet rolls.
“After that lunch?” he asked.
“Not for us, idiot. Come on.” She walked him over to the lake, where the ducks drifted off the shore, waiting for silly people with huge sweet rolls to feed them. She handed Neal one of the rolls and said, quite seriously, “Now, you break it up into little bits and toss it to the ducks. And try to spread the wealth around, so they all get a little.”
He watched her feed the ducks. She gave it all her attention, as if she was the only person there and that was all she had to do in the world. Her smile lost its angry edge for the ten minutes or so that the roll lasted.
“You do this a lot?” he asked her.
“No.”
She trembled a little. “We better get going,” she said.
“Why?”
“Big night tonight.”
“Are you cold? It’s a hundred and ten out.”
“I need to go home.”
“Because the smack is there.”
“I need to get ready, Neal.”
“Just breathe deep.”
“Fuck you.”
“It’ll get worse, Alice.”
She sat down on a bench. He sat beside her. “So, tonight’s my last date, huh?”
“If you want.”
She nodded her head a few times. The color was starting to leave her face. “Yeah, sounds good to me.”
“Then it’s your last date.”
She chortled. “Oh, you’ll protect me, right? Get me off the smack? Keep me off the street?”
“That’s right.”
“Okay, white knight,” she said, standing up. “Get me into a cab. I have to get home.”
He dropped her at her flat, kept the cab, and went back to the hotel He didn’t feel like watching her shoot up, and he had stuff to do. As the lady said, big night tonight.
24
Neal sat in one of the overstuffed wing chairs in the lobby of the hotel. He had chosen a seat where he could see both the elevators and the revolving door that led to the street. He tried hard to look composed and relaxed, but his stomach was jumping and his heart beating about eight trillion times a minute.
Please, Mrs. Goldman, get going. You don’t want to be late for the concert. Please come out of the next elevator. She didn’t.
He glanced out into the street, where he knew Colin and Crisp were waiting. Patience was not Colin’s long suit. Come on, Mrs. Goldman. Another elevator. Two well-dressed American ladies, neither of them Mrs. G. Who’s that? Another woman, not Mrs. Goldman.
He wondered about Allie, waiting in the hotel bar. At least he hoped she was waiting in the hotel bar, not shooting up in the ladies’ loo, or worse yet, out on the street looking for a connection. Time was not on his side in this thing, so, Mrs. Goldman, any haste would be appreciated. The elevator bell rang again. He had followed her to her room a bare two hours ago and held the surveillance, so he knew she was in there performing the complicated ablutions and ritual that go with a big night out. Let’s slip the frock on now, Mrs. G., and haul it down here. She wasn’t in the elevator.
Colin shifted his weight from one foot to the other again and gave Crisp a dirty look. Not that it was Crisp’s fault, he knew, but because Crisp was the only one there, and didn’t mind, anyway. That was what he was there for.
“Tardy, tardy,” Crisp said through a mouthful.
“Something’s wrong.”
“She’s late, that’s all. Maybe she’s giving the old man a quick one.”
Colin shot him an especially filthy look. “That would be just lovely, now, wouldn’t it?”
Allie was trying to hold it together. Her hand shook a little as she reached into her, bag for a handkerchief. Goddamn Colin, anyway, she thought, and double goddamn that bastard Neal Carey. If they had let her have one little shot, just one little shot, she’d be all right. She’d be perfect. She’d be fan-fucking-tastic. Colin had even subjected her-no doubt at that prick Neal’s urging-to a search. The fact that’d turned up a little envelope of powder didn’t make it all right. She’d get even with him later.