Benny burned his mouth on the stub he was holding and cursed. He cursed with a hard cramped throat while his hand clenched the phone as if it were the straw that might keep him from drowning.
“What’s his cable address, Wally?”
“He didn’t leave one. He’s cruising around the Caribbean or something.”
A week or so, another week of stalling for time, watching every move she made for fear she’d do the unpredictable. Thousands of minutes while that crazy female turned into a leech boring at him. And Alverato. Big fat Alverato getting soft in the head over a spinster with a home permanent. The dumb bastard was losing his grip. If he didn’t have his reputation to coast on and his army of hoods-But the anger didn’t get Benny anywhere.
He stomped at the butt that was still smoking on the floor and walked back to the room with the piano. The bottle and ice were still sitting there but the room was empty. He wasn’t after a drink. He had to find Pat, stay close by, to watch his property.
He found Tober on the terrace.
“Where’s Pat?” Benny stopped in front of the thin man.
“Asleep, Tapioca. And don’t shout. Things are jangling enough without you stirring the air.”
It was that time of day and Tober was running down.
“Where, Tober?”
“In bed, where else?” Tober sounded edgy.
“Come on. Up, Tober. I want to see where she is.”
“Jesus, Benny!” Tober jumped out of his chair, pulling back. “Don’t touch me, whatever you do,” and he stood making nervous gestures with his hands.
“You need a pop, don’t you?” Benny stood watching the man.
“Gad, yes!” Tober turned to go but Benny blocked his way.
“First I want to see Pat.”
They went upstairs together but Tober was distracted and couldn’t find the right room. They walked from one to the other, finding several things, but no Pat.
“Tober, think!” Benny held the thin man by one wrist. “What did you do with her?”
Tober winced, but then he remembered. “I made her a heist ball. That’s all, Benny. I fixed her a little drink and she said, ‘Aah, how nice and bitter,’ and then-”
“Bitter? What do you mean, bitter?” Benny’s voice got hard. “You lousy junkhead, did you give that kid a jolt? Answer me, or I’ll break your wrist!”
Tober almost fainted with confusion, but then he got himself straightened out. “Just a wee pinch, Benny. Such a wee pinch in a big glass of something. Grapefruit juice, I think. No, Martini! Such a Martini, Benny boy!”
“You crazy sonofabitch-” But he didn’t finish the sentence because his breath came in a grunt when his fist swung hard against the side of Tober’s jaw.
Tober collapsed in tears. There was no point in doing any more, so Benny stood and waited. He was breathing hard and his hands were working. She wasn’t crazy enough without being doped up in this nut house.
“Tober, on your feet Where is she?”
They found her in the next room and Tober had been right. She was sleeping. She was lying on Tober’s rumpled bed with her clothes on and her sleep was like a thick unconsciousness.
Benny looked at the still figure and his mouth was mean. “Tober, how much did you give her? If that kid-”
“Jesus, Benny, I swear. Just a pinch.”
Benny grabbed Tober’s arm again. “Bring her around, you bastard.”
“God in heaven, let go my arm. Can’t you see she’s sailing and having the time of her life? Benny, let go. I got to have my jolt. These crazy neckties-” He was tearing at his open collar.
Benny let him go. Tober wasn’t any good this way, without his dose, and Benny watched him rush to the bathroom, where he tore open the door to the medicine chest.
When Tuber came out again he was a different man. His black eyes were glittering and he carried his thin frame like a man of strength.
“All right, Tober, let’s try again.” Benny got up from the bed and stopped in front of the man. “Bring her around.”
Tober glanced at the bed, then smiled at Benny. “No need of that. It wasn’t enough to do any harm. You never know how it hits the first time, but often they go to sleep. She’s all right. She’ll sleep it off like a drunk. Except no hangover, Benny. The beauty of-”
“Yeah, I know. I just saw you in one of those no-hangover states. Does she know she took heroin?”
“Of course not. I was very discreet Please, Benny, I don’t know what came over me.”
“Forget it. Show me an empty room.”
He picked her up carefully and followed Tober across the corridor. He moved his arms once so her head wouldn’t hang. He thought for a moment that he hadn’t known how limp she could be.
Chapter Thirteen
He sat by the bed until he fell asleep himself, and when he woke, feeling stiff and sticky, he saw Pat through the dark of the room, on her side now, breathing regularly. It was nighttime and from the drug she had passed into sleep. He took her shoes off and covered her with a blanket.
There was none of the hardness in her face now, just the distance of a sleeping face, small and helpless.
He looked at her and it got to him. At that moment he couldn’t have thought of his deal, of his hates and his determination, even though they were a part of him, up through his whole anxious life. They had helped. They had helped him forget the father he had never known, and his mother, who had done nothing for him except to bear him. The easiest thing had been to run with the gang, the petty, raucous hoodlums whose mean little lives had only one solution, to be big now and to let everyone know it.
He’d done well in that game. He hadn’t been the biggest, but he’d been the sharpest. He hadn’t been the strongest, but he’d been the quickest. And then there was one difference between the rest of them and Benny. He didn’t care to stop at showing big. He had to be big.
Benny got up from his chair and walked past the bed. The girl was still sleeping quietly and not knowing a thing. He turned away and hunted for a cigarette.
She didn’t wake until morning. He had waited for her to wake, wondering how she would be. When she sat up and saw him, the change was sudden. The face he had seen in sleep froze into lines. She was Pendleton’s daughter now.
“Beat it, Peeping Tom.”
He stared at her.
“I want to take a shower.”
He left the room without a word. Perhaps he was imagining things. He hadn’t had much sleep. But then it came back to him why he was here, the real reason, the million-dollar deal that hung by one thin girl with brassy manners and a crazy temper. He went back to the room.
She had found a big white bathrobe and it made her head and hands look small and frail. It made him say it before she changed her face again. “You’ll be all right, Pat. Last night-”
“What do you want?” Her eyes looked flat.
His voice was changed too now and he walked up to her, hands in his pockets. “How do you feel?”
“Fine, Tapkow. Why?”
“You got drunk.”
“Act your age, Tapkow.”
“I just want to warn you about Tober. Stay clear of that guy.”
“Why, Tapkow?” She sat down in a chair by the bed and crossed her legs. “Because he’s a hop-head?”
All he did was bite his lip, but she caught it. “Because of the heist ball concoction?” She smiled, watching him.
He took out a cigarette, started to fumble for a match, forgot about it. “Look, Pat. Let me set something straight. You and me came here together. So I’m watching out that-that nothing should harm you. I’m trying to say-”
“If you’re not going to smoke that cigarette, give it to me.”
He looked at that face with the smile on it and almost lost his temper. Then his voice came very low. “For one minute I want you to shut up and listen.”
“Look, Benny,” she said, and got up to put one hand on his arm. “If you’re worried about that concoction he gave me, just ease your conscience.” The honey in her voice was something new. “It was nothing, Benny. Hardly enough of a pinch to flutter a hair.”