Fleur gasped and struggled to sit up. "What is it?"
I ran to the door. When I opened it, Doc was falling to the floor, holding his hands over his beak. Henry van Renssaeler, his fists clenched, strode toward me, wild-eyed.
"Where is she? Where is she, you joker scum?"
"Hey -" I blocked his way, but he smacked me aside.
He marched past me into the examining room. "Goddamn filthy joker's whore!"
I rushed after him, but I didn't know what to do.
"Thought you could escape me? You can never get away from me!"
Fleur was staring at him, speechless.
I overheard your little hero's question about going to the bank - and your answer! I sent one of the servants to catch up to you there and follow you. He tailed you here, then found a phone to report back to me at home. I was a little slow finding the place; I will not dirty myself asking jokers for directions. But you see, my darling daughter, you can't get away from me."
"You're too late!" Fleur spat back at him. "You're too late, Daddy. You can see what kind of place this is. You won't have another child - not through me, anyway!" She started sobbing.
I finally started getting the picture - the whole picture.
"Quiet! Quiet, you slut!" He started toward her.
"And he knows!" She pointed to me. "And now Doc has seen you - and the servant knows! Everyone will know, Daddy!" Fleur threw off the sheet and swung her legs over the side of the table. She jumped to the floor, but staggered dizzily.
Henry leaped forward to grab her.
I ran forward and hit his legs in a flying tackle. We both crashed to the floor. I grabbed one of his arms with both hands and tried to bite his wrist with my gigantic buck teeth.
Henry screamed and jerked himself away, falling again. I had hardly had a chance to nip him, but he was acting crazy. He scuttled away from me with a horrified look on his face.
Behind me, Fleur, who was still stark naked, snatched up her clothes, purse, and shoes in a bundle. She darted behind me. I backed out, still snapping idiotically at Henry.
When we were out of the room, I slammed the door shut to delay him. Fleur was already jumping over Doc, who was lying in a daze watching us, as she headed for the door. Then I followed her out and pointed down the alley. I pulled her down behind some old oil drums being used as trash cans.
While Fleur pulled her clothes on, I got down low and peered around the edge of an oil drum. Her father had stopped outside the door, looking around. He couldn't decide which way to go.
"You ready yet?" I whispered, glancing back over my shoulder.
"Almost. Gotta get my shoes on," she whispered back.
Suddenly bright headlights swung toward us as a car turned from the street into the alley behind Doc's door. A long, shiny black Cadillac pulled up to a stop. As one of the rear windows opened, Henry trotted toward it.
"It's Lansky," I whispered. "Or one of his lieutenants."
"Oh, no!" Fleur scrambled up next to me and looked.
As her father leaned down toward the open window, two loud shots snapped out, making the same sound as the guns in the warehouse last night. He crumpled to the ground.
The Cadillac backed quickly into the street, paused to reverse gear, then smoothly glided out of sight.
I got up, still in shadow, and looked at Henry van Renssaeler, U.S. Congressman. He was lying motionless on his back, his face a bloody mess. I thought Fleur might be upset, but she walked toward him, looking at him.
"Is he dead?" she asked quietly.
"Yeah." I came up next to her.
She let out a long breath and sagged against me, crying quietly. When she spoke again, her voice was oddly strong. "They did it. All those self-righteous, stuffy, prim and proper know-it-alls, so perfect and good."
"They had Lansky arrange it again."
"Yeah. He was already scared. This morning he came into my room and yelled at me. I never saw him that scared before."
"His own friends killed him?"
"He didn't have friends, Chuck. Not real ones. He had business associates. I bet they arranged his death, 'cause he was in charge of their arson plot. The police might find a lead to him. Now he's a dead end."
"Yeah."
"Those people move fast."
"Like I said, Lansky or his guys must have been in that Cadillac when they saw the cops breaking into the warehouse. So they knew the secret was out. But how did they find him here?"
"That servant my father mentioned. He's probably in their pay to spy on him."
For the first time, though, one mystery finally fell into place: why the daughter of a rich, powerful man had come alone to Jokertown for an abortion instead of seeking out the illegal abortionists available to the wealthy. Jokertown was the one place where her father had no business associates or social contacts who might have gotten word back to him.
Maybe she had taken a measure of revenge on her father two nights ago by having sex with a joker. After all, I was just the kind of person her father hated most. She could not have planned on finding someone to wind up in bed with, but I remembered that she had not hesitated.
Now it made a twisted kind of sense. I felt a sinking feeling inside. As I had suspected in the beginning, having a nat girl from her background truly like me was just impossible.
"What about ... us?" I asked her timidly.
"I have to go back and deal with my brothers now. We'll be inheriting stuff and dealing with lawyers and who knows what. I don't even know who my legal guardian will be."
"I meant, uh, you and me."
Fleur hurried around the body of her father, her ponytail bouncing. I hurried after her in the breezy darkness. She was heading quickly for the street and didn't look sleepy now at all.
"Can't we talk?" I nearly had to jog to keep up with her.
She didn't say anything. In fact, she didn't even wait to reach the edge of Jokertown before trying to hail a cab. Suddenly her steps grew wobbly and she staggered to her right, dizzily. I grabbed her arm and steadied her. We stopped by the curb.
"I'll go straight home from here this time," she said quickly, still avoiding my eyes. She waved over my head and a cab suddenly swerved over to us.
"I, uh, I love you."
"Oh, Chuck." She finally turned her beautiful face toward me again. Tears came to her brown eyes as she looked at me. For one very long moment, she actually seemed to see me as a regular guy.
Maybe that was the only second in my entire life that I actually forgot what I looked like - just for a fleeting second.
Then Fleur broke the gaze. The cab had pulled up next to us. Without looking back, she yanked open the door and ducked inside the cab, slamming the door. The cab roared away up the street, taking her away forever.
"... Never knew what I missed until I kissed ya. ...
The Ashes of Memory
2
"You never saw her again?" Hannah asked.
Tanaka shrugged, shook his head, blinked. "A little different than the movie version, huh?" he said at last. "All the names were changed. They wrote me out, of course, leaving Rainey as the hero who uncovers it all. The Fleur character was older and she got involved with the reporter, not some ugly joker. And they hinted at the incest angle without ever saying it, but there wasn't any abortion. It was really weird for me, watching Marilyn Monroe ... I always liked her, but this was spooky. ..."
Hannah took a breath. "Why didn't Lansky ever try it again? If this group of people hated jokers so much, why'd they give up their grand plan?"
Another shrug. "I think the exposure in the paper scared them off. Rainey exposed the insurance scam, so that angle wouldn't work anymore. There wouldn't have been the financial payoff. That plus the murder ..."