He sat next to me, leaned in chummily. “We make Broadway look provincial, don’t you think? Got anything in Chicago that compares?”
“Not sober. How long you been open?”
He looked up at his glittering neon ceiling. “Year and a half. You know, I was on the verge of bankruptcy when I called every last one of my markers in, to make this place a reality. Now I’m back on top.”
“Well, congratulations. How is it you happen to know who the hell I am?”
A tiny smile drifted across his lips. “You’re sitting in my inner circle, aren’t you? Listen, I just wanted to make sure you and your lady friend have a good time this evening. I wanted you to know you’re welcome...”
And he slipped his arm around me.
“...and if this little morsel you’re with doesn’t work out,” he whispered into my dainty ear, “just let me know if you see something in the show that appeals to you... and it’s always good to have a second choice if an item is sold out.”
He rose with a sly wink, handing me his card; I slipped it in my pocket, as he continued along his glad-handing way. What was this son of a bitch, my guardian angel?
Margot, smiling like a pixie, leaned across the table and touched my hand with a gloved one. “What did that devil whisper to you?”
“He was hoping I could talk you into trying out for the chorus,” I said.
She blushed; it was legendary that Carroll’s showgirls had to audition in the nude. “No, really...”
I ducked the question with my own: “Carroll wouldn’t happen to be a member of the Foundation, would he?”
Her eyelashes fluttered. “What makes you think that?”
“Well, he’s a flier, isn’t he? A pilot.”
“How do you know that?”
“Remember when he landed a plane in the middle of New York? It was in all the papers.”
“Oh, yes,” she said, as if having to recall, “he landed in Central Park, in the middle of winter.”
“That publicity hound makes G. P. look subtle.”
“Mr. Carroll is a great admirer of Amelia’s,” she admitted, somewhat embarrassed.
“Hey, it’s okay,” I said, and patted her hand. “I used to be a Chicago cop. I thrive on bribes.”
The show was an eye-popper. The sixty showgirls, who sang well and handled patter nicely, flitted about floating platforms and revolving stages, near nudists in feathers and sequins, sometimes to classy numbers like “The Blue Danube,” courtesy of Ray Noble’s Orchestra, and other times in more traditional burlesque fashion.
One running gag had shapely brunette headliner Beryl Wallace (Carroll’s girlfriend, Margot told me; no doubt one of the “sold out” items) fleeing from a comic, first in a negligee with the funnyman flashing scissors, later in a hula skirt with him pushing a lawnmower, finally in tin pants with her pursuer wielding a blowtorch.
But spectacle and yards of near nudity were the hallmark, as when the sixty babes displayed themselves on one hundred feet of stairs. I was terribly distracted, watching this buffet of blondes and redheads and brunettes, knowing I could call their boss and select one or two or three; it ruined the damn show for me. I like to think if I pick up a showgirl for a cheap one-night fling that my boyish charm had something to do with it. Call me old-fashioned.
Maybe that was why I turned a little morose on the walk back. Margot looped her arm in mine as we strolled through the Boulevard’s valley of bright lights, a streetcar clanging its unsophisticated way down the center, occasionally.
“What’s wrong, Nathan?”
“Aw, nothin’.”
“I think I know.”
“Yeah?”
“You think I’m trying to use you.”
That made me smile. I came to a stop and she took my cue and I faced her. The night was alive with headlights of passing cars, brand names outlined in neon, searchlights announcing the premiere of a major motion picture, or maybe the opening of a drive-in barbecue stand. I gathered the small, shapely creature in my arms, the slick material of her dress slippery under my touch, and I kissed her.
It was sweet and it was real.
“I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time,” I said.
“I’ve been wanting you to,” she admitted, her eyes dancing with reflected light.
“I just had to make sure.”
“About what?”
“That you were as sweet a kid as you seem to be.”
“Am I?”
“I’m not sure I care now,” I said. “Let’s go back to our hotel.”
She snuggled against me as we walked, and I was deciding whether to take her to my room or try for hers, when she said, “Do you ever wonder?”
“Wonder what?”
“If... if she had it.”
“Had what?”
“The baby. Your baby.”
I stopped again. We were in front of the Egyptian Theater with its white columns and looming color caricatures of Egyptian deities. “You sure know how to kill a mood, kid.”
“I’m sorry.” Her lower lip was quivering.
I put an arm around her shoulder and walked her along. “No, I don’t wonder about that at all,” I lied, and led her to the hotel and inside, and soon we were stepping into an elevator, which we had to ourselves. It was one of those automatic jobs, no operator. I pushed my floor button, 7, and she pushed hers, 11. Lucky numbers.
“You want to come up?” she asked, perkily hopeful. “We can order coffee, maybe some cake or something, from room service...”
“I don’t think so.”
“Are you mad at me?”
“No. And I’m gonna hate myself in the morning. But I’m tired. And you’re just too sweet a kid.”
She slipped her arms around me and kissed me softly, tenderly. “You’re so romantic... You still love her, don’t you?”
“The problem is,” I said, “you still do.”
A little bell announced my floor. I touched her face and said, “See you tomorrow, kid.”
“Maybe breakfast?”
“Sure,” I said, stepping into the hallway. “Breakfast.”
And the doors began to close over that cute mug, the cherry-red lipstick a little mussed, and before she was gone, she waved like a child. I sighed and dug my handkerchief out and rubbed the gunk off my mouth. Just me in the hallway. No Margot. No Earl Carroll girl. Of course, I did still have that card...
I worked the key in the door and had it open only halfway when I saw him, sitting in a wooden armchair next to an open window in the small, modernly appointed hotel room, a book in his lap. Thoughtful of him, letting in that gentle breeze whispering the sheer curtains, because otherwise my room would have reeked of the smoke from the pipe clenched in his teeth.
“Took the liberty of making myself at home,” Forrestal said, mouth flinching that non-smile around the stem of the pipe. He hefted the book; the jacket said: To Have and Have Not. “Took the opportunity to catch up on my reading — it’s this fellow Hemingway’s latest. Little raw for my tastes.”
“I’m afraid I’m a Police Gazette sort of guy myself,” I said, closing the door behind me.
“I have to ask you to forgive my rudeness,” he said, taking the pipe out of his mouth, rising, tossing the book on my nearby dresser with a clunk. He still wore the same suit and tie as this afternoon, but it looked as crisp as if he’d just put it on. “There are matters we need to discuss... privately.”
Suddenly I was glad I hadn’t brought Margot back to my room. This little man with the broken nose and stiffly dignified air represented President Roosevelt, or least that was what I’d been told. But there was something ominous about all this.
“Oh-kay,” I said, and sat on the edge of my bed near the foot, where on the luggage stand my suitcase rested. “Why don’t you sit back down, Jim, and we’ll talk.”