Jake remarked, “What a shape you’ve got on you for seventeen, no kidding.”
“Glad you like me, Daddy,” she answered with a mock simper.
“Lie down so I can mark you.”
“I guess what has to be has to be,” she said, resigned. “But boy, what my girl friend’s going to say.”
“Who the hell cares?”
“I care, if you want to know. Some things, anybody in her right mind will draw the line.”
The mattress sighed.
“No,” she said suddenly. “No, I can’t! I know I said I would, but when you actually see it-”
“Turn over, damn it.”
“Jake, please! The rest of it, all right. The mob at school will think I had a little bad luck. With Mike Shayne involved it could even do me some good. But leave the whip out of it, I mean it. Or I swear I’ll get dressed and walk out. I’m a person.”
“Deedee,” he said caressingly. “How many days did you go to that school the last month? About two. You’re over sixteen. They can’t make you finish. You know what I said, baby. New York! One night in the slammer. Tomorrow morning they let you out on bail. You jump bail and blow. You get a certain amount of page-one publicity, but not under your real name.”
“I suppose you don’t think anybody’s going to be there with a camera and take my picture?” she said scornfully. “Page one! You said it, I didn’t. That kind of thing could stick to me the rest of my life.”
“Think of the dough, baby doll! We won’t have to scratch and scramble when we get to the big town. Maybe I can buy a piece of a nice bar.”
Suddenly there was a sharp cracking sound and a cry of pain. Shayne pulled the door out of his way, his eyes hard and dangerous. A little wristwatch alarm went off in the other room and stopped him.
The girl was sobbing. “What did you have to do that for? It hurt.”
“Baby, I’m sorry. But you know yourself-you’ll never make any headway if you go back on a deal.”
“It’s in front.”
“That’s O.K. Don’t rub it, let it bleed. It’s half past. I’ve got to get moving. Stop crying, baby. I’ll buy you something nice. You don’t think I like using a whip on you, do you?”
“You seemed to.”
“I did not. I think you’re so great, baby. It didn’t hurt much, did it?” He left the bed and crossed the room. “The whip goes in the closet. There’s blood on it. They’ll find it when they look for your clothes. Now I’m going to run through this one last time.”
“Jake, we already rehearsed it so much it’s running out of my ears.”
“One more time, and then you can relax for half an hour. I don’t know another doll in town who could do this, Deedee, I really mean that. One thing I want to change. If he comes in with the light on and sees you, his reflexes are going to take him out of here but fast. After you buzz, stick a Kleenex in the door so it won’t close. And go in the john, see. When he rings the bell up here, call to him to come in, you’ll be out in a minute.”
“Come in, I’ll be out in a minute,” she said sullenly.
“Yeah. Camilli and the other vice cop will be down the hall in the incinerator closet. Sex with whips is a hot pinch in this town.”
“Did you tell them it’s going to be Shayne?”
“Now how could I tell them that, baby doll? But the reason I picked Vince Camilli-he and Shayne have been sideswiping each other for years. Shayne won’t be able to buy his way out or talk his way out. All I said was I’d heard rumors about this apartment, and I’d check and let him know. He’s downstairs now. I’ll tell him you’re home and ready for business, and to come up and get in the incinerator. Then he’ll wait for the first John to show up. That way it don’t sound too much like a frame.”
“Shayne’ll know it’s a frame, but excuse me for thinking.”
“What Shayne knows and what Shayne don’t know is no skin off our ass. Can we hang it on him? In the long run, no, especially after you jump bail. What we do is tie him up for a few days.”
“So?”
“So why ask me? There’s some kind of deadline.”
“Jake, I know you’ll say no, but couldn’t you leave a dress in the closet, anyway? Just a dress, nothing underneath. Those ghouls on the vice squad! I’ll honestly die.”
“I could leave you a full change of clothes. And Shayne would make you get dressed while Camilli breaks down the door. That wouldn’t be half as good. They’ll give you a jacket or something to put on. Keep thinking of money, kid. Oh, and don’t forget to mention Josie.”
“I don’t know when.”
“Play it by ear. Maybe going down in the elevator. Shayne’s going to want to find out who pulled it on him, you know, and that’s when you bring up the name. Kiss me, doll. Honest to Christ, you’re gorgeous.”
“Jake.”
“Think about how it’s going to be in New York. Baby, we’re going to make it big.”
“Gee, Shayne’s going to be mad.”
“Don’t worry. He’s got a broken arm. Get on your bicycle. Camilli won’t want to lose out on this pinch-he won’t wait more than a couple of minutes.”
“And if Shayne catches up to me,” she said bitterly, “so much the better, huh? More blood, more broken bones. Well, it’s lucky I’m young. I can bounce.”
“We’ll bounce all the way to New York, kid. Jesus, I love your skin. See you.”
The door opened and closed. Shayne, on the terrace, heard the girl give a long sigh. The box springs rearranged themselves as she changed position.
He stepped into the doorway.
She was unwrapping a stick of gum. Her long black hair was almost to her shoulders, and her features seemed to be crowded into the center of her face by the abundant hair. She had nice breasts and hips. She was sitting on the edge of the bed in an unbecoming slump, her thin shoulderblades like undeveloped wings. The whip had left a slanting mark across her thighs.
She mashed the gum between her teeth and dropped the wrapper to the floor. Then she looked up and saw him. Her reaction carried her back against the wall.
“You don’t really think anybody’s going to take you to New York, do you?” Shayne said.
CHAPTER 9
She swallowed the gum. She looked at him in terror, not able to understand how he had sprung into being in what she had thought was an empty apartment.
“Mike Shayne,” she whispered.
Then she uncoiled and bolted for the door.
Shayne reached it at the same moment and let her wrench it open. It struck his solidly planted foot. The doorknob was jolted out of her hand. He swung the cast upward without taking it out of the sling and touched her bare breast with the curved point of the hook. She shivered away.
He slapped her with the back of his hand, using his full strength. She went spinning against the bed and across it, to bang hard against the wall. Her eyes crossed for an instant. She touched her face, then crawled off the bed and across the floor toward him.
“Please. Please, Mr. Shayne. I didn’t want to.”
When she reached him, he hooked his toe under her chin and flung her over on her back.
“If you were out there, you heard me,” she cried as he advanced on her. “I pleaded. I only agreed to do it if I didn’t have to go to court.”
“We can take our time,” Shayne said deliberately. “We won’t be raided until a man walks in, and I’m already here. Let’s allow half an hour. You can answer a lot of questions in that time.”
She looked up from the floor. “I don’t know anything.”
He threatened her with his foot and she shrank back. “I don’t! I wasn’t trying to be smart-alecky.”
He stripped the mattress cover off the bed and flung it at her. “Put this on.”
She was taking quick shallow breaths. “You’re going to beat me up, aren’t you?”
“I might,” he said evenly.
She stood up, watching him, and decided to try something different. She filled her lungs, sucking in her stomach and thrusting her breasts toward him. She rubbed her hands slowly against her thighs.
“If we’ve got half an hour-”
Shayne went to the closet and took out the long whip.