I had a season pass to the club house which is air-conditioned and glassed-in, and when we walked in and she got a look at the way the dames were dressed I saw a lot of color come into her face.
We had a table with a good view of the track and there was a page behind us to take our bets and waiters ready to bring us drinks.
After I ordered a couple of drinks she leaned over and said. “Why didn’t you tell me it was like this?” She took a quick look around at the other women. “I feel like a fool.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I grinned. “Most of these dames owe some guy for the clothes they’re wearing. And these hot shot guys with the binoculars probably owe half the bookies in town. You could wear a barrel out here as long as you’ve got plenty of that green stuff handy.”
I made a couple of bets in the first race and then we sat there drinking, waiting for the horses to get to the post. She couldn’t understand why it took so long to get them started, but when they finally got off she got so excited that the people around us were laughing.
I knew the horses and the jockies and when the race was over it turned out I had made a good bet. Our horse paid us four to one and she looked at the money with her mouth open. It was probably more than she made in a month.
A city judge came over to say hello to me and have a drink with us. He wouldn’t want to be seen with a guy like me in most places but at the track it was all right. He wanted a horse, so I gave him one. He finished his drink in a hurry then, patted the blonde on the hand and said he was charmed to meet her and went back to his own table.
“You know a lot of big people, don’t you Johnny?” she said.
“You mean him? He’s a creep.”
“Well, he’s a judge,” she said.
“That means he’s a thief with a law degree,” I told her.
That made a bigger impression on her than meeting him. She looked at me like I was a tin god because I knew enough about a judge to call him a thief. I didn’t tell her that was a safe thing to say about almost any judge.
We left after the last race and went out for dinner. I had to close the deal with her now before I set things going the following night. When Frank blew the lid off everything, I wanted to be a long way from the blast, and set so that nobody would ever connect me with it.
After dinner we went to a show and about eleven o’clock I drove out to the lake, at Albion Avenue, and parked and there were a couple of other cars parked there. It was a hot, quiet night. I lit a cigarette, wondering whether this was going to work or not.
“Look, honey,” I said. “There’s no sense kidding around any longer. I’m nuts about you and I want to do something about it.”
I felt her sort of draw away from me. “What do you mean, Johnny?”
“I’m asking you to marry me,” I said. “What do you say?”
She was quiet for a long time. I couldn’t see her face in the dark but she was sitting so still that she hardly seemed to be breathing.
“I don’t know what to say,” she said, at last. “I’ve been all mixed up since you started taking me out. I figured you must like me pretty well, but you didn’t do anything about it.”
She turned her head so she could see my expression.
“I mean, you didn’t bother me or anything. I never really knew anybody like you before. I mean a guy with money and who knows a lot of important people. It’s hard to believe you mean what you’re saying.”
“I mean it, honey,” I said.
I put my arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to me and then I kissed her hard. She seemed thin and small in my arms, and for just a second she pushed against me but then she relaxed and her body pressed close to me and I felt her lips opening under mine.
Finally I let her go. “Does that tell you how I feel, honey?”
She came back into my arms with a little cry. “I guess I do love you, Johnny. I was scared you were just taking me around for some other reason. A girl like me has only one way of paying a guy back, and I felt guilty when you were spending all that money because I knew I couldn’t give you anything for it. That sounds all mixed up, but I’m really a good girl.”
There wasn’t anything in that for me to laugh at.
“That wasn’t on my mind, honey. I wanted you permanent. And I’ve got a little surprise for you, now that everything’s set.”
“What is it, Johnny?”
“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you.”
I kissed her again, thinking all the while how well things had worked out. I wanted her up in my room tomorrow night so I could get back to her after the deal with Frank was over. She was going to cover for me if anything broke.
I said, “I’ll show you tomorrow night.”
“It’s not a ring, is it?” she said, her voice tight and breathless.
I hadn’t thought of that but it was a good idea. It would be one more little touch. “You’ll see,” I said. “I’ll show you tomorrow night. Okay?”
“Anything you say is all right, Johnny,” she said.
We talked a while more and I kissed her a few times and all I felt was that it was getting closer to Alice. When I was getting ready to start the car she said, “Johnny, do you mind if I ask you a favor? I’d like you to come out for dinner tomorrow. My old man wants to meet you. I don’t like to ask you, but it would make things easier for me.”
I started to say no but I thought it over and there was no reason why I couldn’t.
So I said, “Sure. That’ll be fine, honey.”
I took her home, then went back downtown. Driving along, I had the strange feeling that things were piling up on me. I kept looking at all the angles and little by little I began to see that the idea had some holes in it.
A lot of things could happen. I didn’t know yet whether Alice had fixed it so Frank would leave for Wisconsin without her. And I didn’t know whether she had set the deal with Lesser. I knew how some talkative wolves were. All a girl had to do was take them up on their big talk and they ran like thieves.
There was a lot that wasn’t set, and even when it was set there were still things that could louse up the deal.
By the time I got to my room I was wishing it was over with. I went to bed but I couldn’t sleep. I was getting tight inside just thinking about what was going to happen.
Finally I got up and poured myself half a glass of whisky and drank it down straight. I coughed until the tears came.
I crawled back into bed and after a while I went to sleep.
Chapter VII
The next morning I woke up late and I felt lousy. When I thought of everything that was going to break that day I was scared.
I shaved and dressed and went downstairs to get some breakfast. While I was drinking my tomato juice I remembered that Alice was going to call me this afternoon and that I was going to be at the blonde’s. I decided I’d leave the blonde’s number at the desk and tell the operator to give it to Alice when she called.
After I took care of that I called the hotel garage and told them to send my car around. I went out in front and waited for it. The day was warm and sunny and there were a lot of people on the streets walking along with that clean, dressed-up look people have when they come down town on a Sunday.
When the car came around I drove out to the blonde’s. There were a bunch of kids playing ball in the street and when I parked they crowded around the car, talking about it and talking about the cars they were going to have when they grew up.
I gave the biggest kid half a buck and told him to watch the car and then I went up the steps and punched the bell. Out in the street the big kid was already chasing the others away and walking around the car like he owned it. The little kids went half way down the block and then started yelling at him, calling him all the dirty names kids pick up in the street. It didn’t bother him. He just kept on walking around the car, paying no attention to them, looking serious and important.