She pulled my head down and kissed me on the mouth.
“I wish it was all over, Johnny. I want to be with you all the time. I hate being afraid. I hate being with him and I hate being away from you, not even knowing where you are or what you’re doing.”
“It won’t be too long, baby,” I said. “The important thing is to do this right. Just hang on tight a little while longer.”
I kissed her then and I felt her lips opening under mine, soft and warm. I drew closer to her and we stayed together that way a long while without talking. When I moved away and looked at her I could see her eyes shining.
“How soon do you have to be back at the office?”
“There’s time, Johnny. There’s time.”
Chapter V
After she left I took another shower and went across the Loop to a bookie’s where there was generally a card game going. I didn’t have much else to do and sometimes ideas come to me when I’m playing cards.
Four guys were playing poker at a corner table, so I moved in to make it five. I knew the others: horse players, touts, or anything else that would turn a fast buck.
There wasn’t much action and I played a couple of hours, staying about even and not paying much attention to the game. I was wrapped up with angles on how to make the plan I had outlined to Alice look natural. It had to look natural or the coppers wouldn’t buy it.
About five I figured it was time to go back and get ready for my date with the blonde. I told the other players it was my last hand.
I was sitting on the dealer’s right. The man on his left opened for two dollars and the next hand raised. Artie Nolan was next and after a look at his cards he said, “What the hell,” and threw them in.
I picked up my cards one at a time. There was a deuce, a four, a tray, and a six — all clubs. I felt a nice little buzz of excitement.
I had four clubs, the two, three, four and six. Any club would give me a flush, and the five of clubs would make it a straight flush.
I put the last card in with the other four and shuffled them for a while. Then I spread them out slowly and took a look. There was the deuce. The trey. The six. The four. I moved the four of clubs real slow and took a peek at the last card. The five of clubs.
Somebody said, “Stop sweating them out. It’s four bucks to you. What d’ya say?”
With my straight flush I raised, of course. The dealer raised, too, and the two other guys called. I raised the dealer once again and he called.
One of the other guys must have figured we were trying to scare him out because he raised, and then there were a couple of more raises before all the hands were called and we were ready to draw cards.
The dealer was pat. The guy next to him took two cards, trying to help threes, I guess, and the next hand drew one card and I figured him for a straight, open at both ends, or maybe a four card flush.
I was pat. The betting was slow after we drew cards because of the two pat hands, but the two guys who drew cards helped their hands, so it wasn’t too bad.
It was a screwy deal, all right. The dealer had a pat full house; the next guy filled up an ace-high straight and the last man drew a pair to his threes and came up with another full house.
We saw all this after the betting was over and we put our hands down. I showed them my straight flush and picked up the money. There was seventy-eight bucks in the pot, which wasn’t hard to take.
The dealer tossed his cards on the table and said, “You do all right. A straight flush. I’ve heard of such things.”
I laughed. That was the way I felt. Lucky all the way down the line. I knew luck was going to be with me all the way — and with some to spare.
I put the bills away and got into my coat and hat.
“Too bad I can’t stick around,” I said. “I like the way you guys donate.”
The dealer said, “What’s the hurry?”
“What do you think would take me away from a soft touch like this?”
“A babe? Who is she?”
“That little blonde that works in the hotel restaurant. Know her?”
“I’ve seen her. Nice looking kid. How long you been chasing her?”
I grinned. “It’s the other way around. She’s been hugging my heels for months.”
It was an angle I hadn’t thought of before, but I realized now it would be a good idea to plant the idea that I’d been going around with the blonde for some time. It was a small thing by itself, but if anybody started asking questions around town they might find out I’d started dating her just a week or so before the big blow-up. Unless I could plant it otherwise.
So I said, “I been taking her out for a couple months now. She’s a good kid. Hell, I might even let her make an honest man out of me.”
They all laughed at that and then one of the guys, Artie Nolan, said, “Johnny, what ever happened to that dark-haired baby you used to run around with?”
The remark didn’t amount to anything, but I turned cold all over. This was the kind of crack that could grow into something serious.
I said, “Which one? You mean that babe who used to come in from Detroit?”
“I don’t know where she came from. I saw her with you a time or two. Out North, I think. She was tall, beautiful gams. Too bad she only had two of them.”
He meant Alice. I said, “She was a dancer. Used to work in a joint on State Street. Her name was Lola. I think she married some guy from Jersey. Probably got an apartment full of kids by now.”
“Yeah, she looked like a dancer,” Nolan said. “Real classy legs.”
“Well,” the dealer said impatiently, “are we going to play cards or sit around and talk about dames?”
“I got to be going,” I said. “Thanks for the contribution, boys. Take it easy.”
“Be good, Johnny.”
I went back to my room. It was about five-twenty then so I took a quick shower and changed my clothes. I dressed carefully because I wanted to impress this blonde right from the start.
I had a new gray gabardine suit that set me back a hundred and fifty bucks and it looked every penny of it. I wore that with a pearl gray shirt and a tie with a picture on it of a guy throwing a rope at a cow. It was one of those hand-painted ties and it cost like hell.
All the time I was dressing, my mind kept turning things over. The little brush at the card game made me nervous. If something slipped and the coppers figured it was a frame they might start nosing around and they could run into a guy like Artie Nolan who remembered seeing me with Alice. That would give them the tie-in.
I made myself a drink, lit a cigarette and sat down to think things over. If it worked the way I figured, there was nothing to worry about. Frank would come barging in, find Lesser with Alice, and shoot him quick — and dead.
That would be that. The cops would have an open-and-shut case. Murder is murder and it’s no different because the guy you kill happened to be cozying with your wife. You might get away with that in books but it doesn’t work in courtrooms. Frank wouldn’t get the chair — particularly if it was jury trial — but they’d send him away for a nice stretch.
What the hell was there to worry about?
I felt better then, even though I didn’t have all the details figured out. But they’d come. They would have to come.
After a while I went downstairs to pick up the blonde. She wasn’t around, but one of the other girls told me she was getting ready and would be out in a few minutes.