‘Oh, that thing about Dean being threatened?’ she asked.
‘Yep,’ I said. ‘Frank brought Jerry in to help me with that.’
‘You have quite a friendship,’ she said.
‘Well-’
‘He’d do anything for you, did you know that?’
‘Well-’
‘And you like him. Don’t try to deny it.’
‘Well. . of course I like ‘im,’ I told her. ‘Why would I try to deny that? Plus he’s saved my ass more than once.’
‘He is a terrible gin player, though,’ she said. ‘Just awful. But he is sweet, and gentle as a lamb. Are you sure he’s a torpedo?’
‘He doesn’t like that word,’ I said, ‘but yeah, he’s broken an arm and a leg or two in his time. I think he’s just sweet to you, the way he was to Marilyn.’
‘He met Marilyn?’ she asked.
‘Yeah, earlier this year he helped me with something I was doing for her,’ I said. ‘But he was mad at me, said I ruined her for him.’
‘Ruined her how?’
‘He said after meeting her he couldn’t help but think of her as a little sister.’
‘And is that the way he thinks of me, now? As a little sister?’
‘Oh, no-’
‘Then what? A big sister?’ I could see that neither one appealed to her.
Ava,’ I said, ‘believe me when I say no man could ever think of you as their sister.’
‘Especially you, right?’ she said, touching the back of my neck.
‘Ava, that has to stay between us,’ I said. ‘Nobody can know what happened. Not Jerry, and especially not Frank.’
‘Oh, don’t worry, Eddie,’ she said, ‘that will be our little secret.’
Jerry appeared just then, opened the door and got in. Ava pulled her hand away from the nape of my neck.
‘I didn’t see nobody,’ Jerry said, ‘not on either side of the street.’
‘OK, but I’ve been thinking. .’
‘What?’ Jerry asked.
‘Maybe we should wait until after dark.’
‘And what do we do in the meantime?’ Ava asked. ‘Sit here in this old cab?’
‘No,’ I said, ‘I thought we could go and buy Jerry some new clothes.’
She brightened.
‘Shopping! Oh, that sounds like fun.’ She clapped her hands. ‘And I know just the place. Start ‘er up, big guy.’
She took us to a men’s clothing store right on Hollywood Blvd. and, true to her word, she had fun, especially picking shirts out that Jerry never would have picked out for himself. But he was too polite to say no.
Except when they got to the register.
‘No, no, don’t be silly,’ she told us. ‘Of course I’m going to pay.’
‘No, Miss Ava,’ Jerry said, ‘I’m gonna pay for my own clothes.’
‘I thought I could get the Sands to pay for it all,’ I offered.
She slapped me on the arm and said, ‘No, don’t ruin my fun. Paying is part of it.’ She looked at Jerry. ‘Are you going to ruin all my fun?’
‘No, Ma’am.’
‘Then step aside.’
We both moved and allowed her to pay cash for everything. She even carried the bags.
The male clerk looked at us and said, ‘You fellas notice how much she looks like Ava Gardner?’
‘What?’ Jerry said.
‘Not so much,’ I said, and we followed her out.
THIRTY-FIVE
We drove the cab back to Ava’s street, still parking down the block.
‘Come on,’ she said, ‘I know a back way.’
We had to help her over a couple of fences, but she managed to get us to the back door of her house.
She used her key and unlocked the door, and we entered through a large kitchen. She reached for the light switch but I grabbed her hand.
‘No lights,’ I said, ‘just in case.’
‘How are we going to see where we’re going?’ she asked.
It was dark outside, and darker still inside, but I was starting to make out shapes.
‘Just wait a few moments and your eyes will adjust,’ I said. ‘Jerry, why don’t you go and have a look out the front window?’
‘Sure thing, Mr G.’
As Jerry made his way through the house to the front, Ava pulled out a kitchen chair and sat down.
‘Ava, is there any chance you were back in this house during those forty hours?’
‘I suppose there’s a chance,’ she said.
‘Have a look around,’ I said.
‘What am I looking for?’
‘Anything you might have left here during that time,’ I said. ‘Or maybe something you took? Anything that’ll help figure this out.’
‘In the dark?’
‘If you have a flashlight in the house you can use that, but we wanna keep the lights off. OK?’
‘OK,’ she said, with a shrug. ‘Is it all right if I pack a few extra things? This bag is just something I threw together in a hurry. And I’ve got to find some cigarettes somewhere. I’m all out.’
‘Pack whatever you want,’ I said. ‘We don’t know how long you’ll be gone.’
‘Oh God. .’ she said.
‘It’ll just be long enough to make sure you’re safe.’
‘Right,’ she said. ‘Can I take a bath?’
‘Why not? We’ll be here all night. In the morning we can get a car.’
‘You’re not going to leave me here alone, are you?’ she asked.
‘No,’ I said, ‘we’ll all go get the car.’
She got up from the chair.
‘Any chance there’s some food in the fridge? Jerry’s gonna get hungry.’
‘There won’t be much,’ she said. ‘Can you cook?’
‘Not much,’ I said, ‘but Jerry’s a whiz in the kitchen.’
She laughed.
‘Now why doesn’t that surprise me?’
While Ava was taking a bath I took a walk around downstairs. Everything was neat and clean, probably thanks to a maid. I wondered if she kept coming in while Ava was gone?
Jerry said there was nobody out front that he could see.
‘They’re gonna hafta pee,’ he’d told me once, ‘or hafta smoke eventually. And even if they’re peeing in a bottle, you can watch for the flare of a match, or the glowing tip of a cigarette.’
So when Jerry told me nobody was there, I believed him.
‘If we stay toward the back of the house, just in case, ‘I said, ‘we should go unseen. That means the kitchen, the diningroom, and back bedrooms.’
Ava had told me that her bedroom and master bath were in the back.
Jerry went through the fridge and the cupboard.
‘There’s fuck all here ta cook, Mr G. I could make an omelet, but not one big enough for the three of us.’
I could hear Jerry’s stomach grumbling, and mine was close.
‘I saw some places on the way here,’ he said. ‘In fact, there’s a deli about two blocks away.’
‘You remember how to get there?’ I asked, unnecessarily. When it came to restaurants, Jerry had a phenomenal memory.
‘Sure I do.’
‘OK,’ I said. ‘Go back through the yards to the cab and pick up some food.’
I reached into my pocket and he said, ‘I got dough, Mr G.’
‘OK,’ I said, ‘this one’s on you. I’ll get the next one.’
‘OK.’ He headed for the back door.
‘Hey, Jerry.’
‘Yeah, Mr G.?’
‘Did I remember to thank you for comin’ out here like this?’
‘Hey,’ he said, ‘when Mr S. told me you needed help, I dropped everythin’ I was doin’ and hopped the first flight. Why wouldn’t I?’
‘In any case, thanks, big buy.’
‘’Course, I wasn’t doin’ much of anythin’, anyway. .’ he added.
‘Fuck you. .’
He was laughing and shaking his head when he went out the door.
‘What’s going on?’ Ava asked.
I watched her walk into the room fresh from the bath. She was wearing a simple terrycloth robe this time, and was vigorously drying her hair with a towel. She wore no make-up, and was still the sexiest, most beautiful thing I’d ever seen in my life — and remember, I live and work in Vegas. There wasn’t a showgirl I knew who could hold a candle to Ava Gardner straight from a bath.
‘Jerry went to get some food.’
‘What’s he getting?’
‘Deli.’
‘Oh, good,’ she said. ‘I love those big pickles. I hope he brings some.’