“Sy!” Eddie called. “Hey, Sy, you hear this?”
Sy, his face half covered with lather, came out of the bathroom. He was wearing only his undershirt. His arms and shoulders were covered with thick matted hair. “What’s the matter?” he said.
“They got road blocks springing up like mushrooms. How we gonna use the car?”
“What’re you getting excited about? So they got roadblocks. So who cares?”
“You don’t understand, Sy. They’re stopping every car on the road. We have to use that car in the morning. How’re we gonna…?”
“How many times do I have to tell you? I’ll be driving, right? Alone, right? In a lousy old Ford that don’t attract any attention. So let’s say they stop me. So I’m a guy on his way to work. I’ve got a driver’s license, and I’ll show it to them if they ask for it. So? Do they know I’m driving a stolen car? How can they know that? We changed the plates, didn’t we? So nobody’s got nothing on me. So why the hell are you worried about their stupid roadblocks?”
“What about after we get the money?” Eddie said. “How we gonna leave here? They’ll still be watching.”
“And we’ll still have nothing to worry about, because we won’t have the kid with us. It’ll be a guy, his wife and their brother-in-law. There’s nothing to worry about. Let me finish shaving, will you? I feel like a Grade-A bum.” He went into the bathroom. Kathy waited until the door closed behind him.
“Eddie… after he gets the money, What’ll happen to the boy?”
“We’ll leave him right here. We’ll call King to let him know where the kid is.”
Kathy nodded. “That would be taking a… big chance, wouldn’t it?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Eddie, let’s get out of here. Let’s get out now, before it’s too late!”
“Aw, honey, please will you cut it out?”
“Car 234, are you still at the tunnel entrance?”
“This is 234. That’s where we are, Handsome.”
“Okay, okay.”
“Listen to them,” Kathy said.
“Sy says we got nothing to worry about. We’ve got to trust him in this, Kathy. He knows what he’s doing.” Eddie walked to the ash tray and squashed out his cigarette. “Sy never gave me a bum steer all the time I knew him. He’s all right, Kathy.”
“Yes, he’s fine,” she answered sarcastically.
“Well, he is. He taught me a lot.”
“Yes, he certainly taught you a lot.”
“Well, damnit, he did!” Eddie paused. “He didn’t have to hook up with somebody like me. Sy is big-time.”
“Big-time!” Kathy said. “He’s a hoodlum!”
“Aw, don’t say that about him. He got a few bad breaks, that’s all. But he’s okay. Listen, you think it was easy to plan something like this? You know how many things that poor guy has on his mind?”
“He’s got only one thing on his mind, Eddie.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“He wants to kill that boy.”
“Aw, come on, willya? Wants to kill the boy! Sy’s got a cool business head. He ain’t yearning to get involved in a murder rap. All he wants out of this is his share of the loot.”
“And you?”
“What about me?”
“What do you want?”
“The same thing. Two hundred and fifty thousand bucks.”
“And how far will you go to get it?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Eddie said. He went to the dresser, picked up the cigarette pack, dug into it, and crumpled it when he realized it was empty.
“How bad do you want that money, Eddie?”
“Very bad. You got a cigarette?”
Kathy opened her purse and looked into it. “No, I haven’t,” she said. She snapped the bag shut. “Eddie, when we were kids, we used to play a game. It was called ‘Suppose?’ and we used to say, ‘Suppose somebody offered you a million dollars, what would you do for it? Would you cut off a toe for it? Would you give one of your eyes? Would you spit on the cross?’ Things like that. It was funny to hear the answers. All the kids had a different price for that million dollars.”
“What are you driving at?” Eddie said. “Sy! Hey, Sy!”
“Yeah?”
“You got any cigarettes?”
Sy poked his head around the door. “What?”
“You got any cigarettes?”
“In my jacket. You mind if I finish shaving?” He went back into the bathroom.
Eddie crossed to the jacket and went through the pockets. “None here!” he said disgustedly. “Sy, you ain’t got any.”
“There’s a carton in the car!” Sy yelled. “Stop bothering me.”
“Where?”
“In the glove compartment. Man, will you let me shave in peace?”
Eddie started for the front door.
“What’s your price, Eddie?”
“I don’t know what you mean, Kathy.”
“Do you give an arm—but not an eye? Do you take part in a kidnaping—but stop at murder?”
The room was silent.
“What do your kid games have to do with real life?” Eddie asked at last.
“Sy is planning to kill that boy,” Kathy said.
“You’re nuts.”
“It’s part of his scheme, Eddie. He can’t chance leaving the boy alive to identify him.” She paused. “And I have to know where you stand.”
Eddie sighed. “Where I stand, huh? Can’t you just leave me alone?”
“No, Eddie. I have to know.”
“All right. All right, look. You were a kid, and you played your kid games and… and I was a kid, too, all right? Okay, and when I was a kid, I didn’t have nothing. You know, Kathy? Nothing. Nothing. I … I … you say Mexico… you want to go to Mexico. Well, I want to go there, too. I really want to go there and… and I want to have a lot of money and I want waiters to treat me nice… and I want to have something. Not always nothing, all the time. I… I don’t want to be dirt anymore, okay?”
“Okay. But—”
“So, honey, don’t ask me where I stand. Don’t harp on me. I don’t want to start wondering about what I’m doing or why I’m doing it. This is the only way, believe me.” He paused, and when he went on there was a peculiar distress in his voice. “This is the only way I know.”
“But it’s not,” Kathy said firmly. “Eddie, we could leave now. Sy’s in the other room. If we hurried… Eddie, we could get out of here, and drop the boy someplace, and be free. Do you think the cops would care? If the boy is returned safely before any money changes hands, do you really think they’ll try too hard to find us? We could get to Mexico. And we’d be together, without having to run all the time.”