“You see?” Lawler shrugged and shifted his weight against the piano. “Robin and I are really very compatible. We are never able to keep secrets from one another for very long.”
“That’s sweet,” I said. “I’m touched.”
He was looking directly at Robin for the first time now. “Wouldn’t you like to apologize to Mr. Hand for causing him so much trouble, Robin?”
“I apologize, Mr. Hand,” she said.
“I liked it better when you told me to go to hell,” I said.
Lawler stood erect and stopped looking at Robin in order to look at me. “That wasn’t a very gracious response, Hand. However, let it pass. I also want to apologize to you.”
“What for?”
“I’m afraid I was a little unreasonable yesterday. I understand now that you were hired to investigate the matter we discussed, and you’re naturally concerned about your fee. I have no right to ask you to sacrifice that, of course. What do you think it will amount to?”
“That depends on how long the job lasts. I get twenty-five dollars a day and expenses.”
“Very reasonable. I’ll pay you five thousand to drop the case. That should be adequate.”
“Bribery?”
“Don’t be offensive. Compensation for the loss of your fee.”
“It’s not enough.”
“Really? I figure that it comes to two hundred days’ work. What do you think would be fair?”
“Make it a million, and I’ll take it.”
“Your joke isn’t very funny, Hand. It’s bad taste to joke about a serious matter.”
“I’m not joking. You see, I’ve got to be compensated for more than the loss of a fee. I’ve got to be compensated for the loss of my integrity, such as it is. I don’t figure a million’s too much for that.”
“Nonsense. You’re wasting your time, anyhow. I assured you of that. Is it ethical to go on accepting a fee under false pretenses?”
“I explained to my client that it might not come to anything. Probably wouldn’t, as a matter of fact. We’re both satisfied.”
“Perhaps I could persuade your client that he is making a mistake. Would you care to give me his name?”
“No, I wouldn’t. The truth is, I don’t particularly care for your methods of persuasion.”
“No matter. If I really want to learn the identity of your client, I can do it easily enough. Now, however, I don’t propose to discuss this matter with you any longer. I believe I’ve made you a fair proposition. Do you still refuse to accept it?”
“Sorry. I’m holding out for the million.”
If there was the slightest sign between him and Darcy behind me, the lifting of a brow or the twitch of a tic, I never saw it. It could be, I guess, that they’d developed a kind of extra-sensory communication that functioned automatically when the time was precisely right. Anyhow, sign or not, Darcy grabbed me abruptly above the elbows from behind and wrenched my arms and shoulders back so violently that I thought for a moment I’d split down the middle like a spring fryer. At the same instant, Lawler made a fist and stepped forward within range.
“I regret this, Hand,” he said. “I really do.”
“I know,” I said. “You dislike violence. You and Darcy both.”
“It’s your own fault, of course. You’re behaving like a recalcitrant boy, and it’s necessary to teach you a lesson.”
“Don’t you think you ought to teach me somewhere else? You wouldn’t want to get blood on this expensive carpet.”
“It’s acrilan. Haven’t you heard of it? One of these new miracle fabrics. Blood wipes right off.”
“Is that a fact? Better living through chemistry. I’m impressed.”
He was tired now of the whole business. I could see in his face that he was tired, and I believe that he actually did regret what he considered the necessity of having to do what he was going to do. It was only that he knew no other way to fight, in spite of Chopin and Mozart and the veneer of respectability, than the way of violence. He wanted to get it over with, and he did. He drove the fist into my face, and it was like getting hit with a jagged boulder. Flesh split on bone, and bone cracked, and darkness welled up internally. I sagged, I guess, and hung by my arms from the hands of Darcy, and after a while, I guess, I straightened and lifted my head and was hit again in the face. When I opened my eyes after that, I was lying on the carpet, and there was blood on it. In my mouth there was more blood, and a thin and bitter fluid risen from my stomach. I was sick and in pain, but mostly I was ashamed. I got up slowly, in sections, and looked at Lawler through a pink mist.
“Your carpet’s a mess,” I said. “I hope you’re right about acrilan.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “You’re a tough guy, Hand, and I like you. If you think I get any kicks out of pushing you around, you’re wrong. There’s a lavatory in there. Through that door. Why don’t you go in and wash your face?”
“I think I will,” I said.
I went in and turned on the cold tap and caught double handfuls of water and buried my face in them. The water burned like acid, but it revived me and dispelled the pink fog. In the mirror above the lavatory, I saw that a cut on my cheekbone needed a stitch or two. I found some adhesive tape in the medicine cabinet and pulled the cut together and went back out into the other room.
Lawler was seated at the grand again. Darcy was leaning against the wall behind him. Robin Robbins, in her chair, was still wearing her poker face. I thought I saw in her eyes a guarded gleam of something appealing. Compassion? Camaraderie based on mutual beatings? A raincheck? Who could be sure with Robin? I kept right on walking toward the door, and I was almost there when Lawler spoke to me.
“Hand,” he said.
I stopped but didn’t turn. I didn’t answer either. It hurt to talk, and I saw no sense in it.
“One thing more,” he said. “I made a reasonable offer, and you’d be wise to accept it. This is just a suggestion of what you’ll get if you don’t. I’ll put a check for five thousand in the mail today. You’ll get it tomorrow.”
“Thanks very much,” I said.
I started again and kept going and got on out of there.
8
In a sidewalk telephone booth I dialed Faith Salem’s number and got Maria.
“Miss Salem’s apartment,” she said.
“This is Percy Hand,” I said. “Let me speak with Miss Salem.”
“One moment, please,” she said.
I waited a while. The open wire hummed in my ear. My head felt three times its normal size, and the hum was like a siren. I held the receiver a few inches away until Faith Salem’s voice came on.
“Hello, Mr. Hand,” she said.
“You said to call before I came,” I said. “I’m calling.”
“Is it something urgent?”
“I don’t know how urgent it is. I know I just turned down five grand in a chunk for twenty-five dollars and expenses a day. Under the circumstances, I feel like being humored.”
She was silent for ten seconds. The siren shattered my monstrous head.
“You sound angry,” she said finally.
“Not at all,” I said. “I’m an amiable boob who will take almost anything from anybody, and my heart holds nothing but love and tenderness for all of God’s creatures.”
Silence again. The siren again. Her voice again in due time.
“You’d better come up,” she said. “I’ll be expecting you.”
“Fifteen minutes,” I said.
When I got there, the sun was off the terrace, and so was she. She was waiting for me in the living room, and she was wearing a black silk jersey pullover blouse and black ballerina-type slippers and cream colored capri pants. On her they looked very good, or she looked very good in them, whichever way you saw it. She was lying on her side, propped up on one elbow on a sofa about nine feet long, and she got up and came to meet me between the sofa and the door. I thought I heard her breath catch and hold for a second in her throat.