“My wife walked out,” I said, playing my little part in the drama.
“A redhead, huh?”
“Sure.”
“You can always tell. Taste always follows the same.”
“Is that how you can tell?”
“Sure. How else?”
“I thought maybe you’d seen her.”
“Nope.” She sucked on the cigarette again. “So, can we do business?”
I smiled wryly. “Honey,” I said, “how could I settle for anything less than you?”
She didn’t smile back. She considered this for a moment, and then said, “That might be arranged, too.”
“I thought...”
“Anything can be arranged if you know the right people.”
“And you’re the right people?”
“Right as rain.”
“And good old Zach? What about him?”
“What about him? He’s asleep already.”
“Was he asleep when you went to the bus terminal?”
Bunny blinked her eyes. “Who went to the terminal?”
“I thought you did.”
“You thought wrong. Are you in the market or not? I’m busy.”
“I’ll bet you are. Let me think it over. I’ll let you know.”
“All right. I’m in Three, if you want me.”
“And Zach?”
“He sleeps in the office,” Bunny said. She paused and then added significantly, “With his pictures.”
“I’ll let you know.”
She went out, and I thought, Hell, there must be a million blondes in black dresses. Black is a good color for blondes. Besides, this is a small town. Wouldn’t the clerk have recognized a native? Yes, unless Bunny wasn’t a native. In a business life Hobbs’, there are probably a lot of imports. I took off my robe, dressed quickly, and left the cabin. There was a pay phone near the office, but I avoided it and headed for the boardwalk. It was uncluttered, with the crowds beginning to thin out.
I passed the Pokerino setup, and then walked back when I saw a phone booth tucked into one corner of the joint. I got the operator, gave her our city phone number, deposited the coins, and listened to the phone ringing. I let it ring twenty-two times, and then I gave up. Anne wasn’t there.
There was only one question remaining.
Where was she?
I walked up the boardwalk, and I tried to sort the important from the unimportant. I knew I should go to the police, but I figured they were all sewed up on Hobbs’ side. They’d have to be. I thought of calling the state police, but by the time they arrived... No. I was here. Right on the spot. I knew everything that had happened. All right, so what was important?
The terminal clerk had remembered Anne — if she was Anne — and the blonde. That was important. They certainly weren’t trying to hide the fact that they were taking her out of town.
Or was that the idea? Were they trying to show everyone they were leaving? A blonde in a black dress, a redhead in a white dress. Both attention-getters. Well, if they were after attention, they’d have stopped at several places along the way to the terminal. If they wanted to be remembered, they’d want a lot of people to remember them.
But why?
Why in hell do that?
I didn’t question it any further. I walked to the end of the boardwalk, and then I started for the terminal. The first place I saw was a bar. I went in and questioned the bartender. Yes, he’d seen the girls — and what girls! He remembered them. Was anything wrong?
I left and stopped in the candy store on the corner. The girls had been there that morning. They’d stopped for magazines, a blonde and a redhead, both pretty, both dressed to kill.
I stopped in another bar, and was told the girls had been there, too. They’d dropped in for a quick drink. The blonde had put a dime into the juke, and then she and the redhead had sipped martinis and then left.
I thanked the bartender and walked out of the bar, sure I’d hit upon the idea. The idea was to be seen. Christ alone knew why, but that was the idea. I stepped onto the sidewalk and a young girl moved away from the building and brushed against me.
I said, “Pardon me,” and then began walking back toward Zach’s. The cop materialized out of nowhere.
“All right, cousin,” he said.
For a minute, I didn’t know he was talking to me. Then I frowned and said, “Something wrong, officer?”
“Drop the act, cousin,” he said. “I saw you.”
“You saw me what?”
“That young girl back there. We don’t go for molesting in this town.”
“Molesting? Are you out of your mi...”
“Can it, cousin. Come along with me.”
“The hell you say. You’re not going to hang any hick rap on me for something I didn’t...”
He brought his billy up so fast that I almost didn’t see it. He lifted it over his head, and then it whipped down, catching me on the shoulder, sending a sharp pain straight down to my wrist.
“You son of a...” I started.
He brought the billy up again and cracked it down on my bicep. He grabbed my wrist then and flipped my arm up behind my back, wrenching it hard.
“Had enough, cousin?”
“Look, you sloppy bastard. Let go that arm or...” I shouted in pain as he tugged up on my arm again.
“Come along,” he said. “Come along now.”
I cursed all the way to the jail, and then I cursed when he brought me in front of a fat bastard he called, “Chief.”
Chief looked at me and then turned to the cop. “What’s the trouble, O’Hara?”
O’Hara! The name burned me up even more. O’Hara to Riley. Of all the goddamn...
“Masher,” O’Hara said. “Caught him near the terminal. Tried to get funny with a young kid.”
“You’re full of it, O’Hara,” I said. “Look, Chief, are you going to let this slob...”
“Shut up,” Chief said.
“He’s lying through his goddamn teeth. I never...”
“Shut up!” Chief said more firmly. “Toss him in the cooler, O’Hara. Vagrancy, molesting, exhibitionism, indecent expos...”
I got it then, clear and fast. The cops were in Hobbs’ pocket all right, tucked away like a handkerchief. I’d been snooping around, and they hadn’t liked it, so now they were going to dump me in the hoosegow, where I’d be safe for a long while.
O’Hara was standing behind me, and Chief was sitting close to his desk. If there was any time to do it, this was it. I rammed back with my elbow, catching O’Hara in the gut. I whirled as he doubled over, and I let him have a fistful of knuckles against the bridge of his nose. I turned again as Chief started to push his chair back. I shoved the palms of both hands against the desk, and Chief sat down abruptly, the desk slamming into his stomach and pinning him to the wall.
I ran like a bat out of hell, straight for the boardwalk and then over to Zach’s. I heard shouts behind me, and I knew I wasn’t going to get far unless I moved damned fast. I cursed myself for not contacting the state police to begin with, and then I was on the dirt road and running for the gravel patch and my Dodge. I fished the key out of my pocket and opened the door, and I heard a siren wail in the distance and I knew Chief and O’Hara were hot on my trail, with blood in their eye.
I twisted the key in the ignition and pressed the starter. She usually started on the button, but this time she made a low, complaining whine. I tried again. I could hear the siren closer now, and I knew there wasn’t much time. The engine wouldn’t kick over. I tried once more and then got out of the car. Some bastard had probably played with the wires. Some bastard named Hobbs. I started to run, and then I saw his pickup truck at the end of the gravel patch. I ran to it and leaped into the cab, feeling for the ignition.
The keys were there.