‘Move with the feet, fink,’ he said. ‘Joe’ll cart you home.’
During the drive back, it was impossible to think. The car rocked with strident beat music, going full blast from a cassette. As Joe drove, he kept shouting, ‘Yes, man! Yes, man! Dig-dig-dig!’
He pulled up outside my apartment and switched off the cassette. It was at that moment of silence that the full impact of my talk with Klaus hit me.
As I got out of the car, Joe leaned forward and caught hold of my arm.
‘Use your head, Mr. Lucas,’ he said earnestly. ‘You go along with the boss, and you’ll be in the rich gravy, don’t dig your own grave.’
I pulled free, and walked across the sidewalk, into my apartment block and rode up in the elevator.
As I was unlocking my front door, the door of the opposite apartment jerked open.
‘Quick!’ Glenda said breathlessly, and pushing by me, she ran into my living-room.
I moved inside, closed the door, then turned and faced her.
In black stretch-pants and a red T-shirt, she stood in the middle of the room. Her full breasts rose and fell with her laboured breathing. Her face was chalk white and her eyes were wild.
As we stared at each other, I heard, through the open window, a car start up and drive away.
Chapter Four
We sat side by side on the settee, my arm around her, her head against my shoulder. The yielding softness of her body against mine told me, as nothing else could do, how much I loved her. Her hands gripped mine. Her red hair was against my fading bruise.
The roar of the traffic, coming through the open window, the sound of Jebson’s TV coming up from below, the whine of the elevator as it moved between floors made a background of noise I scarcely registered.
Her hands tightened their grip.
‘I feel so terrible!’ she said. ‘How was I to know I would find someone like you! Oh, Larry, I am so sorry!’ She raised her face and her arm went around my neck. With her lips hard against mine, her tongue darting, Klaus faded from my mind. My fingers found the top of her stretch-pants, hooked in and pulled down. I peeled them off her as she gave a sighing moan.
We rolled off the settee on to the floor. My hands slid under her.
Arching her body, she received me, and my world exploded as she clutched and strained.
After what seemed a long period of time, I became aware of the sound of the church clock chiming ten: Heavy, sonorous strokes.
Then she caressed my face and rolled away from me, got up, leaving me lying there, satiated, aware now only of the smell of dust from the carpet, but utterly relaxed.
I heard water running in the bathroom. Forcing myself to my feet, I pulled on my slacks as she came out from the bathroom and walked slowly to the settee.
‘A drink, Larry,’ she said. ‘A big one.’
I made two outsized whiskeys, and not bothering with ice, I came over and sat beside her. She drank the neat whisky in two gulps, then let the glass drop on the carpet.
‘Larry, darling!’ She turned to stare at me, her big eyes glittering. ‘I love you! Please believe that!’ She held up her hand. ‘Don’t say anything yet... just listen to me. I swear to you if I had had any idea what that devil was planning, I wouldn’t have done what I did! I swear it to you! Please listen! Let me explain.’
I put my hand on hers.
‘You are in the same trap as I am. That’s right, isn’t it?’
‘Oh, yes, but it is a different kind of trap.’ She leaned back and closed her eyes. ‘Larry, I am nothing. I have never ever been anything but nothing. I won’t tell you about my background. God! It was sleazy. That’s the only word. I ran away from my parents. For ten years, I had dozens of jobs, and they all finished up in some sordid bedroom with me fighting off the man who was employing me. A year ago, I got a job at a motel. What a job! There I met Alex. He had money. He ran a Caddy. When he offered marriage, I jumped at it... anything to get away from fumbling hands and slinging hash. In his crazy, vicious way he was madly in love with me. To me, he was a meal ticket, and nothing more. He had a big business, handling hot cars. I didn’t care. I had kicked around long enough not to bother about which side of the law I was on. All I wanted was a shelter. Alex was crazy about golf. He taught me. We played every day. We had a nice bungalow. When he was working, I just slopped around. We had a coloured woman to clean. Then one day, he came back early, looking as if he had been run over by a truck. He was in a terrible state. His face was swollen, his eyes black, caked blood on his coat. He had been worked over. All his guts, and he had lots of guts, had drained out of him. He told me he and I had to work for Klaus. I didn’t know what he was talking about, but the sight of him scared me. He said Klaus had visited him in his garage, and had said he wanted Alex and me to do a job for him. Alex told him to go to hell. Then three men walked in and nearly killed Alex. They beat him silly. They took Alex’s guts from him like a surgeon takes out an appendix. He was now a fat, slobbering creature who horrified me. I said no one was going to tell me what to do, and I was leaving him. Then Benny and Joe walked in. While Alex sat crying, they gagged me and took the guts out of me with a strap. By the time they had finished, I was as craven as Alex.’ She paused to pick up her fallen glass. ‘I’ll have another drink, Larry.’
Feeling cold and sick, I made her another whisky.
‘That’s how it was, Larry,’ she said, and drank. ‘Klaus has told you about his plan to break into the Sharnville bank?’
‘He’s told me.’
‘He’s a devil. Make no mistake about that. He found out you and Brannigan played golf together. He sent Joe to put water in Brannigan’s gas tank so you and I could meet. His idea was for me to come to Sharnville with his phony reporting setup. He thought I could persuade you to tell me about the security of the bank.’ She ran her fingers through her red hair. ‘If only you had, Larry! Alex could be alive now.’
‘He should have known,’ I said.
She lifted her hands in despair.
‘It was a long shot which didn’t work. Then he told me he would blackmail you into giving him the information, and he told me what I had to do. With the threat of another beating, I hadn’t the guts to refuse. I thought they would just take photographs of us making love, and that would be enough. I swear I had no idea that Alex would be involved, and they would murder him.’ She looked directly at me. ‘You must hate me for what I have done to you, but if you had been beaten as I have, maybe you would understand.’
‘Of course I don’t hate you! I could never do that,’ I said. ‘This is something we have to work out together. You are the one woman who has ever meant anything to me.’ I took her hands in mine. ‘I have seven days to say either yes or no. This has dropped on me like an avalanche. My mind isn’t working properly, but let us look at the situation we are both faced with. Klaus plans to rob the bank, using me to tell him how to do it. He has enough evidence against me to send me to jail for life. That is his ace card, but I also have an ace card. I could go to Brannigan, and tell him the whole story. He is, as Klaus has said, a righteous man, but he wouldn’t stand for blackmail. I’m sure of that. He knows Klaus is a liar and a thief. He could use his power to nail Klaus, and get me off the hook. I would be finished in Sharnville, but at least, I wouldn’t go to jail. We two could go somewhere, and I could begin again. As I see it right now, I must talk to Brannigan.’
Glenda closed her eyes and shivered.
‘Have you forgotten you are dealing with a devil, Larry? A devil who didn’t hesitate to kill Alex so he could blackmail you? We two won’t go away together. How I wish it was as easy as that.’ She paused, then went on, ‘If you don’t do what he wants, he is going to have me murdered as he had Alex murdered.’