“Can I… get my… get my glasses.” He pointed between his legs. His glasses had come off and were down in the toilet somewhere. I told him go ahead.
He reached down through his legs and fished around and finally came up with them. He bent the heavy metal frames around a little and they sat a little better on his face. Not much better. And as water-streaked as they were, I didn’t know what good they were doing him.
“You can dry them off, if you like,” I said.
He was still breathing hard, heaving his chest, and he was trembling, too, but somewhere in there I could make out he was also nodding. He took some toilet paper and wiped off the glasses.
“There’s not going to be any cops,” I said.
He just looked at me, his breath slowing down gradually.
“Just like there’s not going to be any heist,” I said.
He looked down. The floor was wet.
“You invested some time and some money, but you know how it goes. You can’t win ’em all. Though at least you finally filled a flush, huh?”
“Very funny,” he said.
“Hey, coming out alive is winning of a sort.”
He looked up. “Where’s Johnny?”
“Johnny Smith, you mean? Big ears, nothing between? In the trunk of his Chevelle.”
“Is he…”
“He’s alive, if you call that living.”
“What… what happens now?”
“Now you leave. You go out and get in your friend’s Chevelle and drive away. Let him out of the trunk, when you get around to it.”
I handed him the keys.
“You can have your gun, too,” I said, and went over and picked it up. Stuck the other. 38 in my waistband and emptied the shells of first one gun, then the other, into the used towel bin. Then I gave him both guns and he looked at me puzzled.
“That box of slugs in your glove compartment isn’t there anymore, in case you’re wondering. Even if it was, it wouldn’t do you much good. Ask your friend about the gun I almost used on him and see if he’d like to go up against it.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“Stopping the heist? I’m getting paid to.”
“Why let us go, I mean.”
“Because you’re just not worth killing… though if I ever see you again, I’ll have to reassess that. I’m not real fond of people who break lamps in my face, you know.”
“You won’t see me again. Don’t worry about that.”
“Oh I’m not worried Go away.”
32
Lu was sitting at a table near the bar, waiting for me. “Where you been?” she wanted to know, She looked tired, but good. She always looked good.
“The john,” I said.
I’d had my jacket on upstairs and it was all that got noticeably wet. It was now folded over my arm.
“Tree still in his office?” I asked her.
“Yeah. Expecting you, I guess.”
“This won’t take long. You don’t mind waiting?”
“How can I mind?” she said, with a wry grin. “We came in one car, remember?”
Tree’s door was open.
I closed it behind me.
“This room soundproof?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said, from behind his desk, “or damn near.”
“Let’s pretend it isn’t.”
I pulled the chair around by him and leaned head to head with him and spoke very softly.
“I took the liberty of firing your dealer at table four,” I said. “He and his friend with the Chevelle were planning to heist you tonight.”
He showed his teeth, but he wasn’t smiling. “I figured as much, after thinking over what we talked about before. You got rid of them, then? How?”
“Took their guns away, put a little scare into ’em. They won’t be back.”
“That irritates the fuck out of me. How do you like those little sons of bitches? Little son of a bitch, after he lost big that one time, must’ve figured I’d fire him if he ever did again… brings in a friend and they feed some of their own money into holding onto the seat at that table, figuring to rip me off and get their money back and mine, too, little bastards…”
“And they might’ve done it.”
“Those little turds? Why…”
“Why not? You mean if they stuck a gun in your nuts, you wouldn’t tell them about your floor safe? They’re idiots in a lot of ways, but just the same they put a lot into this, both money and time and even some thought. They figured out the weakness of your security set-up, which is those few minutes after closing, after all or anyway most of the dealers are gone, when you’re here alone, with none of the alarm systems turned on. Which is something you might want to do something about sometime.”
“Why’d they rough you up that time?”
“Maybe to get back six hundred bucks I won off them. Maybe they wondered if you were onto them somehow, and wanted to see if you planted me at the table, to keep an eye on them. It’s also possible one of them saw me approach you that first time in the parking lot.”
“You saved me a lot of money tonight, Quarry.”
“Hey, I saved your ass. They could’ve killed you. At the least they’d caused some wear and tear.”
“It’s hard to put a price on something like that, isn’t it?”
“Let’s try.”
He smiled on half his face and leaned over and swung open the door of the big safe. He took out every packet of money in there, six packets in all, and stacked them on the desk in front of me.
“Three thousand. Above and beyond our other arrangement. Speaking of which…” He opened a desk drawer and took out a check and put it on top of the stacked money packets. “The first thousand I owe you. Made out as you instructed.”
“Good,” I said. “Now. I want you to do something.”
“What?”
“Don’t go home tonight. Don’t talk to anyone. That includes that cunt of yours.”
“Ruthy? But…”
“Especially Ruthy.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ruthy is a good friend of Lu’s.”
“So what?”
“You gave Lu the bartender job because Ruthy asked you to, isn’t that right? Because they were old friends?”
“Yes, yes, but what’s that supposed to mean?”
“Lu is half the hit team, Frank.”
“She’s what…?”
“You heard me.”
“How long have you known this?”
“All along. I followed her here from Florida. Do you know where she lives, Frank?”
“Yes… yes I do…”
“Where, Frank?”
“Across the street from me.”
“Who found her the apartment, Frank?”
“I think Ruthy did.”
“That’s right, Frank.”
He kind of flopped back in his chair. His eyes were glazed, empty, like glass eyes.
Then he sat forward and said, “But, Christ, man… you’re living with her… sleeping with her…”
“Which just goes to show you can’t trust everybody you sleep with.”
“How can you…”
“Hey, what better way to keep track of the situation, huh?”
“She could kill you.”
“I could kill her.”
“You’re pretty goddamn fucking sure of yourself.”
“She wouldn’t kill me unless she was sure she needed to. People in this line of work aren’t frivolous about killing. She was hired to do you in, not me, and unless she’s sure I’m in her way, she wouldn’t consider it. Especially in an apart- ment she rented herself.”
“This is crazy…”
“Right. Anyway, drive someplace. Fifty miles away from here, or more. Check into a motel. You can come back to work tomorrow, and I’ll see you here, tell you where we stand. Till then, don’t be anywhere.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Listen, I thought I had a handle on this. I thought I knew who the two people were that had your number, and that one of them was that little dealer of yours, with the glasses. Only he isn’t, he’s just some little jerk planning some little heist, so all bets are off, and I got to rethink this whole fucking deal, because I only know now for sure one of the two people who’re here to cancel your subscriptions to those girlie magazines there. Now that makes me nervous. It ought to make you more than that. Go home tonight and maybe you don’t wake up in the morning. Well?”