“There was one thing that bothered me,” Johnny admitted. “I'd been in town an hour when Savino tied into me at the library. I couldn't figure how he got to me so fast. I think I know. He wasn't tailin' me. He was watchin' you, an' recognized me when I walked in.”
Her eyes widened. “Watching me? That's the most ridiculous idea I ever-”
“What's so ridiculous about it? You and Daddario were friends. You were in. Now you're out. They might be havin' second thoughts about what you learned about their business.”
“I learned nothing about their business, except what's hearsay in the town anyway.” She said it firmly. “Jim and I were friends for years but we never discussed his political affairs on any but the most platitudinous level.” Her eyes were steady on Johnny's. “We're still friends. I'm positive Jim would never do anything to hurt me or implicate me in any way.”
“Not while things were goin' his way,” Johnny argued. “Right now he's a little shook up. I think he's busy shorin' up the timbers on his political cabin. You might know more than you think.” Jessamyn Burger shook her head decisively and Johnny changed the subject. “Speakin' of hearsay in the town, I understand Dick Lowell has got himself an unofficial first lady.”
Her smile was unwilling. “For the length of time you've been in Jefferson you've certainly improved each shining hour. I don't think that situation is quite the way you'd appraise it from surface appearances, though. The woman's husband left her ten years ago but he's a dog-in-the-manger type who won't give her a divorce. She can't get it without him dragging her name and Dick's through every paper in the state. He's threatened to do it. Dick can't have that, so the status quo remains. It's a sordid but not unusual situation.”
So it wasn't Micheline Thompson with whom Dick Lowell was playing house, Johnny mused. He was surprised at the relief he felt at the news. If she had been involved it would almost have clinched her role in the Manhattan suite. Thinking of her recalled something else. He had called the number listed for Carl Thompson in the phone book before he had left Mrs. Peterson's to meet Jessamyn, and had raised no one. He pushed back his chair and signaled the waiter for his check. “Excuse me a moment,” he said to Jessamyn. He placed a bill beside his plate.
He walked out to the men's room and stepped into a phone booth just outside the door. He dialed the Carl Thompson number again and listened with a gathering frown as the phone rang and rang. He hung up and emerged from the booth thoughtfully. He wondered where Micheline Thompson was spending her time.
Back at the table he smiled down at Jessamyn Burger. “See you home, lady?”
“Oh, don't bother. It's out a little way. I'm-”
“Bother? I want to bother.” Her color bloomed at his inspection. “We'll take a cab out an' I'll walk back. I need the exercise.”
“Well-” He gave her no chance to argue. On the sidewalk he took her arm while the restaurant doorman flagged down a taxi. “The address is 546 Circle Drive,” she said as one pulled in to the curb. Johnny gave the driver the address and settled down beside her. It was a quiet ride.
“I'm sorry I can't invite you in for a drink,” she said when the cab pulled into a curving street lined, with apartment buildings. “As far as their librarian's morals are concerned, Jefferson is a small town.”
“I'll just walk you to the door,” Johnny said as the taxi stopped before a building shabbier than its neighbors. “I'd like to do this again when you can work me into your schedule.”
“I have no schedule,” she said before she thought. She smiled self-consciously. “I really should build myself up to you better than that, shouldn't I?” He took her arm again up the broad cement walk. At the door she turned. “Thank you. I enjoyed it.”
He opened the door. “I'll give you a ring,” he suggested. He stood on the step holding the door. “Is there any-” Over her shoulder as Jessamyn moved inside Johnny saw a shadow that materialized into Jigger Kratz and Tommy Savino standing there, waiting. Without even thinking about it Johnny stepped inside and closed the door.
At the expression on his face Jessamyn turned quickly. “Jigger!” she exclaimed in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
The big man stood with his hands jammed comfortably into his pockets, a cigarette dangling from a corner of his mouth. “Jim wants you should call him, Jessie,” he said. His lips seemed not to move at all.
“If Jim wants to talk to me he knows my telephone number!” she replied spiritedly.
“It'd be a good idea if you called him, Jessie,” Kratz said patiently. He rocked slightly on his heels, perfectly relaxed. Beside him Savino was taut as a bowstring, Johnny thought. “Take care of it, will you? Goodnight.”
“Goodnight?” she echoed, surprised. “What-” She looked from the two men to Johnny and back again. Johnny had moved casually a few feet from the door at his back, out into the small lobby with its polished floor. “Now look, Jigger-”
Savino's leash snapped. “Get inside!” he barked at her. He looked at Johnny with a dark, triumphant sneer. He circled to Johnny's left with the short, graceful steps of a dancer.
“Jigger!” the girl cried out. “Stop him!”
The big man smiled. Savino rushed Johnny, throwing a long right-hand punch. Johnny blocked it easily. In close, the slender man darted the forked fingers of his left hand at Johnny's eyes. Johnny caught the fingers and bent them back steadily upon the wrist. Savino went to his knees with a strangled sound.
“Give me a reason I shouldn't break 'em, wise guy,” Johnny growled down at the ashen face. He moved to put Savino between himself and Kratz who had made no move at all. Savino scrambled on his knees turning with Johnny, his eyes bulging as he tried to relieve the pressure on his fingers. His free hand came up and clawed at Johnny's hand. Johnny put a foot in Savino's stomach and thrust explosively, letting go of the fingers. Savino skidded on his knees across the lobby floor and crashed into Kratz's shins with a force that would have driven the average man backward. The big man never even missed a puff on his cigarette. “Try your luck?” Johnny invited him.
With no change of expression Kratz reached down and hooked thick fingers in Savino's coat collar. He hauled him to his feet. “He was told not to do that,” he rumbled to Johnny. “That's the only reason you're gettin' away with it.” He turned to the white-faced librarian. “You call Jim, Jessie.” He steered the reeling Savino through the door and was gone.
Jessamyn Burger drew a long breath as Johnny looked down at his right hand. Blood welled up on the back of it. “You're hurt!” she said sharply.
“Just a scratch,” Johnny told her. He reached in his pocket for a handkerchief.
“You come inside and wash that out,” she ordered him. “That man's fingernails could give you hydrophobia.”
“But you said-”
“I don't care what I said.” High heels click-clacking, she led the way up three steps and along a dimly lighted aisle past a self-service elevator. At a door marked 2-A she stopped and removed a key from her handbag.
The drab exterior of the building and the small, cluttered lobby had left Johnny unprepared for the room into which she led him. Solid cherry paneling covered the walls from floor to ceiling. Vividly scarlet linoleum on the floor was partially covered by a huge oval rug braided in a concentric black-and-white pattern. An austere white brick chimney centered the farther wall. Below it the fireplace was an old-fashioned Franklin stove extending outward on a raised white brick hearth. Bronze andirons in front of it and bronze knobs and medallions on the stove itself relieved its jet black severity. At the side a bronze-hooped, cherrywood bucket contained white birch logs. A low cherrywood table to the left held an ivory lamp and a bowl of flowers, and to the right a high cherrywood buffet held a matching lamp and a trailing green fern. Halfway to the ceiling on the white bricks of the chimney a golden rooster crowed silently.