A light awakened him the next time. It was a thin shaft coming from the bathroom. He held up his wrist, but his watch was gone. Water was running. He stirred, reached out for Domino, but she was gone. Then he saw her, standing naked in the doorway of the bathroom, a washcloth in her hand.
‘Your fever broke,’ she said. ‘I’m just drying you off.’
She came to him, sat beside him, put the cold cloth on his forehead. She leaned over him, her breasts crushed against him. She kissed his throat, then his dry lips. Then she slipped into the bed beside him.
The shot was wearing off. Sharky forgot the pain in his hand, the fever, how tired he was. He put his arm around her and kissed her and she reached around and stroked his back and slid her hand down over his buttocks and drew him against her.
She smiled. ‘I think you’re recovering,’ she said.
‘If I’m not, this is as good a way to go as any.’
‘Better,’ she said.
She slid her leg up over his hip, moved her hand around her back and down between her legs and touched him, stroked him, held him against her, and began moving slowly back and forth.
This time Sharky didn’t fall asleep.
‘What time is it?
‘Four-thirty.’
‘How long have I been laid out?
‘That’s a terrible way of putting it.’
‘Yeah, right. How long have I been knocked out?
‘Almost twelve hours. How do you feel?’
‘I think I may be able to get up.’
‘You did okay a few minutes ago.’
‘I mean on my feet.’
‘Okay, want me to help?’
‘1 need a shower.’
‘1 gave you an alcohol bath for the fever. You smell like a baby.’
‘Need a shave.’
‘I shaved you.’
‘Need some decent clothes.’
‘Arch went by your place and brought some over.’
‘I sure rate, don’t I?’
‘Urn hm.’
‘How about Friscoe? Papa?’
‘They’re waiting out there for you, in the living room.’
‘Are we still in the ballgame?’
‘Do you think Arch would break a promise to a sick friend?’
‘Tell them I’ll be out in a minute.’
They assembled in Hazel’s living room. All of them looked better. They had cleaned themselves up, had a little sleep, and recovered from the initial shock of The Nosh’s death.
Sharky was wearing his only suit, a tweed, with a fawn- coloured shirt and a dark brown tie.
‘How come you brought my Sunday suit?’ he asked Livingston.
‘You’re going to a party.’
‘A party?’
‘We got a plan,’ Friscoe said.
‘A plan?’
‘You got a little catchin’ up to do there, Sharky,’ Friscoe said. ‘First off, this DeLaroza ain’t your everyday garden variety squirrel, know what I mean? I mean, this guy’s big potatoes. He’s powerful. He’s got half the world by the ass. He’s untouchable. And he’s Siamese twins with Donald Hotchins.’
‘The senator?’
‘Who’s about to announce that he’s running for president,’ Domino said.
‘Jesus! What did we get into?’
‘Well,’ Friscoe said, ‘that depends. On the one hand, we may come out with the roses. On the other hand, we may come out with our foot in a bucket of shit, pardon the French, ladies.’
‘Somebody catch me up,’ Sharky said. He was still feeling weak, like someone who has slept too long.
‘Okay, I’ll do the honours,’ Friscoe said. ‘First, see, we know we can pin Scardi to the Tiffany killing if we can collar him. Also The Nosh. Although we ain’t found him yet, I think we can peg that one on him too because of the m.o. By the way, I scored a few baskets myself last night. That fag movie actor was makin’ the bets at the Matador Club? Nailed his ass, too. Had him under the lights all fuckin’ night, pardon the French, ladies, and about nine this morning he starts singin’ like Frank Sinatra. What it was, see, he was puttin’ down bets for this guy Kershman who works for DeLaroza. A big shot. So we get our hands on this Kershman, we may be able to tie the can to DeLaroza’s tail. Incidentally, there’s another tie-in. The car you pinched to come back here with is registered to this Kersh.man.’
‘You got a description?’ Sharky said. ‘What’s he look like?’
Friscoe took out his notebook and flipped through several pages. ‘Here we go. Five-seven, two-ten, getting bald, slobby-lookin’ guy, according to this actor. The actor, Donegan, he does the gay joints, picks up fresh meat, and delivers it to this Kershman’s door, for which he gets paid more than you and me together. How do you like them apples?’
‘I think we may have a little trouble as far as this Kershman’s concerned,’ Sharky said. ‘If it’s who I think it is, he’s at the bottom of the lake with a hole in his head.’
‘He was one of them?’ Livingston asked.
‘A guy who fits that description was running the show. A real pig.’
‘Neat,’ Friscoe said. ‘See, the problem is, right now we ain’t god diddly shit to tie this DeLaroza to anybody. Everything we got, okay? is circumstantial. We know he knew this guy and that guy and he was here and he was there and he owned this and that and the other thing. But nothing we can hang our hat on. Unless we grab Scardi, see, and he sings, DeLaroza’s walkin’ free from where I’m sittin’. He’s like, once removed from everything that came down.’
‘Who owns the junk?’
‘DeLaroza’s corporation. But he can always lay the whole thing off on Kershman. We need corroboration somewhere in here.’
‘Who did you tell about me?’ Sharky asked Domino.
For a long moment they stared at each other. Domino felt his eyes burning into her soul.
‘Donald Hotchins.’
Sharky whistled. ‘So he’s in it, too. And he’s running for president?’
‘Yeah,’ Friscoe cut in, ‘but also, shit, pardon the French, ladies, see, that’s another thing, it’s like a goddamn Chinese wastepaper basket. Domino was with Hotchins the night Tiffany got snuffed. Obviously he didn’t know what was comin’ down at that point. He must’ve got into it, see, after he got back.’
‘You were Hotchins’s mistress?’ Sharky said to Domino.
‘Kind of.’
‘Neat company you keep.’
‘The pits,’ she said.
‘Has anybody figured out why they were after you?’ Sharky asked her.
Livingston said, ‘We got a couple of ideas. The way we put it together to here, Corrigon must’ve got on to DcLaroza some way. Flow, we don’t know. Domino thinks the hit may have happened in front of DeLaroza’s building and she saw Scardi putting Corrigon’s stiff in a car. It was Halloween night, so the time jibes.’
‘I think it was more than that,’ Domino said. ‘I think they were afraid of me because of my association with both of them.’
‘So, where do we stand?’ Sharky said.
‘Where we stand, we ain’t got nothin’ on Delaroza. We can put Scardi under if we can collar him. Hotchins? So far all he did was blow the whistle on you and fuck around a little. Sorry about that, little lady, but you know what I mean there. Anyways, we can’t get to DeLaroza right now and if we turn this case over to that retard Hanson, he’ll shit purple apples. The case’ll flush and DeLaroza and Hotchins’ll walk. We got to tie these three bastards together and make it stick.’
‘We got a plan,’ Livingston said. ‘Actually it was Domino who came up with it. DeLaroza has this amusement place inside his building. From what we hear it must be something. It’s been on the TV news all day today. Tonight’s the grand opening, a costume thing, see, with the big shots goin’ formal. Now, supposing Domino shows up there. She has an invitation, so getting in is no problem. And maybe when they see her, they’ll make a move against her.’
‘This was your idea?’ Sharky said.
Domino nodded.
‘It’s too risky.’