From the darkness Marsha said, "Mike..."
My hands were sweating. It ran down my back and plastered my shirt to my skin. I said, "Get your coat on, Marsha. We have to go out."
She did me the favor of not asking any questions. She snapped on the lights and took her coat and mine out of the closet.. I helped her into it, hardly knowing what I was doing, then opened the door and walked out behind her.
We got on Broadway and drove south while the windshield wipers ticked off the seconds.
The rain had grown. The kitten was gone and an ugly black panther was lashing its tail in our faces.
The bars were filling up, and across town on the East Side an overpainted redhead in last year's clothes would be rubbing herself up against somebody else.
A guy would be nursing a beer down at the end of the bar while a pair of drunks argued over what to play on the juke box.
The bartender would club somebody who got out of line. The floor would get damper and stink of stale beer and sawdust.
Maybe the door would open and another guy would be standing there with a bundle in his arms. A little wet bundle with a wet, tousled head.
Maybe more people would die.
"You're quiet, Mike."
"I know. I was remembering another night like this."
"Where are we going?"
I didn't hear the question. I said, "All the way it's been Fallon. Whenever anything happened it was his name that came up. He was there when Decker was killed. He was there when Toady died. He was there when Grindle died. He was there at the beginning and he's right here at the end. There was a woman in it. She disappeared after Fallon died and she's the one we're going to see. She's going to tell us why she disappeared and why Toady Link got so important and when she tells that I'll know why Decker made his own plans to die and kissed his kid good-by. I'll know why Teen sat there and watched me being cut up and know what was so important in Toady's apartment. I'll know all that and I'll be able to live with myself again. I went out hunting a killer and I missed him. I never missed one before. Somebody else had a bigger grudge and cut him down before I had a chance, but at least I have the satisfaction of knowing he's dead. Now I want to know why it happened. I want to make sure I did miss. I've been thinking and thinking... and every once in a while when I think real hard I can see a hole no bigger than a pinhead and I begin to wonder if it was really Toady I was after at all."
Her hand tightened over mine on the wheel. "We'll find out soon," she told me.
A rain-drenched canopy sagging on its frame braced itself against the storm. Lettered on the side was HARVEY'S. The wind had torn a hole in the top and the doorman in the maroon uniform huddled in the entrance to stay dry. I parked around the corner and locked the car, then dragged my raincoat over the two of us for the run back to the joint.
The doorman said it was a bad night and I agreed with him.
The girl in the cloakroom said the same thing and I agreed with her too.
The headwaiter who was the head bouncer with a carnation didn't say anything. I saw Cookie over at a corner table with another bleach job and let muscles make a path through the crowd for us until we reached him.
Somewhere, Cookie had lost his grin. We went through the introductions and ordered a drink. He looked at me, then at Marsha and I said, "You can talk. She's part of it."
The blonde who looked like a two-bit twist caught my attention. "Don't mind my getup. I can get around better when I act like a floozie. I've been on this thing with Cookie ever since he started."
"Arlene's one of Harry's stenos. We use her once in a while. She's the one who dug up the flame."
"Where is she, Cookie?"
His head made a motion toward the back of the bandstand. "Probably changing. The act goes on again in a few minutes." He was scowling.
The blonde had a single sheet of paper rolled up in her hand. She spread it out and started checking off items with her fingernail.
"Georgia... or Dolly... is forty-eight and looks like it. She was Fallon's girl friend and then his mistress. At one time she was a looker and a good singer, but the years changed all that. After Fallon died she went from one job to another and wound up being a prostitute. We got a line on her through a guy who knows the houses pretty well. She took to the street for a while and spent some time in the workhouse. Right after the war she was picked up on a shoplifting charge and given six months. Not two weeks after she got out she broke into an apartment and was caught at it. She got a couple years that time. She got back in the houses after that to get eating money, broke loose and got this job. She's been here a month."
"You got all that without seeing her?"
The blonde nodded.
"I thought you were going to speak to her, Cookie."
"I was," he said. "I changed my mind."
He was staring across the room to where Ed Teen was sitting talking to four men. Only two of them were lawyers. The other two were big and hard-looking. One chewed on a match-stick and leered at the dames.
My drink slopped over on the table.
Cookie said, "I thought you told me there wouldn't be any rough stuff. "
"I changed my mind too." I had to let go of the glass before I spilled the rest of it. "They see me come in?"
"No."
"They know you or why you're here?"
Cookie's ears went back, startled. "Do, I look like a dope?" His tongue licked his lips nervously. "You think... that's who I been crossing all day."
I was grinning again. Goddamn it, I felt good! "I think so, Cookie," I said.
And while I was saying it the lights turned dim and a blue spot hit the bandstand where a guy in a white tux started to play. A girl with coal-black hair stepped out from behind the curtains and paused dramatically, waiting for a round of applause before going into her number.
I couldn't wait any longer. It was coming to a head too fast. I said, "I'm going back there. Cookie, you get over to the phone and call the police. Ask for Captain Chambers and tell him to get down here as fast as he can move. Tell him why. I don't know what's going to happen, but stick around and you'll get your story."
I could see Cookie's face going white. "Look, Mike, I don't want no part of this. I..."
"You won't get any part of it unless you do as you're told. Get moving."
I started to get up and Marsha said, "I'm going with you, Mike."
All the hate and excitement died away and there was a little piece of time that was all ours. I shook my head. "You can't, kid. This is my party. You're not part of the trouble any more." I leaned over and kissed her. There were tears in her eyes.
"Please, Mike... wait for the police. I don't want you... to be hurt again."
"Nobody's going to hurt me now. Go home and wait for me."
There was something final in her voice. "You won't... come back to me, Mike."
"I promise you," I said. "I'll be back."
A sob tore into her throat and stayed there, crushed against her lips by the back of her hand. Part of it got loose and I didn't want to stay to see the pain in her face.
I nudged the .45 in the holster to kick it free of the leather and tried to see across the room. It was much too dark to see anything. I started back and heard Marsha sob again as Cookie led her to the front. The blonde had disappeared somewhere too.
Chapter Twelve
A curtain covered the arch. It led into a narrow, low-ceilinged alcove with another curtain at the far end. The edges of it overlapped and the bottom turned' up along the floor, successfully cutting out the backstage light that could spoil an effective entrance.
I stepped through and pulled it back to place behind me. The guy tilted back in the chair put his paper down and peered at me over his glasses. "Guests ain't allowed back here, buddy."