Up here Venus wasn’t so undressed. Most of the dames in evening dresses were going to catch cold on their lungs tomorrow. I changed another hundred for a stack of chips and started edging in on a dice table.
Venus grabbed my arm. “Ever meet Lenny Servo?” I didn’t like the quiet way she said it.
“We’ve met.”
She looked at me first, then her eyes went across the room to a faro spread. The background was supposed to be Western and the single light bulb that dangled inside the reflector over the table made the mouse under Lenny’s eye seem to take up the whole side of his face. He was talking to the dealer and when he looked up he saw Venus standing there and waved casually. Just as casually she waved back.
Me, I had two dames in front wide enough to block me off. Lenny didn’t see me and I wasn’t about to go over and shake his hand. Eddie Packman I wanted first. Then Lenny. I’d always find time for Lenny.
Nobody had to tell me about guys like him. Everything was written on his face and if something was left out you saw it in the way he strutted standing still. Servo was a little general, a brain, a whip, a sloppy son of a bitch and I felt like smearing him right there.
That gives you an idea of the kind of guy he was. A mug. A mug from way back. But a smooth mug with money to buy what he didn’t have even if it was somebody’s death.
When he turned back to the table again I pulled Venus over to me. “Now show me Packman.”
“I don’t see him yet.”
“Think we’d do better circulating around?”
“Perhaps. He can get lost in a crowd pretty easily.”
I reached in between a couple of hips and covered a number on the table. The wheel went around, the voice chanted and I lost. I tried again and lost again.
I had better luck at the dice table playing the field numbers. At least I recouped what I lost. We made our way around the room trying to act like just part of the crowd, but it didn’t do much good. Venus didn’t locate the guy and I didn’t see any tall babes who could have been his dish. By the time we made the complete circuit I had dropped a couple of hundred and was tired of playing tag with Servo. Every once in a while she’d point out a couple of prominent joes in the mob and give me a quick run-down. One was the mayor. He wasn’t with his wife, either. Two members of the city council were at the bar talking politics with what appeared to be a couple of businessmen. In each of the four corners were oversized lugs in tuxes that didn’t fit. Standard accessories in any joint, only two of them happened to be city cops picking up a few bucks in off-duty hours.
I had about as much of it as I could stand. I grabbed Venus and said, “Let’s get out of here.”
She tossed a couple of bucks on the table. “One more roll.” I waited, watched the cubes spin out and heard the stickman call it off. Venus turned around and grinned at me. “See, last rolls are lucky. Let me lose this then we’ll go.”
“Go ahead,” I told her. Hell, it wasn’t my dough.
She didn’t lose. Ten minutes later she was raking in the cabbage like dried leaves and half the room was over watching her do it. She got up past the twelve thousand mark and I started to get interested and if my damn head hadn’t been up and locked I would have seen what was coming.
He was a big guy and he wasn’t kidding. He had another guy just as big along to back him up and when he tapped me on the shoulder and said, “The boss wants to see you,” I played rube and fell in the middle between them and lockstepped through the crowd. I had to stop once to let a dame swish by and what prodded me in the back wasn’t the end of a finger.
We went out through a pair of swinging doors, down a corridor to a walnut-paneled door and the guy in front knocked twice sharply, waited until somebody called out to come in, then shoved the door open.
“You first.”
So I went first.
Lenny Servo was in the same position he had been in his own office, perched on the end of the desk. The guy in the swivel chair beside him was a greasy little fat boy with no hair and pig eyes and he looked like he was all set to enjoy himself. The other guy was a pimply-faced brat hardly out of his teens and he was having a great time testing the action on an oversized automatic, trying to make like he was tough.
With a motion he must have studied in front of the mirror, Lenny plucked a cigarette from a gold case, edged it into his mouth and lit up without looking at it. It was very neat. When he took a drag on it he said, “Hit him,” soft and easy like, and right on cue the three pair of eyes in front of me went a little bit to my right and behind me.
There was that much warning and it was enough. I turned under the swing, yanked the bastard off balance and kicked his buddy in the guts before he could get the gun out of his pocket. The puke spewed out of his mouth, but I was in back of him by then and didn’t worry about it. In fact, I wasn’t worried about anything. I had his gun in my fist and hoping like hell somebody would try something.
Lenny was funny. He couldn’t believe it had happened. His face was slack with surprise and he turned around to look at Pimples who still had the automatic in his hand. Pimples wasn’t so tough after all. The rod made a “thunk” on the carpet and little beads of sweat formed on his head and ran in crooked rivulets down through the maze of pimples.
Only the big guy on the floor tried something. He was so damn mad he was all set to take me, gun or no gun. His mouth was pulled back showing more gums than teeth and he crouched in front of me like a tackle ready to charge. Maybe he didn’t appreciate it, but I saved his life. I kicked him right in the neck and he went out like a light.
Pig eyes said, “Cripes! Lenny, you said...”
Lenny’s butt dropped on the carpet and the stink of singed wool filled the room. He was watching me with the surprise all gone, the skin over his cheekbones a little tighter than usual, but that was all. I had the gun pointing smack at his belly, but he wasn’t a bit scared.
Curious was the word.
“You needed enough help, Lenny,” I sneered.
He didn’t answer me.
“How many times are you going to try before you get smart? You better start reading the papers. There’s a lot of dead men lying around lately.”
The muscle in his cheek twitched. “It’s pretty hard to teach you a lesson, isn’t it?”
“Damn hard, pal.” I let the gun come up until it was pointing at his head. “I asked you a question the last time. Where is she?”
The color seemed to drain out of his face. He was absolutely white, a crazy mixture of impotent rage and bewilderment that held him tight as a bowstring. “Damn you, McBride,” he grated, “I’m going to get the both of you if it’s the last thing I do!”
I let him get it out of his system then wiped the muzzle of the rod across his jaw with a crack that knocked him on his knees. He squatted there, moaning softly, covering his face with his hands.
Fat boy behind the desk couldn’t keep his lips wet. His tongue was a pink streak licking out of his mouth while his hands were white blobs gripping the edge of his desk.
I said, “You don’t want to try a stunt like this again, do you?”
His jowls flapped as his head jerked from one side to another.
I looked over at Pimples and grinned at him. It must have been a hell of a grin. He fainted.
The two boys on the floor were making signs of getting up. I opened the gun, kicked the shells out and threw it beside the one I took it from. Lenny’s head came up out of his hands and he stared at me with all the hate he could muster up.
“You’ll die for that,” he said.
I felt like kicking him in the teeth. I should have instead of telling him, “That’ll be the day, Lenny.”