I knew, but I sooner hear him tell it.
Lenny saw the knowledge in my face. “You have a brain, kid, Sure, she knew Harlan. They were in the same act once. She knew why Harlan was sent up and figured the play was the same here as back East. She put the bite on me.” He leered evilly. “Sometimes I got my money’s worth back. Sometimes,” he said.
He took a short step forward, sighted the barrel of the rod at her head and his hand tightened on the trigger.
I said, “All her dough’s going to her next of kin, Servo. Your dough. It’s in the bank and some aunt or uncle will get it. Maybe fifty grand.”
All the eyes were turned on me. It got so quiet I could hear Pimples trying to keep his stomach in place. A flush seeped into Lenny’s face while a vein on the side of his neck bulged against his collar.
The knife blade in Eddie’s hand flicked open and shut a couple of times. “The hell with it. Let it stay there.”
“No!” He showed his teeth to me. “I said the tough boy has a brain, Eddie. You should be so smart. Somebody will be looking for Troy one of these days. If she cleared out on her own it wouldn’t be likely that she’d leave all that dough in the bank.” He half turned his head over his shoulder. “Eddie... you know where the bankbooks are in the apartment. Go get them. Bring a withdrawal slip too.”
“How the hell am I gonna drive with this wing?”
“Lobin can drive.”
The tall guy grunted his assent.
Pimples said, “I’d just as soon go too. I don’t feel so good.”
“Okay, go ahead, the whole damn bunch of you. Beat it. Get back here in a half hour.”
So we weren’t too far from town. A half hour. “Fifteen minutes each way. The place was right at the edge of town on the river.
The three of them filed out. The car roared into life, spun its wheels in some gravel as it turned around, then shot off down a road.
Lenny glanced at me, the huddled figure at my feet and went through the door to the outside. I heard him slide a lock in a hasp and try it.
I had ten seconds at best. No longer. Ten lousy seconds that could kill me or keep me alive. I kicked her. I gave her a boot in the ribs and she moaned. I kicked her again, pushing her away from the chair. I got one toe under her chin and lifted her head up.
“Can you hear me? Do you understand what I’m saying? Damn it, nod or do something.”
Her eyes were blank. One was shutting fast.
“Listen. Hear what I say.” The words rushed out of my mouth in a harsh whisper. “Under my right leg there’s a gun. It’s under my leg in a pocket. Look, reach your hand in and feel it. Damn it, Troy, move! Do you want to die! He’ll be back any second!”
The lifeless look was still in her eyes. I let my foot down and her head dropped again just as Lenny came through the door. He shut it behind him, curled his lip up and came over.
He had to hit me again. His fist split my lips open and a gray haze clouded my mind. When my eyes opened he hit me again, but it was beyond hurting now. Just something dull that made my head move and kept my brain numb.
I was able to sit there with my head over on my shoulder and watch him work Troy over then. The devil was in his face as he punched her in the stomach and kicked at her while she lay face down on the floor. All the crazy hate he ever had in him came out until he was exhausted. He let her lie there and went back to the table. Twice, he picked up the gun and pointed it at us. Twice he put it down. The fifty grand in the bank was too much dough to waste.
So he put the gun back and pulled a chair up to the table. Troy groaned. Her mouth was making sounds like a baby, bubbling sounds that flecked her chin with red. Both hands were curved into painful talons as she pulled herself across the floor toward me in a blind direction that took her away from him.
Her hand rested on my shoe; the other clawed at my leg and she pulled herself into a sitting position. Lenny started to laugh.
“Why don’t you give her a hand, McBride? Why don’t you help the lady? You like to help the ladies out, don’t you? Then give her a hand. She needs it bad.” He thought it was so funny that he threw back and laughed until the tears rolled down his face. He was a stinking pig sitting there, a son of a bitch of a cheap con man, not the Lenny Servo who liked fancy offices and fine clothes. He was nothing but a hood at heart and it showed on his face. He laughed and laughed and laughed.
He laughed so hard he never saw Troy flop across my lap and never saw her hand slip under my leg and pull the gun out. He was still laughing when she fell back to the floor because she was too weak to hold on any longer. I was praying under my breath when the laugh choked off.
Lenny ripped out a curse, snatched the gun from the table and swung it at her. There was a deafening blast, the sharp stench of burned cordite and Lenny stood there, a surprised expression on his face because he had a hole in his throat.
He didn’t fall. He just folded up and sank to the floor cross-legged. For a couple of seconds he sat there, then bent forward and fell on his face.
“God!” I said.
She looked up at me pitifully. One hand went to her chest. The other tried to stop the blood that spilled out of her mouth.. Lenny hadn’t missed after all. She was dying and she knew it. She was minutes away from death and there wasn’t a thing she could do about it.
The things I was thinking must have made a picture on my face. Her mouth drew back around her teeth and she pushed herself to my side with one hand. I wanted to tell her not to, but I couldn’t say a word. I wanted to tell her to save every minute she could of life and not waste those minutes trying to do something she wouldn’t be able to do.
Her fingers found the ropes on my hands and made a feeble effort to untie them. I could feel the torn edges of her nails rake the backs of my hands and hear her breath bubbling in her throat and she fought the knots. They were too damn tight. There wasn’t one chance in a million she could get them loose and I knew it.
Troy knew it too. She looked up at me once, then reached out for the gun again. When I saw what she was going to do I froze in the chair. The nose of the gun went down until it lay along the knots. I spread my hands as far apart as I could to keep them out of the way of the slug. I was saying another prayer that she wouldn’t get me too.
When she pulled the trigger the gun jumped out of her hand. Both my hands stung from the blast and I knew there was a furrow of raw flesh along one palm. I wasn’t worried about that. I pulled at the ropes, cursed and pulled again. They gave the third time and I fell face forward on top of her, pieces of the ropes still clinging to my wrists.
Troy was smiling at me. She was almost gone, but she was smiling at me. I barely heard her say, “Undress me.”
Sex right there at the end. I shook my head. “Thanks, kid. You’ll never know how much I’d like to thank you.”
I touched her cheek, leaned down and kissed her forehead. Her eyes closed when I did it and opened again for the last time.
“Undress me,” she said. Her eyes closed.
That was all. She was dead then. I ran my hand across her swollen mouth wishing Lenny had lived long enough for me to get my hands on him. Troy, lovely red-headed Troy who never got to wear clothes. She wanted to be naked when she died. Like cowboys and their boots. It was important to them. Maybe it was important to her too.
My fingers were too stiff to fumble with the buttons. I grabbed the cloth of her dress and tore it open down the front. Gently. I stripped it off and did the same thing with the slip.
Then I saw why it was so important that she die naked. To me it was important and she had tried to tell me that with her eyes. Pasted to her stomach with cellulose tape was a photograph. It was a picture of her without any clothes on. She was m bed.