“Uh-huh. Well” — he glanced at his watch — “I’m going to have to go now. I’ll talk to her on the way out.”
He left before I could ask what he was going to say to her. But when she came in a few minutes later, I learned that he had okayed her for the job — but not very pleasantly.
“The very idea!” she said indignantly. “Saying he’d go after my hide if anything happened to you! I’d just like to see him try, dam him!”
“Don’t say that,” I said. “Bite your tongue, Kay.”
She looked blank, then caught my meaning and laughed. “I didn’t think how that sounded, Britt. Naturally, he isn’t going to try because nothing is going to happen to you.”
My lunch tray was brought in. Consommé with toast, vanilla custard, and tea. It looked reasonably good to me, but I ate almost none of it. I couldn’t. After a couple of sips of tea, I suddenly went to sleep.
Claggett called me that night to say that I would be checking out of the hospital in the morning. He told me the conditions under which I would be checking out and going from the hospital to my home. I listened, stunned, then sputtered profane objections.
He laughed uproariously. “But you just think about it, Britt. Think it over, and it doesn’t sound so crazy, does it? Sure, it’s his own idea, and I say it’s a good one. You couldn’t be any safer in your mother’s arms.”
I said that wasn’t very safe. My mother, the first woman judge of the State Circuit Court, had taken to the sauce harder than Dad.
“Thе poor old biddy dropped me on my head more times than she was overturned, and, believe me, they didn’t call her Reverse-Decision Rainstar for nothing.”
“Aaah, she wasn’t that bad.” Claggett chuckled.
But what do you think about this other? It’s the safest way, right?”
“Right,” I said.
Kay Nolton and I left the hospital next morning in the company of Pat Aloe and two very tough-looking guards. I don’t know whether Pat was armed or not, but the guards carried shotguns.
A very large black limousine with a uniformed chauffeur was waiting at the side entrance for us. I got into the backseat between the two guards. Kay rode in front between Pat and the chauffeur. Pat jabbed a finger at him, and nodded to me.
“This is the character that was supposed to have picked you up at the restaurant that night two, three months ago, Britt. Too damned stupid to do what he’s told, but who the hell ain’t these days?”
The man grinned sheepishly. Pat scowled at him for a moment, then turned his gaze on Kay. Looked at her long and thoughtfully.
She jerked her head around suddenly, and looked at him.
“Yes?” she said. “Something wrong?”
“I’ve seen you before,” he said. “Where was it?”
“Nowhere. You’re mistaken.”
“You guys back there! Where have I seen her?”
The guards leaned forward, examined Kay meticulously. They made a big business out of squinting at her, stroking their chins with pseudo-shrewdness, and the like — a pantomime of great minds at work. Pat put an end to the charade with a rude order to knock it off, for Nellie’s sake.
“What about you, Johnnie?” — to the chauffeur; and then, disgustedly, “Ahh, why do I ask? You’re as stupid as these guys.”
“Mister Aloe!” Kay heaved a sigh of exaggerated exasperation. “We have not met before! I would certainly remember it if we had!”
I murmured for her to take it easy, also quietly suggesting to Pat that the subject was hardly worth pursuing. He glanced at me absently, not seeming to hear what I had said.
“I never forget a face, Britt, baby. Ask anyone that knows me.”
“You sure don’t, Mr. Aloe! Not never ever!”
“I don’t know where or when it was. But I’ve seen her, and I’ll remember.”
He let it go at that, facing back around in the seat. Kay gave me a smile of thanks for my support in the rearview. I smiled back at her, then shifted my gaze. What difference did it make whether he had or hadn’t seen her? And why should I be again starting to feel that creeping uneasiness in my stomach?
Pat took an envelope from his pocket and handed it to me. It was the bonus check I had so foolishly given back to Manny, and I accepted it gratefully. The money would keep Connie off my back indefinitely, relieving me of at least one of my major worries.
We arrived at the house. The guards and the chauffeur remained with the car while Pat accompanied Kay and me inside. As she preceded us up the steps, he told me sotto voce that I should have a salary check coming pretty soon, and that he would see to it and anything else that needed taking care of, in case Manny wasn’t available.
I said that was very nice of him, and how was Manny getting along? “I hope she’s not seriously ill?”
“Naah, nothing like it,” he grunted. “Just been working too hard, I guess. Got herself run down and picked up a touch of flu.”
“Well, give her my best,” I said. “And thanks very much for seeing me safely home.”
I held out my hand tentatively. He said he’d go in the house with me if I didn’t mind. “Reckon you’ll want to check in with the sergeant, and let him know you got here all right.”
“I’ll do that,” I said, “and you can let him know that you got here all right.”
He gave me a puzzled look and said, Huh? And I said, Never mind, to forget it; and rang the doorbell.
I rang it several times, but there was no response from Mrs. Olmstead. So, finally, I unlocked the door, and we went in.
She was in the kitchen talking on the telephone. Hearing us enter the house, she hurriedly concluded her call and came into the living room, carrying the phone with her and almost becoming entangled in its long extension cord.
I took it from her, introducing her to Kay and Pat as I dialed Claggett’s number. They grimaced briefly at one another, mumbling inconsequentialities, and I reported in to Jeff and then passed the phone to Pat. He did as I did, and hung up the receiver.
I walked Pat to the door. As we stood there for a moment, shaking hands and exchanging the usual polite pleasantries customary to departures and arrivals, he looked past me to Kay, eyes narrowing reflectively. He was obviously trying to remember where he had seen her before, and was, just as obviously, disturbed by his inability to do so. Fortunately, however, he left without giving voice to his thoughts; and I started back to the living room. I stopped short of it, in the entrance foyer, listening to the repartee between Kay Nolton and Mrs. Olmstead.
“Now, Mrs. Olmstead. All I said was that the house needs a good airing out, and it most certainly does!”
“Doesn’t neither! Who’re you to be giving me orders, anyway?”
“You know very well who I am — Yve told you several times. My job is to help Mr. Rainstar recover his health, which means that he must have fresh air to breathe—”
“HE’S GOT FRESH AIR!”
“—clean, wholesome, well-prepared meals—”
“THATS THE ONLY KIND I FIX!”
“—and plenty of peace and quiet.”
“WHY DON’T YOU BUTT OUT THEN?”
I turned quietly away, and went silently up the stairs. I went into my room, stretched out on the bed and closed my eyes. I kept them closed, too, breathing gently and otherwise simulating sleep, when they came noisily up the steps to secure my services as arbitrator.
They left grudgingly, without disturbing me, each noisily shushing the other. I got up, visited the bathroom to dab cold water on my nose, then stretched out on the bed again.