I said thanks kind of dryly, waited, then: “You didn’t come out to listen to that, did you?”
This time she laughed deep in her throat and without any kind of coyness slid her hand under mine. “You don’t know much about women, do you?”
“Enough, I guess.”
“I said women.”
“Is there a difference?”
“You’d be surprised.”
“Then I guess I don’t know much.” She didn’t know how much truth was in that statement. You don’t learn much in just a few years. Not even a lifetime.
“You’re about to learn, man,” Venus grinned. Her hand squeezed mine just enough so I’d know exactly what she meant. Not that it was necessary. The devil had been there in her voice and her eyes warming me with the thought. She reached for the cigarettes in my pocket without taking her eyes from mine. “Not now of course,” she added. “Later. In style.”
“Of course,” I tried to say knowingly.
It sounded like a croak.
She pulled the dash lighter out, held it to the tip of her cigarette a moment and stuck it back. Through the smoke she said, “You wanted to know about Vera West.”
The warm feeling I had went away. Fast. “That’s right.”
“Everybody wants Vera, don’t they?”
“Jack tell you?”
She nodded. “I didn’t learn much until he did. The girls were a little afraid to talk about it, but I gathered that they had been approached by several men and quizzed.”
“Who?”
“The men weren’t identified. Frankly, I believed the girls when they said they didn’t know them, but from what was said, the men weren’t exactly strangers in town.”
I mulled it over a minute and she anticipated my next question. “No description. The girls were tanked at the time and weren’t paying any attention to the men. They ... see a lot of men, you know.”
“Yeah, but hell, why pick on them? How would they know about Vera?”
“One,” she told me softly, “happened to be a girlhood friend of Vera’s. The other happened to be a pet flame of Eddie Packman’s when Vera and Servo were making a big thing of it. At the time they were quite friendly.”
“You question them?”
“Without any results. When Vera went she went completely. Nobody seems to know what happened to her.”
“Any chance of her being ... dead?”
“You know ...” her lip went under her teeth momentarily, “I thought of that and would’ve considered it a possibility if it hadn’t been for one thing.”
“Yeah?”
“Servo didn’t break with Vera like he did with the others. It was the other way around. In fact, Lenny Servo was pretty upset about it from what I heard. He had it pretty hard for that girl. Later, of course, he acted like it was all his doing. The guy’s neck-high in pride especially where women are concerned. No, I don’t think Vera’s dead at all. I think she disappeared of her own will.”
“Why?” I asked.
“That’s something I haven’t figured out yet. If she had something on Lenny and proposed to use it she certainly wouldn’t have gone off like that. That is, if she was smart enough to protect what she had so Lenny couldn’t touch her. No, I don’t think that was it at all. She had another reason for leaving.”
“She could have been afraid of somebody,” I said.
“Maybe, but it would have had to be Lenny. Nobody else could scare her into leaving.”
“Why?”
She shrugged her shoulders eloquently. “Lenny Servo is still boss in this town and as long as you’re on his side nobody bothers you. Lenny would take care of them quick. Certainly if someone was after her for some reason she would have told Lenny and that would have ended it right there.”
She was right. She had it down pat, every bit of it, and it all made sense. I flipped my butt out the open window and stared at her. “There’s only one catch to it.”
“There is?”
“Don’t you see it?”
“Well ... no.”
“Maybe Lenny isn’t the boss.”
Her lips parted in a faint sarcastic smile. “Man, you just don’t know Lenny Servo.”
“No, but I will, chicken, I will. In fact, I’m very anxious to know Mr. Servo. It’s going to be one of the big moments of my life. The second big moment.”
“What’s the first?”
“Finding a crumb named Eddie Packman”
“Brother,” she whispered, “have you got a case.”
“Like to come along?”
“I’d love it, man, just love it. I’m really interested in finding out whether you’re a jerk or not.”
“And if I’m not?”
“Then you’ll find out what a real woman’s like. In style of course.”
This time I said, “Of course,” and it didn’t come out a croak. I kicked the starter in and pulled away from the curb. Behind me a little coupé grabbed the space before my fenders cleared the car in front. Business was good tonight.
Down at the comer I made a U-turn and headed back toward town. My lovely zombie turned her head questioningly in my direction and asked me, “Where are we going?”
“To a place called the Ship’n Shore. Know where it is?”
“Umm. We’re really going fancy. Stay on the River Road. You can’t miss it. That where you expect to find Eddie Packman?”
“Maybe.” I switched the radio back on again, only this time no symphony. Just a nice sexy rumba instead. “By the way, what do I call you?”
She looked at me sleepily. “Oh, any pet name will do.”
“Don’t you have a real one?”
“I did, man. That was a long time ago.”
“Okay, Venus.”
“Okay, man.”
“The name is Johnny. Johnny McBride.”
“Okay, Johnny.” Her eyes touched my face speculatively a second and something like a grin pulled at her mouth. “I’m in fast company, aren’t I?” She mused. “I thought there was something familiar about you. That picture in the paper didn’t do you justice.”
The grin got very real. “But never mind, a lot of my best friends have had overnight accommodations in our official hostelry.”
This time she curled her arm around mine and pulled herself over closer, leaning her head on my shoulder. I liked it that way. Her hair was so black it was invisible in the darkness, but I could feel little feathers of it brushing my face and smell the flowers that seemed to be growing there.
A signpost told me where to cut off on the River Road and a neon-trimmed sign said the place we were after was only two miles ahead. Long before we got there the aurora of the lights showed up like a false dawn while the breeze carried the throbbing rhythm of “Bolero” through the air.
It had been another long day and it wasn’t over yet. Logan with that back history of mine. Lindsey and Tucker and the boys from Washington with all their science and gadgets. My hands were still sore. A murder I didn’t have anything to do with for a change. A screwy ad in the paper and a screwier phone call then a dead man I did have something to do with.
Thinking about the phone call was what got me. Who the hell was so interested in me and why? I gave Venus a poke with my elbow. “You awake?”
Her hand squeezed my arm.
“You know anybody named Harlan?”
First she didn’t do anything. Then she tilted her head forward and glanced at me with her face wrinkled up. “Just Harlan?”
“That’s as much of it as I know.”
“There was a girl once ... a long time ago. That was her name. Funny you should mention it.”
I took my foot off the gas and let the heap slow down some. “Go on,” I said.
“She was a dancer ... we were in a show together. I know that Harlan was her stage name, but I never knew her other.”
“When was this?”
“Oh, a long time ago. Ten years. Both of us were new at the time. When the show closed I n
ever went back on the stage, but I remember reading about Harlan occasionally. For a while she was pretty successful, then I never heard any more about her. Why, Johnny?”
“That’s what I’d like to know. Why. Why a lot of things? Remember what she looked like?”
“Dressed or undressed?”
“Both.”
“Dressed she was very beautiful. However, like most of the show-lovelies, she was a very plain base upon which make-up showed to the best advantage. There was nothing to hide; everything added was an improvement. Understand?”
I nodded to show that I did.
“She was about my size, brown hair, no distinguishing features that might set her apart after all these years. Oh yes, she was dumb. The genuine beautiful-but-dumb type. She was quite a doll as long as she kept her mouth shut. When she voiced an opinion all her admirers got sick to their stomachs.”
“She sounds great. Would she be in Lyncastle?”
“Not if I know Harlan. I’ve never seen her around.”
“Maybe it’s a different woman. That is, if Harlan is a woman.”
I let out a couple of dirty words under my breath and shoved the gas pedal down again. There was the answer all right. Harlan was either a man or a place. Great, I was doing fine again. And for a couple of minutes it all looked so good, too.
Venus lost herself in thought before she spoke again. “Someplace at home I have a picture of the old chorus lineup. The Harlan I knew is in it. Just for kicks I’ll dig it up.”
I muttered an okay and pulled the Ford around a curve. Up ahead was the Ship’n Shore looking like a grounded houseboat, alive with lights and sound. On the near side was a two-acre parking lot crammed to the fences with not a sign of anybody even thinking about going home.
A colored attendant waved me into a slot near the gate, took the four bits for his wave with an unconcerned nod and went back into his stuccoed cabana. You didn’t need a guide around the place, not with all the neon fixtures that told you just what was where. The bar was in the front of the place with the main lounge directly behind it protruding out over the water. Every table was packed, the dance floor was a blur of motion and out over the water on the open deck you could see the flashes of white that were faces merging with other flashes of white.
But the gimmicks were upstairs. The place had a second story that had windows all around except for a section in back and nobody tried to hide the chant of the croupiers or the whir of the wheels. You could even see the clusters of people hovering over the tables, straightening up when the throw was made, reaching for more moola to keep in the game.
Venus didn’t give me any choice. She nudged me into the bar, smiled a smile that got us a rail position and immediate service and ordered up a pair of highballs. They were two bucks each but I wasn’t bothering about money. Not with those nice, crisp bills tucked away in my wallet.
I laid a new hundred-buck bill on the mahogany, watched it get changed into some old ones, shoved the bartender a fin for his trouble and downed the drink. Venus was about two swallows behind me. We had two more quickies when I noticed the gang lined up at the bar giving me and Venus the business with the eyes. I gave her a second look myself. Before, it was dark and she looked good.
Under lights she was really something.
Ever see a babe pass on the street who was all smooth curves with enough skin showing in spots to make it exciting? The kind you wanted to whistle at but couldn’t get your mouth puckered up fast enough? That was Venus. To make it rough on the boys she didn’t bother to wear anything under the jacket and where it dropped off in a long V before the buttons grabbed it together was something that made your breath catch m your throat. It wasn’t what you saw, but what you knew was there, and the business I was getting with the eyes was because it was there for me.
But that wasn’t all.
They knew damn well who she was all right. You could tell that. The boys weren’t above dropping down to her block occasionally. So tonight they were here and supposedly respectable, and the eyes made the business you’d give a slut when she walked into a church social. When I caught the angle I felt like knocking them all on their lily-white tails.
I guess the bartender took me for a hick on the town with his harvest wages because he was giving Venus the big look that meant she had a sucker in tow and upstairs was the place for the suckers. He waited until a quarter of the hundred was in the till then angled over in our direction polishing glasses.
He looked at me with a faint grin and said, “You can double that roll upstairs, friend.”
“I can?” I must have played it innocent enough because he nodded solemnly.
“Sure thing. Guy came through here last week and left with twenty-five grand.”
“Say now,” I nudged Venus with my knee. “That sounds pretty hot with the cubes, mister. Think there might be any big-money men up there who like to gamble? Really gamble, I mean?”
My boy played it cute. He leaned over confidentially. “All the big boys are upstairs, friend. All, I said. You’ll get your money’s worth.” He winked at Venus. “The lady too. Drinks on the house upstairs”
That was all I needed. I shoved the change in my pocket and the two of us edged back through the mob and followed the waiter who had come up at the bartender’s nod to show us the way. I gave him a fin, too.
It was fancier than I expected. A million bucks worth of chrome and pine paneling and not a cent of it going to waste. A bar ran the entire length of the room with tables along the other side if you felt like taking a ten-minute break. Every other inch of space was taken up with some kind of game with the biggest play being given the roulette that occupied the center position.
Up here Venus wasn’t so undressed. Most of the dames in evenmg 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.
The Long Wait Page 15