I didn’t want to see the two of them together. Not now, I couldn’t face that. Bess was too wise.
I heard the front screen door slam. I walked as slow as I could back to the office. Bess was beside the desk, counting some money.
‘Two weeks!’ She turned and waved the bills and smiled. ‘Just like that. Isn’t it swell? I gave her number six. A woman, all alone. She’s a real looker, too. You stay away from her door, Roy. Hear?’
I looked at her, but she had her eyes on the money. She took it over and put it in the cigar box in the desk drawer. I felt real bad about this. Now it was beginning.
‘She’s coming over to register.’
The blood began to pound behind my ears. ‘Did you tell her where to park the car?’
‘No. You can show her later.’
‘I think I’ll take a shower, Bess.’
‘Right. I’ll take care of her. I’ll fix a good dinner.’ Then she left the desk and came over by me. ‘It’s swell about Albert. Maybe we can make it now.’
‘Sure, we’ll make it.’ I kissed her and gave her a good smack with both hands and went back into the apartment and closed the door. In the bathroom I started to take that suit off; I’d never put it on again.
I was taking off my shoes, when I remembered the broken finger and the ankle. Bess hadn’t said a word about that finger. It looked like a miniature baseball bat and it was as black as midnight. She couldn’t have missed seeing it.
The ankle was a mess. I took the sock off, then untied the handkerchief. When I yanked the handkerchief, it started bleeding again. I got a Band-Aid and fixed it up with some iodine and then remembered the shower.
I’d fouled things up just dandy.
‘You can show her the garage, Roy.’
‘All right. Did she register?’
‘You bet.’
‘You didn’t say anything about my finger.’
‘Uh-uh. I saw it, though. Did Albert bite it?’
‘It’s busted. Caught it in the car door, coming down. Not my fault, either. This old biddy slammed the door on it.’
She looked at it. ‘You’ll have to see a doctor.’
Then she looked up and smiled at me. ‘You look lots better, shaved and in your own clothes. They fit, at least.’
I had on sneakers, a pair of gray slacks and a T-shirt. ‘Fix some dinner, huh?’
‘She’s out by her car. Go show her the garage.’
I went on out there, walking across the lawn like it was a big basket of eggs. The sun was way down now, right smack in your eyes from across the street in the park, glinting between the branches of the oak trees—long slices of fiery orange peel. ‘Hello, there.’
I nodded at her.
‘Wonder if you could show me where to park the car?’
‘I’ll drive it around. Get in.’
She slid under the wheel and over to the other side of the seat and I climbed in after her. I slammed the door, not looking at her, started the engine and took it down around the block and in the drive behind the apartments.
‘Nice wife you have, Nichols.’
I showed her the garage for number six. I drove the car inside and got out and stood there in the semi-dark. She got out on her side and came around and stood in the doorway, looking at me. She wasn’t self-conscious.
‘You’ve got a swell place. You’re very lucky.’
‘Thanks. And listen: Be careful around my wife.’
‘Relax, Nichols. I’m a woman, too.’
She was telling me! ‘You go that way, I’m going around the other way.’
‘But, Nichols—!’
‘You heard me.’
‘You’ve got to stay by me. Suppose somebody—?’
I left her standing there and cut around the other side of the garage. She worried me plenty. I heard her walking the other way on the gravel. It wasn’t good having her here. I had to keep elbowing out of my mind who she really was, the things she’d been mixed up in, the people she knew. But that money kept chewing away at me.
I headed for the back door. Bess was waiting, holding the door for me. ‘I’ve got my eye on you, Roy.’
I knew she was kidding. Bess was real smart, but she was usually trusting. I wondered just how far that could go. It made me sweat, the way she was standing there and the way she said that.
Chapter 6
With Vivian in number six, my nervous system started to kick up. I couldn’t stay still. Thing was, I didn’t know what she might do. She was scared and wound up tight and anxious to get on the move. There was always the chance she might crack and come running over to our place, yelling, ‘Nichols—Nichols!’
That would be all I’d need.
I couldn’t see any way to get to her tonight. If I took a chance and went over there, Bess might wise up. She was watching me like a cat, anyway. I figured she was thinking about what I’d done up in Chicago. She probably thought I’d got drunk.
‘Last day I was up there, I stayed in a cheap hotel. Waiting for these folks to get ready for the trip down. I bought a bottle, Bess. I shouldn’t have, but I felt like celebrating.’
She seemed to take it all right. Celebrating! That was a hot one, all right.
‘It was bad stuff. I got sick.’
‘You looked pretty bad when you came home. Lots better now, though.’
‘When I saw you, I felt better right away.’
‘Now, Roy, you know what whiskey does to you. You shouldn’t take the chance in a strange town. You don’t have any sense when you’re drunk. Somebody tell you, “Let’s rob a bank,” you’d be all for it. Whoopee! ’ She shook her head, standing there by the oven in the kitchen with the roast going. ‘No sense at all, Roy.’
‘Let’s not talk about it. All right?’
We looked at each other. Then she started smiling and she laughed and it was all right. For a minute there, she had me worried. The way she looked at me.
It was a good dinner. Roast beef, mashed potatoes, fresh peas in a cream sauce, apple pie and coffee.
‘Wonder what she’s doing down here?’
‘Who?’
‘That woman I put in number six. One that came in before dinner.’
‘Oh. Why?’
‘All alone, like that. You don’t see them like her alone. Miss Jane Latimer, from Yonkers, New York.’
‘That’s her name?’
‘Didn’t you introduce yourself?’
I shook my head.
Bess drank some coffee. ‘She didn’t go out for dinner. She hasn’t left the place.’
‘It’s early yet. Who else we got aboard?’
‘There’s an old guy in number fifteen. He’s a shuffleboard bug. I think you ought to clean off the courts. He’d play all by himself. His wife’s going to join him in a month or so. They’re looking for a house down here. So we’ve got him for a month. Mr. Hughes, he is . . . Say—maybe I should introduce him to Miss Latimer?’
I began to wish she’d lay off.
‘Then there’s a couple—middle-aged. The Donnes. She drinks an awful lot, always got one in her hand. I don’t blame her, though. The way her husband sits and broods. They came down from New York, so he could get some rest. They never do anything, just sit. Every day a taxi comes up with a load of papers for him. He’s an editor. Some New York publishing house. Got great big circles under his eyes. He walks up and down, talking to himself. She told me she’s scared he’s going to crack up.’
‘Anybody else?’
‘Honeymooners in eleven, only here for a couple of days. Real cute. And a woman whose husband just died, in nineteen. That’s all.’
‘I think that’s damned good, the way things been.’
After supper I got out on the lawn and monkeyed with the sprinkler system, trying to work myself over by number six, so I could see what was going on. It was real quiet over there, but she had a light burning.
I turned the sprinklers on. I knew if I was going to speak with her, it would have to be fast
, while Bess was doing the dishes.
We had the floodlights cut off to save juice, what with the electric bill we had. They turn them off on us, and it’d really be rough, but I had the lights turned on the lawn at the two corners of the block. And the sign was a big one.
What I did was turn all the sprinklers off, then start turning them on, one at a time, by hand. I followed around, working toward number six. The sprinklers ticked and swished. They looked real good. If only there was lots of traffic, and I could have put the floodlights on. It looked good from the road, but the road was like a mortuary.
‘Psst! Nichols!’
I almost went right out of my skin. She was standing there behind one of the double hibiscus bushes at the corner of number seven.
‘Get back.’
‘I’ve got to see you.’
I just walked straight off across the lawn. I leaned against the royal palm by the sign. I heard her go back toward number six. So then I went over to the sprinklers again. I got the one by seven going, then moved on down beside six. It was in shadow.
It wasn’t good to whisper and sneak. But it wasn’t good to play it straight, either. Let Bess catch me running over here every chance, she’d put the clamps on—trusting or not.
I heard Vivian breathing through the screen windows from inside number six. She had the lights shut off except for one burning in the kitchen.
‘You’ve got to get a move on,’ she said. ‘I mean it. I can’t stay here forever.’
‘I’m not doing nothing till tomorrow. That’s the way it is.’
I could still hear her breathing; kind of rough, like she was breathing across a washboard. ‘I haven’t anything to eat.’
‘Well, go out and buy yourself something. You got enough money.’
‘I can’t go out, Nichols. You’ll have to get me some groceries. Something. Buy me a hamburg.’
‘Get it yourself.’
Her voice crackled, high and shrill, whispering through the window. ‘I can’t go out, damn you! They’ll be watching! My God, they’ll—!’
‘They won’t be in St. Pete.’
‘But I can’t take that chance!’
‘All right. I’ll be in front of our place. You come on over there—by the office, and ask me real loud. Hear? And bring some money. And no hundred-dollar bills.’
She started to say something, but I was already walking away toward the office.
Well, I waited and nothing happened. She didn’t come and she didn’t come.
‘Roy?’
The front screen door slammed. It was Bess, coming around front where I stood. Now, she would come. That’s the way it always goes.
‘Roy, that Latimer girl asked if you wouldn’t go someplace and buy her some groceries.’
‘What?’ It was a good thing she didn’t get a close look at my face.
‘She came to the back door. Not feeling well, but she’s hungry. Tired from the trip down. She made a list, here. And here’s some money.
‘The corner store’s still open. I told her you’d be glad to do it.’ So I got the Chevie out of the garage and bought her groceries and came back. She and Bess were talking out in front of the office, on the lawn. I wanted to talk with Vivian.
I came across the lawn. ‘Here you go.’
‘Oh, fine. Thanks so much.’ She was wearing white slacks and a black cardigan sweater.
‘Well, don’t stand there,’ Bess said. ‘Take them inside for her.’ I went on across and into number six. There were the two suitcases, sitting in the middle of the floor, one of them open. I didn’t see anything of the brief case. I left the groceries on the table in the kitchen, with the change, and started out.
She came in the front door. She didn’t say anything. She just stood there, wringing her hands. ‘I feel trapped.’
‘Tomorrow. I’ll do something tomorrow.’
‘You’ve got to get me out of here fast.’
‘Leave, then.’
‘I can’t just leave. Nichols, I’ve got to get a plane, or a boat, or something. And I can’t do it myself. They’ll have every place covered!’
‘You’re nuts. They can’t do that. You think they got the U.S. Army?’
‘It’s worse than that.’ She stood there, not looking at me. ‘I wish you were staying with me tonight. I’m scared, Nichols. ‘Where’s the money?’
‘Under the seat of that chair.’
I could see the tip of the brief case and some of the red scarf.
‘Why don’t you fix the clasp on that brief case? Give you something to do.’
‘Better the way it is. I’ve had that scarf for years. It’s a kind of talisman.’
‘What in hell’s a talisman?’
‘Good luck charm, like.’
Bess was coming back from the curb, brushing off her hands. She was looking toward number six, squinting a little.
‘We’ll work something out tomorrow.’
She turned and kind of leaped at me, both hands out. I got over by the door. ‘Nichols. I’m scared.’
I watched her for a second, then went on outside. That Vivian, scared of her own shadow! How could they cover all the airports? They didn’t even know she was down here. Maybe they didn’t even know she existed. It was Teece they would be wondering about. And they wouldn’t wonder about him for long. They would wonder about the money.
But who were ‘they?’ she was really frightened, there was no getting around that.
Well, I’d have to get her out of here. And I was going to hit her hard for doing this. It was costing me a few years.
I went on out and put the Chevie in the garage.
‘I phoned the doctor.’
‘What?’
‘About your finger. You’ve got an appointment for tomorrow afternoon. Two o’clock. I tried to get it earlier, but he was filled up.’
Bess closed the Venetian blinds on the bedroom windows.
The next morning I couldn’t get near number six no matter how hard I tried. She came out and walked around and you could see the nerves. She had on the white slacks and the black sweater.
The best we could do was wave at each other. There was so much to do, I didn’t really accomplish anything, what with the worrying.
The front of number twenty was beginning to peel. I mixed some paint, trying to get the same pastel shade of blue it was in the first place. When it began to dry, it was a lot darker. It looked bad.
‘You’ll have to paint them all, Roy. They need it anyway.’
And all the time Vivian was back there in number six, going crazy. Every time I walked past on the lawn, she’d come out on the little porch, kind of frantic, making eyes. I didn’t even dare look at her much.
Roy this; Roy that. The grass needed cutting. The garage roof leaked in two places. The hedges needed trimming and the fronds were withered and brown on all the palms. The lights had gone bad in ten. The sink was plugged up in number five. Mister Hughes said his toilet wouldn’t flush.
I ran around the place, getting nowhere, and then it was one- thirty.
‘How’d you do this to your finger, Mister Nichols?’
‘Well, Doc, you see, I caught it in a car door.’
He looked at me, blinking his eyes behind enormous blackframed glasses. He was a young guy, heavy-set, with shoulders like a fullback, with those eyes that say you’re lying no matter what you say. He kept looking at the finger and shaking his head. ‘Have to set it. Have to get the swelling down first.’
‘Anything. Listen, just set it.’
‘With the swelling, the pain would be bad.’
‘Go ahead—go on.’
Well, he liked to kill me. So there I was, finally, with it in a neat little cast. My finger sticking out so it would be in the way of everything.
‘Bill me, Doc.’
‘Well, all right, Mister Nichols. And, say—be careful of car doors after this.’
His grin was real sly . . .
His office was alongside the Cha
mber of Commerce building. I went on out to the car, figuring I’d have to see Vivian if I was ever going to get my hands on any of that money. I climbed into the car and started her up.
The sun was bright and hot.
I looked back to check traffic and happened to glance over toward the front door of the Chamber of Commerce building.
It was like being shot in the face. But it was no mistake. I would never forget that face.
Noel Teece was limping across the sidewalk.
Chapter 7
I sat there, staring, with my foot jammed against the gas pedal, my hand just resting on the gearshift. The engine roared and roared without moving.
Teece was limping badly, dressed in a white Palm Beach suit. His left arm was in a big cast and sling. One side of his face was bandaged, so he only could use one eye.
I didn’t know what to do. All the things Vivian was afraid of were beginning to come true.
He walked right by the front of the car, starting across the street. Then he looked directly at the windshield, and you could see him frown with the way the engine was tearing it up. I let go on the gas. He turned away. The sun was on the windshield, so he hadn’t seen me. Then he went on across the street, limping, moving in a slow slouch.
He was real beat up and in pain. You could tell.
I watched him go on across the street and stand on the corner. He stood there arranging the sling, kind of staring at his arm as if it was something foreign. Then he patted the bandages by his left eye. He was wearing a Panama hat and it rode on top of the bandages on his head. He kept trying to pull the brim down.
I had to tell Vivian. When I did, there was no telling what she’d do. I sure didn’t like seeing Noel Teece—alive.
Because I knew why he was in this town.
‘You get your finger fixed?’
‘Yeah.’
I had tried bringing the car around to the garage, figuring I’d be able to sneak over to number six. Bess must have seen me coming, or else she was just waiting back there. Anyway, she watched me park the car in the garage.
‘That’s good.’
Great Noir Fiction Page 17