Nothing to Lose But My Life (7 page)

There were two numbers listed for Hoop. I decided that at this hour he was probably home and chose the one with the Hill exchange. I was lucky. I got the fruity voice of the Colonel himself on the third ring.

“Hoop speaking.”

I tried roughening my voice. “I’m calling to find out how Perly is.”

“Who is this?”

“A guy that doesn’t like his friends beat up.”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Hoop said.

He could easily hang up on me but I had the idea he wouldn’t—not unless all this meant nothing to him. I made my voice ominous. “Look, friend, Perly’s hurt. I want to know if he’s being taken care of right. And I want to know what you’re going to do about that guy what messed him up.”

“I told you—”

I tried a little more butchered English. “You want I should come and ask you personal?”

There was a short silence. Then, “There’s nothing for you to alarm yourself about. Everything is being taken care of.”

“That’s better.”

“Now, who is this?” He sounded almost petulent.

I couldn’t resist it. I wanted him to know anyway since, according to Tanya, he was aware of my identity. I said, “This is Perly’s little oyster.” I hung up.

I felt a good deal of satisfaction. I could now operate on the assumption that Hoop had a hand in sending Perly to me. Even if I accepted Nikke’s story, I could still assume that. And if Nikke was telling the truth, then Hoop had a connection with the Syndicate—enough, at least, to override Nikke’s plans. If Nikke was lying, then obviously he and Hoop were working together. This all bore out what my dossiers had hinted at—Hoop’s possible tie-in with the Syndicate.

I grinned and went in to shave and dress. I had started making Hoop sweat. He would do a lot more of it before I was through with him, I promised myself.

It was just past five when I left the house. I had called a cab and it was waiting for me below, at the foot of Enid’s front steps. I went out through Tanya’s garage and down the edge of a scrub-covered vacant lot that separated her place from the one to the south. I moved in an arc so that when I appeared on the street, I was on the far side of the cab. If Enid should be looking out her windows, she could only think I had stepped out of the cab.

I said to the driver, “Wait a couple minutes.” I tossed my hat and topcoat in the back seat to show my good faith and then walked slowly up the steps and rang Enid’s front bell. Chimes echoed faintly back to me.

There was a step, another. “Yes?”

“It’s Lowry. Let me in.”

The door opened and I ducked in. Enid was in a robe, her hair up as if she were getting ready for a bath. I could hear water running in the tub.

She looked at me from her opaque eyes. I saw no expression in them but there was mingled gladness and doubt on her features. I waited to see how I was going to have to play this.

“Lowry?” She stepped up to me and put a hand on my arm. Her fingers were trembling. “Lowry?”

This might prove more embarrassing than having her mad at me. I said, “I’m all right now.”

“I didn’t, Lowry. Honest I didn’t.”

I said, “I was wrong. I apologize.”

She pulled back. “You don’t have to be so damned stiff about it.”

I looked at her and I couldn’t help thinking that she was the kind of woman who needed make-up. Tanya wasn’t. I said, “I really am sorry, kid.” And to show her I meant it, I foolishly leaned forward and gave her a peck on the lips.

It was like lighting a fuse. Before I could get away, back where I wouldn’t feel quite so sorry for her, she had her arms around my neck and was-plastered against me. I couldn’t help thinking of Tanya’s remark—that I would have to do it Enid’s way if I wanted information from her.

But this was hardly the time with a cab waiting. My first reaction was to pry myself loose. It was mostly caution. Just because I had been wrong about Perly didn’t mean that I trusted her too much. Then I remembered how much I needed a pipeline and how valuable a one she could be. I did what I did next coldly, deliberately.

My arms went up and locked behind her. If she wanted to kiss, then we might as well make a good job of it. The kiss went on for quite a while. It might have gone on longer except that she shifted her grip to get closer to me and put pressure on my ribs.

They weren’t quite as tough as I’d thought. I went, “Oof!” and let loose, my knees buckling from the sharp, intense shock. It lasted only a second but that was enough.

“Lowry!”

I said, “Perly put his little foot in my ribs. They’re still remembering it.”

“Oh, Lowry, I’m sorry. Let me see.”

“It’s all right now,” I assured her quickly. I wanted none of this unbuttoning of shirts business.

She took my hand and started tugging at me. “At least sit down. Come and have a drink while I bathe. I want to talk to you. I called your place a dozen times today.”

I got annoyed at the motel clerk. Why hadn’t he told me that? Or was the Portview the kind of place where you had to buy such information? Then I forgot my annoyance. She wanted to talk and that was encouraging.

I said, “Wait a minute. I have a cab outside.” I went out and down the steps. Walking was a little painful but it got less and by the time I reached the bottom, I decided that Enid’s rib treatment had only crimped me temporarily.

The driver opened the door for me. I said, “Got your meter on?”

“Not yet.”

I gave him five dollars. “That should cover waiting. Turn the meter on now and take a rest. I’ll be a little while.”

He snapped on the dome light of the cab, fished out a book with not just one but two nearly nude women displayed on the cover, and began to read. He left the meter off.

“I got lots of time,” he said, tucking the five into his shirt pocket.

I limped back up the stairs. My watch reminded me that spending a while with Enid might cut me short for time later. On the other hand, I might learn something that would save me time. It all depended on what we talked about.

The front door was on latch. I went in, locking the door and slipping on the night chain carefully. Enid called out, “I’m in the tub, Lowry. There’s a drink on the bar.”

I got it. “Want one?”

“Not tonight.” She sounded cheerful, chipper. “Not after last night.”

I went into the bath on her insistence. She was up to her neck in bubbles. I sat down and fumbled out a cigarette. “Hung over?” I tried to sound sympathetic.

She smiled with a faint sadness. “No, but I made a fool of myself, didn’t I?”

“That’s an unfair question.”

“But I did chase you away—acting like I did?”

“Let’s say counsel moved for a postponement,” I said.

“As long as he doesn’t move for adjournment,” she answered.

I set my drink down and leaned forward, kissing her lightly. I backed off before a pair of foam-covered arms could catch me. “Enjoy your bath,” I admonished her.

She wriggled under the bubbles. “This is fun.”

Here we go again, I thought. I wished she would stick to being one person, and I preferred she be Enid Proctor, gambling shill, to Enid Proctor, college girl with a crush.

“You said you wanted to talk. I still have a cab waiting, remember?”

She pouted. “I thought you might stay and let me cook you dinner.”

“Too much to do,” I said. “I had it in mind to buy you a steak later tonight.”

“Oh, and then say good night from the front porch?”

This was it. I said, “No, nor from the bedroom door either.”

That was what she wanted. She wriggled some more. “All right, I’ll be as quick as I can. Light a cigarette and give me a puff, Lowry.”

I did, holding the cigarette to her lips. She blew a fat smoke ring, lifted one slim leg from the water and stabbed the hole in the ring with her big toe. She let the leg flop back and giggled.

I didn’t say anything. Finally she started talking. Then it was all right. Everything came out in one piece, coherently. “Nikke called me this afternoon, and he called me again about a half hour ago.”

A half hour ago. That would be just after I talked with Hoop. “What did he want?”

“I’m telling you. The first time he wanted to know how my contact with you came out. I told him that things were working out fine but that I needed more time.”

“Good girl.”

She wriggled like a seal. “He told me to keep on the way I was.”

“And how was that supposed to be?”

“You know, to soften you up and get information from you on what you intended to do here. That’s what Jake told me to do.”

“And pass this on to Nikke?”

“Yes.” She nodded as if to herself and went on, “The second time he called, I had had time to think. He wanted to know if you were here and I said, no, that you’d called and told me someone from the club had tried to beat you up and you didn’t think you’d meet me tonight. Then I asked Nikke how he expected me to learn anything if his men kept frightening you off.”

I grinned and sipped my drink. I could see what she had in mind. It was a real dilly of an idea if it worked out. She smiled back at me.

“So I made him promise he’d see you weren’t bothered.”

I wondered how much good Nikke could do considering that Perly had hijacked Nikke’s man last night. Maybe, I thought, the Syndicate didn’t like it when Nikke tried to play soft pedal. I liked the idea of a break between them. It might make it easier for me to get what I was after.

“Then,” Enid said, “I’d try to get you to the club but he’d better let you win and not have anyone bothering you if you did go. He said he would!”

She was so pleased with herself that I couldn’t help laughing. I bent down and kissed her again. Longer this time. “That was perfect, Enid.”

She looked like a schoolgirl excited by an intrigue. “So tonight we’ll see.”

Tonight we would see. By now, I was sure that Hoop had started doing a little thinking. It would be interesting to find out whose orders concerning me would take precedence. Because as I saw it, Hoop would want me messed up, would want me beaten until I’d be glad to leave town. And Nikke—if he couldn’t get me out in a more gentle fashion—would want me left alone so he could keep tabs on me through Enid.

I thought that it would be a very interesting evening.

Enid caught the side of the tub and stood up. She was quite a sight all draped with bubbles. She drew the shower curtain. “Stand back, Lowry, it splashes.”

I stood back. I was about to retreat to the living room when she turned off the shower and stepped casually onto the bathmat. There were no more bubbles.

“Dry me, Lowry.”

I said, “Honey, I have something to do before I go to the club tonight. And that cab is still waiting. We have steak coming up, remember?”

She reached for a towel. “All right,” she said pouting. “Just so it isn’t as underdone as it was last night.” Then she stepped forward and threw wet arms around my neck and kissed me. She let loose, giggling. “You have to change your suit anyway. And it isn’t really very wet.”

I left with a grin to let her know that I thought it was all very cute. Once in the cab, I leaned back and sighed. Of all the people I had to deal with, why did one so important to me have to be such a prime screwball?

I was, I told myself firmly, playing this part strictly for business. Still, I had to admit that she was definitely nice to look at. And she could be very pleasant company. I didn’t think of Tanya once all the way down the Slope to the motel.

IT WAS
shortly after six when I reached the motel. The clerk was apologetic about not having relayed the telephone messages to me. He had just come on duty when I called and hadn’t checked my box. There went an unfounded suspicion, and I was glad to get rid of it. I had enough people on my tail without someone hiring motel clerks to hamstring me too.

The clerk gave me a handful of call slips and the keys to a car. I signed for the car, deposited a bond, and then went off to my bungalow.

There were six call slips from Enid, so she hadn’t lied. I tossed them aside and started laying out my evening clothes. It was a little early for them but the tentative schedule I had for myself wouldn’t allow me to run back here to change. I stripped down and examined Tanya’s bandage. It looked fine.

I was about to start dressing when the telephone rang. I picked it up. “Curtis here.”

“Mr. Curtis, this is Sofia Conklin.”

I remembered to put Texas into my voice. “How do you do, ma’am. Pleasant to hear from you.”

She had a laugh something like Enid’s, only more controlled. She said, “I’m afraid we were all rather abrupt last night. Certainly not hospitable. But hearing Malcolm’s name after so long was a shock.”

I said, yes I could understand that. “I learned more about him today,” I told her. “And I must say he didn’t get such a character from the Lowry side of the family.”

She laughed again. “Then we’re forgiven? I hope so, because I called to ask you to a last course party this evening.”

“Last course, ma’am?”

“Yes, you come after dinner and take dessert and coffee with us. It’s just an informal way of getting together. I know it’s awfully short notice, but say you’ll come.”

I most definitely would say it. I felt as if someone had dropped a nice juicy apple in my lap. And I didn’t much care whether the apple had worms or not. “I’d be delighted,” I assured her. “I’d like to meet you-all again.”

“Yes,” she said, “everyone you met last night will be here. Shall we say nine o’clock, Mr. Curtis?”

We said nine o’clock and hung up after an exchange of civilities. I sat there and smoked for a moment, bemused by the invitation. Since I couldn’t imagine Junior-League-Sofia having any personal interest in me, the question was, who had put her up to this? And why? But thinking got me nowhere except to make me realize that my tentative schedule for this evening was definitely shot. There was no point in chasing people when they had practically invited me into their laps.

Humming, I put on gray flannels, chose a tie that I knew would offend Colonel Hoop, and turned again to the telephone. I called Enid, hoping she might know something about the reason for the invitation. There was no answer. I tried Tanya. Also a blank. I went outside to see what kind of car I had drawn. It was a Lincoln, not too new but definitely smooth running.