He went out of the room and Alice looked after him without any expression on her face. She tossed the magazine on the floor and made a gesture of cutting her throat.
“Animal!” She said it soundlessly.
I gave her a sign to let up on that, then went closer to her.
She put a cigarette in her mouth and I struck a match. When I leaned over her I said, “Everything all set?”
She nodded slowly and looked up at me with her eyes shining. She was ready for this thing. She couldn’t wait. There didn’t seem to be any fear or nerves in her body. She was like a spring wound to the breaking point, ready to snap and lash out at any second.
We didn’t talk anymore. I still had that tight cold feeling inside. It was almost eight by now and I knew Lesser was due at eight-fifteen. I wanted to get the hell out.
Frank came back then carrying a tooth brush, a comb and a jar of shaving cream. We put them in and closed the grip.
I moved to the door. “All set?”
“Yeah.” He was standing now, looking at Alice. “I’ll see you tomorrow night,” he said.
“All right,” she said.
“Be sure and make that train,” he said. “I’ll be waiting.”
“All right.”
He went over to her, a little uncertainly. When he bent to kiss her on the mouth she turned her head just enough so that his lips touched her cheek.
“Good-by,” he said.
She picked up the magazine from the floor and went looking through it while he was going to the door. “Goodby,” she said. She wasn’t acting then. She hated him and he should have seen it.
He pulled the door closed and went downstairs to the car. He put the suitcase in back and climbed in front next to me. I drove over to Sheridan Road, and we didn’t say anything until we passed the Edgewater Beach. He just sat there staring straight ahead.
I was wondering how I was going to start my end of the deal.
He made it easier by saying in a tired, discouraged voice, “You see how it is, Johnny? Right when we seem to be getting along all right she pulls a deal like this. She could have come along tonight if she wanted to.”
“I wouldn’t let it worry you,” I said. I turned at Foster and headed for the Outer Drive. “She’ll be up tomorrow, won’t she?”
“That not the idea. She could have come tonight.”
I didn’t say anything for a block or two. I was tense and cold. My hands on the wheel were slick with sweat. This was the big moment and I was almost afraid of it, because once I opened my mouth there wouldn’t be any turning back.
“Yeah,” I said, keeping my voice as casual as I could make it. “It’s too bad Lesser couldn’t have picked another night for the work.”
There it was and I could tell from the way he stiffened that I had socked it in hard. He didn’t say anything, but he was looking at me, and from the corner of my eye I saw his hand clench until the knuckles were white.
I fished out my cigarettes and held the pack toward him.
“Smoke?”
“What do you mean?” he said slowly.
I stared at him surprised. “About what?”
“About what you said. About Lesser and Alice working tonight.”
I let him know I was puzzled. “Well what about it? That’s why she didn’t come home with you tonight, isn’t it?”
“Pull off and park somewhere,” he said.
“What the hell—”
“Goddammit, you heard me!”
“Are you out of your head, Frank? We only got about twenty minutes to make that train.”
“To hell with the train!” He caught my arm and squeezed until I almost yelled. “You hear me?”
“All right, all right,” I said. “But I wish you’d let me in on what’s going on.”
He didn’t say another word. He just sat there staring straight ahead.
I turned off at Belmont and went down a side street until I found a parking place. I cut the ignition and he turned and looked at me.
“Now give it to me, quick and straight,” he said.
I said, “Frank, I met Lesser the other day and he said he was going to see Alice tonight. About some work, I thought. I knew you and Alice were going to Wisconsin and I figured he just had the dates mixed up, or something. Tonight, when Alice said she wasn’t going up until tomorrow, I just figured she had to see him and get the work out of the way. I just thought it was tough he couldn’t have picked some other time. But you know all that. You were talking to her about it while I was there.”
His face looked mean now. “Sure I knew all about it,” he said. “But not that way. The story I got was that she had to do some work at the office tomorrow morning.” He smiled without humor. “Nothing was said about Lesser coming over at night. I guess that’s when they’ve been doing most of their work.”
“Now wait a minute,” I said. “I feel like hell, Frank. I don’t want to cause trouble between you and Alice. I should have kept my big yap shut.”
“That doesn’t matter,” he said harshly. “I’d have found out from somebody. Take me back there.”
“Don’t go off half-cocked on this thing. I’ll take you back but think what you’re doing first.”
“Take me back,” was all he said.
I started the car and drove around the corner and headed north on the Drive. The tight cold feeling was still with me but the nervousness was gone. The thing had started now, and it was out of my hands.
When we passed the Edgewater Beach Hotel going back, I said, “Now listen Frank. Maybe I got things mixed up. Maybe Lesser did say he was seeing her tomorrow morning instead of tonight. Hell, I wasn’t paying much attention. Why don’t you wait out front and see if he shows? If he doesn’t, then I was wrong. And Alice won’t ever know you came sneaking back like this.”
He didn’t answer. When I got to Bryn Mawr, I turned off Sheridan Road and went down her street. I parked on the opposite side of the street where we had a good view of the building.
Her apartment was dark. The dashboard clock said eight-fourteen.
We sat there in the dark for about a minute. He looked up at the windows and said. “What time was he supposed to be here?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know anymore than I’ve told you already.”
Another minute passed. There wasn’t much traffic on the street. A couple of cars went by and each one made me break out in sweat.
Finally a car slowed down at the corner and angled over to the curb in front of the building. It was a green Chevrolet. The driver cut the motor and the lights, climbed out of the car and slammed the door.
We watched him as he went up the walk to the entrance. He was small and about all we could see was the back of his head and the neat, brown gabardine suit he was wearing.
“Is that him?” Frank said quietly.
“I can’t tell.”
It was Lesser, all right. I could see enough to tell me that. When he went into the vestibule, I could see his black hair shining in the light. He punched a bell and stood there until he got a buzzer and pulled open the door and went up the steps.
I looked up at Alice’s windows. Frank was looking up there, too. When the light snapped on in her apartment he said something under his breath, short and dirty.
He glanced at me and looked like hell. He tried to swallow but couldn’t make it. He rubbed both hands over his face. “Johnny, take me where I can get a drink, will you?”
I hadn’t figured that. I figured he’d go right in after Lesser.
I said, “Sure, but—” I let it hang there.
He was looking up at Alice’s windows again. She came over to them and we could see her shadow as she started pulling down the shades.
“Still want that drink?” I said.
“I got to think. Get me out of here,” he said.