Part 7 (1/2)

”What do you think of that plan?”

”I think it's brilliant. I think I'll be very wealthy in my golden years, and I'll probably have a place to practice my art for as long as I want.”

”I wouldn't think you'd need the Paddlewheel to have a singing career. Between your talent, and your daddy's connections-”

She had stopped me with a raised palm. ”No. I don't want to travel, and I don't want to be beholden to Papa.”

”You already are. Didn't your Papa make the Paddlewheel possible?”

”Of course he did. But my talent, and d.i.c.kie's business sense, and vision, have taken it to a whole new plateau.”

”Okay. But there's a problem, right? Uncle Vince?”

She shrugged. ”Hard to say whether it's coming directly from Vince or if it's the Lucky Devil crowd, causing trouble for d.i.c.kie, knowing they have the tacit approval of their Chicago backer.”

”Who are the Lucky Devil crowd?”

”The old man who owns virtually every bar, strip club and brothel downtown is Gigi Giovanni. He was thick with Uncle Vince back in the '40s and '50s, came with Vince's blessing and backing to Haydee's Port, in the early '60s. He's kind of a recluse, and has turned most of the responsibility over to his son, Jerry G. My guess would be, any trouble that's been sent d.i.c.kie's way, comes from Jerry G, not his father.”

”Why do you say that?”

”Jerry G is ambitious, and he's a hothead. He's a s.a.d.i.s.tic son of a b.i.t.c.h and he's a G.o.dd.a.m.n cheat and he drinks and dopes more than any of his customers and breaks in all the young girls before putting them to work on their backs.”

”Any bad qualities?”

That made her smile. ”Nothing much fazes you, does it?”

”No.”

”You've heard what you've gotten yourself into, and you don't mind?”

”I won't mind if the money is right. I'll have to talk to your husband.”

”We keep referring to d.i.c.kie as my husband...and he is my husband. But we are are separated.” separated.”

”Right.”

”You mind if I turn off the lights?”

”No.”

She rose, and went over and turned off the lights and I sat at the table and waited while she went into the bathroom and took her own shower. When the bathroom door opened, the light was behind her and the front of her was in blue-gray shadow. She was voluptuous and those b.r.e.a.s.t.s were full with nipples that were erect and thick and long and a deep pink against very pale flesh. Her pubic bush was thick and dark, her thighs a little fleshy. She was no kid.

But she knew what she was doing when she knelt in front of me, where I sat, and opened my trousers, unzipped me and got my already erect c.o.c.k out to have a look at it.

”I want to thank you for what you did for my husband,” she said.

”Okay,” I said, and felt myself slip into the warmth of her mouth.

She brought me almost to climax and I swear I was cross-eyed when she took me by the hand like mommy leading baby, a.s.suming baby had his trousers around his ankles, and all but shoved me onto the bed, where she climbed on top of me and took my d.i.c.k up into a warm, tight place and ground her hips into me and ground them some more and I watched hypnotized by the swaying fruit of those b.r.e.a.s.t.s, reaching my mouth out to grab at them, like a child on a merry-go-round going for the bra.s.s ring, and when she came, she came so hard her eyes rolled back in her head.

I came so hard my eyes uncrossed.

She flopped off beside me, breathing hard. I was breathing hard, too.

”You're welcome,” I said.

She nuzzled my neck, then got up and her round, dimpled bottom receded into the bathroom, where the door closed, and I was left in darkness, to ponder the character of a woman who didn't want to divorce her cheating husband because she was Catholic, but was fine with covering up killings for him as well as f.u.c.king the help by way of showing her appreciation for a job well done.

But then I'd never really understood women.

Chapter Six.

I parked the Sunbird on the street between a pick-up truck and a row of Harleys. It was eight p.m. in beautiful downtown Haydee's Port, and not really hopping yet, though the seven or eight bars on one side of the street and the eight or nine bars on the other were spilling red and blue and green and yellow neon onto the sidewalks along with loud music from country to heavy metal, frat rock to New Wave. The neon spillage made a sort of blurry melted rainbow but the melding of popular music was just plain noise.

Smoke and beer smell issued from every entryway, both invitation and threat, though it was too early for the bouquet of puke. Guys in groups of two or three or four swaggered along the sidewalk, window-shopping for just the right bar, but no similar groups of women were on the prowl.

I'd been told that early evening in Haydee's Port was slow, but that it picked up from ten till maybe one and then stayed steady, although the crowd gradually s.h.i.+fted from those looking for wide-open fun to seekers of a bar that served alcohol after one a.m., closing time across the river.

The Lucky Devil was no cla.s.sier than any other dive along Main Street, just bigger, taking up three storefronts, the right and left ones with front windows painted black. The center storefront allowed you to see into a dingy bar, and the only promise of something special were two signs in the window-one a big, bold red-and-black cartoon outlined in red neon of a grinning, winking devil's head, right down to the regulation pointy mustache and beard; the other a red cursive blinking neon spelling out the establishment's name.

I went through double-push doors into a s.p.a.ce about the size of a high-school cafeteria and every bit as inviting. The front half of the smoky chamber was a drab collection of red-plastic-covered tables with old-fas.h.i.+oned wooden chairs, and (at the bar itself) stools whose red seat cus.h.i.+ons were bursting. Behind the bartender, shelves of booze were back-lit red, but then the whole room was dimly lit and red-tinged, with beer-sign halos spotted around. The lighting was better at the rear, where up a few steps behind pipe railing, four pool tables under Schlitz chandeliers were all in use by guys in plaid s.h.i.+rts with rolled-up sleeves open to either white t-s.h.i.+rts or bare chests. They were either hicks or gay. Or gay hicks.

The joint was encased in the cheapest paneling known to G.o.d or man or even your Uncle Phil, beautified by black-marker graffiti that made dating and other suggestions. Right now the tables were about half full, and the bar about the same. The clientele appeared to be blue-collar or below, displaying lots of frayed, faded jeans, a look courtesy of factory work, not factory fabrication. One corner had been taken over by bikers in well-worn leathers-the bikers were pretty well-worn themselves, in their thirties or forties. Marlon Brando in The Wild One The Wild One had been a long f.u.c.king time ago. had been a long f.u.c.king time ago.

I was overdressed in my navy t-s.h.i.+rt and black jeans and running shoes, but n.o.body seemed to notice. I took one of the open stools at the bar and ordered whatever was on tap, and asked a few questions of the bartender, a guy in a blue-striped white s.h.i.+rt with rolled-up sleeves over a black t-s.h.i.+rt; he had black wavy hair and a thick black mustache, and looked a little like Tom Selleck's dumber, not-so-good-looking brother.

”So where's all this famous action I keep hearing about?” I asked pleasantly.

”What kind you looking for?”

”I keep an open mind.”

He leaned an elbow against the bar. ”The girls over at those tables have trailers either side of the parking lot.”

Four girls in lots of makeup and with a plent.i.tude of high feathered hair and a modic.u.m of spandex dress were at a table smoking and staring at nothing, unless maybe they were playing invisible cards. They had drinks in tumblers that might have been whiskey but probably were tea. They looked like prom queens, if this were prom night in Hades, which it kind of was.

”Trailers out back, huh? What does twenty-five bucks get you?”

”Their attention. Now, if you're interested in a game of chance, you'll want to head that-a-way.”

The bartender gestured to a doorless doorway to the right of where the pool table level rose, presumably providing pa.s.sage to the adjacent storefront. A brawny black guy in a black polo with a red cursive Lucky Devil Lucky Devil on the breast and black jeans was seated on a wooden chair on a boxy platform, like a low-riding life-guard station. Or maybe he was just waiting for the right white guy to come along to give him a shoes.h.i.+ne. In any case, he was keeping watch on the bar and standing guard on that door, his arms folded like a genie; somehow I didn't think he was granting wishes. on the breast and black jeans was seated on a wooden chair on a boxy platform, like a low-riding life-guard station. Or maybe he was just waiting for the right white guy to come along to give him a shoes.h.i.+ne. In any case, he was keeping watch on the bar and standing guard on that door, his arms folded like a genie; somehow I didn't think he was granting wishes.

I finished my beer and wandered over there. I paused in front of the big black lifeguard and looked up at him, and asked, ”Okay I go on in?”

”You free, white and twenty-one, ain't you?”