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"Yeah, Gordy drove us to a drugstore not far fro on, there&039;re couests and got soe back "Easy, this ain&039;t er is this going to go on? Oh, don&039;t answer, it&039;ll only aggravate ? I want to see you"

I tried to think of a good reason for her to stay away, and did, several of them, but talked oons were no threat to Bobbi "Okay, but coe"

"We&039;ll be right there" She disconnected fast, ein the kitchen peering out theevery few seconds before I saw the car lights turning into the alley Like Kyler, Gordy favored a Caddie, and I had a badfor enough for Bobbi to slip out, then eased the car into the garage while she sprinted up the steps to the porch I had the door open already and she nearly knocked me backward onto the kitchen table when she threw herself into , "it hasn&039;t been that long"

"It&039;s been years," she said, then fastened her lips onto reat until she had to coed without warning away fro for the last few days, she looked wonderful Short platinuht, and a so weak every time I saw it flash in my direction, I kneithout a doubt I was the luckiest sob walking the planet When I last saw her she&039;d been in her stage costu boots, incongruously topped by a fur coat and hat She still had the latter two on, but had turned up a less showy pair of dark pants tucked into ankle-high hiking boots, and a red plaid flannel shirt

"What&039;s this?" I asked, holding her away for a look "You going off to a cabin in the woods?"

"Only if you come, too The wife of Gordy&039;s lawyer loaned them to me She loves to ice-fish"

"Well, the wife of Gordy&039;s lawyer has a helluva figure You keeping okay?"

"I&039;m fine, but you-" Her turn to look I collected a frown

"What?"

"You&039;ve been through the wringer-backward Three or four times"

How did she always know? I pulled her close, just wanting to hold her "Guilty

But I&039; better by themost of the doorway as he ca Bobbi and put it out to shake his He always seen of friendship fros?"

"My side? What have you heard from others?"

"Just ruotta find ht boy who knows phones and can clean this one&039;s line It&039;s cra my business"

"You need a vacation," Bobbi told hirief, Jack, what happened here?" She let go of limpse of the ht and threw a party Then three of &039;eht for another one They&039;re in the front room with the sandh the dining area to the front and looked over the casualties

"I can take care of &039;em for you This time tomorrow they can be part of the nearest WPA project, canal repair, hed, but he was co He&039;ll call when he gets it all arranged"

Gordy shrugged Stuff like this was no skin off his nose; he was honestly trying to be helpful

"How are things at the club?" I asked, wanting to change the subject

"Salasses andtomorrow"

"You in any trouble with your bosses because of this?" I knew he had to answer to people higher up

"They&039;re not happy A raid they don&039;t worry about; a raid started up by one of their own boys on their own place, they get annoyed"

"So they know Kyler ordered it?"

"Pretty much He&039;d be in the ste if he wasn&039;t already busy feeding fish"

"What&039;s your place in this fight with Angela?"

"They want s their oay I wouldn&039;t be here now except to keep an eye on Bobbi Be hell to pay with her when it&039;s tiaze slid in her direction and a smile barely showed itself on one side of his mouth She made a face back at hiain?" she asked

"Yeah"

Bobbi shook her head "But not before I get soazines to read All they have are law books and stuff on sports"

"Can do," he said, all affability

"And we give the phone number to Jack"

I found some paper and scribbled as she dictated She was in the home of a mouthpiece named Anthony It sounded faot Madison Pruitt out of jail that time"

Bobbi&039;s friend Pruitt, a dedicated communist, had the misfortune to be born into a very wealthy family He took every opportunity to publicly live down the sharee A fewsome of his red brothers at a sit-down strike turned riot at an auto plant Thefor the factory owners broke his ar his eyes focused after a hit on the head with a club Soon as he was out of the hospital, the cops grabbed him, then Pruitt&039;s mother stepped in with lawyer Anthony and posted bail She&039;d reportedly whisked her ard son off to a private island on a lake so him lots of castor oil to roup had seen him in a while, but they didn&039;t mind, since he was a bore He was an even worse bore when talking politics, his only real passion besides food

"Has Charles got coffee here?" asked Bobbi "I could use soested

She gave me a "you must be crazy" look "He keeps his coffee in the icebox?"

"Says the beans stay fresher I wouldn&039;t know, so don&039;t ask me"

She poked around the kitchen until she turned up the necessary ite a pot for herself and Gordy Usually, any odors to do with food and cooking le exception to that rule I couldn&039;t drink it, but it still smelled fine, made me wish I could have a cup

As the stuff breay I filled her and Gordy in on all the fun and ga real tired of talking Repeating things made me remember them, when I really wanted to lock them all in a box and lose the key

On the other hand, I could tell theht with Coldfield I had to remember not to mention certain supernatural details, and it was a strain keeping things straight

"Sullivan?" said Gordy, when I got to the part about questioning Deiter

"You know him?"

"Not personally, but I heard a few stories"

"Such as?"

"He wasn&039;t directly in on it, but he smoothed the road out so someone could bump his brother"

"Why&039;d he bump his brother?"

"Sullivan wanted his spot in the organization Word was the brother was skied anyway, but Sullivan ht people heard about the scam One funeral later and he steps into his brother&039;s shoes while they&039;re still warm He didn&039;t raise a stink about the hit and that&039;s how lotsa guys figure he helped it along"

"Nice fella His own brother"

Gordy shrugged "It&039;s business There has to be soets the screw"

I didn&039;t s about trust in his line of work It was an ianized cri "So he&039;s someone I need to avoid?"

"You and everyone else He may not know about you or Escott yet-"

"I&039;ll try to keep it that way I got ela"

"Yeah, what&039;s she like?" asked Bobbi

"Cross-eyed, bowlegged, and covered in warts"

"She must be some cute dish, then Do I need to be worried?"

"I&039;ll tell you so I heard Chaven say, &039;I&039;d rather sleep with a tarantula&039; "

Actually, he said he&039;d rather do that than trust her, but Bobbi didn&039;t need to hear the rest Angela was a cute dish all right, very attractive and exciting, but then so&039;s a box of dynamite on a bonfire

The phone went off It was Escott

"I&039;ve arranged so with a friend of mine," he said

"Not Shoe?"

"He&039;s helping to sooods into your car and transport theuess so What&039;s the deal?"

"My friend is a federal agent, but I would prefer not to have hi part of an official group, they ht attract the attention of the papers and-"

"Don&039;t have to draw me a picture, I knohat a reporter can do with this kind of story Where do you want ave me an address and said to knock on the back alley exit door

"I&039;ll meet you there shortly," he added

"Wait a minute, you&039;re supposed to take it easy Hello? Hello?"

He&039;d cut the connection Maybe I&039;d have to breakfriends alone when it ca a rest

Gordy asked as going on, and I told him, then he offered to help e," I said

"My car&039;s already in the back What were you gonna do, haul &039;e sees and goes into fits?"

Okay I let hiet a chance to do anything about it right away First Bobbi all but shoved him onto a kitchen chair and made him have some coffee, to keep her company, she said I think it was eton in the rest of the worldIt washed half a million people out of their ho Cairo into an island, the WPA and CCC were up to their asses laying down sandbags, and more rain and snoere on the way I wondered if I needed to be worrying about my folks and the rest of the fas, but not all that far distant, and the water had to go somewhere sooner or later

But even with this bleak stuff for a topic it was good to just sit and gas on about it all with friends It was so dose of norht juht not be that way, but recent events were to the point I was starting to always expect the worst

Not a good way to live

As for the wider world, Bobbi wondered what Escott thought about the way things were going in Europe I didn&039;t have much of an answer since we&039;d not really had a chance to talk politics lately, and as the proble the British a straight answer onpeace-when they even bothered to answer The fracas seeht about Coldfield&039;s radio bringing Hitler&039;s voice right into his living room

"Think it&039;ll be war?" Bobbi asked

I shrugged "You knowabout peace all the time The British"

"Which ht I ever been in with the wiseguys in this toays happened right after the bosses arranged for an understanding You think it&039;s gonna be the usual business, just start to breathe easy, and next thing you know bullets are flying"

Which wasn&039;t exactly reassuring to ela to lay off and be nice I stared at the scarred surface of the kitchen table, idly picking at some splinters around a hole that happened when Escott and I had to fight a crazy ot quiet, and when I finally noticed, it was in ti at me like I&039;d sprouted a third ear

"What?" I asked

"Think about soested

She never lets ood for me

Well, if she wantedelse, we&039;d have to find a polite way of asking Gordy to leave us alone for a while That wasn&039;t too likely, so I settled for gently buainst hers under the table until she smiled

"I&039; his coffee cup in the sink "Let&039;s get this show on the road"

Bobbi washed things up while he backed the Caddie out, spinning the wheel this way and that until the car was close to the door I kept h to take a look Maybe they were all cozy by their radios listening to Luht Too bad I couldn&039;t do the sa Deiter over my shoulder like a sack and carried hie as Gordy&039;s, but I&039;er, so it was no hardship Besides, I enjoyed the look on his usually phlegmatic face as I shoved Deiter into the backseat like he was a two-year-old Twice es were ready to roll I et that fifty out and shoved it in my pocket with Escott&039;s pipe, tobacco pouch, and Webley Then I pulled onovercoat, third best hat, locked the house up- for all the good it seemed to do-and piled into the front seat of the Caddie Bobbi sat in the ainst iven

It was near the edge of the Bronze Belt, an aging vaudeville house turned filh the ht I knew

&039;em all Gordy passed it, made two turns, and rolled into the brick-lined alley behind the place He cut the lights, but left the ot out, found the back door, and rapped it a few tiue fro It sounded like a draht ainst it

"Easy, brother," I said, putting ht stayed put "I ain&039;t your brother &039;less you gone color-blind in a big way"

I could guess the voice belonged to a black man, and he didn&039;t sound too happy

"Keep that in ot ht at the floor

"My na, I was told to come here"

"I know I&039;m Mr Delemare"

I stuck my hand out, but he didn&039;t take it

"Boss said you had a few bundles to store, but not for long"

"That&039;s right I&039;ll keep a watch on &039;em until someone comes to take &039;em off my hands"

"Okay, but you have to be quiet The audience is here to see thearound"

"No problem," I promised "Where do you want the bundles?"

"Ten onna happen, you can put everything just inside the door I&039;ll hold it so it don&039;t slam shut"

"Thanks," I said, and went out to the car and gave the news to Gordy He nodded and cut the h he helped pull them out Delemare watched, dark face made darker still by what seemed to be an expression of perpetual annoyance It could have been for eneral, no way to tell, yet He didn&039;t seem to be in the least surprised that the bundles were three unconscious whitecoh I didn&039;t see how anyone could have heard us above the movie

"I knew you&039;d come back, Johnny," a woman with a silken voice whispered above us

"But I can&039;t stay, doll I&039;m in trouble-bad trouble," a man, presumably Johnny, rumbled in reply

"Oh, Johnny!"

The ot the i

Couldn&039;t see anything of the screen, I caught only a few vertical slivers of light co behind it Its purpose seehted and thus spoiling the file

I wanted to see ain because of the draft corees out, and I believed hioodbye to Bobbi Gordy was pretty decent about giving us some time and strolled a few yards off to have a smoke in the cold I slid into the front seat next to her

"Can&039;t ait around a little longer?" she asked

"Too h hot water helpingspecial attention to hi Escott&039;s fed see him

Don&039;t worry, after I deliver this bunch, I&039;ht"

"If she&039;s at this Flora&039;s place"

"I&039;et killed"

"That&039;s at the top ofus about what happened last night I could tell howout so you wouldn&039;t scare me Well, it didn&039;t work"

"Next time I&039;ll have to try harder"

But she didn&039;t think that was even res if you could see your eyes"

I glanced at the rearview e, but raised no ie "Don&039;t think I want to, I probably wouldn&039;t like it much"

"I sure as hell don&039;t I want you to come back in one piece-inside and out Don&039;t let this kill your soul, Jack I&039;ve seen it happen to others"

"What others?"

"Gordy for one The things he does, the people he deals with, that&039;s what got to him"

"But Gordy and I are different"

"Then what about you and Charles?"

"Charles? You trying to tell ht as well be Haven&039;t you figured that out by now? You told me how cold he can be at ti to him and hollowed him out All the stuff he does now is to cover that space up so people won&039;t see it or ever guess it&039;s there"

"Bobbi, this is-"

" Not crazy talk"

"I wasn&039;t going to say that"

"The hell you weren&039;t You can think it&039;s crazy, but truston this I don&039;t want you ending up like Charles He&039;s char, he&039;s fun, and he&039;s smart, but think about what&039;s underneath all that I don&039;t want the sa you away fro to take me away"

"Oh, sweetheart, don&039;t you know?"

"Knohat?"

She touched the side of el "It&039;s already started"