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"Hello?"
A fe No, it&039;s quiet here I tell you, I&039; up If you hadn&039;t called I&039;d be in the elevator now He&039;s doar up with an exasperated sigh and moved off I returned to the hall once ht and better-than-nor quality of the carpet and theup her soft e of the doorway, peering around for a gli hostess
Her back was to ed into her overcoat She already had her galoshes on; both struck a chord of recognition in me For a few seconds I debated on how toher to death, finally deciding that it couldn&039;t be done I siainst the door panel
"Keep your shirt on, Chick, I&039;h that I&039;d come out of nowhere, but I was still dressed for a dockside riot
I put on a friendly smile and pretended hard that I was clean shaven and in a natty tux "Opal, isn&039;t it? Wefor her
"I&039;one," she blurted
"I noticed Where is he?"
"I don&039;t know I don&039;t pay attention to things like that"
Tootoo fast "We&039;re not off to a very good start, are we?"
No comment to that one Maybe I wasn&039;t her type-or Kyler had pris to look out for a bloodthirstywomen has never appealed to ht out of her, but shied away from that all -too-easy ploy
We stood in a well-furnished living area Like the rest of the place, it was cleaned out The only personal ite, clutched protectively in white-knuckled fingers
"Co that any action was preferable to waiting
"What?"
"Down to the car Chick&039;s probably wondering what&039;s keeping you"
The reh to encourage her toto hurt you"
She took a tentative step forward on stiff legs, then balked "No I&039;ht I&039; to walk you to your car" I moved toward her, slowly; she was faster and backed away Since she was determined to keep a maximum distance between us, I used that to herd her fro of a dile too small for comfort
She scurried to the end of the hall and took the service stairs instead I followed, but not too closely I didn&039;t want to crowd her toobadly by the ti
She burst into another short hall and out afast despite her short breath and slipping galoshes
A new-looking DeSoto was idling across the narrow street, a heavy cloud of exhaust streaht for it, screa Chick&039;s name
Chickout of the driver&039;s door, gun in hand He wore a few visible luens, but they weren&039;t slowing hiun up and ai his shot He cursed and shoved her headfirst into the front seat to get her out of his way, then brought the gun to bear again
I wasit to the outside with ht The breath whooshed out of hi h He landed on his side and turned around just enough to sock o, it was a good one, because I felt it I was already bent over and off balance, trying to wrest the gun away anda lousy job of it This one jarredmy butt up in the air Chick seized the opportunity to aardly smash one of his size twelves into the seat of un, and collected another punch in the ribs
That&039;s when I lost ave out with a yell right insnapped The yell turned into an honest-to-God shriek, and he finally let go of the gun I swatted it well away and staggered to ive up yet and tried to beltat his head the way you do an annoying bug He suddenly dropped flat onto the pave
Oh, shit Had I broken his neck? I knelt next to hi froht find, I checked his throat for a pulse Thank God His heart orking fast, but it orking Good One less thing to worry about Even as I straightened, he began toready for the second round
Opal&039;s initial screams had drawn a few people toward us Threeto decide whether or not to interfere They hadcustoood reason to accost an obviously respectable citizen and flatten hi up in the seat Once she&039;d realized how the fight had co articulate, just earsplitting and attention-drawing The three heroes et the hell out
I forcedOpal over There was a badfinally responded One of the as just in ti loosely shut as we lurched forward
Opal made a lot of noise and atteot a handful of her coat collar and yanked her back She clawed blindly, fingers jabbing into h shake to stop that nonsense
She did, but the distraction was nearly enough to sot the wheel pulled around in time, but overcompensated We h curb into the street Opal bounced halfway to the roof, caed squawk
I yelled at her to stay put as I fought to keep a straight course Wecar, miss a parked one, and pick up more speed
I&039;d need it As far as those people in the street were concerned, I&039;d just kidnapped an innocent, albeit noisy girl, no doubt for so the DeSoto&039;s license nuht now
It had finally penetrated to Opal that this would not be a good ti on to the seat for balance and glaring at lasses are crooked," I told her
She straightened the?"
I surprised her and h "Damned if I know, sister Your boss has made this town too hot for ht now"
"Uh-uh" But I checked first before answering to un to enforce her demand More complications I did not need
She cli her clothes with jerky, frustrated movements
"Sit on your hands," I ordered
"What?"
More slowly "Sit on your hands, Opal If you don&039;t, I&039;ll have to deck you just like I did Chick"
She was s, she squirht on thenal; she settled in just in ti wait She sily out her ard escape, but behaved herself until the signal changed and our turn to ears and wheel, she wrenched her hands free and tried to get out the door
I grabbed her arm at the last second and hauled her back "Relax, sister, or it&039;s beddy-bye time" The threat wouldn&039;t have fooled a ten-year-old, but worked on her She chewed her lower lip into a fine shade of pink with her s to understand her new situation, she was hard put to keep the whine out of her voice
"That sounds like a good idea, honey Where shall I take you?"
She ca it out, but her mouth snapped shut before she could betray her boss
"All right," I sighed "Then we&039;ll have to do it the hard way"
"What do you mean?"
"You&039;ll find out" Eventually, I located the perfect spot, coasting to a stop in front of a closed gas station with an outside telephone box Opal squeaked when I took her ar away
"Leave me alone"
"At the first opportunity," I pro, I drew her out of the car, squeezing us unhappily into the phone box She kept as far away froiven the circumstances I blocked the door and fu had finished
"It&039;s ht?" he asked cautiously It was a loaded question Translation: had I killed Kyler yet?
"Just peachy Kyler&039;s flown the coop, but it wasn&039;t a total waste of tile?"
"Reht at the Satchel? Kyler&039;s accountant, Opal?" Opal glared at ot her"
"You&039;ve-" He broke off as the i her over, but you need to warn our teet drawn into this mess The fewer people she sees, the better You knohat I mean?"
"I understand perfectly"
"Okay I&039;ll come by in the same door that I used to leave We&039;ll be there in about tenup, then I had to expend so her She started to screech, leaving me with no option but to clamp a hand over her mouth and lift her bodily up and in She ran out of breath before I ran out of deterh noise could change that in short order I hauled ass out of there
"This stinks and I hate you," she announced, verging on tears
"And you&039;re the light of et under the dash"
"What?"
"Just do it, Opal!" The tone of h to her She ducked down, fast
After a peaceful interval, she co intoto sit up"
"Why can&039;t I?"
"You don&039;t need to knohere we&039;re going"
"But I&039; carsick down here"
"Fine If you puke, be sure to keep it on your side"
"You" But she was too nice a girl to use that kind of language She tried another tack "I can sit on ain I promise I won&039;t make any trouble"
I didn&039;t answer
"Really, I won&039;t I&039;ll even keep my eyes shut"
"Better if you stay put"
"You-you won&039;t think so in a asped
Alarmed, I checked on her A person doesn&039;t turn that shade of light green voluntarily She was gulping, too I hastily pulled to the curb and rolled down ive her air "Better?"
She shook her head, her eyes desperate Daer door She crawled forward and got her head out just in ti, but it wasn&039;t really necessary When she finally finished and I pulled her back onto the seat, she was exhausted and puffing like a beached fish, tears streaht, kid?" I found a handkerchief and offered it She glared and wrinkled her nose "Go on, it&039;s clean" I pushed it into her hand
"Why don&039;t you leave me alone?"
"Just blow your nose"
She did, several times
"You can keep the handkerchief," I said, suddenly inspired to generosity
"Will you please let nored the subject "Feel better now?"
Sniff "I guess so"
"Good Get back under the dash"
Her mouth popped open and as quickly snapped shut She looked ready to burst into real tears now, not just the by-product of being sick "You&039;re s all the tiet you for this" But she got back down and I resuain, I asked, "How&039;d you coh I were a total idiot "I&039; about numbers and I know it"
Off the top of my head I asked: "The square root of pi, what is it?"
"Pi is a transcendental number, you can&039;t take its square root Ferdinand Lindemann&039;s already proved that Since it&039;s an irrational number its numerical representation can only be an approximation of its value, and those numbers&039;
square roots will also be approxiebra, anyway I can do it, but accounting&039;s better In a correctly balanced ledger, nu that I&039;d seriously underestial "Ah
whatever you say, but doesn&039;t it bother you how Kyler ed, indifferent
"Or that he kills people?"
"Will you let o? I won&039;t tell on you"
"No"
She crossed her ar them on the seat cushion, and stared at the door handle "This stinks Vaughn&039;s going to get you good for stealing his car He&039;ll get you good for doing this"
I shot her a look So and it was just now catching up with hteen?"
"One thousand eight," she replied in a bored tone
"Fifty-six divided by eighteen?"
"Three, remainder two or three point one one one one"
"I&039;ll take your word for it"
"Told you I was good," she said sly
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-three years, fouroff"
"Am not That&039;s the truth"
I tried a few more sums and the answers poured out of her as fast as she heard the questions It kept her occupied until we reached Coldfield&039;s building I backed the car deep into the alley shadows Just as I cut the ed Opal to co with an especially difficult pet Hugging her purse, she finally cliuided her inside
"Opal, this is Charles Charles, Opal," I said once he&039;d locked the door
"Delighted to ht inclination of his head
She pouted at him, suspicious "You were at the Satchel You didn&039;t have a black eye then"
He glanced at ave him a "be careful" expression "Yes That&039;s where wetwist to her lips, but decided not to hold it against him
"We only just met here; the Satchel here I saw you," she stated, then pointed a finger straight at o Will you?"
He instantly ca smile "Won&039;t you come inside and warht now" He gestured upstairs, lared at the sparse furnishings and kicked at the e crate that served as a table "This stinks"
I told Opal to be quiet and read a azine We backed out the door, but kept it open to make sure she left the phone alone
"Jack" he murht she was just acting cute, but it&039;s no act"
"And you&039;re certain she&039;s his accountant?"
"Oh, yeah I don&039;t kno, but she&039;s soenius when it co in the social graces You&039;re sure about her being the new angle youfor the ride, and now I&039;m kind of stuck with her, but I think she may knohere Kyler is"
"In which case it should be easy enough to persuade her to part with the infor maybe you could charm it out of her with that Ronald Col with his usual reply to the joke, he said, "You really don&039;t want to hypnotize her, do you?"
No use trying to hide anything from him; he was too da, but would have to have sooner or later God knows, I owed hi&039;s happened," he said He was trying to erous"
He paused over that one "For you or the subject?"