Big Stan, page 15
"She's still in bed, but she's feeling much better. I'm sorry I took the time to come all the way up here, except that my mother will be glad to hear she's out of danger."
"Yeah," said Otey. "It's a good thing to look after your folks. Folks is all you've got."
"What do you mean, Otey?" asked Eva, merely to keep the conversation going. Actually she was hardly aware of what they were talking about. They had cleared the buildings now and a huge, cold-looking white moon was rising beyond the black river. Eva felt very uneasy. She glanced at Otey, but he was paying no attention to the moon, which was now making a wide, frosty-looking white path across the water.
"Well," said Otey, "all any person has got is folks. If he hasn't got folks he hasn't got anything. Other people-well, they come and they go. You're friends one minute and enemies the next. But your folks, they're always there."
"Where are your folks, Otey? Around close?"
"All I got's my mother now," Otey said in a very low voice. After a pause he added, "She's… she's living in Nebraska."
Otey drove in silence for quite a long time. Tall trees lined the road. They could hear a motorboat on the river going toward town. Eva smoked nervously, forcing herself by an effort of will not to move as far away as possible from Otey. The big, white, bland, pitted face of the moon bothered her considerably, as it had done when she was a child. Otey ignored the moon, which was yellowing slightly as it rose.
"Eva," said Otey at last, "I'm going to give you a big surprise."
"That so?" Eva glanced sideways at him, but he was staring straight ahead, eyes on the road.
"Yeah. This is my car, bought and paid for. Don't owe a nickel on it. Surprised?"
"Well, yes. This is a very nice car."
"Rides easy, eh? Travel twenty-five hundred miles in it like a top. Better than a Pullman. You see, in my business sometimes a guy hears about bargains. I don't say it's hot. I got clear title, nothing wrong. But I'll tell you this-I bought it mighty cheap. And it's a '51."
"Good deal."
"Funny I should take you for a ride tonight. I'm full of surprises tonight. Right here in my pocket I got over seventy-seven hundred dollars. You think I'm lying?" Otey fished a huge roll out of his pants pocket and held it up. It was three inches thick and bound together by two wide rubber bands. "Here. Count it if you don't believe me."
"Oh, I' believe you, Otey. But that's an awful lot of money. You shouldn't be carrying it around like that. Why, you can get your head knocked off in Polishtown for five bucks."
Otey laughed quietly. "Nobody knocks my head off, Eva. I'm too smart." Otey put the roll away. "I saved it all up, been saving since I come out of the Navy. I live cheap. Room costs me nothing, practically. I only eat one meal a day, except for coffee and maybe a doughnut. I only got one decent suit. I drink beer, I only smoke maybe a pack every three days. I just got no expenses, except my mother. I kind of look after her, send her money. You see, she's kind of incapacitated, can't work, though she's only fifty-two. And… so, well, you see, my upkeep is nothing, and…"
"Only fifty-two?" Eva put in quickly. Otey was beginning to ramble, bothering her considerably. "How old are you?"
"Thirty-six. She was only sixteen when I was born. Yeah. Here I am, Eva, with you might say eight G's in my pocket and a new car just lubricated and loaded up with gas. You're a woman detective? That tell you anything?"
"Looks like a long trip."
Otey burst out laughing. "Right on the button. I'm full of surprises, I'm telling you. See this jumper? O.K. I got my only good suit underneath."
"How about the rest of your things?"
"What things? Junk. Hell with them." Otey laughed again. "When I blow, I blow."
Eva lit another cigarette. "Well," she said, "we'll hate to lose you. You're the, life of the station. But good luck."
Otey glanced at her sideways. "Where you figure I'm hitting for, Detective?"
"Nebraska, to see your mother."
"Right on the button again. You're a very sharp girl, Eva. Then where?"
"West Coast."
"You're uncanny, if you'll pardon the expression." Otey leaned forward and laughed uproariously.
His laughter sent a chill down Eva's spine. "But from there on I'm lost," she said quickly. "It could be Oregon, Washington, northern California, southern California."
"Yeah. It could."
He seemed to fall into a trance-like silence now. Ahead of them loomed the lights of the big town. Otey turned at the Lackawanna Street Bridge. Eva cleared her throat nervously, but said nothing.
Otey turned and looked at her shrewdly. "Did I surprise you again? I'll bet you thought I didn't know where you lived. I've known for a long time. I looked it up."
"Why?"
"Oh, I've always been kind of interested in you, Eva. In my bashful way, that is." Otey roared.
"Well, I'm flattered, Otey," Eva said, the words almost sticking in her throat.
"Listen," said Otey. "Did you ever feel that if you didn't lam you'd bust wide open? That you couldn't stand whatever it was you was standing five minutes longer?"
"Yes," Eva said. "I often feel like that. But I don't do anything about it."
"Well, I do. That's why I'm always ready. Plenty of money, no possessions except a car. Good-by, and I'm on my way. How would you like to see Hollywood, Eva?"
"Fine. I've always wanted to go there."
Otey chuckled. "O.K. Just sit tight and in three days we'll be there."
Eva threw back her head and laughed loudly. "What a character you are!"
"You think I don't mean it?"
"Don't be silly, Otey. Take me three days to pack. Listen, I'm engaged to be married. I can't just run off."
"You see, that's what I mean," Otey said. "Houseful of clothes, engaged to be married, all that stuff. It ties you down. Then when you want to lam you can't. People are nuts. Houses, kids, mortgages, all that stuff-like chains around their legs. And they all want to run away. They just pretend they don't."
"Well, it's too bad," said Eva. "I'll say one thing, it's the most interesting proposition I've had in years."
"And I can always get a good job. They'll be sore at me at the station, all right, but I'll bet they'll give me a good rec if I write back for it. Mr. Auerbach did at Standard. I blew the place one night-right in the middle of the night. I never stopped driving till I was in Toronto, Canada. So I had me a vacation, saw Quebec, all them places. I saw where General Wolfe died, or maybe it was Montcalm. Believe me, I been around."
Otey glanced at her and the car started to move a little faster and she read hesitation in his look, calculating thoughtfulness.
Eva spoke quickly: "Second apartment house on the right."
Otey gave an abrupt laugh and seemed to relax. "You don't have to tell me. I saw you come in one night in a Cad. Big husky guy. You brushed him off at the door. A real quick good night."
"What were you doing over here?"
"Driving around. Hell, I get lonesome. So I says, I'll drive over past Eva's house and then I won't feel so lonesome."
Otey eased the car in to the curb, then he hurried round to help Eva out. Eva said nothing as she got out of the car, just turned and started for the apartment-house door. Otey followed her, then walked beside her. Eva opened the door and they stepped into a dim little lobby. A radio was playing faintly someplace.
Eva was so nervous now that she could just barely keep herself from shaking. Stan had been right; this was the most nerve-racking situation she'd ever been in in her life. There was something terrifying about this chuckling, red-faced, bald little man.
She noticed that Otey was staring at her narrowly, then lie glanced up at the dim light. "Say," he said, "do I look pale?"
Eva got it immediately. She'd grown very pale, and Otey had noticed it. "Yes," she said, laughing a little, "it's that light. Makes everybody look pale."
"God, you're green!" cried Otey, his eyes wary, puzzled. Then he took a step toward her, staring. "You're scared of me. What is this? Why are you scared of me?" Otey glanced about him like a trapped animal; then all at once his mouth dropped open and he looked at Eva in wonder. "Sabba! I might have known. Oh, what a cluck!" With a sudden, lightning-like movement of his right arm, he tore her purse out of her hand, then grinned at her. "That's where you pack your gun, ain't it? How do you like it now?"
Eva moved back away from him slowly, groping with her foot for the first step of the stairs.
"All right, Eva," Otey said, "just stand still. What goes here, baby? What goes? You ought to see your face. You ever been this scared before? Why are you so scared of me? Why? Why? Come on. Fast."
"Because you talk silly," said Eva, her voice strained but steady. "Wanting me to run away with you. Sitting outside my house at night. What kind of way to act is that?"
Otey studied her face shrewdly. "Naw. It won't do. You're more scared than that. So what's wrong with a guy asking a beautiful doll to run away with him? What's wrong with checking up on her? Naw, naw. It won't do. Who fingered me, Eva?"
"Fingered you? For what?"
"I'm asking a plain question. The whole trip was a phony. I know it now."
"Otey, you're talking silly again. Any wonder I'm scared of you? You don't make sense when you talk. So you drive me up to my aunt's, then you drive me home.
Anybody bothering you? Go on. Go back to the station. Go to the West Coast. Do what you please. What is all this nonsense?"
Otey studied her face ironically, nodding slowly to himself. "Smart girl. Smart girl. And I thought I was smart."
"Good night, Otey," Eva said, making a movement as if to turn and start up the stairs. "Sleep it off. I'm going to bed."
Otey's expression did not change; there was nothing to warn her. All at once he seemed to fly through the air as if propelled by some force outside himself. They collided with a violent shock and fell. The lower steps of the stairway prevented them from falling full length, and Eva, in a half-sitting position, found herself struggling in a grasp so powerful that all resistance seemed futile. She was overcome by panic and she was despairingly certain that in a moment she would faint and be at the mercy of this grinning lunatic.
She heard Otey gasping in a muffled, strangled voice, "Just like all the rest. Women are no goddamn good. Trouble, trouble… always it's like this… trouble…"
Eva lost all sense of time, gripped by hysterical, nightmarish terror, and with all the strength of her will she fought to prevent herself from fainting. And then suddenly her fear of fainting gave Eva the last-ditch idea of a false faint. All at once she went limp, completely limp. Little by little she felt Otey's muscles relaxing, his grasp loosening, and then with an abrupt, violent, sideways movement Eva kicked him, and Otey sprang away from her with a gasp of pain and astonishment.
Eva jumped to her feet and ran up three stairs. Otey made a lunge for her, but stopped dead when he saw the short-barreled .32 in her hand. "Get out of here, Otey-fast," she gasped.
Otey stared. Then he noticed Eva's purse on the floor. Grabbing it up, he rushed out the front door. Eva took the stairs at such a pace that she stumbled and fell on the landing. All the same, she was safe around the corner on the second floor when Otey rushed back in with the .38 in his hand.
He stared in blank bewilderment at the empty stairway, hesitated, took a cautious step forward, looking about him. Then, behind him, the door fanned, and before he could turn a stunning blow from a big fist knocked him forward on his face and a big heavily shod foot pinned his right wrist to the carpet. Otey twisted painfully to see who it was.
"Hinchman," he said with a resigned quietness, as if he'd been expecting him all along.
Stan kicked the gun under a chair in the lobby, then he let Otey get up.
"What's the pinch about, Stan?" he asked.
"Robbery," said Stan, snapping on the handcuffs. "The boys've got the purse outside. Attempted attack."
"A sweet frame," Otey said. "Wait till my lawyer goes to work on this."
"He'll get his chance," said Stan. He took out a handkerchief, removed his hat, and carefully wiped his face and head. Although it was a cool night, there was a large dark spot of sweat on the back of his coat.
Stan took Otey outside. A young detective was standing at the steps with Eva's purse in his hand. In a moment three men on motorcycles came down the street, followed by a squad car.
A big cop got out of the squad car and came over to Stan. "Take him downtown," said Stan. "Keep him in my office till I get there. Nobody is to see or talk to him. Kelly will drive me down in the Ford."
The big cop laughed. "How you ever get in that jalopy in the first place beats me. What do you use, a shoehorn?" Stan laughed curtly. "Hang on to this guy."
"Don't worry."
Stan hurried back into the apartment house and up the stairs. Suddenly he gave a gasp and began to sweat all over again. Eva was lying on her face in the dim upper hallway. Stan knelt down, turned her over, and began gently to slap her hands. Eva opened her eyes, started back wildly from Stan, then stared, recognizing him, and, putting her head down, began to cry.
"I'm great. I'm wonderful," she said.
Stan laughed with relief. "Don't worry. This won't go into the report."
He helped her to her feet and they started for her apartment. "My key! It's in the purse."
Stan ran down and got the key, then he was back and opening her door for her. She switched on the light.
"Say, this is cozy," Stan said, looking about him with surprise. The apartment house wasn't much, but Eva had her little apartment fixed up fine.
"How about a drink, Stan? I've got gin and bourbon."
"Bourbon," said Stan. "Straight." He sank down on a straight chair and wiped his face again.
Eva got the drinks, then she sat opposite Stan in an armchair, stretched out her legs, sighed, and sipped her gin and tonic. Stan tossed down the bourbon with a quick movement of his wrist. He shuddered, but ignored the water chaser.
Eva smiled wanly. "Quite a practiced hand you've got with the bourbon. You surprise me."
"I used to belt it quite a lot," said Stan. "Especially when I was in the old Seventeenth. I quit it. No future in it."
Eva sighed and stared down at the drink in her hand. "No future in it. So you think about the future, too."
"A guy with a wife and two kids has got to," he said shortly. "I learned. Before I was married, a day was just a day. You took care of things as they came up and the hell with it. Now I'm trying to put aside money to send my boys to college. That's a long way off. Fifteen years and more. I'll be an old goat in my middle fifties then." Stan laughed shortly, and sat staring at the carpet.
"You know," Eva said, after a pause, "sometimes I think the people who just live from day to day have the best of it. I'm always tense because I'm worrying about tomorrow, next month, next year. Where will I be? What will I be doing? Thirty's just round the corner. You see, I'm honest with you. When I was sixteen, working in the daytime in a ten-cent store and going to school at night, I was certain that by the time I was thirty I'd be on top of the world."
He was silent for a moment. Then he said, "Well, now, about Otey…"
Eva gave him a complete account of her ride with Otey and its aftermath. Finally he stood up. "O.K. Write it all out tomorrow. I got to go."
He turned at the door and stood studying Eva's face. "I hope you're not kidding about being ambitious."
"Of course I'm not kidding."
"Well, Eva, I'm going to give you the biggest rec a girl ever had in the department, and I'm going to speak to the Chief personally."
Eva hesitated before she spoke, giving him a look he didn't quite understand. "O.K.," she said lightly. "Fine. Thanks a million."
"Good night, Eva," he said. "Get some rest."
But he didn't go. He stood there looking at Eva as if he couldn't tear himself away. And then in a moment he reached out, pulled Eva into a powerful embrace, and kissed her with such force that she gave a cry of pain and surprise, then seemed to sag in his arms. But almost at once she pushed hard against his chest with her hands and struggled to free herself. Stan let her go.
They stared at each other in silence. Finally Eva spoke in a strained, unnatural voice. "That's not for us, Stan. No matter how we feel, that's not for us. You understand that, don't you?"
Stan felt a bitter, unreasoning anger. He'd lost control and made a move-after all these weeks of restraint-and he'd been rejected. Suddenly he remembered Joe and his poor opinion of women. Strictly a little girl on the make, shrewd, conniving; a promoter, nothing more, heartlessly using those about her for her own purposes.
Eva spoke again, looking at him with deep concern and seeming to force the words out. "It's not one of those things that just happens, and is over with, and forgotten. You understand that. I'm sure you do."
Stan stared at her, his face dark with anger. "I think I understand, all right."
Eva took a step toward him. "Don't be mad at me, Stan. You're not a Joe Fay. You're serious. You're no fly-by-night. You're the kind of man a woman marries." He took a step back, away from her. "I am married. I got a family. What are you talking about?"
Eva seemed on the verge of tears. She broke in at once. "I didn't mean what you think, Stan. I'm only trying to tell you what-"
"Do you expect me to throw everything out the window just to-"
"Stan!" she cried, interrupting him hurriedly, not wanting him to finish, fearing what he might say. "It's no use. No matter what I say now, you'll never understand how I feel. I've tried to tell you time after time, but-" Now Stan broke in. "You're right. I don't understand such things." He compressed his lips and his face showed sudden resolution. "Best to forget the whole business. It's no good for anybody. And you'll get your promotion. Don't worry about that. No matter how the case comes out. I'll guarantee it."
Eva's lips parted and she looked at Stan in hurt surprise. "Promotion! Stan!"
But he turned abruptly and started down the dim-lit hallway.
"Stan," called Eva, "don't go like this. Stan!"
He turned the corner and disappeared. Eva stood in the doorway for a moment staring down the deserted hallway, then she went inside, closed the door, walked to the window, and stood looking out blankly at the row of dark windows next door. She was so exhausted she couldn't cry. In a little while she heard a car start up and drive off.
