at the Smith and Wesson that still reposed in her lap, and seemed surprised to see it. “Oh.”
“I was trying to learn something,” I said. “I thought it would be useful to see your reaction when I threw some nasty accusations at you, and you had a firearm handy.”
“Did I pass the test?”
“Your hand never twitched,” I said. “Your knuckles never even whitened. Obviously Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson were wasting their time inventing that thing, as far as you’re concerned. Even when pushed into a corner you don’t think in gunpowder terms.”
She smiled. “Maybe it was not so much of a corner you pushed me into, my dear. Or maybe I just knew I could not win doing battle on your terms. An amateur against a professional.”
“And maybe you’re just a nice lady playing a crazy game of some kind that you don’t feel is worth killing for… No, keep the piece. You’ve earned it and you may need it before we’re through, or I may. In the street gangs, I understand, the moll always carries the heater so if her man is frisked he comes up clean. I don’t think my terminology is up to date, but who can keep track of the jargon nowadays?” I looked at her. “Tired?”
She nodded. “I think I could sleep for a week.”
“Well, after that SAS breakfast, I guess we don’t have to worry about lunch, so you’ve got until tonight sometime. I won’t make any predictions beyond that. I could use some rest myself; I’ll take a little snooze on the other bed. I’ll try not to disturb you when I go out, unless you want to be waked for dinner.”
“No, please just let me sleep if I’m still asleep.”
She was.
9
Even well after dark, the traffic on the big boulevard didn’t seem to have diminished much. The cars zipping by were smaller on the average than you’d find in the U.S., even these economical days. The trucks were smaller, too, but the steady rumble was just about the same as you’d hear along a busy route leading into any large American city. It was hard to remember that I was in a foreign land where I didn’t even speak the language.
I’d had a leisurely, lonely dinner in the flossier of the motel’s two restaurants. It had plushy chairs and linen tablecloths. It even served cocktails if you hit them between four and ten pee em. Afterwards, I’d read for a while, sitting in the lobby so as not to disturb my roommate. Although we were in the Land of the Midnight Sun, that’s a summer phenomenon and this was only spring, so I didn’t have to wait much past eight for darkness. Now, having slipped out of one of the rear doors of the motel, I stood for a moment listening to the murmur of traffic from the highway in front of the building. It was still loud enough, back here, that it would have made a good cover for sneaking up on somebody, since even if you were careless and snapped all the twigs and kicked all the pebbles, nobody would have heard. However, I didn’t have anybody to sneak up on. Yet.
I moved cautiously around the corner into the shelter of some decorative planting at the side of the motel, and studied the situation further. The parking lot was L-shaped. Most of it, including the space occupied by the Mercedes, was at the front, where I couldn’t see it from my present position, but an arm of it extended down the side of the building towards me. It was there that I’d parked the little Volksie-Ford. Although I’d picked the spot simply because it was open, I could hardly have done better. There were only a couple of places from which the car could be kept under observation inconspicuously.
Not that I’d sneaked out of my room to watch my own car. I’d come out to see if I could spot somebody else watching it. I was operating on the theory that there were only two of them, so they couldn’t cover all the exits of the sprawling motel. I’d taken the precaution of paying for the night in advance, not knowing how things would break, so there was no point in their watching
“I was trying to learn something,” I said. “I thought it would be useful to see your reaction when I threw some nasty accusations at you, and you had a firearm handy.”
“Did I pass the test?”
“Your hand never twitched,” I said. “Your knuckles never even whitened. Obviously Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson were wasting their time inventing that thing, as far as you’re concerned. Even when pushed into a corner you don’t think in gunpowder terms.”
She smiled. “Maybe it was not so much of a corner you pushed me into, my dear. Or maybe I just knew I could not win doing battle on your terms. An amateur against a professional.”
“And maybe you’re just a nice lady playing a crazy game of some kind that you don’t feel is worth killing for… No, keep the piece. You’ve earned it and you may need it before we’re through, or I may. In the street gangs, I understand, the moll always carries the heater so if her man is frisked he comes up clean. I don’t think my terminology is up to date, but who can keep track of the jargon nowadays?” I looked at her. “Tired?”
She nodded. “I think I could sleep for a week.”
“Well, after that SAS breakfast, I guess we don’t have to worry about lunch, so you’ve got until tonight sometime. I won’t make any predictions beyond that. I could use some rest myself; I’ll take a little snooze on the other bed. I’ll try not to disturb you when I go out, unless you want to be waked for dinner.”
“No, please just let me sleep if I’m still asleep.”
She was.
9
Even well after dark, the traffic on the big boulevard didn’t seem to have diminished much. The cars zipping by were smaller on the average than you’d find in the U.S., even these economical days. The trucks were smaller, too, but the steady rumble was just about the same as you’d hear along a busy route leading into any large American city. It was hard to remember that I was in a foreign land where I didn’t even speak the language.
I’d had a leisurely, lonely dinner in the flossier of the motel’s two restaurants. It had plushy chairs and linen tablecloths. It even served cocktails if you hit them between four and ten pee em. Afterwards, I’d read for a while, sitting in the lobby so as not to disturb my roommate. Although we were in the Land of the Midnight Sun, that’s a summer phenomenon and this was only spring, so I didn’t have to wait much past eight for darkness. Now, having slipped out of one of the rear doors of the motel, I stood for a moment listening to the murmur of traffic from the highway in front of the building. It was still loud enough, back here, that it would have made a good cover for sneaking up on somebody, since even if you were careless and snapped all the twigs and kicked all the pebbles, nobody would have heard. However, I didn’t have anybody to sneak up on. Yet.
I moved cautiously around the corner into the shelter of some decorative planting at the side of the motel, and studied the situation further. The parking lot was L-shaped. Most of it, including the space occupied by the Mercedes, was at the front, where I couldn’t see it from my present position, but an arm of it extended down the side of the building towards me. It was there that I’d parked the little Volksie-Ford. Although I’d picked the spot simply because it was open, I could hardly have done better. There were only a couple of places from which the car could be kept under observation inconspicuously.
Not that I’d sneaked out of my room to watch my own car. I’d come out to see if I could spot somebody else watching it. I was operating on the theory that there were only two of them, so they couldn’t cover all the exits of the sprawling motel. I’d taken the precaution of paying for the night in advance, not knowing how things would break, so there was no point in their watching
Similar Books
