Chapter 17 Chapter 17 Renault

She led me into the living room, stepped back from me, turned around, and asked me if I liked her new dress.I said I like it.She explained that the color was rose red and the little trim around the edge was this and that.Finally she asked, "Do you really think I look good in this dress?" "You're always good-looking," I said, "and Lure Yard and Finn Pete went to old Elihu's this afternoon." She made a face at me and said, "You didn't say anything about my clothes. What are they doing there?" "I think it's a meeting." She looked at me through her eyelashes and asked, "You really don't know where Max is?"

I did know then.It's no use saying I didn't know all the time.I said, "Probably at the Wilsons', but I'm not interested enough to be sure." "You're stupid. He has a reason to dislike you and me now. Go and grab him at my word, if you want to live, and you want me to live." I laughed and said, "You don't know the worst. Max didn't kill Noonan's brother. Tim didn't say 'Max'. He meant 'Maxwell' and he died before he finished speaking. " She grabbed my shoulders, trying to shake my one hundred and ninety pound body.She finally didn't do it.

"Damn you!" Her hot breath hit my face.Her face was as white as her teeth.Lipstick and rouge are like stickers on her mouth and cheeks, "If you have killed him, and I am going to kill him, you must kill him—now." I don't like being rocked, even by young women who seem to come out of fairy tales.I took her hand off her shoulder and said, "Stop shouting. You're alive." "Yes, I'm still alive. But I know Max better than you do. I know the chances of surviving whoever killed him. It would be bad enough if we got rid of him, but—" "Don't make a fuss. I've killed millions of people and it's not all right. Put on your hat and coat and we'll eat. You'll feel better then."

"You're crazy if you think I'm going out now. Not in that—" "Stop it, miss. If he's that dangerous, he'll probably get you here or anywhere. So what does it matter?" "That's going to be—do you know what you're going to do? You're going to stay here until Max is done. It's your fault and you have to take care of me. I don't even have Dan now. He's in the hospital .” "I can't," I said. "I've got work to do. You've got nothing to do. Max may have forgotten all about you by now. Put on your hat and coat. I'm hungry."

She brought her face close to mine again, and her eyes looked as if they had found something terrible in mine. "Oh, you're a nuisance!" she said. "You don't have the slightest thought of what might happen to me. You use me as you would use someone—as if you were the dynamite you wanted. I've trusted you in the past." .” "You're dynamite, yes, but the rest is kind of silly. You look better when you're happy. Your face is so gloomy. Angry would make it very ugly. I'm hungry, miss." "You eat here," she said, "and you don't expect me to go out after dark."

She walks the talk.She took off her rose-colored coat for an apron and pulled out what was in the fridge.There were potatoes, lettuce, canned soup and half a fruitcake.I went out and bought some steak, rolls, asparagus and tomatoes. When I got back she was mixing gin, vermouth, and orange bitters in a quart mixer without leaving much room for them to be fully mixed. "Did you see anything?" she asked. I laughed at her kindly.We brought cocktails into the restaurant while the food was cooking and drank several glasses.The wine cheered her up a lot.By the time we sat down to eat she had almost forgotten her fear.She's not a very good cook, but we ate like she was.

We drank some gin and ginger ale before dinner. She decided to go somewhere and do something.No nasty dwarf could lock her up, because she had been nice to him in the past, he was the one to pick on things, and if he didn't like what she was doing, he could climb a tree or jump in a river.We're going to the "Silver Arrow" hotel she's going to take me to because she's promised Raynor she'll be at his party and she swears to God she'll be there and anyone who thinks she won't is like the number one idiot Crazy, what do I think of this? "Who is Raynor?" I asked.She pulled the wrong end of the strap and tied herself even tighter in the apron.

"Reynold Stuckey. You're going to like him. He's a good guy. I swore to him to be at his celebrations and that's what I'm going to do." "What is he celebrating?" "What the hell happened to that nasty apron? He was let out this afternoon." "Turn around and I'll untie it for you. Why did he go in? Don't move." "Blown up a safe six or seven months ago - Jewelers Turlock's. Reynolds, Putt Collins, Blackie Warren, Hank O'Mara, and a little guy who people called him 'Step and a Half' Lame. They had enough cover--Lure Yard--but the jewelers' association detectives put the charges on them last week. So Noonan had to put on a show. It's nothing. They're this afternoon Bail out at five, and people won't hear about it anymore. Raynor's used to it. He's been bailed three times in the past. Will you make a little drink while I get dressed?"

"Silver Arrow" is located halfway between Parsonville and Mok Lake. "That's a nice place," Dinah told me as we drove us there in her little car. "Polly DeVotto is a nice guy. Anything she sells you is great, except maybe Strong whiskey. It always tastes a little bit bitter, as if it came from a dead body. You'll like her. You can take anything in there as long as you don't make a scene. She can't stand the noise .Here we are. See the red and blue lights behind the bushes?" We drove through the bushes and had a good view of the roadside hotel, a brightly lit castle-like building close to the road.

"What do you mean she can't stand the noise?" I asked, listening to the bursts of gunfire. "Something went wrong," the girl muttered, stopping the car. A woman dragged between the two men ran out the front door of the hotel and disappeared into the darkness.A man sprinted out of the side door and ran away.The gunfire continued. I don't see any flames. Another man rushed out, circled around and disappeared. A man leaned far out from the front window on the second floor, holding a black pistol in his hand. Dinah was breathing heavily. From a hedge by the side of the road, a beam of orange flames was aimed at the man at the window.He also fired downwards.He leaned out further.There was no movement at the hedge.

The man at the window crossed one leg over the window sill, bent down, grabbed the window sill with his hands, hung himself up, and jumped down. Our car jerked forward.Dinah bit her lower lip. The man who had jumped from the window started to get up. Dinah's face came up to me and screamed, "Reno!" The man jumped up and faced us.When we approached him, he jumped over in three steps. Dinah opened the door of the car and in a few moments Renault's foot was on the running board beside me.I put my arms around him and almost dislocated trying to hold him.He leaned out as far as he could to fight back, and I had to hug him as hard as I could. Then it was all over.We drove out of the area, sight and sound of the Silver Arrow and sped away from Parsonville. Renault turned around and grabbed the car himself.I drew my arms back and found that all the joints were still working.Dinah was busy driving. Leno said, "Thanks, man. I need to get out of here." "Okay," she told him, "so is that the kind of party you're throwing?" "We had some uninvited guests. Do you know Thaler Road?" "Know." "Go that way. It'll take us all the way to Monton Avenue, and from there we can circle back to town." The girl nodded, slowed down the car, and asked, "Who are those uninvited guys?" "Some ignorant fellow who won't give me peace." "Do I know them?" she said very casually as she turned the car onto a narrower, more rugged road. "Forget it, man," Leno said, "better let the car go as fast as it can." She pushed the car forward another fifteen miles an hour.She had enough to do now without letting the car go off the road, and Renault was busy keeping himself from falling out of the car.Neither of them spoke again until the car pulled onto a better paved road. Then he asked: "So you betrayed Vespa?" "Ok." "They said you betrayed him." "They will. What do you think?" "You can turn your back on him. But there's something abhorrent about bringing a detective into the mix and telling him the secret. Very abhorrent, if you ask me." He looked at me as he spoke.He was in his mid-thirties, tall, broad-shouldered, and solid without a single speck of excess fat.In his long, sallow face, a pair of large, brown, glazed eyes were set far apart. It's a humorless, insensitive face, but somehow not obnoxious.I looked at him and said nothing. The girl said, "If you feel that way, you can—" "Careful," Raynor muttered. We turn a corner.A long black car stopped in front of us—a barricade. Bullets are flying towards us.Reynolds and I fought back while the girl played pony polo tricks in the coupe. She swerved the car to the left of the road, let the left wheel drive up the high slope, and jumped across the road again with Leno and my body in the car.The side of the car we were in began to lift despite our weight, when the car's left wheel fell on the right-hand slope of the road, and it slid down onto the road, leaving the enemy behind us.When all the bullets in the pistol were exhausted, the car took us out of the adjacent area. A large group of people fired a lot of bullets.But so far we haven't seen anyone injured. Raynor shoved another clip into his automatic as he elbowed the car door and said, "Good job, man. You're a real good driver." Dinah asked, "Where are you going now?" "Go further. Just drop by. We'll have to figure it out. Looks like they don't want us to go back to town. Be careful." We drove another dozen miles in the direction out of Parsonville.We passed several cars along the way and saw no sign of anyone chasing us.The car rumbled across a short bridge.Renault said, "Turn right at the top of the hill." We turned right onto a dirt road that snaked through the trees and across a rocky backside.Ten miles an hour is fast here.Renault ordered a stop after five minutes of crawling.We sat in the dark, hearing nothing and seeing nothing for half an hour.Then Raynor said, "There's an empty shed a mile down the road. How about we camp there? There's no point trying to break the city defenses again tonight." Dinah said she never wanted to be shot again.I said I agreed, though I'd much rather find my way back to the city. We drove cautiously along the dirt road until the car's headlights shone on a small board house in dire need of paint that had never been painted before. "Is this here?" Dinah asked Raynor. "Well. You stay here, I'll go over and have a look." He left us, and in a few moments he appeared in the halo of headlights on the door.He fumbled for the key to unlock the padlock on the door, took off the padlock, opened the door, and walked in.Soon he came back to the door and called to us: "Okay. Come in, please do whatever you want, like home." Dinah turned off the engine and got out of the car. "Is there a flashlight in the car?" I asked. "Yes," she said, handing me the flashlight, yawning, "Jesus, I'm sleepy. I wish there was something to drink in the house." I told her I still had a bottle of scotch.The news cheered her up. The cabin consisted of a single room, a military canvas with a tan blanket, a dining table with cards and personal poker crumbs spread out, a tan iron stove, and four chairs , an oil lamp, some saucers, pots, plates and barrels, three shelves with canned goods, a pile of firewood and a wheelbarrow. Renault was lighting a lamp when we entered."It's not too bad. I'll hide the car and we'll rest until dawn," he said. Dinah went to the bed, flipped the blanket over, and reported, "Maybe there's something in there, but they're probably dead anyway. Let's have some drinks now." I unscrewed the cap and handed her the wine.At this time Renault went out to hide the car.After she finished, I took a sip too. The chatter of the car engine was getting weaker and weaker.I opened the door and looked out.Down the mountain, through the trees and bushes, I could see patches of white light going away.When I could no longer see them, I went back inside and asked the girl, "Have you ever had to walk home before?" "what?" "Renault drove the car away." "The wretch! Thank God there's still a bed in the place he left us anyway." "That's no use to you either." "Useless?" "It didn't work. Raynor had the key to this place. Nine times out of ten the guys who came after him knew it too. That's why he left us here. He wanted us to fight them and help him temporarily hold them back." She got out of bed wearily, scolded Renault, me, all the men in the world, and said reluctantly, "You know everything. What should we do next?" "Let's find a comfortable place in the open not far around and see what happens." "I'll take the blanket." "Maybe it's all right to take one, but if you take more than that. You're going to screw us over." "Damn you," she muttered, but she still only took a blanket. I blew out the lights, locked the door behind us, and picked my way through the jungle by the light of my torch. On one side of the hill we found a small cave, from which we could see the road and the sheds more clearly through the foliage, which was thick enough to hide us unless we shone a light. There I spread out the blanket and we sat down. The girl leaned against me complaining that the ground was wet, that despite her fur coat she was cold, that her legs were cramping, and then said she wanted a cigarette. I made her drink some more.That brought me ten minutes of peace. Then she added: "I'm going to catch a cold. If anyone comes, I'll sneeze and cough so loud I can hear it all over town." "Just once," I told her, "and you're screwed." "There's a mouse or something crawling under the blanket." "Probably just a snake." "Are you married?" "Don't say that." "So you are married?" "No." "I bet your wife would be delighted to hear that." As I struggled to think of a sentence to respond to her quip, a distant light illuminated the road.The light disappeared when I told the girl to be quiet. "What's that?" she asked. "A light. Gone now. Our visitors have disembarked. Finishing their journey on foot." It's been a long time.The girl shivered and pressed her warm cheek against mine.We heard footsteps, and saw dark figures walking on the road and around the sheds, and we were not sure if they were real. The bright halo of a flashlight shone on the door, ending our doubts. A deep voice said, "Let that woman come out." There was half a minute of silence as they waited for a reply from inside the room.Then the deep voice asked again, "Are you out?" Then there was a longer silence. Gunshots, a familiar sound tonight, broke the silence.Something is hammering the planks. "Come on," I whispered to the girl, "let's try their car while they're making a lot of noise." "Leave them alone," she said.When I started to stand she pulled my arms down, "I've had enough for one night. We're safe here." "Come on." I insisted. "I'm not going," she said, she would not go.not for a while.As soon as we quarreled, it was too late.The guy below has kicked the door open to break in, found the shed empty, and is now swearing and walking towards their car. The car came, put eight people in the car, and followed Renault's route down the mountain. "We might as well go to the house again," I said, "they won't be coming back this way tonight." "God, I hope there's still some scotch left in that bottle," she said as I helped her up.