Chapter 13 Chapter Thirteen Two hundred yuan plus ten

As I was unbuttoning my vest, the phone rang. It was Dinah Brand calling.She complained that she had been looking for me after ten o'clock. "You didn't do anything with what I told you?" she asked. "I've been thinking, it's just so good. I thought maybe I'd start this afternoon." "Don't do it until I see you. Can you come over now?" I glanced at the empty bed, and replied reluctantly, "Okay." A tub of cold water didn't do much for me, I almost fell asleep in the tub. When I rang the doorbell at her house, Dan Rolfe let me in.He acted as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened the night before.Dinah Brand came into the hall and helped me take off my coat.She was wearing a tan sweater with a two-inch gap left at one shoulder seam.

She led me into the living room.She sat on the couch next to me and said, "I want you to do something for me. You like me a lot, don't you?" I admit that I do like her a lot.Pointing to the knuckles of my left hand with her warm index finger, she explained, "I want you to do nothing about what I told you last night. Now wait a minute and let me think it through. Dan was right. I Shouldn't have betrayed Max like that. It's so despicable. And you're mainly trying to deal with Noonan, aren't you? Well, if you really love me, let Max go this time. I'll tell you enough about Noonan , you can totally beat him. You prefer that, don't you? You like me so much that you're not going to take advantage of me by telling you when I'm very annoyed at something I said to Max, are you?"

"What's Noonan's secret?" I asked. She rubbed my biceps and whispered, "You swear?" "not now." She said to me with a straight face, "Frankly, I have to stay away from Max for my life. You have no right to ask me to betray him." "What's Noonan's secret?" "You swear first." "No." Inserting her fingers into my arm, she asked sharply, "Have you been to Noonan's?" "yes." She let go of my arm, frowned, shrugged her shoulders, and said darkly, "So, what should I do?"

I stood up and a voice said, "Sit down." It was a hoarse, low voice—Taylor's voice. I turned around and saw him standing in the doorway of the restaurant.A large pistol is held in a small hand.A red-faced man with a scar on his face stood behind him. As I sat down, a figure stood out from another doorway leading to the hall.A man with a wide mouth and no chin took a step through the doorway, and I heard Vespa calling him Jerry.He holds two guns in his hand.Standing behind him was a skinny guy with blond hair that I'd seen at the King Street Casino, looking at me over Jerry's shoulder.

Dinah Brand got up from the couch and spoke to me with her back to Tyler.Her voice was hoarse with anger. "I didn't do it. He came by himself, and he said he was sorry for what he said, and he told me how we could make a lot of money by killing Noonan for you. The whole process was a scam, And I fell for it. Swear to God, I'm telling the truth! He waited upstairs when I called you. I didn't know there was anyone else. I don't—" Jerry's rambling voice said slowly, "If I shoot her from under her, she'll sit down and maybe shut up. How?" I can't see Vespa.This girl stood between us.He said, "Not now. Where's Dan?"

"On the upstairs bathroom floor, I had to knock him down," said the skinny blond guy. Dinah Brand turned to Taylor.The snagging of the stockings stretched to the top of the back of her full thighs.She said, "Max Taylor, you mean little--" He whispered very calmly, "Shut up and stand back." She shuts her mouth in amazement and steps away between us.When he spoke to me, she said nothing. "So you and Noonan plan to force his brother's death on me?" "There's no need to impose it at all, it's just the way it is." He curled his lips at me and said, "You are as dishonest as he is."

I said, "You know better. When he tried his best to frame you, I stood by your side. This time he will arrest you for Falun Gong." Dinah Brand was furious again.She waved her hands in the middle of the room and yelled, "Go away, you guys. Why should I mind your goddamn business? Get out!" The blond boy who had knocked Rolf down squeezed past Jerry and walked into the room grinning.He grabbed one of the girl's flailing arms and twisted behind her. She turned to him and hit him hard in the stomach with her other fist.It was a pretty heavy blow—with the strength of a man.This punch made him let go of her arm and took several steps back.

The guy took a sharp breath, swung the leather-covered lead club from his back pocket, and walked towards her again.This time his grin was gone. Jerry laughed so hard he couldn't see his tiny chin. Taylor snapped, "Stop!" The guy ignored him, still snarling at the girl. She stared at him, her face hard as a silver dollar.She was standing with most of her weight on her left foot, and I figured she might have kicked the guy when he got close to her. The guy pretended to grab her with his free left hand, but with his right hand he hit her in the face with a stick. Taylor yelled again, "Stop!" He fired.

The bullet caught the guy just under the right eye, and he turned and fell backwards into Dinah's arms. Looks like my chance is here to make a move, if there is one. Excited, I reached into my back pocket, drew my pistol and shot Taylor in the shoulder. I was wrong.If I had shot him in the vitals just now, I might have shot him in the shoulder by now.Jawless Jerry's laugh is not for nothing.As I was shooting, he gave me a shot.The bullet hit me in the wrist, throwing me off target when I shot.But, though I missed Tyler, my shot knocked out the red-faced man behind him. Not knowing how badly my wrist hurt, I switched the gun to my left hand.

Jerry was ready to shoot me again.The girl threw the body at him, destroying it.The dead man's yellow head hit his knee.I jumped at him when he lost his balance. The pounce put me out of range of Tyler's gun.I wrestled with Jerry and rolled into the hall. Jerry wasn't hard to deal with, but I had to be quick.Taylor is still behind.I punched him twice, kicked him and headbutted him at least once.Just when I was trying to find a place to bite him, he went limp.I punched him again where his jaw should be - just to make sure he wasn't faking - and I crawled down the hall for a while to the point where the door was off.

I crouched against the wall, pointing the gun at where Tyler was in the room, waiting for him.I couldn't hear anything but the buzzing of blood in my head. Dinah Bland came out of the doorway I had just climbed through, looked at Jerry, then at me.She smiled slightly, turned to me, and walked back to the living room. I followed her cautiously. Vesper stood in the middle of the room.His hands were empty and his face was expressionless. Except for his wicked little mouth, he looks like a clothes hanger in a clothing store window. Dan Rolfe stood behind him, the muzzle of the gun pointed diagonally at the little gambler's left waist.Rolf's face was covered with blood.The blond guy—now dead, lying on the floor between Rolf and me—had beaten him enough. I grinned at Tyler and said, "Okay, that's good." But after a while I saw Rolf pointing another gun at my stubby waist.That's not good.But luckily my gun is still in my hand.To me, this is nothing more than a head-to-head contest. Rolf said, "Put down the gun." Confused, I looked at Dinah.She shrugged and told me, "Looks like you'll have to listen to Dan." "Really? Someone should tell him I don't like this." Rolf repeated, "Put down the gun." Reluctantly I said, "If I put the gun down, I'll be damned. I've lost twenty pounds trying to catch him, and I can lose another twenty pounds for the same purpose." Rolfe said: "I'm not interested in what's going on between you, and I'm not going to give either of you—" Dinah Bland had wandered across the room.When she got behind Rolf, I interrupted him and told her, "If you spoil him now, you're bound to have two friends—Noonan and me. You can't trust Taylor any more, so It's no use helping him." She smiled and said, "Make an offer, dear." "Dinah!" Rolf objected.He was subdued.She stood behind him, and she was strong enough to handle him.It was unlikely that he would shoot her, and it was unlikely that anything would stop her from doing what she decided to do. "One hundred dollars," I yelled. "My God!" she exclaimed, "I managed to get you to promise me some cash. But not enough." "Two hundreds." "You're being hasty. That's still too little." "Try it," I said. "It's worth the money for me, because I don't have to blow the gun out of Rolf's hand, but that's the most." "You've made a good start, keep working harder. Anyway, let's make another price." "Two hundred yuan plus ten points, no more." "You bastard," she said, "I'm not doing it." "You do what you want," I warned Tyler with a grimace, "no matter what happens, you must not move." Dinah yelled, "Wait! Are you really going to start something?" "I'm going to take Tyler out with me no matter what." "Two hundred plus ten?" "yes." "Dinah," cried Rolf, his face still turned to me, "you can't—" But she smiled and walked up behind him, hugged him with her strong arms, pulled down his two arms, and pressed them firmly to her sides. I pushed Taylor out with my right arm, and at the same time pointed the gun at Rolf, taking the weapon out of his hand.Dinah let go of the consumptive man. He took two steps towards the restaurant door, said wearily, "No—" and collapsed on the floor. Dinah ran to him.I pushed Tyler out of the hall, past Jerry, who was still unconscious, to the corner under the front stairs, where I saw a telephone. I called Noonan and told him I had Taylor and where I was. "My God!" he said, "don't kill him till I get there."