Free A Hell of a Woman (Crime Masterworks) by Jim Thompson Page A

thing? I am not the first; many others there have been. And-and how you know, anyvay?"
    "Let it go," I said. "I felt like I'd given you kind of a raw deal getting you fired, and I wanted to make up for it. But as long as you think I'm lying, let it go."
    I stood up and took out my wallet. I got out a couple of ones, letting him see them, and then I shoved them back and took out a five. I held it out to him.
    "And take the bottle along with you, too," I said. "You'd better have a good one before they pick you up.
    "B-but-" He drew back from the money. "I did not mean to offend. It iss chust-"
    "Just for your own satisfaction," I said, "why don't you call the old gal up? There's the phone. Ask her if she isn't going to send you over the road just as soon as she can arrange it."
    "B-but if I did dot-"
    "But it isn't true, remember? I'm lying to you."
    His face was turning gray. He took such a slug out of the pint that he almost killed it.
    "Dillon," he said. "How-vot-vot iss? "
    I sat down in front of him. I looked him in the eye and began to talk.
    So maybe he wasn't the first one with Mona, I said. But could he prove it? And could he prove that she wasn't a minor, and that she and the old woman had agreed to the deal? It would be his word against theirs. And he had a police record and a bad rep for drinking.
    Why was the old gal doing this to him? Well, she was a pure mean bitch and low down as all hell (_he nodded_), and she was sore at him, remember? They'd had a knock-down dragout brawl before he'd quit working for her (_he nodded again_), and she was plenty burned up about it. She was out for blood, that baby, and she meant to stick him.
    Pete shook his head dully. A thin thread of slobber oozed down from the corner of his mouth, and he brushed it away.
    "Vy?" he said. "I do not doubt you, Dillon, but vy does she tell-"
    "Because she thought I was on her side, see?" I lied. "I went there trying to trace you down for the store, and you know it was just business with me; I wasn't sore at you at all, and I proved it to you. But, anyway, she figures I am, and I play along with her, so just as I'm leaving, she says to come back and let her know if you're still there at the greenhouse. She's got an idea how we can make it plenty tough on you.
    "Well, like I say, I wasn't sore at you at all. I'm really your good friend and I proved it, didn't I? (_He hesitated, nodded firmly_.) So I go back and tell her you've quit the greenhouse, and then I ask her what the score is. I want to find out, see, so! can tip you off.
    "I guess maybe she got a little suspicious of me about then because all she'll say is never mind; the cops will be able to find you and when they do it'll be just too bad. But I kept on hanging around, pretending like I'm burned up with you, too, and anxious to help her, and finally she tells me what she has in mind…"
    I coughed and turned my head. Man, it was all I could do to keep from busting out laughing!… That slobber running down his chin again; and his eyes- glazed and bugged out like marbles. He was one scared bastard, and I'm crapping you negative.
    "Well, I was afraid to try to talk her out of it," I went on. "She'd have seen I was really your friend, see, and she'd probably have called the cops right away. So I said swell, I was all for it, but maybe she wouldn't be able to make it stick. Maybe it would be better if I looked you up and brought you there. You know; had a few drinks with you and then suggested that we go over there for a party. We'd frame you-I told her-see? We'd call the cops in, and…"
    Yeah, it was pretty wild, but he was a pretty dumb guy. Didn't have much education, anyway. And I guess he'd been pushed around plenty by the cops. He stared at me, his lips too stiff to move, his face turning green under the gray. And I coughed and turned my head again.
    "V-vot… I haf some time, Dillon? I can get out of town before-"
    "How far would you get?" I said. "The cops have your mug and prints.