Free the Hot Kid (2005) by Elmore - Carl Webster 0 Leonard Page A

front and a colored man in a green uniform coat with gold buttons and a peaked cap came around to open her door--and saw Joe Young on the sidewalk waving the doorman away, saying as he got in the car, "Jesus Christ, you stole it, didn't you? Jesus, how old are you, going around stealing cars?"
    Louly said, "How old you have to be?"
    He told her to keep straight ahead.
    She said, "You aren't staying at the hotel?" "I'm at a tourist court."
    "Charley there?"
    "He's around someplace."
    "Well, he was in Sallisaw yesterday," Louly sounding mad now, "if that's what you call around," seeing by Joe Young's expression she was telling him something he didn't know. "I thought you were in his gang."
    "He's got an old boy name of Birdwell with him. I hook up with Choc when I feel like it."
    She was almost positive Joe Young was lying to her.
    "Am I gonna see Charley or not?"
    "He'll be back, don't worry your head about it." He said, "We got this car, I won't have to steal one." Joe Young was in a good mood now.
    "What we need Choc for?" Grinning at her close by in the car. "We got each other."
    It told her what to expect.
    Once they got to the tourist court and were in No. 7, like a little one-room frame house that needed paint, Joe Young took off his coat and she saw the Colt automatic with a pearl grip stuck in his pants. He laid it on the dresser by a full quart of whiskey and two glasses and poured them each a drink, his bigger than hers. She stood watching till he told her to take off her coat and when she did told her to take off her dress. Now she was in her white brassiere and underpants. Joe Young looked her over before handing the smaller drink to her and clinking glasses.
    "To our future."
    Louly said, "Doing what?" Seeing the fun in his eyes. He put his glass on the dresser, brought two .38 revolvers from the drawer and offered her one. She took it, big and heavy in her hand and said, "Yeah . . . ?"
    "You know how to steal a car, and I admire that. But I bet you never held up a place with a gun."
    "That's what we're gonna do?"
    "Start with a filling station and work you up to a bank." He said, "I bet you never been to bed with a grown man, either."
    Louly felt like telling him she was bigger than he was, taller, anyway, but didn't. This was a new experience, different than with boys her age in the woods, and she wanted to see what it was like. Well, he grunted a lot and was rough, breathed hard through his nose and smelled of Lucky Tiger hair tonic, but it wasn't that much different than with boys. She got to liking it before he was finished and patted his back with her rough, cotton-picking fingers till he began to breathe easy again. Once he rolled off her she got her douche bag out of Mr. Hagenlocker's grip she'd taken and went in the bathroom, Joe Young's voice following her with, "Whoooeee . . ." Then saying, "You know what you are now, little girl? You're what's called a gun moll."
    Joe Young slept a while, woke up still snockered and wanted to get something to eat. So they went to Purity, Joe said was the best place in Henryetta.
    Louly said at the table, "Charley Floyd came in here one time and everybody stayed in their house."
    "How you know that?"
    "I know everything about him was ever written, some things only told."
    "Who was it named him Pretty Boy?"
    "I found out it wasn't that paymaster in St. Louis, it was a woman named Beulah Ash. She ran the boardinghouse in Kansas City where Charley stayed."
    Joe Young picked up his coffee he'd poured a shot into. He said , "You're gonna start reading about me, chile."
    It reminded her she didn't know how old Joe Young was and took this opportunity to ask him. "I'm thirty next month, born on Christmas Day, same as Baby Jesus."
    Louly laughed out loud. She couldn't help it, seeing Joe Young lying in a feed trough with Baby Jesus, the three Wise Men looking at him funny. She asked Joe how many times he'd had his picture in the paper.
    "When I got sent to Jeff City they was all