Free Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye by Horace McCoy Page B

get even with Mason, you get even by yourself,’ Holiday said. ‘Don’t try to suck Ralph in. We got to get out of here, we got to get out of here fast. And not you, either. You don’t go with us. You go in some other direction, not with us’
    Jinx stared at her for a second and then looked at me, frowning. ‘What’s the matter with her?’ he asked.
    ‘I told you. She’s been having hysterics.’
    ‘We got to get out of town,’ she said. They told us to get out of town.’
    ‘Would you believe this is the same dame we knew yesterday?’ I asked him.
    ‘I sure as hell wouldn’t.…’
    ‘You see?’ I said to her. ‘Relax for a minute, will you? Take it easy. Everything’s under control. Let me handle this.’
    ‘You’ve handled it fine so far. You punk.’
    ‘Please…’ I said.
    ‘That club-footed nance son-of-a-bitch, he didn’t even tip me off the plainclothes men were coming,’ Jinx said. ‘He lets ’em walk in on me cold. I look up and there they are.’
    ‘I know exactly how you feel,’ I said. They cleaned us, too.’
    ‘They didn’t clean me. I didn’t know it was a shakedown then. I don’t know these two cops and think it’s a pinch. I didn’t know it was a shakedown. I wouldn’ta minded a shakedown so much. That…’
    ‘Wait a minute,’ I said. ‘What do you mean they didn’t clean you? You mean you didn’t pay these guys off?’
    ‘I didn’t know it was a shakedown. I thought it was a pinch…’
    Holiday lifted her eyes to mine and I dropped mine to hers. Both of us were thinking the same thing –if he didn’t pay off the cops he still had the money.
    ‘How’d you get loose then?’ I asked.
    ‘They never did have me. I’m working in the shop when they come in the back way and ask where Jinx Raynor is. I tell ’em he’s in front, and then they go to the front I duck out the alley. I thought it was a pinch. I didn’t know it was a shakedown till I got here, till I saw Reece and the Inspector come out without you. Then it figured.’
    ‘Inspector?’ I said. ‘The little guy’s an Inspector?’
    ‘Yeah. Inspector Webber.’
    Well, well, I was thinking. Cut yourself a piece of cake, Inspector. Cut yourself two pieces of cake.
    ‘Then you still got the money?’ Holiday asked.
    ‘Sure, I still got it. Two gees. I got it right here,’ he said, slapping the right-hand pocket of his trousers.
    ‘That’s wonderful!’ Holiday said, and I knew she was thinking that now we could get out of town, that now I wouldn’t have to pull another stick-up.
    ‘That’s wonderful,’ I said, thinking about something else entirely.
    ‘I’d rather’ve gave those guys half of it and stayed here than to keep all of it and have to leave. I was just getting started good in this town.’
    You don’t know how well you are started in this town, I wanted to tell him.
    ‘You can get started good in some other town,’ Holiday said. ‘We can all meet somewhere. Denver. Dallas. Kansas City.’
    ‘Now she wants to meet you somewhere,’ I said. ‘Now she likes you again.’
    ‘Will you shut up, you punk, you amateur,’ she said.
    ‘I may not be the punk, the amateur, you think. I may surprise you,’ I said to her. ‘Maybe you won’t have to leave town,’ I said to Jinx. ‘Maybe I can make a deal for you.’
    ‘Look who’s talking about making a deal for you.’
    ‘Please,’ I said.
    ‘Big Stuff. Old Master,’ she said. ‘He knows all about how to handle cops. Yeah. You should of seen him handling ’em.’ Her hysterics were getting better. The vinegar was rising once more. She knew she could have a helping of Jinx’s two gees, and she was beginning to feel fine. ‘“Maybe I can make a deal for you.” Get him to tell you about the one he made for himself. Old Big Stuff. Why, for Christ’s sake, he was so scared …’
    ‘All right, I was scared. I admit it. I was scared. But not any more. Not, by God, any more.’
    ‘You should’ve seen him five minutes