Free Nobody's Angel by Jack Clark

first, then his sports coat. After a while he found some bills in an inside pocket. He said something I didn't understand and waved the money around.
    "Well, why don't you give me some of that and we'll drive around and see if we can find it," I suggested.
    He peeled off a twenty and held it out tentatively. I snatched it out of his hand and then reached back and opened the door. It took him a while to get in, and then a while longer to close the door, but finally he was all settled and I started driving.
    State Parkway was a street of swanky highrises and old stately grey stones. It was the kind of neighborhood where a parking space would probably rent for as much as my apartment.
    "What kind of car we looking for?" I asked.
    "Red," he said.
    "Well, that narrows it down some," I decided. "You gonna know this thing when you see it?"
    He didn't answer.
    I glanced in the mirror. He was sitting crooked. His feet were still over by the left door but his head was all the way on the right side, flopped against the back of the seat. His eyes were open but they wouldn't be for long. "You can't sleep in here," I said.
    "Huh?"
    "Come on, sit up straight." I reached back and tried to straighten him up.
    "What're you doing?" He shook me off and straightened up a little on his own.
    "I'm trying to find your car but you won't tell me what it looks like."
    "Red," he said again.
    "You're a big help, pal." I lowered all the windows, hoping the cold night air would keep him awake, then drove slowly down the street.
    We passed plenty of red cars, and the old Playboy mansion and the Ambassador Hotel, but the guy never said a word. At Division, I turned right and drove past the bars, all closed for the night.
    "You wan' a nightcap?" the guy mumbled.
    "They're closed, pal," I said. "They're all closed."
    I made the right on Dearborn and cruised slowly up to the end of the street which put us just west of where we'd started. "Where do you live?" I asked.
    "Cleveland," he said sadly, and I knew he didn't mean the avenue.
    "Too bad," I said, and then something occurred to me. "Wait a minute," I said, "is this a rental car?"
    "Hertz," he said.
    "Oh, fuck them," I said. "Call 'em in the morning and tell 'em somebody stole it. Where you staying?"
    "Hyatt," he said.
    "Which one?"
    He hiccupped. "O'Hare."
    "That's perfect," I said, and I switched the meter off and back on and started out North Avenue. There was hardly any traffic. Most of the drunks had made it home and the day people were still snug in their beds.
    Just before the river, a tall, black hooker, in white short-shorts and a shiny white vest, was leaning against the brick wall of a shuttered factory. As we approached she opened the vest wide, exposing two enormous breasts.
    I tooted the horn.
    "Sweet, Jesus," the guy moaned. "Get a load of those tits."
    "She's got a set alright," I said as we headed over the river, past the old Procter & Gamble plant, now closed and FOR SALE.
    "Wait a minute," the guy said. "Stop!"
    "Huh?"
    "Go back."
    "You out of your mind?"
    "I want some nigger pussy," he said with a bizarre southern accent.
    I didn't slow down. I made the light at Elston, barely slowed for the light before the expressway, made a right on red and hit the ramp leading towards O'Hare.
    "Where the fuck you going?" he shouted.
    "I'm taking you to your hotel," I said.
    "Asshole," he said. But then he relaxed. We were doing 65. What was he going to do, jump?
    "Christ, did you see those tits?" he asked after a while. "I mean were those tits or what?"
    "She had a set," I had to agree. "She definitely had a set."
    Nobody said a word for a while. We cruised along, out there in cabdriver heaven, no traffic, no stop lights, not a word from the back seat. The meter was pumping like a heartbeat, twenty cents every few seconds. Little flashes of red adding up to a buck twenty a mile. Better than seventy-five dollars an hour at this speed. If I could just find a way to stay on the highway and keep the damn