She took her hat off and laid it aside, patted her hair, stared into her new drink with narrowed eyes, and drummed her plump fingers.
“Sure. He’ll show them the note. I didn’t get off. So they’ll believe it. They’ll believe I took a jump. It gives me a chance to run.”
“I can give you a start. A couple of hundred bucks.” With eyes still narrow she said, “Why?”
“Favor to Vangie. I promise a favor, I like to go all the way with it.”
“She never said anything about knowing anybody named McGee in Lauderdale.”
I got the inscribed photograph from the wallet. She studied it. “Like that, huh? Where’d she know you from?”
“Way back.”
She handed the photograph back. “What do you do for bread?”
“I call it salesmanship. But sometimes the mark doesn’t mind letting his friends and family know how stupid he was, and then they call it extortion or conspiracy to defraud.”
“You got a nice tricky way of figuring things out. I guess you’d make out pretty good in con work, looking more like you race boats or build roads or used to play ball or something. Is there any reason you have to stay in Lauderdale?”
“Why?”
“Maybe you could think up something that would use me for bait. God knows I’ve had enough practice putting on an act for those guys.”
“Fourteen acts.”
She lifted her shoulders slightly. “I wouldn’t want that kind of an ending, not ever again.”
“Let me put it this way, Del. I keep things clean. If you try a rough line of work, you take too big a fall if it goes sour. Almost every con operation is a partnership thing. Sure, I could use you. It might be a good time to move along. It would be a good time of year to go up and work the Jersey shore. But what if these people down here found out somehow you got away? Somebody would come after you. I might be crossing a street with you when they run you down Why should I take a chance like that? And the law isn’t going to believe you took the jump. If they are unraveling it, you could be near the top of their list, and there is a large fall for helping a murderer escape.”
“I never killed anybody! I couldn’t!”
“You just lured them into the situation, so Ans could do it. Fourteen times. They wouldn’t electrocute you. Not a pretty young woman. They almost never do. But they’d hang consecutive sentences on you so that the way you’d finally leave would be out the back gate in a box. And I could get five or ten for harboring a fugitive. Kiddy, I’m walking around free as a bird because I don’t take bad risks.”
She turned completely to face me, fastened her short fingers around my wrist and went to work on me with those green eyes. It was not an unwavering stare. She moved it around, up and down and across, pausing at my eyes each time. She put an old fuzzy edge on the clear silver of her voice.
“Since I was sixteen I’ve been sizing guys up. The way I am, dear, I got to belong to somebody. Ans was weak, and that was why it wasn’t ever the greatest. McGee, you threw all this at me fast. I know you’re strong. And I know we react good to each other. There’s that feeling you can’t miss. So the only choice I’ve got, dear, is you. I’ve got to trust you. I’ve got to let you take charge and get me out of this mess. That’s the way things are between us, and maybe it comes out better luck than we could guess. What I can be, when I have somebody, is absolutely level all the way. I’ll help you any way you want help, and food, clothes and a roof is all I’ll need. And I swear to God that if anybody finds me, I’ll convince them you didn’t know a thing about anything. I can be a help. I can do the college-girl bit or the housewife bit or the model bit, or be a young widow or whatever. And the day you say go, I’ll go. No strings, no tears. So take a chance, huh?”