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Her
back remained to me. She was tying a fresh ribbon around her bob.
This one was black. “Wasn’t it obvious?” she said.

“
It
is now. The jalopies down there are just to cover the good cars. They
don’t want to accept good cars in trade; they can get them for
nothing by stealing them. They run them up from Florida and maybe
elsewhere. That, I think, was Vital’s and Larry’s end of
the job down there. When they learned that I not only had the bag but
also worked in automobiles, they decided at once that I was in the
racket. This car lot is only a depot. They probably dispose of the
cars in Brooklyn. I’ll get the police to raid this place and
Moon will be in jail where he can’t touch me.”

“
How
will the police be able to prove they’re hot cars? They’ve
repainted them and changed the license plates.”

“
There
are serial and motor numbers stamped on each car, and the cars are
registered in the names of the rightful owners.”

She
moved over to me with her free-swinging stride. She put her palms
flat on my chest. “Honey, I know how crooks work. Do you think
George Moon would be so careless as to leave evidence around in the
open? And if he did, what would a raid accomplish? Moon and Tilly and
a few others would be arrested. He has a bigger organization than
what you see here. There would be others outside of jail who would
still want the bag as badly as ever and who are certain you have it.”

I
stood rigid. Her hair was in my nostrils and I smelled perfume in'
it. “What are you after for yourself, Molly?”

“
I’m
after a bigger story than a hot car racket. A murder story.”
She threw her head back and looked gravely into my face. “And I
want to help you out of this mess. I’m not as hard-boiled as I
pretend. Do you want to know the real reason I was nasty to you this
afternoon? Because you’re a married man and a father, and I —
I —”

We
kissed.

There
was no preparation, no plan. All at once our mouths were together.

I
held her close. Her arms wound around to my back.

Abruptly
she pulled away from me. Gathering her robe tightly about her waist,
she walked to the dresser and shook a cigarette out of the pack.
Watching her, I felt like a school boy who had been slapped by a
girl.

“
I’d
like to get dressed,” she said quietly.

I
looked at the slight sag of her wide shoulders and the fine sweep of
her hips. Then I said, “I'm sorry,'' and went out.

Rufus
Lamb and Beezie were talking baseball in the lunchroom. I joined them
at the wirelegged table. Beezie was a Brooklyn fan and Rufus liked
the Chicago Cubs. I decided that a Westerner like Bert Hemsley ought
to root for the St. Louis Cards, and I did.

After
a while I heard people come down 'the stairs. I heard Molly laugh
gaily. Rufus cut a sentence in two and put his eyes flatly on me.
From where I sat, I had a glimpse of Molly and George Moon round the
staircase and head toward the side door. She was clinging to his arm.

I
stood up and looked out of the lunchroom window. It was night, but
light from the lunchroom flowed out to the parking area in front of
the building. Moon led her to a gleaming Imperial Chrysler parked
beside her coupe. She wore a red wool dress with a square low
neckline. Her tweed jacket was over the arm which wasn’t
clinging to Moon. His height cut down her own and made her look very
feminine. The smile she gave him as he opened the door for her
illuminated the night.

I
found that my fingers were on my lips. I could still taste her kiss.

The
car drove off. I turned away from the window and saw Rufus standing
at my side. His hand dropped from the gun in his, hip pocket. Tilly
was there too, I hadn't heard her enter. She leaned between the two
stools against the counter and looked frightened. “Get her out
of here,” Tilly said harshly. “Take her away before
there’s trouble.”

“
Trouble?”
I muttered stupidly.

“
You
idiot!” she said. “And George is another. He can’t
keep his hands off a pretty girl. You want him to kill you?”

“
I
can handle him,” I muttered. , Rufus tapped my shoulder.
“You’ll have to handle all of us,” he said softly.
“George is the boss. Be a smart cookie and scram with your
wife.”

Damn
Molly! Damn her for having put me in this preposterous position! Damn
her for having kissed me!

“
There
won’t be any trouble,” I said thickly. “I don’t
mind. I don’t mind at all.”

I
slunk out of that room, away from the contempt in their eyes.

I
sat in darkness at the window at which she had sat that afternoon. A
three-quarter moon rose above a hill behind the barn, and by its
light the cars were crouching monsters lined up for parade. The night
was still and the house was still.

That
afternoon she had left (the glass ashtray choked with cigarette butts
tipped red by her painted mouth. Now at midnight my own butts had
erected a mound which had periodic landslides onto the white
windowsill. The next butt I flicked through the partly open window.
It arched like a miniature rocket and glowed faintly in the short
withered grass.

“
Hey!”
Milton appeared out of nowhere and killed the butt with his toe. Then
he peered up at my window. Moonlight poured over his wizened figure
in the oversized overalls.

“
That
you, Bert?” he called.

“
Yes.”

“
Trying
to start a fire and burn up the cars?”

“
I’ll
be more careful.”

I
lit another cigarette. Milton was gone: Then night belonged to the
cars and me.

When
the cigarette was smoked down, I sought for room in the ashtray. That
caused a major landslide. I started to pile the butts back and paused
with a red-tipped one between my thumb and forefinger. Her .lips had
tinted it, and those lips had been pressed against mine. That had
been four hours ago, but the taste of her mouth had not left. I
thought that the taste would remain with me for the rest of my life.

To
hell with you, Molly Crane, if that’s your name!

A
dot of light appeared and vanished at the far end of a row of cars. A
match, I thought, struck by Milton for his corncob pipe. The glow
returned, steadier than a match and shooting out in a thin stream. It
crawled over the heavy chrome of a late-model radiator grill and
expired.

I
opened the window all the way, leaned over the sill. Moonlight
solidified a patch of darkness into a human shape. Milton? I could
not tell. But Milton would not be cautiously keeping the cars between
himself and the house. I could see the shape only because I was
looking down from above.

The
light came on a third time. He had the front right door of a sedan
open. His torso leaned inside. When he straightened up, the light
swirled across his face, and the instant before it went out I
glimpsed a twisted nose and a pointed chin. I was not surprised.

I
put on the room light and searched airplane bag, mattress, dresser,
closet. No gun, of course. I should have known better than to waste
the time. Molly had taken her handbag with her, and that was where
her gun would be. To protect herself against Moon if necessary, or to
keep it out of my hands. Both probably.

I
went, out through the side door and leaned around the corner of the
house. No sign of Milton. I crossed to the row of cars where I had
seen Crooked Nose. Keeping to the shadows of the cars, I walked
noiselessly over soft ground. My hands were lonely for a weapon. I
picked up a rock as big as my fist; after a few steps I discarded it.
My fist would be as good as a rock, but not as good as a gun if he
had one. I walked on, listening to the pounding of my heart and to
whatever else was to be heard.

I
reached the end of the row. Three hundred feet ahead something glided
around a corner of the barn. A human shape? An animal? A swaying
branch cutting off moonlight? I didn’t know. Bending my head,
as if that would hide me from watching eyes, I did a hundred yard
dash to the barn.

The
barn doors were locked. There were no windows or cracks through which
to peer. I made a circuit of the barn, and I stepped into the sharp
beam of a flashlight.

“
Looking
for something, Bert?” Milton’s voice said.

I
waited for him to come to me. A rifle rested in the crook of one arm,
a flashlight was held in the other gnarled hand, the pipe was clamped
in his lip-less mouth.

“
I
saw a prowler from my window,” I said.

“
A
what?”

“
Somebody
with a flashlight.”

“
That
was me.”

“
No.
It was a small light, like a fountain pen flashlight. And I had a
look at his face. A crooked nose and a very deep cleft in his chin.”

That
didn’t seem to mean anything to Milton. He spoke out of the
side of his mouth to keep the pipe in place. “I been watching.
I ain’t seen nobody.”

The
rifle muzzle hovered negligently in my direction. I said: “Don’t
you believe me?”

“
Sure,
Bert. We keep watch all night so nobody’ll, steal things out of
the car. Me and Beezie take turns.”

“
Doesn’t
anybody here but you work? You’re waiter, watchman, bellhop,
and I bet lots of other things.”

“
Yeah,
they sure run the tail off me,” he agreed. “Let’s
go back, Bert.”

When
he reached the front of the rows of cars, Milton drifted off to the,
left and I walked on alone. Headlights swung off the road. I watched
Molly and Moon get out of the car: His arm slid about her waist as
they strolled to the side door. They didn’t see me. I waited a
minute and then followed.

Their
voices drifted down from the upstairs hall. Gay, low, intimate
voices.

I
stood with one foot on the lowest step. Suddenly the voices ceased.
Was he kissing her? Then they were talking again, too low for words
to reach me. I didn’t particularly care what they said. It was
just that I didn’t have the stomach to face them together.

Tilly
came out of the sitting room. She said suspiciously, “What are
you—” and broke off. She had heard the voices upstairs.
She came close to me. “Why don’t you get out of here?”
she whispered. “Take her away. George goes haywire when he sees
a woman he wants.”

Feet
moved in the upstairs hall. A door opened and closed.

“
It’s
all right,” I muttered. “There won’t be any
trouble.” I went up the stairs.

Molly
was hanging her tweed jacket into the closet. She glanced over her
shoulder when she heard me enter, “I just got back,” she
said. There was none of the laughter in her voice I had heard from
the foot of the stairs. She sounded tired.

I
went as far as the bed and looked at her. I wondered how she would
look in an evening gown, one of those brief, strapless, clinging sexy
affairs. She would look wonderful in anything that went with a
stately figure and a long bob.

“
It’s
a surprise finding you here,” I said. “I expected you to
be in Moon’s room.”

Her
hand, closing the closet door, froze; her square shoulders went
rigid. Then she closed the door all the way and turned to me. “Don’t
tell me you’re jealous?” No smile, placating or
disdainful, went with that. Her expression was as weary as her voice.

“
It’s
none of my business what you do,” I said stiffly.

She
came toward me. She stood so close that I could again smell her hair.
“Honey, maybe you should leave. Take my car. I’ll give
them a reason why you’ve gone.”

“
And
you?”

“
I’ll
stay.” She paused. My hands wanted to touch her, and I hated
them because they did. Then she said: “It shouldn’t
matter' what you think of me, but it does. You ought to know why I
went out with Moon tonight. We’re spies here, and the business
of spits is to learn things.”

“
Sex
appeal helps,” I said dryly.

“
Yes.”
Her gaze did not waver. “We went to a juke joint. We danced and
drank beer. We talked. That’s why I’d gone with him, of
course — to talk.”

“
Did
it do any good?”

“
No.”

Her
mouth was only a little below mine the flame-red mouth I could still
taste on my lips. I reached for her mouth with mine. I had sworn to
myself that I wouldn’t again, but there it was.

At
the last instant she jerked her head aside, and my mouth caught the
side of her chin. Like any fumbling youngster trying to snatch a kiss
in a doorway.

I
sidled away from her. “I suppose kissing one man an hour is
enough for you,” I said.

I
felt her come after me, felt her hand on my arm. “You have a
wife and a daughter,” she said huskily. “I’m not
much on morals, but I’m not like that. You’re too swell a
guy to hurt.”

“
Thanks.”
I wasn’t particularly bitter.

I
was just overwhelmingly tired of it all and wanted to go home where I
belonged. I moved away from her again, this time as far as the
window, and looked out over the car lot. Nobody was down there. Not
even a shadow.