Peter Rabe - Benny Muscles In

“Listen,” Benny said. His voice sounded rough with impatience. “Now listen to me, Mr. Pendleton.”

The white hand stopped moving back and forth.

“The more you say, Tapkow, the worse it gets.” Then he almost smiled. “What do you think is the worst thing I can do to you, Tapkow? Do you remember a few years ago, a man called Murdock? Did you ever wonder what happened to Murdock? He’s still alive, you know.”

Pendleton paused to give things weight, but he hadn’t been watching Benny. He hadn’t seen the stubbornness and the angry impatience.

“The hell with Murdock,” Benny said. His breath sounded tight “The hell with Murdock and all this talk. You haven’t given me a chance to say a word, Mr. Pendleton. So here it is.” His voice suddenly turned quiet. “I’ve worked for you for seven years. I’ve tried to do better than the next guy because I know something they don’t. I am better. You think so, or you wouldn’t have let me stick around. I’ve done your crumby jobs, I’ve done some big ones. And then I’ve done some extra jobs you didn’t ask for, because all I ever wanted was a chance to show I’ve got the stuff. And then you started putting on the brakes. ‘Tapkow, take my pants to the cleaner,’ while I should have been working at Imports. ‘Tapkow, bring my car around,’ when Turk could have done it just as well.” Benny started talking faster now. “Finally I got a territory, a run-down, no-good territory, where Paddy used to rob you blind. I took that and glad for the chance. I start collecting double in my district and handed the stuff in. I needn’t have. So look at it that way for a minute, Mr. Pendleton, and then see if you’re doing right. I’m not trying to tell you what to do, but you’ve got to remember I’m not the chauffeur around here any more. I’ve done better than that.”

He had it all thought out and it came off the way he’d wanted. He meant every word of it. Only Pendleton didn’t know that.

“Are you through?” Pendleton sat as before.

“Sure. That’s all.”

On top of the desk the white hand started to move back and forth again. “Then let me tell you about Murdock.”

Benny sucked his breath in and held it for a moment. When he let it out his voice was still quiet. More quiet than before. “You’re making a mistake.”

Suddenly Pendleton jumped up. He didn’t often look the way he did now. “Are you threatening me, Tapkow?”

“You’re making a mistake, Pendleton.”

There was a little button on the side of Pendleton’s desk and the white hand started to move there.

Then the hand stopped. Pendleton turned his head. There had been the sharp click of a doorknob and a girl came into the room. She didn’t bother to close the door. She said, “I’m happy to see you’re in,” in a metallic voice, clear and hard. “I’m really thrilled and happy to find you in, Daddy.”

There was a mean line between her eyebrows and her light eyes looked flat. “Well, aren’t you going to ask me how I am, Daddy?” When she said Daddy, it sounded like a word from a meaningless language.

Pendleton had a time trying to control himself. His face was working and there was the merest quaver in his voice. “Patricia,” he said.

“Patricia,” she aped. She ran her hand through her cropped hair with a gesture like a man’s. “Your little Patricia. Come to have a word with her daddy.”

She had been ignoring Benny. She hardly gave him a look when she said, “Give me a cigarette, Tapkow.”

“My dear-” Pendleton said.

“I know. You don’t approve. A light, Tapkow.”

Benny lit her cigarette and watched the smooth face over the flame. Only her jaw made a sharp shadow. When she exhaled she didn’t say thanks. She turned back to her father and took another drag on the cigarette. She had an impatient way of smoking, an impatient way of standing with her arm on her hip and tapping one foot. Benny couldn’t see her feet because of the long evening dress she wore, but he could hear the nervous clicking of the shoe.

“Well,” she said, “it happened again. Your little Patricia, because she’s your little Patricia and her last name is Pendleton, walked right into it again. What do you say to that, Daddy?”

“My dear, if you will wait outside for-”

She laughed, a clear and ugly laugh. “Wait outside. That’s just about what happened half an hour ago. Wait outside! Do you know where I was tonight, Daddy?”

“Patricia, please!” Pendleton sounded controlled. “Have the courtesy to wait till-”

“Never mind about Tapkow, Daddy, just mind what I’m telling you.” She pulled on her cigarette once moreand threw it on the floor. “I was at the Wellbeys’ tonight The Wellbeys.’. That wonderful family with a house on Long Island, a cottage in Bar Harbor, and a wee place in Florida. And all told they haven’t got half the money that little Patty’s daddy has. And what do you think happened, Daddy?” She leaned across the desk, hate in her voice. “‘Did you say Pendleton?’ Mr. Wellbey said when Betty introduced me to her father. ‘Did you say Pendleton?’ And then he excused himself, and his wife excused herself, and everybody that came within arm’s reach excused himself except the butler, who came up with my wrap and told me the car was waiting to take me back. What would you and your gangster friends call that, Daddy? The freeze is the word, isn’t it? The freeze!” Her voice rose sharply.

Pendleton turned to Benny and waved at the door. “Wait outside, Tapkow. I’ll be with you in a minute.”

“Leave Tapkow be. There’s nothing I know about my daddy that Tapkow doesn’t know, or the Wellbeys, or the District Attorney, or-”

“Tapkow, leave this room!” Pendleton’s voice had that sharp ring, the way Patricia had sounded.

“Do him a favor, Tapkow, and wait outside.” She sounded offhand, hardly looking at him.

Benny left. He waited in the black-and-gold room, because he and Pendleton weren’t through yet. There were a few more things he wanted to say; perhaps he could even patch things up. It was worth the chance. He could hear Patricia’s voice, clear and angry, and then silence, because Pendleton never raised his voice enough so that he could hear.

Turk was leaning against the hall door with his hands in his pockets. Pendleton wasn’t through yet, either.

When the library door opened and Patricia came out, Benny jumped up. She was walking fast. Her evening dress made a dry sound and she dragged her cape as if it were a towel. “Your turn, Tapkow,” she said.

There was nothing soft about that girl. Her thin body was probably hard as iron and the cold face looked as regular and impersonal as a fashion ad.

When Benny got to the desk in the library, he noticed that Turk was right behind him.

“You don’t need Turk here,” Benny said. “I want to talk business to you.”

Pendleton rubbed his hands together. “Before you opened your mouth, Tapkow, I was going to give you another chance. I was going to-”

But he didn’t get any further. Benny saw the way it was, that Pendleton had made up his mind, that he was through, and that the old bastard was standing there ready for another one of his speeches before hauling out the ax.

“Another chance!” The excitement came through in Benny’s voice now. “Another chance! Like what? Like dusting off the desk for you, maybe? Like drawing the drapes, maybe, so the rug won’t fade?” Benny could feel Turk close behind him now. “You think you’re looking at Tapkow the handy boy? I’m going to show you just how handy-”

Then Pendleton nodded his head.

Turk had been close, too close. Benny made a half turn that ended when his elbow rammed into the stomach of the man behind and then his stiff fingers shot into the neck right under the chin. Turk’s eyes went crazy and the gun he was holding made a thud on the floor. Then Turk fell over.