Peter Rabe - A Shroud for Jesso

“Business,” he said, because he knew she wasn’t going to stop till she got an answer. “Just some of the usual.”

“You’ve never talked much about your business, Jackie.”

“That’s because it’s nobody’s business. How are your stocks and bonds?”

“Jackie, don’t you know I wouldn’t mind anything about you? Whatever your business is?”

“Fine. So there’s nothing to talk about.”

“I know a little about you. Some of my friends even use your-your services.”

“They do?”

“Of course. I have friends who gamble.”

“Oh.”

She smiled. “You say Oh’ as if I missed something, Jackie.”

“Not a thing. Another drink, Lynn? I got to go.”

She shook her head. “Darling.” She paused to put her cheek in one hand. She kept looking down and talked as if she had it all prepared. “Darling, I know what a strain it must be, even danger. Whatever you do, Jackie, I know you don’t feel right about it.”

Except for the fact that she was all wrong, she had something there.

“If something troubles you, Jackie, and I know something does-”

“Thanks, Lynn. But you’re wrong.”

She looked up. “Can I help?”

He wasn’t even listening. He was thinking that she wasn’t the right kind of woman, and if he kept her sticking around, that would be worse trouble than anything else that might happen to him.

“Jackie, if you need money-”

He made around one hundred grand a year and paid perhaps a thousand in income tax.

“I’ll really help you, Jackie. Listen. Daddy’s in Mexico right now, but when he comes back I’ll speak to him. I can get you a job, darling, whatever you like, a real job where you’ll meet new friends, have a new life, with me. I’m getting the house at Oyster Bay, any time I want it, darling, and we could ask Daddy-“

He found he’d been listening. He found he’d been thinking that there probably were no Glucks and no Kators in the world she could take him to. And for certain there wouldn’t be any Snells with the fever getting too big for the man so that nothing was left but to burn up in the middle of it.

“Did you hear me, Jackie?”

“I heard what you said, Lynn.” He pushed back his chair.

“Don’t go, Jackie.”

‘“By, Lynn.”

“Jackie.” She held his hand.

He pulled his hand away and gave her a smile. ‘“By,” he said, and his hand gave her a small pat. But even Lynn couldn’t read much meaning into it, because then he was gone, closing the door, knowing that Lynn was not his way out of it, that what came next was Kator.

He jockeyed the car through the midtown traffic as if he were beating an obstacle course. He was in a hurry now. It felt good. Jesso kept thinking about it, how Gluck had tried to cramp his style and how Jesso himself had just about let him do it. There wasn’t any point in bucking Gluck the way he had felt like doing. Jesso could waste his temper on Gluck and never make a dent. But when it came to turning a fast job, that was one place where Gluck couldn’t get him. That was one pitch even Gluck’s organization couldn’t match. And there was going to be some fancy pitching from now on. Gluck and his cronies were going to learn something. They were going to learn how Jesso could move like a one-man army.

He got to Kator’s suite in a fine humor, and when he had to wait he didn’t even mind that. Kator had barely nodded at him and then got busy again stuffing papers and folders into a brief case. Kator was cleaning his desk. He looked like a man in a hurry.

“That big important deal of yours, Kator. It’s all wrapped up.”

Kator didn’t answer. He left the room with a full wastebasket in his hand, and when he came back, the wastebasket empty, Jesso tried again.

“If you’re done with the spring cleaning, Kator-”

This time Kator sat down. “Did he shoot at you, Jesso? You remember, you were going to let me know whether Snell was going to shoot at you.”

Jesso couldn’t make it out. He cocked his head and put his hands in his pockets.

“A real clown,” he said. “I get chased out on a life-and-death mission and I come back to get clowned at. What happened, Kator-the spring cleaning shake you all up?”

“It is more important than clowning.” Kator stroked a pale eyebrow. “You will learn that presently.”

“You sound bitter, Kator.”

“Hardly. It is no longer any concern of mine. However, I am bound to tell you that you have failed.”

It didn’t make any sense, but Kator didn’t look as if he were joking. Kator never looked as if he were joking.

“You have ignored my instructions, Jesso. I told you distinctly to take one of my men along.” Kator’s blue eyes were fixed on Jesso in an unpleasant stare, but it didn’t impress him.

“I’m all broke up about that, Kator. So I did the next best thing. I’m back to tell you about it.”

“Before you make light of my instructions, let me explain it to you this way. Did you see Joseph Snell?”

“In person.”

“You were not to see him. Did you spend time with him?”

“We had tea.”

“That too was to be avoided. Did you speak to him? Did he speak to you? Please answer me, Jesso.”

“Look-”

“You did speak to him, contrary to my wishes. So you see, Jesso, when I give instructions, they always have meaning, they have reason, even though you do not-“

“Now shut up a minute!” Jesso leaned close enough for Kator to see the nervous twitching of his eyebrows.

“I don’t go for that Junker stuff, Kator, so save your lessons and get this straight. I don’t give one good goddamn how you like your potatoes served or your lousy reports and errands done. You sent me to find a man and I did. You don’t like the way I’m doing it, so go lump it. The job’s done and for all I care you’ll pay for nothing.”

That’s when Kator started to smile; not big and sunny, but still a smile.

“You are wrong, but that is understandable. You apparently do not know what my arrangements with your Mr. Gluck really are.”

“Go on. What comes next?”

“We arranged, you might say, a package deal. I am paying your Mr. Gluck a lump twenty thousand for two services. For your job and for the docking arrangements. If either service is unsatisfactory, Jesso, I do not have to pay.”

Jesso was getting the drift now. He thought about it while Kator went on.

“I have no reason to believe that Mr. Gluck will fail in his docking arrangements. It is a simple matter. There are persons in my group who cannot leave this country without Mr. Gluck’s special arrangements. That’s why my ship is docked where Mr. Gluck has influence. As to your part of the service, Jesso, I am forced to report that you have failed.” Kator paused. “Mr. Gluck will therefore not collect his fee-because of you. Do you understand now, Jesso?”

Jesso understood so fast it came like a white glare, and he couldn’t see Kator, the pig smile on his face, or the small idle hands on the desk. He understood how they’d worked it and how Gluck had him good, where it hurt. Jesso cost the syndicate a fee, goofed on the simplest possible job. Or that’s the way it would look when Jesso was out of the way and Gluck told the story, with Johannes Kator, the dissatisfied customer, bearing him out. It was so bad that Jesso came close to taking it out on Kator, but he let it go. There still was time and a chance. He hadn’t told where Snell was holed up, and that was all he could think of right then. With Snell wrapped up, Jesso was sure there’d still be a thing or two he could do to make Gluck turn sick.

He stood still for a second, not moving. Kator sat in his chair and folded one leg over the other so that the black silk of one sock showed over his shoe. He started to dip his foot, once, maybe twice, and then Jesso took off. He took off with only one thing on his mind, so he didn’t wonder about it when nobody stopped him and he didn’t see when Kator uncrossed his legs, smoothed the trousers down over the black silk sock, picked up the phone, and dialed Gluck’s number.