Robert Moore: Hard guys and hostages

"Yeah," Butch said from the couch. He was staring at Julie and grinning. "What if she's a dog?"

"Why would she be a dog?" Max demanded, "She's Blondie's little sister."

"Yeah, but what if she is?" Pete asked insistently.

"Yeah, what if she is?" echoed Butch.

"If she's a dog, we share Julie, the way you wanted to last night."

That seemed to satisfy them for a while. Then they started to get fidgety again, as the day wore on and there wasn't any little sister. They'd been without a woman for a long time, and they obviously couldn't see why they should wait any longer. Max couldn't really think of a good reason. He was on the verge of letting Pete take Julie into the bedroom when the phone rang.

They all stood looking at each other for a moment after the first ring. Julie clenched her hands, wadding the front of her robe. Pete grinned, and Max felt relief, because a little thing like this could have caused some real trouble, and trouble they didn't need. The phone rang again. Max grabbed Julie's arm tightly, making her wince.

"All right, you're on, Blondie. Now, don't forget, this is your big scene, and if you fuck it up you're going to stand here and watch your family get wiped out."

"I'll do what you want." Her voice was shaky.

"You'll have to do it in a better voice than that." He led her to the telephone. There was a pad next to it, with a ball-point pen stuck on by a built-in magnet. Max picked up the pen and nodded to Julie. Just as the phone started its third ring, she picked it up and inserted the earpiece under her hair. Before she could speak, Max twisted the phone in her hand and stood close to her, their bodies lightly touching, so he could hear the other end of the conversation. Then he nodded to Julie.

"Hello?" Her voice was surprisingly steady. A supreme effort, he guessed.

"Hi, Sis!" A perky girl-voice came back from the other end of the wire. "I'm here, waiting."

Julie waited a moment before she answered. Max was afraid for a moment that she was going to blow the whole weenie, but, of course, she had more sense than that. "Why are you so late, Sally?" There was a touch of annoyance in Julie's voice. The wait had been nerve-wracking for her, too. "We've been worried." That was a nice touch, Max thought. She was really doing very well.

"The train got held up, Sis. We tried to call you, but all the trunks to this burg were busy." The "we" brought Max up smartly, and he saw a startled look on Julie's face.

"Are you with someone, dear?"

"Yeah. Connie's here."

Julie looked at Max and shook her head, signifying that she didn't know what was going on any more than he did. "Connie?" she asked.

"Connie Winslow. The girl I met in school. I wrote you about her."

"But you didn't say anything about bringing her here."

"I didn't talk her into it until yesterday. It's just for overnight, Sis. That's all right, isn't it?"

"Well, I don't know," Julie stalled, while Max scrawled a question on the pad. Then she read verbatim. "Do her parents know?"

"They don't expect her home. She was going to stay in school on her the vacation, but then her grades got better, and she decided to go home and surprise them, and I talked her into coming this far with me and staying overnight. Gee, what's the trouble, Sis? She can bunk with me. It won't be any trouble." The girl sounded surprised, and a little hurt, that her friend wasn't welcome. Julie looked at Max helplessly, and he nodded, coming to a quick decision.

"All right," she said. "Bring her on out."

"Bring her? I thought you were going to…"

"No, dear, we can't pick you up. The car broke down last night. You get a ride out here. Is Mr. Lister's cab there?"

There was a pause. "Yeah. It's here."

"Fine. Do you have money?"

"Well, sure. You don't think I'd take off across two states without money, do you?"

"Good. Take the cab out here, and we'll reimburse you for it."

"Sis, is something wrong?"

There was a real tension then, in Max and in Julie too. He could feel the stiffening in her body. "Why, no," she said in a very matter-of-fact voice. "Why do you ask, darling?"

"Well, you just sound kind of funny."

"It's just the worry over you, Sally. And Diane has a little cold. You hurry out here. I'm just dying to see you."

"Sure thing. So long." There was a click, and the line went dead.

Max took the phone out of Julie's hand and placed it on the cradle. "That was a nice piece of work, sweets. You showed good sense, and stage presence too." Julie looked at the floor. She looked like she was about to cry.

"Is the little sister comin'?" Pete asked.

"Better than that. We got two new pieces of poontang on the way. Little sister was nice enough to bring along a friend."

The cab showed up a half-hour later. It was an old Chevy with one bumper tip missing. They saw it clear out on the road, and then it turned down the driveway and plowed along through its own dust cloud toward the house. It pulled up close to the service porch in back and the doors opened. An old guy with what looked like a telegrapher's hat got out of the front seat and went back to the trunk. He took out some bags. Two girls got out of the back. They were both small, dressed in miniskirts and both damned good-looking little chicks. One had brown hair and the other had red. The redhead was so heavily freckled Max could tell it from this distance, and through the window screen. She was still cuter than a button, though.

"Which one is your sister?" he asked Julie.

"The one with brown hair." The one with brown hair was really the better looking of the two. He looked at her for a moment before the similarity hit him. It was uncanny. Julie saw his reaction, and she looked at him in apparent alarm. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing."

"But you…"

"I said it was nothing. Shut up." He grasped her arm and pulled her into the bedroom. The baby was lying in her crib, awake but quiet. He picked her up. Julie got the fidgets. "I'm not going to hurt her," he said. "As long as you do what you're told. Now get out on the service porch."

She went, reluctantly, and he walked along behind her. "Get them in the house, and see to it the old asshole stays outside. Don't you go out there, I want you where I can hear every word you say. I'm going to be right inside the kitchen door with the baby." He cradled the kid in one arm and took out his.45. "One little slip on your part, and you've got half a baby. Understand?"

"Oh, please."

"Shut up anti get out there."

She hugged the robe about her and stepped out onto the porch. The girls were still outside. The one with brown hair was paying the old cab driver.

"Come on in, girls," Julie called. "I'm sorry I can't ask you in, Mr. Lister. I'm not dressed."

"Howdy, Miz Bradford," the old guy said, touching the bill of his hat. "I'll just give the girls a hand here." He picked up the bags and carried them toward the door. Julie looked panicky. The door was shattered, and if he saw that the old asshole might start to put two and two together.

"Oh, that's all right," the redhead said, grabbing one of the bags. Trying to be the good guest, Max supposed, and thought, Baby, you don't know how good a guest you're going to be. The girl with brown hair grabbed the other bag, and they both headed for the door. The old geezer shrugged and got back in his car. He waved and put it in gear and pulled away, making more dust than a windstorm.

"Sis, this is Connie," the girl with brown hair said. Max couldn't see any of them now, but he could hear them very clearly.

"Come on in, girls," Julie said.

"Hey, what happened to the door?" This from Brown Hair.

"Oh, an accident. I'll tell you about it when we get inside." Max heard light footsteps across the service porch, and then Julie came into the kitchen, clutching her cotton robe about her. She walked right past him without glancing in his direction, and the two girls followed her like sheep into the slaughter house. Each of them was carrying a suitcase, leaning to one side from the weight. Of course they saw him the moment they were in the kitchen, but Max had shifted the gun behind his back, so they just turned and smiled uncertainly at him, still holding their bags.