James Chase - Eve

“Okay?” The thin bird asked, sneering at me.

I pulled myself together. “Yeah,” I said and without looking at Eve, I forced my way across the crowded room to the bar.

There was scarcely anyone in the long low room. The crowd had begun to gamble and they would not start drinking again until later on in the evening. It was still early. The clock above the bar said ten five.

I ordered a double Scotch and when I had drunk it I told the bartender to leave the bottle. It was going to be a hell of an evening after all.

I stayed there for half an hour and I drank steadily. Then I saw Eve come in. She was alone. I was pretty high by now and as I was about to leave the bar and go over to her she went into the Ladies’ Room. A few minutes later she came out with the red head. They passed close to me without seeing me.

The red head was saying, “He’s terrific, isn’t he? He looks like a sailor and I adore his thin lips.”

Eve giggled. “He doesn’t go for red heads,” she said, her face animated.

“I’d dye for him,” the red head said and her high-pitched laugh grated on my nerves.

I watched them cross the room and go back into the roulette room. I pulled out a handful of change and shoved it at the bartender and went after them. I could not see Eve nor Hurst. The red head wasn’t there either. I went into the dice room and the card room. There was no sign of them. I went up on deck.

The wind was still cold, but there were a number of couples up there.

I walked around, but I could not see them, so I went up on the top deck.

The red head was there. -

“Hello,” she said.

I joined her at the rail. “Haven’t you found your friend?”

“He’s gone. I came up here to see the moon again.”

I looked at her. Perhaps she was not so bad after all. I remembered how my fingers had sunk into her back.

I moved closer. “How are you getting back?”

“By boat . . . do you think I’d swim?” She laughed and I laughed too. I was plastered so anything could be funny right now; even losing ten thousand dollars.

I manoeuvered her against the rails. She did not seem to mind.

“I’m sorry I tried to hit you,” she said.

“I liked it,” I said and pulled her towards me.

She came willingly enough. This time I hurt her mouth.

“Is that all you can do?” she asked, pushing me away.

“I can drive a car and play the gramophone. My education has been intensive.”

“You mean extensive don’t you?”

“What the hell does it matter? Who was the dark girl you were talking to?”

“Eve Marlow? Oh, she’s a tart.”

“So what? . . . so are you.”

She giggled. “Only to my friends.”

“How did you come to know her?”

“How did I come to know who?”

“Eve Marlow.”

“How do you know I know her?”

“You just said so.”

“Did I?”

“Look, let’s not go on like this. Let’s go somewhere for a drink.”

“All right. Where?”

“I’ve got a car. Let’s get off this lousy boat.”

“I’m not free.”

“But you said your gentleman friend had left you.”

She giggled. “I mean you’d have to pay me.”

I grinned at her. “Course I’ll pay you.” I pulled out my roll of money and counted it. I had fifteen hundred dollars. Well, I had won five hundred dollars so it wasn’t so bad. I gave her two twenties.

“Oh, I want more than that.”

“You shut up. That’s just a retainer. I’ll pay you more later on.”

She put her arms around me, but I shoved her off.

“Come on,” I said impatiently. “Let’s go.”

When we got back to the pier, we walked to the parking lot.

“Some car,” she said with open admiration when she saw the Chrysler.

I slid under the steering wheel and let her find her own way in. We sat side by side and looked at the moon. It was a nice moon and I was drunk, so right at that moment I felt pretty good.

“Is your wife having you watched?” the red head asked suddenly.

I turned my head to stare at her. “What the hell are you talking about? Who said I had a wife anyway?”

She giggled. “A dick’s been tailing you all evening,” she said. “Haven’t you spotted him? I thought maybe your wife was wanting a divorce.”

“What guy?” I asked sharply.

“He’s over there waiting for us to go.”

“How do you know he’s been watching me?”

“He’s never let you out of his sight since you were on the boat and now he’s waiting for you to go so he can follow you in that heap,” she said. “I can smell a dick a mile off.”

I remembered what Gold had said at our last meeting. “I shall certainly think of you both. In fact, I’m not going to forget either of you. If Carol is unhappy because of you, you will be sorry. I promise you that, Mr. Thurston.” So the heel was having me tailed.

“Ill fix him,” I said, cold with fury. “Just you stick around and watch me.”

“Atta boy!” the red head said, clapping her hands. “Give the little louse a sock from me.”

I crossed the parking lot and went over to him. As soon as he saw me, he straightened and took his hands out of his pockets.

I stood before him and peered down at him. It was dark, but not all that dark. He was a fat faced mild little man with rimless spectacles on his small fat nose.

“Good evening,” I said.

“Good evening, sir,” he returned, edging away.

“Has Mr. Gold hired you to watch me?”

He started to bluster, but I cut him short.

“Save it,” I said. “Mr. Gold told me about you.”

He looked sulky. “Well, if Mr. Gold told you, why ask me?”

I smiled at him. “I don’t like being watched,” I said. “You better take your glasses off.”

He began to get alarmed and looked wildly round the parking lot. But it was still early and there was no one but ourselves in sight. I reached forward and flicked off his spectacles, then I trod on them. They crunched on the concrete.

“I can’t see without my glasses,” he almost wailed.

“That’s too bad,” I said, taking him by his collar. I slammed my fist in his face. I was getting good at hitting people in the mouth. Like Imgram, this little stool pigeon had trouble with his bridgework. It got caught up in the roof of his mouth and he tried to hook out the broken pieces of bridgework. but I would not let him. I took his small hands in one of mine and I rammed him against the wall. His hat fell off and I shifted my hands to his ears and banged his head hard against the wall, using his ears as handles.

His knees sagged, but I held him up.

“Maybe you won’t be so anxious next time to watch me,” I said, shaking him. “If I see you again, I’ll smear you on a wall.”

I gave him a quick shove and he lost his balance and sprawled on the oily concrete. He picked himself up and began to run blindly down the street.

I lurched back for the Chrysler.

The red head was hanging out of the window.

“That was terrific,” she said, as I slid under the steering wheel. “You’re a great, big, beautiful savage.”

“You talk too much,” I returned and drove out of the parking lot and headed towards Hollywood.

Although I was pretty high, I wasn’t reckless enough to take any chance of being seen with this tramp. You didn’t have to look at her twice to know what she was, but she knew Eve and I was hoping she would tell me what I had always been wanting to know about her.

We stopped at several bars on our way to Hollywood and I tried to get her to talk, but she hedged. I was careful not to press her because I didn’t want her to know how anxious I was to talk about Eve. The red head preferred to talk about herself and that was a subject in which I had not the slightest interest. I let her chatter away, scarcely listening to what she had to say, but I kept buying her drinks hoping that if she drank enough liquor she might be persuaded to talk about Eve.