L.A. 46 (Jerry eBooks) by Day Keene

Author:Day Keene [Keene, Day]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jerry eBooks
Published: 2015-01-05T05:00:00+00:00

14

Continued fair and warm . . . sunny today and tomorrow with variable high clouds . . . little change in temperature . . . gusty northwest winds down local canyons . . . some spotty early morning coastal fog.

It was twenty-five minutes of one by the electric clock on the dashboard when Ruby and Wally returned to the Casa del Sol. Wally found a parking space a half block from the building and, oblivious of the occasional late passersby on the walk, they strained against each other as they kissed.

“You feel all right?” Wally asked, concerned. “You aren’t sick, or anything?”

“No.”

“And you won’t get into any trouble with your sister?”

“I can take care of Vera.”

“Then I suppose I’d better get started for Dago.”

“I suppose so,” Ruby agreed, reluctantly. “But you will phone me tomorrow afternoon, just as soon as you can?”

“You know I will, baby.”

Wally got out of the car and walked around it and opened the door for her and helped her out onto the sidewalk and cupped and kissed her one last time. Then, cocking his uniform cap at a jaunty angle, he swaggered back to his car, maneuvered it in a deft U-tum, and drove back down the hill, beeping his horn lightly as he turned the corner.

One gloved hand raised in farewell, Ruby watched the taillights of the big car out of sight, then turned and walked up the hill under the dusty olive and eucalyptus trees, the rhythmic tapping of her spike heels on the cement a pleasant sound in the hushed stillness of the night. It felt almost as if her feet weren’t touching the walk. So Miss Ames was dead. So? She didn’t have to pretend she was someone anymore. She was.

She turned into the building, then stopped under the lights on either side of the entrance arch and took her compact from her purse and studied her face in the mirror to make certain her hair was in place and her makeup wasn’t smeared. She didn’t want a scene with Vera. Not tonight. That would be too much.

Satisfied that she looked all right, she returned her compact to her purse and continued on toward the front stairs and stopped again as Romero wove out of the semidarkness in front of the bank of mailboxes.

“Well. Look who’s just coming home,” he said thickly. “You’re a little late tonight, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Ruby admitted. “I guess I am. A little. But I don’t see it’s any of your business.”

She tried to walk on and Romero blocked the way to the stairs with his arm. “What’s the hurry?”

“You just said it. It’s late.”

Romero continued to block her way. “But not too late for you to let that young punk of a Marine I just saw you with cop a last few feels while he kissed you good night.” Romero drank from the neck of the bottle he was carrying in a brown paper bag. “How was he, honey? Pretty good?”

Ruby pushed at the muscular arm keeping her from the stairs.

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