The Savage Breast by John Trinian

Author:John Trinian [Trinian, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781440544897
Publisher: Prologue Books
Published: 1989-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

4.

AUCKLAND MOVED from behind the truck with his usual crab-like shuffle. He peered at Harry with his gummy eyes, smiling his yellowed stumpy teeth through his scraggly beard. He paused first before D. B. “Hello, Miss Sadder. Do you remember me?”

“Yes — of course, I — ”

“Will you excuse me, Miss Sadder? I’d like to have a word with Mr. Dazier.” Still smiling, he turned to Harry. “Hello. I haven’t seen you since the night of the party. I was thinking that perhaps we should have a talk — ”

“I don’t want to talk,” Harry said. He was rapidly becoming more sober. His legs felt like they were filled with hot cellophane and his heart was hammering in his chest. He wasn’t afraid of Auckland — not the man himself, but of his words, of what he could say to D. B.

Harry looked toward the truck and noticed Gordon Fitzroy. He should have recognized him from D. B.’s description; tall, boyish face, blond crewcut hair, pale blue eyes, college tan and white teeth. Harry would have laughed under different circumstances.

“I think we should talk,” Auckland repeated. His voice was a little sharper this time. “I think you and I should step over to that truck and talk with the man over there. I’d like you to meet him.”

“Who is he?” Harry found himself asking.

Auckland feigned surprise. “Why, that’s Gordon M. Fitzroy the Second. I think you and he have something in common. Don’t you?”

Harry wasn’t a small man; he was well over six foot tall and weighed just under a hundred eighty pounds, and if D. B. wasn’t there, at his side, he would have mashed Auckland down into the concrete. As it was, he did nothing, said nothing. He was trying to think of a way out — but nothing was coming to him.

“What’s up?” Birsha asked.

“Nothing,” Harry said. “Why don’t you walk down to Pendragon’s. You and Sophie both. I’ll meet you later.”

Birsha seemed to think that over for a moment, then as he looked from his brother to the thin little figure of Auckland, he nodded and said that he supposed it would be all right; he reached for Sophie and playfully pulled her down the street.

“You go with them, too,” Harry said to D. B.

“No,” Auckland said. “She stays.”

Harry realized that Auckland was nobody’s fool. Without D. B.’s presence his fangs would be removed and Harry would slap his yellow teeth down his stringy throat.

“I’ll stay,” D. B. said.

Harry nodded dumbly, asking himself why he didn’t punch Auckland, anyway? Because of Fitzroy? Was that it? He realized that Auckland must have told Fitzroy that Harry was conning D. B. and that Fitzroy had told Auckland that he had just been cut off from his blackmailing scheme. So? So they were both on the make, hoping to milk D. B. through Harry.

Gordon stepped forward, moving not too gracefully, and Harry noticed that he was a little drunk. Gordon was smiling — or sneering — showing his white teeth and glancing first at D.

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