The Lady Has a Scar by Hank Janson

Author:Hank Janson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Manuscript Template, Public
Publisher: Telos Publishing Ltd

One and a quarter hours later, I leaned back in my chair, mopped my forehead and took the first good breath I’d had since I’d started. Downstairs the machines were beginning to revolve, churning out the Chronicle’s challenge to the police. The challenge that would cost the Chronicle two hundred grand if it wasn’t successful.

‘Thanks, Dane,’ I said. ‘You helped out fine.’

‘That’s okay,’ he said. His face was still white and there was a strange look in his eyes. He nodded towards the Chief’s office and said: ‘Better see how he’s making out.’

I went across, opened the Chief’s door. He was sitting there with a sickly look on his face. He was pressed back in his chair, looking nervous and anxious. Lulu was sitting as close to him as she could get her chair. Her voice rippled like a babbling brook. She was telling him about an operation she’d had. Judging by the way her clothes were rucked up, she was trying to show him, too.

He looked up at me thankfully, like a drowning man who’s been thrown a lifebelt. ‘Have you done it?’

I nodded.

He breathed a deep sigh of relief. ‘Take the day off, Hank,’ he said. ‘See the young lady home. Get the little bitch out of here!’

He’d said the last sentence without thinking. She turned around to him quickly with a look of shocked surprise on her face, ‘What was that, darling?’

He stammered: ‘I said “Get the little witch a beer”.’

‘Oh,’ she said. She smiled at him, reassured. ‘Just for one moment I thought you said something horrid.’

‘The Chief wouldn’t do that,’ I said. ‘He wouldn’t dream of it.’

‘No,’ he said, ‘of course I wouldn’t.’

She took my arm as we went out. She also said loudly enough for the Chief to hear: ‘He’s a nice man, isn’t he? But he’s not very romantic.’

The fellas in the newsroom watched me as I walked through with her. They were admiring and jeering at the same time. I wanted to be around in the office. All kinds of things were liable to break. I wanted to be in the thick of it. I didn’t want to be trailing back to Lulu’s flat and learning just how good her tactics were.

When we got outside she said: ‘Let’s take a taxi.’

‘I’ve got a better idea,’ I said. ‘Let’s go by subway. It’s so long since I travelled by subway. You don’t mind do you, honey?’

She did mind. She didn’t like it one little bit. She looked at me reproachfully. But when she saw I was set on it she squeezed my arm and said: ‘Of course not, honey. Anything you like.’

We got our tickets, went down on the platform and I was able to steer her into the wrong train. I kept her talking in animated conversation until we’d gone a good way in the wrong direction. When we came to an interchange station I pointed out my mistake. We got off the train and changed platforms. There were lots of folk around.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.