"Hey, wait a minute, Carmen," I yelped.
Blonde Agnes came to life with a rush.
She ducked her head and sank her teeth in my right hand.
I made more noises and shook her off.
"Listen, kid," Brody whined. "Listen a minute — "
The blonde spat at me and threw herself on my leg and tried to bite that.
I cracked her on the head with the gun, not very hard, and tried to stand up.
She rolled down my legs and wrapped her arms around them.
I fell back on the davenport.
The blonde was strong with the madness of love or fear, or a mixture of both, or maybe she was just strong.
Brody grabbed for the little revolver that was so close to his face.
He missed.
The gun made a sharp rapping noise that was not very loud.
The bullet broke glass in a folded-back French window.
Brody groaned horribly and fell down on the floor and jerked Carmen's feet from under her.
She landed in a heap and the little revolver went skidding off into a corner.
Brody jumped up on his knees and reached for his pocket.
I bit Agnes on the head with less delicacy than before, kicked her off my feet, and stood up.
Brody flicked his eyes at me.
I showed him the automatic. He stopped trying to get his hand into his pocket.
"Christ!" he whined. "Don't let her kill me!"
I began to laugh.
I laughed like an idiot, without control.
Blonde Agnes was sitting up on the floor with her hands flat on the carpet and her mouth wide open and a wick of metallic blond hair down over her right eye.
Carmen was crawling on her hands and knees, still hissing.
The metal of her little revolver glistened against the baseboard over in the corner. She crawled towards it rentlessly.
I waved my share of the guns at Brody and said:
"Stay put. You're all right."
I stepped past the crawling girl and picked the gun up.
She looked up at me and began to giggle.
I put her gun in my pocket and patted her on the back.
"Get up, angel.
You look like a Pekinese."
I went over to Brody and put the automatic against his midriff and reached his Colt out of his side pocket.
I now had all the guns that had been exposed to view.
I stuffed them into my pockets and held my hand out to him.
"Give."
He nodded, licking his lips, his eyes still scared.
He took a fat envelope out of his breast pocket and gave it to me.
There was a developed plate in the envelope and five glossy prints.
"Sure these are all?"
He nodded again.
I put the envelope in my own breast pocket and turned away.
Agnes was back on the davenport, straightening her hair.
Her eyes ate Carmen with a green distillation of hate.
Carmen was up on her feet too, coming towards me with her hand out, still giggling and hissing.
There was a little froth at the corners of her mouth. Her small white teeth glinted close to her lips.
"Can I have them now?" she asked me with a coy smile.
"I'll take care of them for you.
Go on home."