“That’s all fixed up.”
“And what in the hell are you spending the night there for?”
“I got a reason for that, Willie.
Because maybe it’s a stall, what he says about her, and maybe it’s not, see?
But if I’m here, neither one of them can skip, you get it?”
“Can he hear you, what you’re saying?”
He looked at me, and I nodded my head yes.
“He’s right here with me, in the phone booth.
I want him to hear me, you get it, Willie?
I want him to know we mean business.”
“It’s a funny way to do, Pat.”
“Listen, Willie.
You don’t know, and I don’t know, and none of us don’t know if he’s on the level with it or not.
But maybe he is, and I’m giving him a chance.
What the hell, if a guy’s willing to pay, we got to go along with him, haven’t we?
That’s it. You do like I tell you.
You get it out here soon as you can in the morning.
Soon as you can, you get it?
Because I don’t want her to get to wondering what the hell I’m doing hanging around here all day.”
“O.K.”
He hung up.
I walked over and gave him a sock.
“That’s just so you talk right when he calls back.
You got it, Kennedy?”
“I got it.”
I waited a few minutes, and pretty soon here came the call back.
I answered, and when Kennedy picked up the phone he gave Willie some more of the same.
He said he was alone that time.
Willie didn’t like it much, but he had to take it.
Then I took him back to the No. 1 shack.
She came with us, and I took the gun.
Soon as I had Kennedy inside, I stepped out the door with her and gave her a kiss.
“That’s for being able to step on it when the pinch comes.
Now get this.
I’m not leaving him for a minute.
I’m staying out here the whole night.
There’ll be other calls, and we’ll bring him in to talk.
I think you better open the place up.
The beer garden.
Don’t bring anybody inside.
That’s so if his friends do some spying, you’re right on deck and it’s business as usual.”
“All right.
And Frank.”
“Yes?”
“Next time I try to act smart, will you hang one on my jaw?”
“What do you mean?”
“We ought to have gone away.
Now I know it.”
“Like hell we ought.
Not till we get this.”