Devil May Care

by Wade Miller

  Her arms were pinned and she kicked and bit uselessly. He chuckled at her sensual struggle against him, her wild writhing. The robe had fallen away, tangled around their feet as they swayed back and forth, and he discovered how smooth her skin was.

  The robe tripped them both and they lurched toward the bed. He managed to throw her face-down across the spread, his hands sliding to a new grip around the swell of her hips. He threw one leg across the back of her knees to stop the flailing of her bare legs and buried his face hungrily against her neck. The curling ends of her hair were still damp from the bath. He growled against her skin, inarticulate.

  But her arms had gotten free and one snaked up at him. Her fingernails closed over his eyebrow and she tore it open again. Biggo yelled and let her loose.

  "Damn you, you big lummox!" She rolled off the bed and backed away, her hands clawed against him. "You hairy bum, you leave me alone! You don't touch me!" She was sobbing.

  "Oh, shut up," said Biggo. All lust had fled.

  "Don't tell me to shut up!" Jinny blazed. She rescued her robe and jerked it up into a tight cocoon. "I'll talk just as much or as little as I want to! You stay in your own gutter! Stay out of mine and you don't touch me ever!"

  "All right, all right." He was sitting up wearily on the bed and he tried to look at the newspapers. "Let's forget it."

  "I told you you make me sick at the stomach-I don't want anything from you except a plane ticket. You think, just because I have to take your bloody charity… Oh, God, I even talk like you now!" She grabbed up her clothes and slammed into the bathroom. The lock clicked.

  Biggo leafed through the papers slowly, just to be doing something. Blood dripped onto the print from his eyebrow. He smeared it aside, tired and disgusted. Jinny was right, everything she'd said. It stuck in his throat to think that Pabla should ever learn what he really was. When Jinny finally emerged from the bathroom, fully dressed, he glanced shyly at her. He growled, "Hey, uh, Jinny…"

  "What now?"

  "Just wanted to say I'm sorry."

  She puttered at the dressing table for a while. Then she sighed. "Okay. I suppose you're only human. But that's bad enough. And from now on-"

  The rest of what she was saying was lost to him. Biggo had stopped listening. He reared up straight, eyes riveted on the Ensenada evening paper in his lap.

  Squeezed among the Avisos de Oportunidad was a small notice, only two lines of fuzzy type. "I am no longer responsible for the debts of my wife. P. R. Pavon, 22 Calle Estradura."

  Just an innocent personal, small among the classified ads. But Biggo felt a slow thrill begin at the pit of his stomach. Because, in Spanish, "pavon" meant "peacock." And for that matter, so did "pavo real" which might be, undoubtedly was, what the initials P. R. stood for.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Saturday, September 16, 8:00 p.m.

  When they got back up from dinner, a little after eight, the phone was ringing. Biggo got in and answered it while Jinny switched on the lights.

  The voice in his ear rasped, "This Biggo?" It took him a moment to realize it was Daniel Toevs.

  "Well, how you doing, Dan'l, you old goat?" Biggo cried in surprise. His hopes came up strong; maybe something good had happened in Cleveland.

  "I'm doing fine."

  "What's new in Cleveland?"

  "I'm not in Cleveland. I'm in town. Here in Ensenada."

  The toothpick dropped from Biggo's mouth. "Oh, for God's sake!" he said. "What do you mean by coming here?"

  "I'm here to give you a hand. I've been checking hotels ever since the bus landed. Finally tracked you down."

  Biggo groaned. He could see Toevs assiduously laying bare his trail. "Well, get out here before you do any more damage. Anybody following you or anything, a red-haired fellow?"

  "Hell, no," Toevs said proudly. "You think I can't take care of myself, don't you? Well-"

  "You alone? Or did you drag one of your tarts down here for company?"

  "Naturally I'm alone. No one with me or behind me either. Don't you worry. I been watching and I haven't even used the same name twice."

  After he had hung up, Biggo mechanically wiped the sweat off the telephone receiver and ambled around helplessly. "Saddle me with that old goat," he muttered. "The last bloody straw."

  Jinny watched him. "What is?"

  He didn't say. "We're going to have some company, dear," he snapped. After that she kept her mouth shut. His temper was written all over his face.

  It took Toevs about a half hour to get to the room. He looked even shabbier and paunchier than he had in Cleveland. The rum smell came in with him and got worse when he swore cheerfully and shook hands with Biggo. Then he saw Jinny with her black dress and buxom figure and his eyes popped. His astonishment was so comical that Biggo forgot his bad mood and laughed.

  Biggo said, "This is my wife, Jinny by name."

  "I didn't know," Toevs said. "When did it happen?"

  "It never did. Call it a business arrangement."

  "I'll call it that," said Toevs and winked. He looked Jinny over.

  She soured. "Biggo, your guff is bad enough. Our agreement didn't say anything about rum-dummies like this one."

  "Isn't that the prettiest voice you ever heard?" Biggo asked Toevs. "She sings, too." He didn't care what construction the old man put on the situation. Jinny was a good-looking girl, even when you knew her faults.

  Toevs got a clear view of Biggo's face.

  Biggo said, "Oh, I settled that Arab matter with Lew Hardesty."

  "I never knew him," Toevs said. He chuckled. "But I'd hate to meet him now that you've settled him."

  Biggo looked at Jinny's steady stare. He fumbled. "Oh, he doesn't look so bad, I guess." A second s silence. "He beat the living daylights out of me." Biggo laughed, more or less.

  "Oh." Toevs rubbed his jaw where two days' whiskers were like frost. He cleared his throat. "Well, that's about the end of the old bunch, isn't it? Time's passed quicker than I thought, Biggo, when some kid newcomer can beat the daylights out of Biggo Venn." It might have been the biggest disappointment in his life. He looked older.

  "Not that bad," Biggo said. "Besides that's not what we've got to talk about. Sit down, Dan'l, let's get to it."

  "What about her?"

  "She's safe enough." It made no difference now. Jinny already knew enough about him to make trouble if she felt like it. A little more wouldn't hurt.

  "Thanks," said Jinny drily. She flounced into the chair by the window and crossed her legs. Toevs got an eyeful of nylon. She said, "Take a good look, Pop. No extra charge."

  "Well, here we are," said Biggo. Unsmiling, he gathered up Daniel Toevs' lapels and brought their faces together. "Now, Dan'l, tell me just what the hell you are doing in Ensenada."

  "Please, Biggo-I couldn't stay up there and let you take all the risk down here." Toevs squirmed in the grasp but his whiskery chin was high. "Not after what you called me on the phone."

  "Figure you could do the job better? Cut me out of it?"

  "Ah, you know me better than that. What's got into you, anyway? Here we been friends since God knows when. But over the phone you said I-"

  "I know what I said. It still goes and if I don't break your neck it's just because I'm a sweet tempered fellow by nature." Jinny laughed and Biggo told her, "You just sit there, honey-no noise." He gave Toevs a little shake. "You're the last person on earth I wanted to see down here. This thing's been a mess from the start and you're the last straw. Magolnick knows you so his bunch down here knows you. But they don't know me yet and I want to keep it that way."

  "Nobody saw me."

  "No red-headed fellow in a black suit? He belongs to Magolnick. And he'll kill. He's got that look."

  "Nobody saw me, I tell you." Toevs shook his head, wanting to be understood. "Don't you see why I had to come, Biggo? There's not much left of me, I guess, but I'm not a coward like you called me. Not just because I let you come-"

  Biggo released the lapels
and waved a hand to shut him up. No use to argue about why Toevs had come. The old man was here and that was that. "All right, all right. Exactly what did you have in mind doing?"

  "Give you a hand. You haven't made the trade yet, have you?"

  "No. No way to make contact."

  Toevs took a trashcan copy of the evening paper out of his coat pocket. "Have you seen this personal ad, the Pavon one?"

  "Pavo Real Pavon. Peacock Peacock. Sure, I saw it."

  "Well, what about it?"

  "I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. It stinks like a camel."

  "Ah, Biggo, no," Toevs protested. Biggo repeated. Toevs ran his tongue over his lips. "It's the signal, isn't it?"

  "Yes, it is. Also it's a sure enough deadfall. Jaccalone wouldn't send up a rocket like that, not after what happened to your friend Zurico. So it must have been Silver Magolnick's people who did it. I see it that way because it's exactly what I'd do."

  Toevs scowled stubbornly. "The signal's the signal." He thumped the newspaper. "That's Jaccalone begging to trade. You can't brush off twenty thousand like that."

  "Just watch me if you don't think so."

  "Aren't you even going to scout it?"

  "No. If Magolnick's people don't get a nibble on this, they may think they've scared off the deal." Biggo plucked the Bible out of his pocket and flipped it over in his hand, intending to give Toevs confidence. Then he remembered Toevs didn't know what was in it. "After that we'll be able to go ahead on our own tack."

  Toevs gazed at him for a while. "Your own tack," he said and laughed scornfully, "And what might that be? Far as I can see you been down here doing your own fighting and your own-" he and Jinny clashed eyes "-and nothing for me. What kind of partners is that? Biggo, my half of that twenty thousand means a lot to me. And if you…" His voice trailed away, mixed up.

  "And if I what?"

  Toevs got up. He was taller than Biggo, facing him. He said slowly, "I gave you half of this proposition because I thought you still had the nerve I had at your age. Right now I don't think I used my head about it because it turns out you're yellow."

  Biggo still held the Bible. He slapped Toevs across the face with it. Jinny whimpered as if it were she who'd been struck but neither man paid any attention to her. Biggo murmured, "Dan'l, I'll see this business out in my own way and in my own time."

  Toevs didn't say anything.

  Biggo said, "You asked me in yourself. I didn't beg for this business but now I'm in and I'm in charge. You either ride with me, old rummy, or you don't ride at all. Which puts you down on your backside."

  Finally, Toevs sighed and blinked. His shoulders slumped. "All right."

  "All right what?"

  "You're in charge."

  "That means I'll handle the negotiations and you'll get out of town."

  "All right."

  Biggo had gotten the words he wanted but he didn't like the rebellious look on the old man's face. But there was no way to get inside a man and bully him there in his soul. Biggo said, "You're broke, aren't you?"

  Toevs nodded; he reeked with where the original two hundred had gone. Biggo dealt him out thirty dollars more.

  Toevs said, "That isn't much. Not to hole up in San Diego with."

  Biggo wished he hadn't slapped the old man. He said, "All I can spare. It's costing me to wait this business out and that's nearly half of what I got."

  "All right."

  "Now, try not to drink with strangers, Dan'l. This Hardesty is about your size with a scar on his right cheek. He thinks I'm up to something and he'd like to cut in. Given the chance, he'd ruin things for us just so he could laugh." Biggo put a hand on Toevs' shoulder, friendly. "Watch your step, Dan'l."

  Toevs slid from under his hand. He didn't look at Jinny who had witnessed his humiliation. He didn't look at Biggo who had caused it. He said, "Who's going to bother with an old rummy, anyway?"

  After the door had closed, there was silence. Jinny asked finally, "Did you have to hit him?"

  "I don't know. I thought so at the time." Biggo flopped on the bed. "It was for his own good. If he'd gotten his way, he'd have monkeyed around till he got hurt. Waiting's the only tactics. Look what happened to Zurico."

  "Biggo-was Zurico a friend of yours?"

  "I never saw him till I saw him dead. Pity because he didn't belong in this." He twisted his head to see Jinny.

  "Did he ever drop a hint as to what kind of a peacock he saw?"

  "No," she said.

  "It isn't important." Suddenly, needing sympathy, he told her what was hidden in his Bible and all about the deadlock he was waiting out. She listened somberly, not even getting mad when he said, "Bringing you out here with me-I had an idea I could send you into something like this Pavon deadfall. To test the ground, see if it was safe for me to follow. That's the truth. I'm not nice when I'm after something." He shrugged. "But I didn't send you. You're safe. I wouldn't. You're sort of a good kid and you've held up your end of the bargain."

  Jinny smiled slowly and shook her head at him. "You're a dangerous guy, Biggo. And that's a lot of money. What will you ever do with it all? Settle down?"

  "Me?" He snorted but a pang went through him at the thought of Pabla. "Maybe. Maybe it's about time." He riffled through the Bible, pretending to think about anything else. He saw her still smiling at him. "What's so funny?"

  "Nothing. I'm just glad you told me about everything. It's always nice to be told things," Jinny said. "Would you like to read to me again?"

  "So you can go to sleep on me again?" He chuckled. "There's something I don't trust you at. You told me not to trust you."

  "I promise I won't even blink. But isn't there anything in there not so bloodthirsty-something pretty?"

  Biggo grunted. He leafed until he found some fairly clean pages. "This looks fair. Let's see." He read, " 'How beautiful are thy feet in sandals, O prince's daughter! Thy rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a skilled workman. Thy body is like a round goblet wherein no mingled wine is wanting. Thy waist is like a heap of wheat set about with lilies. Thy two breasts are like two fawns that are twins of a roe. Thy neck is like the tower of ivory; thine eyes are the pools in Heshbon by the gate of Bathrabbim…' "

  "That's Solomon," Jinny murmured. "Start at the beginning."

  She broke in on his vision of Pabla, her young golden movements. Jinny's face was flushed, to his surprise. It embarrassed him that she should have no one. To make up for it, he said, "You know, you're a mighty pretty baby yourself. You ought to buck up, think more of yourself."

  Jinny didn't say anything.

  Biggo found the beginning, " 'Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth,' " and read. He paused several times. He got as far as, " '… I will rise now and go about the city. In the streets and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth.' " He paused again. " 'Uh, I sought him, but I found him not.' " He raised his head. "Jinny-"

  She said, "I know. You better go look."

  "I'm afraid of what he might do. He was feeling pretty low when he left here." Biggo got up off the bed. "Hell, somebody's got to worry about the old fool. Be just like him to go spring that trap."

  He went over to the bureau drawer and rummaged for the Mauser automatic. He put on his coat and dropped the pistol in his pocket. He still was holding the Bible. He dropped it in Jinny's lap. "You can finish it yourself."

  She didn't touch it. She gazed at him. "Aren't you afraid you might lose it?"

  "No," he said. "I'm not afraid of that." He went out to look for Daniel Toevs.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Saturday, September 16, 10:00 p.m.

  Biggo was nervous. He didn't know why in particular. For a Saturday night the town was lifeless. He guessed the people must be gathered inside somewhere, winding up the fiesta of Grito de Dolores.

  After the taxi dropped him, he walked around the bus depot, keeping to the shadows and looking for the old man. The last bus left Ensenada at ten but it
was a little late. He didn't see Toevs in the waiting room. He waited until the passengers boarded the high yellow vehicle and the engine roared before he let himself know what he had known all along: Toevs didn't intend to leave Ensenada.

  "Crazy old fool," he said. But he wasn't mad, just worried.

  Lights and people brightened Avenida Ruiz. Biggo avoided the main street, not consciously, but Red had last been seen there. He made for the embarcadero, for the Calle Estradura. That was where Toevs would be scouting around, proving what a fellow he was.

  The Calle Estradura was not a straight street and in places not a street at all. It was a sort of intermittent loading zone, crescent shaped, which followed the outline of the bay. It commenced somewhere north of Zurico's and gradually eased around to somewhere short of the Riviera Pacifico, never more than a stone's throw from the dark water's edge. Once in a while storage shacks blanked off the view of the bay, then there would be vacant lots of sand. It was unpaved.

  Biggo began at the north end. He prowled like an animal, keeping to the shadows. The moon was clouded tonight which suited him just as well.

  He discovered number 15, a rundown bait house, closed. It was not too far from the fishing pier where Zurico's body had been found. Number 15 was the first indicated address. It proved that 22 Calle Estradura didn't exist because there were no structures of any kind along the west side of the street for quite a stretch. Only the granite shoring and lapping water.

  Biggo stopped and listened. Nothing sounded out of place. Music from a cafe or bar trickled over faintly from Avenida Ruiz. A set of headlights weaved along the highway far to the north, probably the border-bound bus. In somebody's house a dog was barking.

  He lifted the automatic out of his pocket, liking the weight of it in his fist. He pushed off the safety. He held the gun in a ready position, high across his chest. Slowly, he advanced on Calle Estradura. His head was thrust forward as if he could sniff out the trouble. His feet made no noise on the uneven ground.