Read 1967 - Have This One on Me for Free Online Page B

red stretched pants was sitting on the floor, her back against his front door. She was hugging her knees, and she looked up at him with a cheerful, jeering smile.
    ‘Hello, boyfriend ... remember me? You’ve had a burglar.’
    Girland contained his irritation with an effort.
    ‘I told you to go,’ he said. ‘I’m busy right now. One of these days, when you have grown up, we could have fun, but not right now ... run away.’
    ‘Are your ears clogged with wax?’ the girl asked. ‘You have had a burglar.’
    ‘Okay, so I’ve had a burglar. Thanks. Up on your skates, kitten and disperse like a wisp of smoke.’
    ‘A big, heavily built man with a red, fat face,’ the girl went on, continuing to hug her knees. ‘He’s lost the lobe of his right ear. He was a pro. You should have seen the way he coped with your door lock. I was sitting on the stairs up there.’ She pointed a finger. ‘He didn’t see me. It was like a movie.’
    Girland became alert. A big, heavily built man with a missing right ear lobe had to be Oscar Bruckman, one of O’Halloran’s toughs. There couldn’t be two men with missing right ear lobes interested enough to break into his apartment.
    ‘I see at last you are showing interest,’ the girl said and levered herself to her feet. ‘My name’s Rima. Let’s go in and start afresh.’
    Ignoring her, Girland unlocked his front door and walked into his apartment. He looked around, then asked, ‘How long was he in here?’
    ‘Twenty minutes ... I timed him.’ The girl joined him and stared around the room. ‘I wouldn’t have thought there was anything worth stealing in this dump.’
    ‘Nor would I.’ Girland began to prowl around the room while the girl went over to the bed and sat on it.
    After a careful check, Girland decided nothing was missing.
    Bruckman’s visit puzzled him. Maybe, he wondered, Dorey had sent Bruckman in the hope of recovering some of the money Girland had lifted off him, but this seemed unlikely. Dorey couldn’t be that stupid as to imagine Girland would leave money in his apartment. Puzzled, irritated, Girland shrugged. It must be the answer, he told himself, Dorey’s thinking was always mean. He now became aware that Rima was in his bed, her clothes strewn on the floor. He looked at her exasperated and she smiled pertly at him.
    ‘Be big-minded.’ she said, ‘You can’t win all the time.’
    Women! Girland thought. She was right, of course, men never could win all the time ... not even most of the time, but just for the hell of it, he walked out of the apartment, slamming the door behind him. He ran down the stairs and into the street.
    When you are that young, that eager, that stupid, then a little frustration was good for the soul, he thought.
    He spent a dreary night in a fifth-rate hotel. Halfway through the night, as he tossed and turned, trying to sleep, he remembered her as she posed half-naked before him.
    I need my head examined he thought, and angrily thumped the floppy pillow. Around five o’clock, he was still sleepless. He suddenly decided he was allowing his conscience to rule his life.
    He hurriedly threw on his clothes and went down to his car. Ten minutes later, he was climbing the seven flights to his apartment. No wonder, he thought, as he moved from stair to stair, I have no weight problem. He opened the door of his apartment and moved into the big room now dimly lit by the coming dawn.
    The bed was empty; the apartment was empty.
    Girland grimaced, then shrugged.
    He went to the bed, stripped off the sheets and bundled them in a heap on the floor, then he undressed, took a shower and lying on the bare bed, he went to sleep.
    Oscar Bruckman stood before Corey’s desk, his thick fingers holding his hat behind his back.
    O’Halloran, Bruckman’s immediate boss, stood looking out of the window, chewing a dead cigar Dorey, seated at his desk, fiddled with a paper knife.
    There was an uneasy tension in the room.
    Dorey said, ‘I don’t