know where I’m staying.”
“Suppose he doesn’t show up, Bernard? Then what?”
“He’ll show. He’ll even make sure he’s on time because he doesn’t want anything to go wrong. He’ll bring Loren and I’ll equip myself with all of Loren’s paraphernalia, the badge and the cap and the gun and the nightstick and the cuffs, all that crap, and Loren’ll curl up here with an astrology magazine while Ray and I go and do the dirty deed. Then Ray’ll drop me back here and pick up Loren and that’s the end of it.”
“But suppose he keeps the ten thousand dollars and forgets all about you?”
“Oh,” I said, “he won’t do that.”
“How can you be sure?”
“He’s honest,” I said, and when she stared at me I explained. “There’s all kinds of honest. If a cop like Ray makes a deal he’ll stick with it. He’s that kind of honest. And you heard him carry on when I showed some doubt about his giving Loren an even split. He was genuinely offended at the implication. What’s so funny?”
“I was thinking of Carter. He wouldn’t understand a syllable of this.”
“Well, he’s a different kind of honest.”
“He certainly is. Bernard, I think I can have one more drink without harming myself any. Can I get you one?”
“No thanks.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive.”
“More coffee, then?”
I shook my head. She went back to the kitchen and returned with drink in hand. She sat down on the sofa, sipped her drink, set it down on the coffee table and noticed the pair of hundred-dollar bills I’d convinced Ray to leave behind. “I guess these are yours,” she said.
“Well, one of us counted wrong, Mrs. Sandoval.”
“Darla.”
“Darla. Why don’t we each take one of them?”
That struck her as fair. She kept a bill and passed its brother to me. Then she said, “You said he was honest. That policeman. But he would have kept the extra two hundred dollars.”
“Oh, sure. He was steamed when I called him on it.”
“There really are all kinds of honesty, aren’t there?”
“There really are.”
It was time to change back into mufti, time to pack up the uniform and cart it downtown. But for the moment I didn’t feel much like moving. I sat in a chair across from Darla and watched her nibble at her drink.
“Bernard? I was thinking that it’s a waste of time for you to chase downtown and back. And it’s an added risk, isn’t it? Being out on the street that much?”
“I’ll take cabs both ways.”
“Even so.”
“A small risk, I suppose.”
“You could stay here, you know.”
“I’d like to drop my suitcase at the place where I’m staying.”
“Oh?”
“And there’s someone I’ll want to see before I meet Ray this evening. And a stop or two I’ll want to make.”
“I see.”
Our eyes met. She had a lot of presence, this lady did. And something more than that.
“You really look effective in that uniform,” she said.
“Effective?”
“Very effective. I’m just sorry I won’t be able to be here tonight when you have all the accessories. The nightstick and the handcuffs and the badge and the gun.”
“Well, you can imagine how I’ll look with the props.”
“Yes, I certainly can.” She ran the tip of her tongue very purposefully over her lips. “Costumes can be very useful, you know. I sometimes think that’s what I like most about theater. Not that the actors wear costumes physically, although they often do, but that the whole character which an actor puts on is a sort of costume.”
“Do you do any acting yourself, Darla?”
“Oh, no, I’m just a dabbler. I told you that, didn’t I? Why should you think I might have acted?”
“The way you were using your voice just then.”
She licked her lips again. “Costumes,” she said, and ran her eyes over my uniform. “I think I told you that I used to consider myself a very conventional person.”
“I think you did.”
“Yes, I’m quite sure I said that.”
“Yes.”
“Conventional in sexual matters.”
“Yes.”
“But in recent years I’ve found out otherwise. I may have told you that.”
“Uh, yes, I think you did.”
“In fact I’m positive I did.”
“Yes.”
She got to her feet and stood in such a way as to make me very much aware of the shape of her body. “If you were to wear that uniform,” she said, “or one rather like it, and if you were to have handcuffs and a nightstick, I think I would find you quite irresistible.”
“Uh.”
“And we might do the most extraordinary things. Imaginative persons could probably find interesting things to do with handcuffs and a nightstick.”
“Probably.”
“And with each other.”
“Very