Jim Kane - J P S Brown (63 page)

"
Yeah!" the girl breathed and voices in the
room roared with laughter. Kane looked past her and saw Terry
Garrett, his hat on the back of his head, his blond hair in his eyes,
sprawled on an easy chair with a tall drink of whiskey in his hand.

"
There's Jim Kane," Garrett shouted. "Give
it to him, Lucy." The girl reached for Kane, pulled him into the
room, threw her arms around his neck, and smooched him on the mouth.
Kane walked into the room with the girl hanging on his neck like a
necktie. He shook hands with Garrett and the girl was still hanging
on. Santiago Brennan came in from an adjoining room and shook hands.
He mixed Kane a double Scotch and soda. Kane walked over to the bed
and dumped the girl on it.

"
Meet Lucy Luz, our one-eyed stripper from
Juarez," Garrett shouted.

"
Hi, Jim Kane," Lucy Luz said from the bed,
folding her good-looking legs up. "What happened to your face?"

"
Hi," Kane said without looking any more at
her. "Where's Ira March? he asked Garrett.

"
I've got him working. He's delivering some of
the cattle you sent us from Rio Alamos. He's getting the money. We
need the money. How have you been doing? What kind of cattle have you
got?"

"
Good cattle. They are at the packing house. 'I
castrated them day before yesterday. "

"
How many?"

"
Two hundred sixty-three head."

"
Did you lose any on the trail?"

"
No. I lost two on the trucks to Creel."

"Well, I should have been there to help you. I
knew you must have been in need of help, but I was so busy I just
couldn't make 'er."

Santiago Brennan laughed at him. "He was so busy
partying the only way I could get him down here was to bring his
missus along too," Brennan said. "But to hell with the
business now. Let's order some steaks and drink some whiskey now.
Talk business tomorrow."

"Right!" Terry Garrett said.

Kane drank three double Scotches in a hurry. Lucy Luz
went through her one-eyed strip act without music, which helped Kane
toward catching up to the party mood of Garrett and Brennan. He was
on his fourth double when the phone Lang in Brennan's room. Brennan
talked for a minute and came back.

"That was Roy Cunningham. He's coming up. He's
been in Chihuahua several months buying horses. Roy is an ex-rodeo
hand and a double-tough son-of-a-gun," Santiago said.
 
Roy Cunningham was a tall man, wide in the chest and
shoulders, so big he filled the door when he came through it. His
black hair and eye-fold showed his Indian blood. Lucy Luz did not
welcome him as she had welcomed Kane. A waiter came in behind
Cunningham carrying a tray with a bottle of Scotch, a pan of ice, and
several bottles of mineral water. Cunningham looked at the check and
put some bills on the tray. The waiter counted the money at a glance
and hesitated, expecting his tip. "Get out of here," Roy
Cunningham said without looking at him. The waiter hurried out. He
had not ventured a look at Lucy Luz.

The four men and the girl drank and feasted on steak
and high conversation. When the whiskey was gone they got a taxi and
headed out of town toward more girls and the music. Kane was sitting
in the front seat of the taxi next to the door. Cunningham was in the
middle next to the driver. Santiago, Lucy, and Garrett were in the
back seat. The cab wasn't going fast enough to suit Cunningham so he
stomped his foot down over the driver's foot on the accelerator. A
busload of people stepped out in front of the headlights as the
runaway cab sped off a narrow bridge. Cunningham grabbed the wheel,
sounded the horn, and steered the cab through the people as they dove
and scattered off the road like quail. The cabbie covered his eyes
with his hands.

They stopped the cab at a bordello and nightclub
called the Kilometro Cuatro, a place lying in wait for customers who
didn't know enough to pay for each round of drinks as they were
served. The customers got drunk and when the bill was presented they
couldn't argue about the exorbitance of the price of the party. The
customer couldn't argue because if he did the waiter called the cops
and the cops made the customer pay more.

Santiago Brennan ordered a bottle of champagne. The
four men drank this bottle toasting the girl.

The waiter brought another bottle of champagne. He
said the new bottle had been sent by a young Mexican who was seated
at a table by himself across the room. The young man l nodded when
the four men and the girl looked his way. , Santiago stood up and
motioned to the young man, inviting him to join them.

"
This is Guillermo Santini," Santiago
announced. "He likes Americans. He especially likes American
girls. He wants to practice his English on us."

"
He can like us as long as he keeps ordering the
champagne," Kane said.

The smiling young man in his dark suit sat down at
the table. Terry Garrett took Lucy to the dance floor. Garrett danced
as though his feet were six inches off the floor and he wore a big
crooked grin on his face. He could see nothing. The house finally ran
out of champagne. Not even a bottle of warm champagne was left. The
four men and the student and the girl ordered a bottle of tequila,
lime halves, and salt. Kane drank tequila out of his champagne glass
and got up and found himself a soft, brown, nameless girl to dance
with. Roy Cunningham found himself a tall peroxide girl in a red
satin dress. Santiago Brennan danced with Lucy. The dance floor t was
crowded and the three couples were dancing on the edge of the floor
near the table where Terry Garrett and Guillermo Santini were
sitting.

Garrett was drunk now. His head was nodding and would
soon be under him like a weak old steer's who was down in a ditch.
Santini was talking to him but Garrett wasn't listening. Santini
politely patted Garrett on the shoulder to get his attention. Garrett
revived and looked at Santini. The Mexican smiled and repeated what
he had said. Garrett reached up with both hands, took off his own
hat, pounded the Mexican three times on the head with it, put it back
on his head, and laid his head down on the table. Guillermo Santini
stood up in a very formal, dignified manner, his face red with
embarrassment, and postured before Garrett as though he might be
removing a pair of white gloves to slap Garrett's face with. He
carefully removed Garrett's hat and slapped Garrett's head with it.
When Garrett looked up again Santini hit him a fine right hand
between the eyes. Garrett did a backward somersault on his buttocks
and spilled out on the dance floor at Kane's feet. Kane and
Cunningham picked Terry Garrett up and propped him, soundly
anesthetized, back on his chair. The .three valiants sat down and
drank a toast to the brave, fallen Garrett and threw their champagne
glasses against the wall. They called the waiter and ordered more
glasses.

A floorshow began. The first girl who came out was a
dancer. She was out of shape. Her heavy thighs shook excessively
beneath the folds of her buttocks. She tried to dance her scuffed
shoes above the floor but they crashed back to the floor too
abruptly. She didn't take off any of her clothes because she couldn't
use her hands at the same time she used her feet. Her hands fluttered
erratically as they tried to keep time with her feet but the stomps
jarred away the movement of the hands before they could describe
flight. She did have a genuine smile on her face, a smile she showed
intimately to each someone in the audience she could catch looking at
her. Kane joined in a sound applause with everyone else when she
lumbered toward her dressing room at the end of her dance. He figured
she must be trying a comeback.

The second girl was young and confident of her body.
She could afford her brilliant, jaw-aching cold smile. She had long
hair that hung uncombed to her hips. She began to do what she knew
the customers had come to see. She took her clothes off gracefully to
the tune of music. She was down to the last strip of her raiment, the
strip she knew was driving the customers mad, when she began making
gyrating passes at Jim Kane, who was sitting at the edge of the dance
floor. Kane turned to Hoy Cunningham and said, "If she makes one
more pass at me like that I'm going to jerk that thing off her."

The girl came wiggling back. Kane waited until she
turned away wiggling and he snatched the seat of the G-string. He
jerked it hard to tear it off clean without hurting her but it held
and the girl came with it. He pushed her back out to get a new pull
and her hair stood up and when he jerked again harder the hair waved
in a wide arc over her head and covered her face and she came
skidding across the table. Kane let go of her, her modesty still
intact, as she slid across the table. She landed like a cat off the
other side of the table, scooted on all fours under the table, and
was gone across the dance floor.

"
I have called the judicial police. Please pay
your bill," announced the manager.

"
But you've got it wrong," said Santiago.
"I've always heard the saying was "Pay the bill or you call
the police.'"

"
You owe one thousand seven hundred fifty pesos.
Five hundred for the costume, and one thousand two hundred fifty for
the champagne, the tequila, and the glasses."

"
Very reasonable," said Santiago. "I
would like a receipt. Never mind, my check will be my receipt."

"
I will not take a check, " said the
manager. He was not a foolhardy man. He stood a good distance away
from the table. Santiago wrote out a check, signed it with a
millionaire's flourish, and tore it from his checkbook. He handed it
to Cunningham. The check was signed "Terence P. Santiago."

Cunningham handed it to the manager. ‘"Get out
of here," he growled. The manager took the check and walked
away.

"
Hell, I didn't tear the girl's jockstrap. That
is the toughest costume I ever saw and it so little," complained
Kane.

"
I wouldn't have paid that bill if I was you,
Santiago. What a clip joint this is."

"
Let's get out of here. I've got horses to ship
tomorrow," Roy Cunningham said.

They picked Garrett off his chair and started
carrying him to the door.

"Where's Garrett's girl friend, Santiago?
Cunningham asked.

They turned back toward the room. Lucy was sitting in
a corner with the young Santini. He was practicing his English with
her. Santiago gave over his portion of Garrett and walked over to
Lucy. Santini stood up in his sedate, red-faced way and stepped away
from the table. Santiago asked Lucy Luz something. She was sober. Her
eye was shining as though she was so filled with happiness. Maybe she
had found true love. She answered Santiago and he nodded and came
back.

"
The missus says she ain't coming just yet, "
he said. They rode the taxi back to the hotel. Kane paid the cab
while Santiago was very solicitously lifting Garrett out of the back
seat.

"
Here, let us help you," Kane said and got
hold of one of Garrett's legs. Cunningham held the other. Santiago
dropped the head and shoulders to the sidewalk and Kane and
Cunningham dragged Garrett by the feet across the lobby of the hotel,
head bumping on stairs, into the elevator, of the elevator, and down
the hall to 408. They couldn't find a key so Kane kicked the door
open. They dumped Garrett on his bed and said good night. Kane shook
hands soberly and started to leave.

"
You can have 508 if you want it," Santiago
told them. "I didn't know but what you might want to stay here
after the party and I reserved 508 for you."

"Not me," Roy Cunningham said. "I've
got horses to ship in one hour. I'm getting away from you drunks."

Kane went up to 508. He didn't have the key so he
kicked the door in and went to bed. .

He awoke late the next evening. The door was
destroyed. He put the pieces of plaster that lay in the room back
around the door. He hammered the doorjamb back in place with his boot
heel. Then he saw he would not be able to get out the door without
ruining his repair job. He wanted to get out of the room and back to
the party of his very good friends. The room had twin beds. Kane
shoved one bed over to the window. He tied the bedspread around the
bed. He tied sheets and blankets to the bedspread and hung them out
the window in a string. He went out the window of 508 on the sheets
hoping 408 was on the room below him. The ground was at the end of a
cement well five stories below him. Just before his feet reached the
top of the window of 408 the sheets gave and he slipped down to the
windowsill. Jim Kane kicked the window. Voices in the room stopped.
Kane began to believe he had not heard the voices in the room. He
kicked the window again. He could not turn loose the sheets and try
to open the window as there were no handholds or footholds outside.
The windowsill was too narrow to stand on. He kicked again and the
curtain in 408 parted and Garrett looked Kane in the eye and let the
curtains close. Kane kicked again and the curtain parted and Santiago
Brennan saw Kane hanging there. Santiago opened the window and pulled
him inside the room. Terry Garrett was sitting in one of the easy
chairs.

"Why did you help him, Santiago? I would have
left him hanging out there at least until he said please,"
Garrett said. Kane was just hungover enough that he didn't think had
said anything funny. Santiago Brennan handed Kane a drink. Kane
quaffed half of it and sat down.