enovel The Come On Vin Fields [Future Story Codes]

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The Come On ....(67k)    by Vin Fields

EXTRA ADDED INCENTIVE

She walked into my apartment as though she belonged there. She was wearing a simple black dress that was molded to her in a way that made every lovely line of her sleek body stand out as if she weren't wearing a thing. "Have you anything to drink?" she asked. "Scotch will do."

I poured two shots and handed one to her, finding it hard to keep my eyes from the sharp outlines of her breasts. "I had a hunch you'd be paying me a visit," I remarked, looking into her crazy-colored eyes, "but I didn't think it would be this soon."

She smiled slowly. "My husband considers you an important client. Potential client, that is." She sipped the scotch without taking her eyes from mine. "He wants your name on a contract."

"And you're here to seal the bargain, huh?"

She laughed softly. "I have the contract in my purse."

I put my hand out and cupped the back of her neck and pulled her mouth to mine in a rough kiss. She melted against me and her slender body began doing things to mine. When I released her, she was flushed and her eyes were excited. She walked across the room and put down the glass and began to pull the black dress up over her head. I stood and watched.

She was wearing black lace underwear of the peekaboo type and in the high-heels, she looked like something out of a cheese-cake magazine. She removed the brassiere and pointed her incredible breasts at me. "Do you want to sign the contract now or later?"

"Later," I muttered, moving toward her.

She smiled. ""Whatever you want...."

CHAPTER ONE

It was three o'clock in the afternoon on a gray December day. For the last few minutes I had been staring at the big gold-lettered sign on the window: E. H. DAY ASSOCIATES--Specialists in Professional Personnel.

It read good but it meant nothing. Day Associates consisted of myself and Jann, who was something more than my secretary, a small outer office and a somewhat larger inner office. And one client, the plastics division of Astro-Dynamics, a corporation with a big role in the race for space.

I knew damn well that if I didn't find a way to bring more dollars in soon, I wouldn't even have the second-hand swivel chair under me. I'd be out on the street looking for a job and Sue, my ex-wife, would be after me for non-support.

Disgusted, I stood up and walked to the window.

It was dirty with the grime of the city smeared across it. Down in the street people were already beginning to hurry toward the subway station on the corner. The wind and cold made them bend low. Most of them were going away from something toward something else. I wasn't sure whether or not I envied them.

I began to think which one of them might be an engineer, the kind that would bring me a nice fat fee if I placed him with a company hungry for his particular specialty. Electronic engineers brought the best price, especially if they had previous experience with missile tracking systems.

I spotted a small guy, with no hat and a full head of bushy gray hair. I imagined he was the elite of the science world, a physicist with half a lifetime of experience, even five or ten years experience would have delighted me if he had the title of "doctor" before his name. Getting hold of a guy like that was like having money in the bank.

Tired of dreaming, I was about to tell Jann to call it a day when the door to the outer office opened. A woman's voice said: "Tell En, Sue is here." Jann tried to tell her that I wasn't in but Sue wasn't the kind of woman who took no for an answer. She laughed and said to Jann: "Look, you may be sleeping with him but that doesn't give you squatter's right. I still have first call." She pushed past Jann and stormed into my office just as I was going to the door. When she saw me, she stopped and a smile suddenly appeared on her face.

She was a small woman with finely chiseled features and the kind of translucent white skin that showed the delicate blue streaks of her veins as they came to the surface near her exquisitely slender throat. Her high cheek-bones never needed help from a rouge-like coloring. They glowed orange-red, as though they were fired by an inner heat. The same coruscation lay deep in her sea green eyes.

It had taken a long time for me to understand the fire deep in her was a consuming flame that demanded more and more money to satisfy. Especially when, as a college instructor of classical civilization, money was always scarce.

Sue's body was compact and voluptuous. High, full breasts crowned by light pink nipples set in darker hued aureola. A flat stomach that flowed into thighs that were excitingly fleshy.

The thought of that body made me set my teeth in grim determination. I once worshipped it as though it belonged to a goddess. And all the time, before she told me she wanted a divorce, she let me use it without once ever really understanding what it meant to me.

"Are you just going to stand there and look at me?" she asked, opening her coat so I could get an eyeful of her low-cut knitted dress.

"I'm just surprised at your coming here," I said.

"That's me--always full of surprises." She turned toward the door. "Is that your new bed companion?" There was a note of mockery in her voice.

"Jann and I see a lot of each other," I answered.

Sue laughed. "That's a polite way of putting it."

"I'm sure you didn't come here to discuss Jann."

She opened an oversized purse and took a cigarette out of a pearl case. She offered me one. I declined. Then she waited for me to light it. I didn't do that either. Finally, she was blowing smoke through her nostrils with what seemed to be a vengeance.

She looked toward the door. "Must she hear everything we say?"

Without answering, I went to the door and was about to close it when I caught Jann looking at me. I shrugged my shoulders, a bit ashamed and guilty.

"That's better," Sue said. "Now we have some privacy."

I went back to my desk and sat down on the edge. "Well," I began, "why are you here?"

"Guess."

"More money."

"No," she answered. She had seated herself in my chair while I went to the door and now with her legs crossed, the bottom of her dress had inched its way above her knees. She caught me looking at the exposed strip of stocking-covered skin. "It's still all there," she said. "That's why I came here... I want us to start over again."

"What?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Why not?"

"Whoever you left me for must have given you the brush-off, eh?"

What I said made her flush red. I knew I had struck close to the truth.

Sue stood up and let her coat fall from her shoulders. "You still care for me, don't you?" She came close to me and put her arms around my neck. Her perfume was strong and stimulating. She began to sway against me, grinding her breasts against my chest. In spite of the fact that she walked out on me almost two years ago and now all she wanted from me was money, I wanted her. I wanted the feel of her body against mine. I dropped my hand to the bottom of her skirt. The touch of her flesh against my fingers made me feel as though the room was beginning to spin...

The phone rang. I pushed Sue away and reached for it. Jann was on the other end. In a quiet self-controlled voice she said: "Don't let her rope you, En. You've been all through that once." Then she hung up.

Sue was still close to me. I managed to squeeze between her and the desk and went to the window. I looked out for a long time. Then I spoke without turning to her. "It won't work again." Even to me there was a finality in my voice.

"Perhaps not this time," Sue smiled. "But one battle doesn't make a war." She picked up her things and went to the door. "And as for you," she said to Jann, "you're just a lay for him and that's that." She crossed the outer office and turned to me. "En, I'll still have my way." Then she left.

I looked at Jann. She fought hard to control the tears. "Forget her," I said. "She must think I have some money, otherwise she would not have come." I went back into my office. Sue's perfume was still in the air and on my hands, the scent of her body still lingered. I went to the window. Old, bitter memories began to float upward like so many vapors.

"When we were finally separated, I couldn't believe it had happened. Sometimes I'd see a woman on the street or in the subway, who from the back looked like Sue and I would try desperately hard to catch up to her. When I would succeed, I was always disappointed. It was never Sue.

Some student of human behavior once said: "... man only really loves one woman in his life and he seldom marries that woman. A man's first love more than likely is his real love. He carries an image of this love with him for the rest of his life... and all his other experiences with women are gauged by this relationship."

I had known many women but Sue was my first love. She had also been my wife. After we split up nothing was ever the same between myself and other women. Even with Jann, though I knew moments of great ecstasy, there was a part of me that did not enter into the sex act. I often thought it was the part of me I had tried unsuccessfully to give to Sue.

Even at the very end, when we were in bed together for the last time, Sue was able to tell me in that matter-of-fact voice of hers that she wanted a divorce. She chose the exact psychological moment that she knew would annihilate me as a man and as an individual. Stunned, I fell away from her, unable to complete what I had started.

We lay side by side and in the same matter-of-fact voice she told me about the man she worked for, about the arrangement between them that had been going on for months.

I knew she had thought the whole thing over for a long time and to argue with her would have been foolish. Out of a sense of duty or kindness, maybe both, she offered me her body again.

Enraged, I struck her across the face. Her head jerked back then she started to laugh. She told me that I was a fool for looking a gift horse in the mouth... and kept on laughing... until I had to run from the sound.

CHAPTER TWO

The phone in the outside office rang. The sound of it jerked me out of the past. I walked slowly to the door. Jann was looking directly at me, her brown eyes wide with surprise. Then she said: "Yes, Mister Harn... Mister Day is just finishing another call."

I couldn't help smiling. Jann would make me sound important even if the president himself were calling. That's why I needed her.

She put her hand over the phone and said: "It's Mister Harn... he says it's very important that he speak to yon."

My first impulse was to dash for the phone. Harn was my bread and butter. He was personnel manager of my only client. I walked slowly back to my desk and sat down. Then I nodded to Jann.

"Mister Day is ready now," she said and she pressed my button so that Harn would be sure to hear the buzz.

"Day speaking," I began.

Harn cut right in. "Listen En, I've just landed... I'm still out at Idlewild. Can you guess who's with me?"

Even as a kid, I wasn't much for guessing games. I leaned back in my swivel chair and motioned Jann to come close. I began to talk to Harn again. "What the hell are you doing out there?" I asked, trying to get that happy buddy-boy sound in my voice. It sounded flat to me but must have rung true with him.

"The big man from Astro-Dynamics is with me."

"Who?"

"Wells, the Vice-President." He laughed, pleased with himself and what he told me. "I told you I'd arrange for a meeting as soon as the time was right... and it's right now."

"No kidding!" I exclaimed.

I jotted down what Harn said and pushed the note towards Jann. She read it and baby-like clapped her hands. That was one of Jann's more interesting traits. She could be one helluva woman, but she could also be a small girl. Most of the time I preferred the woman. We were somewhat evenly matched then. But the girl in her had its moments. Now it was delightful. She left her place and came around the back of my chair. Her perfume came in strong but delicate, like new-mown hay.

"You know me," Harn was saying, "if I promise to do something, I generally get around to it.

Wells says he wants to parley around sixish this evening."

"Fine. Where?"

"We'll be staying at the Waldorf. I'll tell you what! Meet me down in the men's bar."

"Sure."

"By the way, we'll be with some other people," he said. I wasn't sure whether he intended it to sound like the soft explosion of a well-placed bomb or the slow muscular movement associated with laying an egg.

"Who?"

"Some of your competition... Wallace and his wife. It's your big chance to really cut them out. Say listen, I've got to run now. See you this evening!" He hung up.

I had the same sickening feeling that usually comes from riding the downward slope of a roller-coaster. I felt myself turning alternately hot and cold. I never believed that Harn would make good on his promise to arrange a meeting for me with his boss, Wells.

Harn was a windbag, especially when he was potted. And he was long gone when he said that he would introduce me soon to the big man himself. I assured him that I believed what he was saying and let it go at that. I had just about forgotten that the possibility had ever been mentioned until now.

But I felt as though the fates were playing with me--dangling me like a puppet at the end of a string. First Sue, now Harn and a chance to take a crack at the big time.

"What's bothering yon, En?" Jann asked. Her voice was soft like a muted quivering string.

By sheer bravado I was prepared to talk myself out of the lousy feeling that was beginning to take hold of me. But her eyes looked at me with such concern that any thought of putting on an act vanished.

Worried about tonight with Harn and Wells f" I nodded. "It's my big chance to get off the junk heap." I wasn't going to say anything about Sue.

Jann already knew a lot about Sue and me and probably guessed much more than I ever told her. Women have a sixth sense about things like that. They're like sleek jungle cats who know danger is about without ever seeing it. Jann probably guessed that though Sue left me, I never really left her.

I stood up and walked to the window and began to chew over my conversation with Harn. I was sure I didn't like the taste of it.

"You don't seem happy about meeting Harn and his friend," Jann said.

I tried to laugh and said: "It's a lousy business no matter how you look at it."

"If you don't like the business, why don't you get out of it?" she asked. It was her standard question. She went back to her desk and began to clear it for the evening.

"What else can a guy like me do?"

"You've got a good education," she said, facing me.

Jann and I had something going. Once in a while she tried to give me a gentle nudge. I didn't mind it. It proved she was interested in me. "Nah," I said. "I'm too long a hustler to be good at anything else... besides finding engineers for American industry smacks of the good old slave trade... so many dollars per head... clear and simple. The market is good for these brainy bastards who become gainfully employed to develop bigger and better ways to destroy us all."

"Don't be bitter."

"I'm not, I'm being terribly realistic. This is the way it is." She shook her head knowingly.

I turned back to the window and began to think about Harn's phone call. I definitely decided that I didn't like the sound of his voice. It had all the controlled exuberance of a smirk about it.

Without my knowing it, Jann had come to my side. The fresh scent of her perfume made me turn from the window. It was then I realized the office lights had been turned out and we were standing in a room flooded with darkness.

Her hand touched my arm but she didn't say anything. Then she came very close and put her head against my chest. I looked down into the swirl of her chestnut hair. I moved close and kissed the top of her head. A small sigh of contentment whispered from her lips. We stood close together for a long time before I became aware of her breasts. They were soft against my chest. My hand went to them. The moment I touched her, she turned her head up and our lips met.

We separated and by mutual consent moved away from the window and toward the couch that was along the opposite wall. We stood looking at each other for a moment then she said: "It's the only thing I can really give you."

Up to that instant, it was as though I were watching Jann and myself from a distance. I knew she wanted me to make love to her but Sue had spanned the three years we had been apart and now was big as life in my thoughts.

But Sue never wanted to give. She only took, whether it was in relation to money or sex. And one always went with the other. Sex to her was a way of paying me back and when she felt that no payment was needed, she'd lock her legs tighter than a knot. I spent as much time during the five years we were married hating her as I did trying to love her. A dozen times I made up my mind to leave her but in the end, she left me.

Jann was different. She knew how to give, how to really love a man.

I reached for her and slowly began to move the black jersey sweater she wore over her breasts. "It will be easier if I do it," she said. She reached down and in one sinuous motion pulled the garment free. She undid the zipper of her skirt and let it drop to the floor. "You do the rest." I took her to me and undid her bra and worked her suspants down until she could step out of them with one deft motion. Nude, she stood before me. "Let me," she said, coming up to me, her hand already beginning to work on the buttons of my shirt and tie. In a few moments I was as nude as she.

She lay down on the couch and reached up to me. I went down beside her and buried my face between the softness of her breasts, while her hand slowly stroked me.

Sue's phantom began to vanish.

"You know what I like, En," she whispered.

I moved so that my lips were on the nipple of one breast while one hand slowly slid down her flat stomach to the warm and smooth thighs. I teased her. Each time she pressed forward into me, I retreated.

"You're driving me crazy," she said hoarsely. "It's what you want, isn't it?"

"Yes... oh, yes!"

I smothered her exclamation with a kiss and her mouth opened. Tongue-to-tongue, we stabbed wildly at each other. Her hands went wild and my whole body flamed up.

Suddenly she twisted away and her lips dropped down to my chest and slid down along the length of my body. We were a tangle of arms and legs. Finally, she cried out: "En, please, no more teasing... I want you."

"Not so quickly," I said, half-humorously. "Half the fun is making it last."

Her eyes opened and she looked up at me. In spite of herself, a smile crept along her lips. "All right."

"My way?" I asked.

She closed her eyes and sighed: "Your way." I moved slowly, making sure my movements remained controlled. The action never failed.

She began to move her own body and I quickened my pace. She clenched her teeth and then in one fantastic gesture opened her mouth and flung her arms around my neck. She locked me close to her and moaned my name over and over again. Then for her it was over.

But the next instant the world turned upside down for me. Time seemed to stop! I wanted to scream Sue's name out. To keep silent I bit my lips.

We lay glued together for a long time.

Finally she reminded me about my appointment with Harn. For my part, I would have been quite content to try for a second time around if my strength prevailed as long as my willingness to try did.

Before I left the office, I told her to line up a date for Harn for the evening. I also said that if I could get away early, I'd drop by her place. In any case, I'd call some time later that night.

CHAPTER THREE

I stood hunched over the far end of the bar at the Bear and Bull. I had just taken down a shot of twelve-year-old scotch and was trying to decide whether to go for another or pass for the time being. The barkeep, dressed in a red monkey-jacket with frayed cuffs and black trousers, stepped up ready to give me a refill. I covered the stumpy glass and said: "I'll let this one circulate for a while."

The barkeep looked at me with his light blue eyes. I got the message. He didn't care what I did, who I was, what I thought or if I was alive. But I'd pay him back in kind when it came time to leave a tip.

I shifted my weight around and turned so that I could have a better view of the flight of steps leading from the hotel lobby into the bar. It was past six. The witching hour when men were allowed to bring women into the place. And they came. Old and baggy, hanging on the arms of old men with puffy cheeks and bald heads. The young ones came too, in low-cut cocktail dresses with half their breasts billowing out. And all of them twittered, as though the idea of entering a strictly man's domain acted like an aphrodisiac.

But I wasn't there for the show. I was going to meet Harn and he was late already. I was bb- -ginning to feel jumpy. The knots in my stomach were tied tighter than a virgin's crossed legs. I didn't like the idea of being kept waiting. I caught the barkeep's attention and pointed to my empty jigger. He promptly filled it. There was a smile on his face that turned my stomach.

The second shot went down like a cherry red poker, he warmth spread quickly. I was beginning to feel good again, more than an equal match for Wallace. I stood up tall.

The next instant the door at the head of the flight of steps opened. Harn walked in. He was a short, chunky man with a baby face already becoming beefy. His hair was slicked down and from behind his glasses he looked down the length of the bar before moving. Then he stopped at me. A broad grin flashed across his face. His hand shot up in a wave of acknowledgement and he started toward me.

"Pull a foot up on the brass rail," I said as he came close. Our hands went out and we shook. "What are you drinking?"

"I'll have a beer."

The bar keep didn't have to be signaled. He was there--a Johnny-on-the-spot. "A beer for the gentleman and another of the same for me."

"Well," Harn said, "we'd better talk about our business first." My glass was refilled and he was given a beer.

"Where's Wells?"

"With Wallace, the guy you have to outsell tonight."

"Oh!"

"Drink up," Harn said, lifting his glass," there are only two of them... Wallace and his wife, Laura... ever hear about Laura Wallace?"

Still not lifting my glass, I said: "No."

"She helps smooth things out for Wallace when clients become unhappy. She kind of helps them see the light again."

In spite of the crawling feeling in my stomach, I began to laugh. "Yeah, but now he's in a jam. I don't think a dozen Lauras could bail him out of this thing."

Harn was beginning to talk. What he was about to say was very important to me if I ever hoped to get the Astro-Dynamics account all to myself. I turned slightly away and faced the bar again. This time I lifted my glass and saluted my guest. "Wallace is one of the best in the business if you're looking for bodies with engineering degrees. I remember the job he did for the Big M. Corporation down in Orlando. He filled that plant with more bodies per square foot than you could imagine."

Harn laughed:" That's just it, they were bodies. Few, if any, had an advanced degree. You know it's easy to get men from the flesh pile, either as soon as they come out of engineering school or after they get kicked around for a while. Wave more greenbacks in front of their eyes, promise them that magic opportunity for advancement and suddenly they pack up bag and baggage and move to any cotton pickin' town in the good old U.S.A." He raised his glass and drained it dry.

"Wallace did a job down there, everyone in the business knows that," I said, still playing it cool.

Ham shook his beefy face. "Sure... but things are changing and no matter what Wallace uses to develop friendships." He winked broadly and poked me in the ribs. "I don't think he's really changed with the times. Basically he's a high-class whoremaster and will always be one. Now this last bit he pulled with Astro-Dynamics is typical."

My gambit now was to keep my mouth shut and let Harn do all the talking.

"The boys at Astro-Dynamics needed a half-dozen real top-grade nuclear physicists, one in particular--a Doctor Grant. Well, Wallace moved like a bull in a china shop. He pulled about a dozen or so resumes from God knows where and started to make offers. You know these physicists, they're a touchy group. Finally word got around that Wallace was trying to pull off a big coup--the result is that Astro-Dynamics' name is worth zero among these kings of the scientific world. Wallace and his wife are here to try and patch things up with Wells. Get the picture?"

I got the picture long before Harn had finished his most interesting story. Wallace had goofed. The goof might cost him the account. If it went that way, I wanted to be right there to step in and take over. I made some quick calculations. A half-dozen top-grade physicists are worth a good twenty grand in fees. I figured that Grant alone was worth five.

If Astro-Dynamics was really in need of these brain-guys, they would pay and pay through the nose. I was sure that Wells was on the spot with his management and would jump through a hoop, if he were given the right one. I was eager and ready for action.

"Anything interesting planned for later?"

Harn asked.

Whenever Harn asked that question, he meant only one thing. Not just a woman, but one with all the trimmings. Something fancy. Different from his own dowdy wife, who didn't exist the moment he boarded the plane or train for his trip to the big city.

Harn liked his women tall, broad-boned and full-breasted. I once had the pleasure of meeting his wife. She was a small, dark complexioned girl with the slender body of a teen-ager. That she was able to knock off a kid just about every year of their married life was astonishing. But when he was in New York on business, Harn went for the big stuff.

"I had Jann set something up," I answered.

He gave me a big toothy smile. "You're all right," he said, slapping my back. "That's what I told Wells... I said, Enders Day has class. When he does something it's always done with a fine touch." Harn laughed. "Let me give you a tip about Wells. He's a company man, know what I mean?" He looked up at me with saucer-big eyes. The expression could have passed itself off for child-like guile. But I knew differently. I knew that Harn was burned by the idea that top management put the finger on Wells to head up the entire recruitment effort and industrial relations department of all Astro-Dynamics. Harn had been by-passed in favor of a man who once worked for him. The blue-eyed look of innocence vanished. He shrugged his shoulders. "He's out to make a name for himself and he doesn't give a damn who he knocks over to do it, understand?"

I nodded gravely, letting the expression on my face show all the commiseration he expected me to give him.

He shook his head and muttered: "He's a bastard."

I restrained myself from saying: So are you.

But need makes slightly more than strange lovers. I needed Harn because of the Astro-Dynamics account. The fees from that one juicy plum would more than pay the rent and keep the bill collectors off my back. Harn was my foot in the door. I was tired of running scared, of being leap and hungry, when other guys like Wallace were cashing in on the pirating of bodies and brains.

"Say buddy-boy," Harn said, putting his hand on my shoulder, "what's with this Jann? She's as cold as an ice cube, even over the phone."

I could feel the hair prickle along my back. My thoughts flashed back to her nude body as I had seen it just a few hours before. I was not in love with her but suddenly found I was selfish about her. "She's that way sometimes," I said.

"I could go for her in a big way," he said, running his fat red tongue over his lips. His hand dropped from my shoulder and gripped my arm.

"If we work together on this deal we can cut up a big pie." He winked. "But sometimes, I like to nibble at the frosting."

I knew he was dangling the bait before me. But I was hungry. After all, Jann was just another broad, steadier than others but still a lay. "I'll see what I can do," I said, without looking at him.

"Good. Now let's get to work on the big problem."

To my surprise, he paid the check and off we marched to the fray.

CHAPTER FOUR

Physical combat, like physical love, can take place almost anywhere, anytime. Sometimes the two go together and to separate them would nullify each. It often happens that way between a man and a woman, seldom between nations. I had known both kinds of battles. Sue taught me one kind of combat. I came out of it scarred and scar tissue feels no pain. The other action tested my strength, my will to survive no matter what the odds. A tribute to my ingenuity was the very fact I was walking along side of Harn on my way to the Peacock Cocktail Lounge to enter the lists with Wallace.

The Peacock Cocktail Lounge was directly off the central lobby of the hotel. It was fitted out in the kind of decor that was a weird mixture of baroque and something else that I could not even name.

Harn knew exactly where he was going. He worked his way down the main aisle of tables. Off to one side was a round, small cocktail table. Harn stopped. He didn't have to bother with the introductions. I knew who was who without being told.

There were two men and a woman seated there. I avoided looking at her first, not because I had suddenly become shy but because I wanted to immediately determine for myself which of the two men Wells was. The other would have to be Wallace.

My guess was that Wells was the big, broad-shouldered one. His facial expression also gave me a clue. Spread across it was the quintessence of contentment. The other was too nervous-looking for him to be in the driver's seat. No, he was on the receiving end of something which he didn't like too much.

Harn's bouncy voice confirmed my impression. As we came up to them, he said: "This is Laura Wallace." We extended hands and shook but I didn't let go immediately. I held on and let my eyes rake her.

Her eyes were green, sea green. In the low light of the cocktail lounge they were the shade of green that darts in and out of the incredibly blue gulf-stream, where the wind is soft and warm. The green there is the result of a sudden cold current flowing down from the Arctic and running deep until it reaches the tropics where it flashes to the surface. Her cheekbones were high and naturally tinted. The lipstick a pale red, almost an orange.

I ran down the rest of her body, letting her know that in my mind's eye I saw a great deal more than her black form-fitting cocktail dress permitted. It was only when Harn's voice introduced Wallace that I let go and focused my attention on the other man. It was the first time I saw him. He was tall, good-looking and his salt-and-pepper hair gave him a very dignified appearance. He forced a laugh and said: "So this is the Enders Day?" He lifted - his bushy eyebrows and studied me for a long time. My guess was that someone must have used my name as some sort of cudgel within the last few minutes.

"It's all me," I said. "There are other parts that would be more interesting to a woman than yourself... but if you're interested, I have no modesty."

Harn coughed politely and said, "This is Mister Wells of Astro-Dynamics."

Wells started to stand but I motioned him back. I leaned toward him and we shook. His handshake was strong and vigorous. "You men drinking?" Wells asked, as Harn and I moved to sit down.

I managed to stay close to Laura. She was seated on Wells' right. "I'll take a scotch," I said.

Harn switched from beer to a Gin Alexander.

For a few moments everyone at the table was very quiet. It was Wallace who started things moving with:" How's business these days?" He didn't let me answer. I didn't really expect that he would. He went on. "I guess for a small operation it's real tough..." He shook his head sadly. "The days of the rugged individualist are over in this business. Now it's all done by..."

I was beginning to wonder whether my guess about Wells using my name was right. I had the peculiar feeling that Wallace had run a check on me, the way he might do one on of the fish he serves up to his clients. I didn't give a damn.

"Nonsense," I said. I shot a glance at Laura. She squirmed ever so slightly, as though part of her underclothing had suddenly gotten bunched.

Wallace took up the challenge, as I hope&' he" would do. "You can't really believe that." His voice had a controlled edge to it and it was very superior. "What with the development of psychological testing and other types of diagnostic instruments that find just the right man for the right spot."

I moved a bit forward so one knee would come to rest against one of Laura's. Then I said: "Mrs. Wallace, what's your opinion?"

The instant we touched physically, she moved away. But my question jolted her even more. "I can't say that I'm in a position to answer the question on a professional level."

I laughed. "I would imagine that you are more in a position to answer it than your husband is." I hit a word "position" hard so that there was no mistaking what I meant. The sea green in her eyes flamed. Our drinks were set down and Wallace proposed a general toast to everyone's good fortune for the future. If it were up to him, if he controlled the metering out of good fortune, mine would be eons away, if ever. I forced myself not to laugh.

Wallace liked the sound of his own voice. No matter what he said, that deep sonorous tone of his gave it an authenticity far greater than great truth stated simply. He put down his glass and drew attention to himself.

"There's no getting away from the fact," he said, "that today with the demands modern industry makes on us, that we must be right up to "snuff in order to fulfill them. Everything must be just right." Wells shook his head, so did Harn. Harn didn't surprise me. He was angry enough at Wells to cut the ground out from under him, but to go against him openly required guts and he had none. But if I somehow managed to fell Wells, he would be close at hand for some of the spoils.

Wallace began to feel more self-assured. "When we represent multi-million dollar organizations, the prospective employee must feel that the red carpet was rolled out for him, and him alone. Yes sir, from the moment he walks into Wallace Associates he must begin to feel he is with the best."

I threw my hands up: "You're right, quite right!"

He was shocked into silence.

My words were loaded.

The explosion they produced was muffled. But there was an explosion because Wells was forced to say: "Wallace Associates knows its business, Mister Day."

It was a generous reaffirmation of faith, but it lacked the hearty conviction of true belief. From where I sat, the bonds between the two were very-shaky, even if Laura was there to cement relations.

To add fuel to the fire and keep things in the pot boiling, I decided to take the path of least resistance. By keeping my statements positive, I knew the total effect would be negative.

"Yes," I finally returned with a broad smile, "their record proves just how capable they are when it comes to handling a delicate situation."

Harn couldn't contain himself and exploded into loud guffaws. Wells shot him a withering glance, but it didn't really have any effect. Harn continued to laugh. Even ice-cold Laura had to restrain the smile that tried to creep along her lips.

Wallace's hackles went up. "Tell me, Day." I didn't let him finish. I threw up my hands and said: "For this evening at least, don't be so formal... my associates and most of my friends call me En."

My pleasant attitude took him off guard. The back of his neck and cheeks, which but a few moments before were burning red now returned to a more normal color.

"The Doctor Grant affair," Wells said, "is one of those things that sometimes happen... Wallace Associates did their best."

Wallace shook his head and looked at Wells. "We did do our very best."

I leaned back. The movement turned all eyes on me.

"Years back," I said, "a philosophy teacher once told me that I did my best, but I failed the exam. He was a kind old gent and on the top of my examination paper he wrote: 'A for effort, F for results.' I had to take that damn course over again to prove that I really knew what it was all about and after a second go-round he gave me 'A plus for effort' but the same 'F for results'. It then became obvious, even to me, that I wasn't getting the message. But the strangest thing was that the professor really liked me. But being a philosopher he looked at things realistically. None of the bothersome human emotions came into play when it came time for him to pass or fail me." t As I spoke, I moved slowly forward again and with one knee tried to engage Laura's again. We touched and she didn't bolt, nor did she move in that provocative way that a woman usually does when she's interested in playing more serious and more intense games later. For the time being I was content to let things stay just as they were. Whatever I could manage to stir up between myself and Laura was not half as important as what I was trying to do with Wells and Wallace.

The fictional episode I had just recounted produced a puzzled expression on Wallace's handsome face. But Wells was quick to see the point. I think he even liked the way it was made. He was slowly digesting what I had said. From time to time he looked at me. He was also digesting who and what I was.

He knew he had goofed once, rather Wallace had goofed and he had to take the back-lashing that management probably laid on, making it quite clear that one more such mistake would put him on the farewell-list, for sure. He shifted his huge bulk around and made contact with one of the waitresses. "Another, all around," he said, when she came up to the table. He waited until the drinks came before he said: "Okay En, you made your point. You know what my company wants. Why do you think you can do what Wallace Associates haven't been able to do?"

The red flag went up for Wallace. He jumped into the conversation before I could get my thoughts organized. "All this is just a lot of talk. Day and his fun-loving associates are at the bottom of the heap as far as this highly complicated business goes. It's one thing to talk performance, it's quite another to perform. Name one corporation that depends on you, that you can actually consider your client." Wallace's questions were valid. Wells' head went up. He looked directly at me. The same lines of a controlled smile that were there before, played around Laura's lips. Even Harn sat on the edge of his chair waiting for a direct answer.

My thoughts squeaked and groaned against one another like so many gears that were suddenly thrown into reverse without benefit of a clutch.

If Wallace hadn't thrown that curve, I was going to steam-roller through to Wells with that time tested, irrefutable bit of wisdom--every man has his price, his Achilles heel. The smart operator knows how to find it.

I was even going to throw a few barbs at Laura by saying something to the effect that in a good many cases the way to a man is through a woman who will do for him what his wife won't, assuming he's married.

I forced a smile then said: "Can't name a single one. Not even a glimmer of one, but," Here I paused. I wasn't going to pussy-foot around in a polite manner with the hope that Wells would be sold by indirection. I'd storm the issue and either take it by force or not at all.

"But I wouldn't make stupid blunders that are difficult to explain to top management nor would I jeopardize the position of the individuals who are responsible for the effort. What I would do is to get Doctor Grant and associated colleagues because," I smiled again.

"If I do, the Astro-Dynamics account will no longer be at Wallace Associates, will it, Mister Wells!"

If pandemonium could have broken lose, it would have. It was there, but silently. Wallace was almost off his seat. Wells started to cough. Harn moved as though his groin suddenly began to itch. Laura retreated into sipping the remaining bit of her drink.

During the next few moments the only thing that caught my attention was the gold wedding band on Laura's third finger, left hand. It wasn't there before, I was sure of that. I moved my leg against her and this time I made sure she wouldn't mistake my action.

Wells gave an official cough and broke the silence. "I have a long day ahead of me," he said, "and some things to go over with Mister Wallace."

It was a perfunctory dismissal. If the sound of his voice was any indication of how he reacted to what I had said, I would have to say I scored a big fat zero.

I looked at Harn. He was ghostly white. He must have felt as though he had shot his dice and crapped out. I almost felt sorry for him. But what the hell, he would have been there to sop up the gravy if it had gone the other way.

I stood up. "It's been a real pleasure to meet you," I said, looking at Wells. We shook hands. Then I turned to Wallace and said: "You're lucky two ways." My eyes went down to Laura. I said nothing to her. An instant later, I felt Harn at my elbow, trying to usher me away.

CHAPTER FIVE

Once we got out of the cocktail lounge, Harn began to tremble as though he had a sudden attack of the shakes, even his hands were quivering. "You blew it," he said to me all choked up. "You blew the whole deal." He gestured broadly." Poof! Up in smoke!" His voice had become a cry of despair. We were beginning to attract a good deal of attention.

"Okay, Harn," I said. "Let's go some place quiet where we can talk about it."

He stopped dead in his tracks. "It's just great for you to take this so calmly. Why you 're nothing but a bum anyway... but me, I'm a family man. I got kids, a wife, a house that eats money like a hungry wolf. You know where I stand now? Man, I don't stand... I'm busted, snapped in two." He snapped his fingers to accentuate the point. "Wells won't forget this. I'll be eating crow for so long that I'll forget that I'm a man."

"You forgot that a long time ago," I said losing patience with him. I started to walk away.

He grabbed my sleeve. "Where the hell do you think you're going now?" he screeched.

I wheeled around. "Get your fingers off my sleeve," I snarled.

"Holy Mother of God," he whined, "what have I gotten myself into?" He let go of me.

"What was in this for you beside tapping me for a payoff if Wells gave me the nod?" I asked.

He looked down at his shoes. "Just the extra dough," he said. "You're a liar!"

"I need the dough badly," he whimpered.

"What would happen if I finked on the deal? Didn't come across with Doctor Grant and said colleagues? What would be the picture then?"

The look on his flabby face was all I needed to tell me the whole story. Harn was a more devious planner that I gave him credit for. He was going to pull the rug out from under Wells, using me as his chief tool. He hoped Wells would give me a chance to get Doctor Grant and I would foul up the detail. Then he'd go running to management. They were already annoyed at Wells' role with Wallace Associates and the first gauche attempt to collar the illustrious Doctor. If I had finked, Harn would have walked into Wells' shoes with ease.

As soon as I put the pieces of the puzzle together, I threw back my head and laughed. "What's so funny?" Harn asked.

"We both got a royal screwing, didn't we?" For an instant Harn's face still retained a stupid, blank expression of hurt innocence. Then his eyes began to twinkle and a smile tugged at his lips. He began to laugh too. He slapped my back. "There's one thing about you, En, you don't buckle under bad luck."

"Mister, that's because I'm so far down that if I'd buckle they'd have to dig all the streets six feet deep. Now, how about that drink?"

"You know what I'm looking for tonight... broads, women... the kind that know how to take a man's mind off his troubles."

"I have something set up for you." I dug into my pocket and fished out my wallet. "I just happen to have a number here that is waiting by the phone, breathlessly waiting for your call." I handed him the folded slip of paper. "What are you going to do?"

"Go home and sleep it off," I said. Then I remembered that I told Jann I'd call her. In a way Harn was right. Jann would be a fine antidote for what happened earlier.

"Come on, let's make it a foursome... call that breasty filly of yours and we'll have a ball!"

I know Harn was conning me into something and I let him. We went up to his room and he called the number I gave him. On the other end, Meta Smith was waiting for him. He talked to her for a few minutes, then put the phone down and turned to me. "It's all set. I'll be meeting her in forty-five minutes at The Toast, down on Third Avenue. Know where it is?" I nodded.

"Your turn to call."

I took the phone and asked for Jann's number. It rang once before Jann answered. I was flattered to think she was really waiting for my call. I told her I'd pick her up at her place in about a half-hour.

I said nothing about Harn or Meta. I made it seem that it would be just the two of us. Even though I knew she tried, she couldn't hide the pleased tone that came over the phone.

"Almost looks as though she was waiting for you to call," Harn said, winking.

He didn't miss much, that was for sure. "I told her I'd try and call. She takes a motherly interest in my business."

He laughed. "I wish my secretary did. All she's interested in is being as far away from me as possible."

"Maybe she doesn't like being raped!" Harn laughed. "Listen buddy-boy, that's too close to home. Even if she handed it to me on a silver platter, I wouldn't touch it. You know what happens in a small town? Well, all you have to do is goose one of them, and the next minute it's all over the damn place. No sir, the straight and narrow is the best possible road back home. It's the only road! But here in this city, anything goes! Anything and everything!"

"I'm going to pick up Jann. I'll meet you later at The Toast."

"Give me some time to work up some sort of friendship," he said.

I laughed. "Don't worry about that... it's all paid for."

"I like the illusion anyway," he said. I shook my head. "I know what you mean." And with that I left his room.

* * *

The moment I was inside Jann's apartment, she turned and threw her arms around me. "I was so worried," she said, "so worried that you wouldn't call. That you were having trouble." She stepped away from me, but held my arms with her hands. "How did it go?"

"Oh, it went," I said with almost too much glee. "It really went."

She dropped her hands and walked slowly toward the window on the opposite side of the room. "I'm sorry," she said, without turning to look at me.

I stepped up behind her. I rested my hands on her shoulders. The material of her pink bathrobe was soft and fluffy. She tilted her head to one side and I felt her lips on my hand. Slowly I let my hands slip down to her arms and then I turned her toward me. The robe became undone. When she finally faced me, the thin white nightgown separated her body from me.

I lowered my head and kissed her neck. Then rearranging the top of her gown so that her breasts were completely free, I kissed one erect nipple and then the other. She stepped away and slipped out of the robe. It floated down the length of her body.

"Love me," she said. "Love me just a little bit."

To avoid having to answer, I kissed her. Then I said: "Let's you and I go down to have a few drinks." She looked up at me. I could see she was about to say something then changed her mind. "We'll have a few drinks and maybe a few laughs," I offered, trying to sound convincing.

"Is that really what you want!" she asked.

It was not what I wanted. But Harn would be waiting. And one client was better than none. "Look," I said, "if you're not in the mood, I'll solo it." I was about to turn and start for the door when she took hold of my sleeve.

"I'll dress," she said softly. "I won't be long."

She didn't take long to dress. While I waited for her, I helped myself to a drink. When she came out of her room, she was wearing a black, low cut cocktail dress that was made to make men turn and look.

I thought of Harn. He would be bug-eyed all night. I had the peculiar feeling she knew where we were going or rather that we would be meeting Harn.

"How do I look?" she asked, giving a girlish twirl.

"Good enough to gobble up," I said.

"I'd like that," she answered.

My answer had been an expression of admiration, not of sexual desire. But her reply had a galvanic effect. I felt my blood begin to race. "Some other time," I muttered. "Let's go."

A few minutes later we were in a cab moving slowly downtown. She sat in one corner and I in the other. Neither of us spoke. I could see that she was deep in thought. Whatever it was that troubled her, made her look at me from time to time. After a while, I didn't bother myself with what Jann might be thinking about. I had my own problems to hack away at.

Sue was really on my mind now. I really wanted her and hated myself for it.

Now that I had been away from Harn for a short time, I was able to slowly go over what had happened at the Peacock Lounge. It wasn't quite as bad as it looked. I had rocked the boat, of that much I was sure. If Wells was uneasy with his association with Wallace to begin with, he was now even more uneasy. No matter what Wallace would say, what I had already said would still be there. Wells had to protect himself and to do it he would just as easily dump Wallace, Laura, Harn and anyone else who happened to be in his way. I was sure I had a few points going for me. The cab swung East then started up Third Avenue. A moment later it moved over to the curb. "This is it," the cabbie announced. I paid him and helped Jann out.

Before we went in, she asked: "Harn's there, isn't he?" I nodded. She said nothing and immediately started for the door. I followed.

The Toast catered to a mixed group of pleasure-seekers. Some lived close by, in the few remaining brownstones that are left, or the new luxury buildings that were springing up like so many rabbits out of a magician's hat. Others tumbled out of the think-cells of Madison Avenue and its fringe. A few were just plain business men occupied in the hard reality of making a buck.

The room was dimly lit. At the far end, a beautiful dark-skinned woman wailed about what could have been if things had been different. But everyone listening knew that things were never different. They were what they were, nothing more or less.

While the men drank and dreamed about the white allure of a woman's breasts, the women preened themselves, allowing their nearness, their scent, their soft whisperings to act like an aphrodisiac. It was a ritual and everyone danced in the prescribed manner.

I took Jann's arm after I checked my coat and hat and started for the bar. But the sound or the woman at the piano made me turn. Harn was there. "He's down at the piano," I said.

"Oh!" Jann exclaimed.

I gently guided her toward the sound of "Lover Come Back."

Harn was hunched over the piano, his eyes were closed. I could tell from the movements of his throat that he was humming. I assumed the woman next to him was Meta.

"Hi!" I said, coming up to him.

He opened his eyes. They were bleary. He put his finger up to his lips to motion me to be quiet.

"The hell with him," I thought. I turned my attention to Meta. I had never seen her before. All our business was transacted by phone, and through the woman who farmed her out. I was never interested in discovering who belonged to the soft voice on the other end of the line, especially if it meant paying for it. To me, sex was something other guys had to buy. I got mine because I was man enough to take it. Sue had taught me that. Meta turned to me.

She was small, not much over five feet three inches. Her hair was jet black and her complexion the color of dark honey. Her eyes were saucers, wide and black. Deep in them bits of light seemed to flash the way I had once seen light bounce off highly polished obsidian. Her clothes didn't have to scream that she had a body underneath them. She wore a simple dark blue dress and probably the usual feminine underclothes. But she gave off sex, like some exotic flower whose perfume attracts and holds a special type of insect. Meta reeked "sex. It was in her face, her eyes, every gesture she made.

As I studied her, she took time to study me. When the piano player stopped wailing, she said: "I'm delighted to meet you, Mister Day." Her smile was genuine and friendly.

Harn scratched his head and said: "I thought you two knew each other."

"Only by way of the phone," Meta answered. Harn started to laugh. "Well, can you beat that!' he exclaimed. "Can you beat that!" He turned toward Jann. "Do you know her?"

"We've spoken to each other from time to time... I'm Mister Day's secretary," Jann said, looking at Meta.

There was an unmistakable note of possession in her voice. What ever meaning she intending to convey, Meta read loud and clear. She immediately took Harn's arm and made sure he felt the pressure of her breasts. He did and it rattled him. He almost gagged on the drink he was attempting to swallow.

Jann attempted to take my arm but I eased myself away. I was annoyed at her. I'd be damned if I'd let her take charge of my personal life. I ordered a drink for myself and asked Jann what she wanted. She stiffly told me she wasn't drinking. Then in a fraction of a second, she changed her mind and asked for a scotch and water.

We went a couple of rounds of drinks. Harn leaned heavily on the side of the piano while it was being played and the player was trying to sing. By the time the second drink was gone, Jann had loosened up. The angry look that was on her face when we first entered was gone. Meta stay close to Harn and every time her body touched him he jumped a bit off the floor as though he had been seared with a hot iron.

I was beginning to get bored. The Toast was almost empty. A couple in the corner, near the door, were working each other over in a frantic fashion. Her hands were moving across his chest and down the front of his trousers, while he was actively working at trying to get her breasts out in the open.

"What do you say we leave this place?" I asked.

"I'm for that," Harn said. "But first I want to go to the little boy's room." His speech was thick and I wondered if he'd be able to climb into the saddle. He surreptitiously indicated that he wanted to speak to me.

"Be right back girls," I said and followed Harn.

As soon as we were in the head, Harn said to me: "Some evening, eh!"

"Is that all you want to say to me?"

"Nah. Jann, she's a knockout. Think I can make time with her?"

"I don't think about it."

"Okay if I try?"

"Why the hell should I care? She's a big girl." He moved to the sink and doused his face with water. "Man, I need some fresh air..." he confided. "I always wanted to play the piano."

I was annoyed with him. I couldn't care less what he wanted to do. Bathroom confidences are, at best, admissions of weakness. I had a list as long as my arm of things I wanted to do, but never did, or if I did do them, I fouled them up.

"Let's get back to the women," I said tersely.

CHAPTER SIX

We left the Toast.

"What's to do in a town like this?" Harn bellowed. He was like a two-legged wolf baying not at the moon but at the flashing neon sign that threw splashes of red all over the dirty sidewalk.

"If you don't keep it quiet, you'll be hauled down to night court. Then you'll have something to do." I said. "Meta, can't you keep him still?"

Meta moved close to him and began to rub her body against his. Bleary eyed, Harn looked at her. A smile crept across his fat face. His hand went down and around her backside and began to move across one cheek.

"If you don't get him off the street," Jann said, "he's going to jump her right here."

I shook my head. I was more than willing to call it a night. I'd had my fill of Harn... of everything.

I just wanted to crawl into bed, pull the cover over my head and wish that Sue, Wells, the whole kit-and-keboodle of my life would be gone the next time I stuck my head out from under the cover.

"I know what!" Harn exclaimed. He slapped his hands together. "Let's all go down to the belly belt."

I shot a glance at Jann then at Meta. Both women were non-committal. I shrugged my shoulders. "Okay, let's go!"

We hailed a cab and shot over to the West Side, on Eighth Avenue just below Thirty-Fourth. Harn jumped out of the cab like a boy of sixteen. I paid the driver.

"I want to sit close up," Harn said. He laughed. "I like to see their boobs bounce when they bend over."

"Sure," I said. "Sure."

Harn became our leader. He definitely knew his way around that part of town. We crossed Eighth and went upstairs to a place named The Oriental Palace. It was mobbed. We had to push ourselves through the crowd at the door. I wondered if they were giving it away. Most of the standing customers were men. They were all ages and shapes. The one thing they all had in common was the bug-eyed attention they focused on a dancing woman.

As soon as we made our way through the crowd, what passed for the maitre d' came up to us. He was a big strapping man with a florid face and watery black eyes. A red fez was stuck on top of his head. "Sorry," he said. "The joint is filled." I fished out a ten spot. His red tongue flicked out and ran around his thick lips. "I just happen to have one empty up front near the stage."

"Convenient, eh?"

"A reservation that didn't show."

"I bet," I said.

He took the tenner and led us in front of the bar and up the far side. "One of the best in the house," he commented, helping Jann with her chair.

"Thanks."

"What are you drinking?" he asked. We ordered a round of drinks and tried to give our attention to the music. No one was dancing now. The music was disconnected. A series of staccato sounds. Beats of drums and tambourine. I didn't like it. It was jarring. It lacked the continuity of melody I was familiar with.

I glanced at my companions. Jann was bored. Meta acted as though she were listening intently. Harn had his eyes closed. I almost thought he had fallen asleep.

I looked around me. The place was long and narrow, like a big section of sewer pipe. On one end was the bar, on the other a raised platform for the musicians. A highly polished dance floor ran almost the length of the room. A hodge-podge of badly painted mid-eastern designs covered the walls. The place smelled of stale smoke, human sweat and a mustiness that came from two incense burners near the stage.

Our drinks arrived. Harn opened his eyes and reached for his beer. He squinted at me. "That Laura is some piece, eh?" Jann shot a glance at me.

"To the future," I said, lifting my shot glass. I wanted to get Harn off the tack he was on. Jann would want to know who Laura was and where I met her. I wasn't in the mood to give explanations.

"Buddy-boy," Harn began looking straight at me. "You done shot your load as far as the future is concerned, at least with Wells."

I could feel my cheeks beginning to burn. Harn could be put up with just so far. Then it was a matter of either letting him walk all over you or hitting him in the gut of his ego. "Listen, little man," I said, "and listen real close. I may have blown the chance of a lifetime tonight but I don't crawl on my belly like a worm, I don't stand by like a jackal and wait for another guy to fall so I can sink my teeth into his heart."

Harn put his beer bottle down. He was bleary-eyed. He sighed heavily and slowly shook his fat head. I could see that if he were able, he'd have cried. I felt sorry for him. I was about to tell him to forget what I said and drink up, but the music started and saved me the trouble.

Jann leaned close to me. "Who is Laura?" She asked. "Wallace's wife."

"Oh!" From the high-pitched tone of her voice, I knew she didn't believe me.

The lights went dim. A lone drum began to beat. A licorice-stick began to moan. A baby-spot played along the highly polished floor. Out of the blackness, along the length of the room, breathing quickened. The spot stabbed into darkness at one side of the stage and impaled a woman... Tasara, the star of the show.

An explosion of feet stamping and clapping took place. Tasara held her pose for a few moments. She was short, big-breasted and highly made-up. The small bra and loin-cloth-type covering left little to the imagination. To give the illusion of being more fully clothed, a white covering of diaphanous material was wound around her. She began to dance. The music began its uneven beat.

Harn was wide awake now. Every time she came near him, he leaned far forward. Once or twice he managed to touch her backside, to the delight of the audience. Finally, she was free of the material. She flung it at Ham's feet and gyrated in front of him. He was getting what he wanted, a personal view of her breasts. She bumped and ground her body. Beads of sweat popped out on Harn's forehead. He reached for a five dollar bill and pulled it from his pocket. An instant later he was digging between Tasara's breasts. He got his money's worth. When he finally took his hand away, he managed to take a breast free of the bra. He crowned his achievement with a big grin. Tasara danced away. Harn turned to me. "Some hunk of babe, eh?" I didn't bother answering. He smiled gleefully. "I know the kind you like." He looked at Jann and said: "Something like Laura Wallace, eh?" Now he was no longer speaking to me alone. "I tell you if En, here, could have gotten his hands on her, he would really have been a happy boy tonight." Jann's eyes blazed. I couldn't blame her. It was bad enough for her to have to take guff from Sue, but to be told the same night that her man was trying to make time with another woman was a mockery of her lovemaking. She leaned across Harn so that he couldn't help but feel the soft pressure of her breasts. "Tell us more," she purred.

Harn struck a pose. He was being cute. Confidential. He leaned closer to the table. "Laura "Wallace is a first-class broad," he said. "Ask En if you don't believe me. He was practically drooling over her all the time they were together."

The skin around Jann's cheek bones became very tight. She looked at me and her lip curled in a sneer. She leaned against Harn again. He turned his face toward hers. The nearness of her and his recent success with Tasara gave him the courage he ordinarily lacked. His hand slid around her back and his fingers reached around to the side of her breast. She didn't bat an eyelash.

"And I always thought you were a cold fish!" Harn exclaimed, running his hand down the curve of her back until it rested on her rump.

"I've had enough of this place," I said. I caught the waiter's attention and before Harn or anyone else could voice an objection, we were out on the street.

A light snow was falling. The streets were deserted. I wondered what else Harn would want to do. I wasn't kidding myself. I knew damn well he was after Jann. The four of us started to walk toward the corner. Jann and Harn took up rear guard.

"Looks like we drew each other," Meta said, in a matter-of-fact voice. I didn't bother answering. "What the hell" I thought, "if Jann wants to play games out of spite, I'm not going to stop her."

"You got something going with her?" Meta asked. The her was Jann.

I glanced over my shoulder. "What do you think?" I snapped.

Meta chuckled. "One of you is giving the other the business. Which one, I don't know... though on second thought, I'd say you were getting the short end of the stick."

I said: "I don't think we are going to have much luck getting a cab."

"My place is just a few blocks from here," Meta said.

"Did I hear you say your place was not too far from here?" Jann asked. "Yes."

"Let's go."

It took us ten minutes to reach Meta's apartment. I was glad when we did. The snow began to come down in a whirling, wind-driven mass. The apartment was a two-roomer. An alcove fitted with a sink, a refrigerator and a two-burner stove served as the kitchen. "Make yourself at home," Meta sung out. "I'll get some ice for the drinks."

Jann didn't need an invitation. The moment she entered, her shoes came off and she and Harn cozied up on the couch. Before she got down to the serious business of necking, she threw me one of those "two-can-play-the-same-game" looks.

Harn didn't mind the change in Jann's attitude at all. No sooner were they seated, than his hand was busy working up her dress. Filled with disgust, I turned away and went to the window. The snow was sticking. The city would be a mess by morning, if it kept up. Someone touched me on the shoulder. It was Meta. She handed me a drink. "A penny for your thoughts," she said.

"Just thinking how much the city would be botched up tomorrow."

She nodded and then glanced over her shoulder. "They didn't waste much time, did they?" Meta said.

I looked.

Jann was covered with Harn's body. The bottom of her dress was up around her waist. The top was off her shoulders, exposing her bare breasts.

I put my drink down, my pulse beating faster as I watched Harn's grubby hands probing Jann's flesh. I watched them for a minute and then turned to Meta. She understood the look and, to prove it, moved very close to me. Her arms went around my neck and her tongue began playing games with my lips. She moved her hips and slid her mouth to one side. "Take me right here on the floor," she whispered. "Bight here where she can see. I'll try to make it good for you."

The words triggered me into action and we sank to the rug, pulling at each other's clothes. Meta's wondrous little body became exposed as she squirmed and writhed heatedly, her nails raking my back. I was too busy, too aroused, to look to see if Jann was watching.

"My breasts," Meta panted, pushing up at me. "Kiss my breasts." I complied and she hissed with pleasure. "I'm not supposed to feel anything," she gasped, undulating wildly, her hips beating a tattoo on the floor.

"Do you?"

"Oh, yes. Yes. Oh, god, yes."

I felt the force building within me and then it exploded... and in that instant of ecstasy, images of Sue and Laura and Jann and Meta flashed through my brain. Meta was still clinging to me when I recovered from the impact and her naked body was twitching. I turned my head and looked over to the couch.

Harn was snoring and Jann was lying on her back with one arm folded over her eyes. I thought possibly she was crying.

CHAPTER SEVEN

I didn't get up until past ten in the morning. I wasn't sure how I got home after the orgy at Meta's place. My head ached and my mouth had a sour taste that seemed to come from somewhere in my stomach. I managed to shave, shower and dress with patient slowness.

Outside, the sky was gray. The streets were in a pitiful condition. A well-churned mass of slush, ice and general filth. I didn't rush to get to my office. There was little hope that crowds would be beating their way to my door. I didn't have the better mouse-trap, the ingredient so necessary for success. I wasn't even sure I had one client left. Harn would drop me like a hot potato if Wells gave him the word. Somehow, between the time I met Wells and all that took place with Jann and Meta, I had made the decision to throw in the towel, close the office and file the experience with the rest of my failures... like my marriage with Sue.

I was in no condition to sustain a bus ride from where I lived in the Village to my office uptown. I hailed a cab and told the driver to take it easy because I wasn't sure my skull would hold together. It did.

I finally reached the Coffee Shop where I usually breakfasted. It was nearer lunchtime. The counterman gave me a big hello. I ordered a double^ size tomato juice, poached eggs and toast with coffee. By the time I was halfway through my coffee, I was beginning to feel good, almost human again.

I let my thoughts play with future possibilities. If I closed the office, I would begin all over again. But at what! Where? Deep down inside me, I knew I belonged on some college campus teaching the classics. But I wasn't ready to go back yet. Now, all I wanted to do was run. Bun from Sue. Bun from myself. I drained the last drop of coffee from the cup, put a tip down, paid the check and went up to the office.

The front door was locked. Inside the phone was ringing. I finally opened the door and ran to the phone. It was Jann. "Where have you been?" she asked.

I clamped the phone between my shoulder and my chin and began working my coat off. "I just got in."

"Are you all right?" I shook my head. "I'm okay. Just dandy!" She started to say she was sorry but I cut her short.

There was nothing to be sorry about, I told her. "We're not children."

"I'll be downtown in about half an hour," she said.

"No need to rush," I answered and hung up.

My coat lay at my feet in a heap. I bent down to pick it up. My head felt as though it would burst at the top and all that was there would gush to the floor. I finally managed to sit down and light a cigarette. I expected it to be a long day. I looked at the calendar. It was Tuesday. There was still most of the week to go. My rent was paid up until the end of the month. I began to make plans that concerned closing the office. I figured the few desks, chairs and typewriter would bring about one hundred and fifty dollars from a secondhand dealer. I had about three hundred saved. My total capital would be about five bills. It would be more than enough to get me from New York to the West Coast. Why the Coast? It was as far as a man could run without taking a dive into the deep six. I wasn't ready for that, at least not yet.

The phone on my desk exploded into a wild ringing sound. I let it ring. Whoever was on the other end was persistent. Probably the wrong number, I thought. I smiled to myself. Anyone with that much persistence must be wrong or so absolutely right that he or she must sparkle with the white radiance of truth. I lifted the phone. "Mister Day?" A woman's voice asked. I swallowed and put my cigarette down. "Yes."

"Mister Wallace would like to speak to you." I leaned forward. The fuzziness that lingered in my brain from the night before vanished. I saw everything with startling clarity. I had scored some points with Wells, of that I was sure.

"Enders Day?" It was Wallace.

"Yes."

All sound stopped. He had obviously put his hand over the mouthpiece. I waited. Finally, Wallace began again. "Would you like to come to my office, say about four this afternoon?"

I leaned back in my swivel chair. "Well, I don't know. Let me check my appointment schedule..." This time, I was the one-who cupped the, mouthpiece with my hand. I waited for what I thought to be a respectable length of time before I said: "I'm sorry, four would be out of the question. But I'm definitely free at four-thirty."

Wallace muttered something under his breath but said with a forced laugh: "Okay, a quarter to five is just great. I'll be looking forward to seeing you!"

I hung up and looked at the phone and started to laugh, a good strong belly laugh. Tears came to my eyes. My laughter trickled into bursts of giggling.

"What's so funny?" Jann asked. She had walked into the office and found me still chuckling to myself.

"Can't stop to tell you now," I said. I grabbed my coat and headed for the door. "I'll be back about three or so."

I glanced at my watch. It was a little past one. Two hours would be more than enough to have last night's booze sweated out of me in a steam room, get a good rub down, dash back to my apartment and change into a suit of clothes befitting the occasion. I even planned to stop and buy a necktie for ten bucks, just to add some sugar-frosting to the outside man.

Jann's mouth dropped open. I left her standing as though she were catching flies.

* * *

An hour in the steam room worked wonders. I felt as though I had been purged and only the pure me remained. Then the muscle man began to work me over. When he had finished, I felt as though I could grab a tiger by the tail and beat him down. A clean white shirt and a brand new tie to match the dark brown suit completed the change in me. I was ready for anything!

I went back to the office. I was about to open the door when I heard Harn's voice. It was heavy, as though he was trying hard to control himself. "Listen," he was saying, "it's not the way you think. I came back to see you." He paused. "The way it happened last night wasn't right."

Harn was crying in his beer again. He got what he wanted. But having had it, he now wanted it another way. Probably with roses and violins. The romantic bit! "I mean," he said, "there should be more to it. More than just two bodies thrashing around a couch."

"Stay away from me!" Jann yelled.

"I want you!"

"No."

"I want to prove to you." I opened the door just in time to see Harn reach for Jann and manage to grab hold of the top of her blouse and tear it from her body. She screamed.

"Harn!" I yelled.

He swung around, saw me and came charging down like an express train. I waited for him. When he was real close, I threw up my knee and caught him in the groin. He yelled, turned green and began to sink to the floor. On his way down, I threw a right cross. The blow connected. He went out.

I looked at Jann. Her thin bra hardly concealed the bigness of her breasts or the growing hardness of her nipples." He had it coming for a long time," I said, bending down to pull Harn over to one side.

"He just came up here," Jann said. "At first he said he wanted to see you. Then he came up behind me and started to feel me. You know the rest."

I looked at her. "Yeah, I know." She was about to offer more of an explanation. I cut her short. "Let's forget about it. You don't have to give me a big story." In spite of myself, I was beginning to feel my anger rise.

"Well, you didn't act exactly like a saint with Meta," Jann countered.

"I wasn't exactly with angelic company."

Jann came up to me. "You know I love you," she said.

I didn't answer.

"You know it!" She came very close. Her breasts were still exposed. She put her arms around my neck and inhaled deeply. "You smell good," she said closing her eyes and putting her lips to mine.

I let my hands go around her back then drop to the roundness of her rump. I almost forgot about Harn but he started to moan. I stepped away from Jann and said: "Get your blouse fixed." Then I turned my attention to Harn. He had opened his eyes and was looking at me with the sad eyes of a cocker that had been beaten across the nose with a cudgel of newspapers.

"You shouldn't have done that," Harn said sadly.

"I'm not one for rape," I said. "Especially if it happens in my office and I'm not doing the raping."

"What hit me?"

"I did."

"Oh."

"Jann said you wanted to speak to me?"

Harn's bleary eyes looked across the room at Jann. She still hadn't fixed her blouse. He licked his dry lips. What was going through his mind was crystal clear to me.

"Well," I said, interrupting his erotic daydream. "What did you want to tell me?"

He stood up and grimaced with pain. "Wells put the pressure on Wallace to get you."

I laughed. "Wallace called here."

"Wells said that he had an open mind about things," Harn explained.

"Sure," I said, "especially when he has his back against the wall."

"Laura seemed to be impressed with what you said," Harn commented.

I wondered whether he had fired that round for effect. I glanced at Jann. She stopped any pretense of fixing her blouse. She looked at me. "So that's why you got yourself dressed in your Sunday best."

"I have a meeting with Wallace at four-thirty," I answered.

"And Laura Wallace?"

"If she's there, she's there."

"And if she's not, you'll make it a point to somehow see her?"

I was really mad now. "What business is it of yours who and what I do? Since when do I have to give you a report?"

"I don't want you to go," Jann cried.

"I'm going to business meeting," I said.

Harn stood and listened. I could see that he was holding back a smile. He was still nourishing hopes for another go with Jann. "That Laura," he said. "Looks like she really might be something in bed."

"Shut up!"

He laughed. "Listen buddy-boy, you can't have all the goodies to yourself." He started to go toward Jann.

She reached for the letter opener on my desk. "You put one finger on me," she wailed," just one finger and I'll cut your heart out."

From the look on her face, Harn knew she wasn't kidding. He turned and left the office.

I was about to follow.

"Don't go," Jann pleaded. She took hold of my arm and clung to it. "Please."

"Look, if I can get a deal from Wells, I might be able to get my head above water."

"But Wallace called, not Wells."

"One is as good as the other. Anyway, all yon can see is Laura Wallace waiting for me with open arms. That's all that's on that little mind of yours.

You tell me you love me but you only love part of me... and we both know which part."

She swung away from me and her hand crashed against my face.

"We'll settle with each other later," I said. I tore her hand away from me and left the office.

The instant I was in the street, I felt better. I didn't even mind the cold or the slush in the gutter.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Wallace's offices were plush. Frosted glass doors opened on a deep piled, autumn brown carpet. The walls were painted a light maize color and the lighting was indirect. Floor to ceiling windows. Thirty-one stories above Park Avenue provided a panoramic view of lower Manhattan.

I was impressed.

I was even taken with the pert blonde at the reception desk. She had all the curves in the right places. Her voice was rich and warm. It sounded the way a good brandy should taste. "May I help you?"

My first impulse was to be a wise guy. She could help any man. But I let the thought slip away. "I have an appointment with Mister Wallace," I said, trying to match her smile with my own.

"Have you ever been here before?" she asked.

Her question reminded me of an efficient nurse at a huge clinic where illness is cured on a mass production basis. "No," I answered. "This is my first experience."

She was as sharp as she looked. She caught the note in my voice and the specific words I used. She shot a glance at me. I smiled. She didn't smile back. Maybe she took her work seriously. If she did, it would be unusual.

"Do you hold an advanced degree?" she asked.

"Yes."

"In what discipline?"

"Classical Literature."

Her brown eyes opened very wide.

"I think," I said, "if you'd call Mister Wallace and tell him Enders Day is here, you will save yourself some work."

She reached for the phone and deftly dialed a number. "Will you tell Mister Wallace that Mister Day is here?" She listened for a moment then said to me. "Mister Wallace's secretary will be out in just a moment." She put the phone down and continued to look at me. I knew my answer had bothered her.

"I hold an advanced degree in Latin and Greek," I said.

She would have answered me but the door to the right of her opened and another well-molded woman came out. "Mister Day?" she said. I nodded. "Will you follow me?"

That wasn't hard to do. I started after her and hung slightly back, in order to get a better view of her rump, which was boldly outlined by a tight-fitting, yellow-knitted dress. An instant later I was in the inner precincts of Wallace's office.

His secretary left us. The us being Wallace, Wells and myself. Both men stood up. The office contained no desk. It was ultra modern. Two huge leather chairs faced the couch where Wells and Wallace had been seated. Opposite the door was a floor to ceiling window that looked East over the river and Long Island City. In the early winter darkness, the lights far below made the view more like a picture than something, made of steel and concrete.

I shook hands with Wells first, then with Wallace.

"Care for a drink?" Wallace asked. "Scotch neat," I said. "Wells?" Wallace questioned. "Bourbon on the rocks."

Wallace walked to the wall and pressed a button. An instant later a partition slid to one side and a bar moved out. Wallace took care of pouring the drinks.

"To the future!" Wells toasted.

"I'll drink to that," I said.

It was good whiskey.

"Well," Wallace began, motioning me into one of the easy chairs while he and Wells went back to the couch. "I've been thinking over what you said last night."

"Oh?" I tried to play coy. "About what?"

"Some of your ideas about Doctor Grant," Wallace said. He was sitting down on the couch, holding a glass of brandy. He gently rotated it between the palms of his hands. His eyes were busy with some unseen thing on the carpeted floor.

"As I remember," I said, "I didn't really voice any ideas. All I said was that I'd have a plan of action. I wouldn't move like a bull in a china shop."

Wallace's head shot up. He looked at Wells then back at me and said: "I didn't ask you here to be insulted by you."

I put my half-finished drink down on the light wood table near my chair. "Then I had better go," I said.

Wells stood up. "Now there's no need to let personalities get in the way of business relationships."

"No," I agreed.

Wallace walked to another section of blank wall opposite the bar. He pressed another button and a panel slid back exposing a desk. He picked up an ordinary manila folder and went back to the couch. "First," he said, "whatever is in here," he held the folder up, "is about you."

"I didn't know you were that interested," I said.

"We keep a dossier on all our competition," Wallace said, in a matter-of-fact voice. "So?"

"I want to know why you shifted from teaching to..."

I didn't let him finish. "The flesh market?"

"If you put it that way, yes."

"Money. I needed it."

"And Mrs. Day?" Wallace questioned. I laughed. "She needed it more than I did."

"Basically then," Wells said, "your orientation is that of a teacher?"

"My orientation, as of this moment, is completely centered on this room. Beyond this, there is no reality." It was a lie. But it was the first thing that popped into my head and out of my mouth. I was very much aware of my surroundings. In my brain, hundreds of small thoughts were pinwheeling about. Even some big ones tumbled awkwardly over themselves.

Wells took the folder from Wallace. He scanned its contents. After a while, he looked up and said: "You separated from your wife two years ago."

"We're divorced," I answered.

He shook his head. I didn't know whether it was in sympathy for me or an indication that my marital status displeased them. "Good war record," he said.

I was becoming irritated. I hadn't come expecting an interview. I wanted a deal. Any sort of a deal that would hold back the wolves from the door, especially that she-wolf, Sue. I was running but I knew the moment I showed it, I'd be finished. The best move was to play the role down to the hilt.

"Gentlemen," I said. "I'm very flattered to see you have a record of my birth, the number of times I relieve myself each day and who I've been shacking up with since I left my wife... but if you'll excuse me, I have plans for the rest of the evening." I stood up.

Wells put the folder down. "I might as well come to the point," he said. "I must get Doctor Grant."

"How unusual. Any company in the country would give him anything he asks, just for the right to use his name on a government proposal."

"But I must get him."

Wells obviously promised his management that he would serve Doctor Grant to them like roast pig with an apple stuck in its mouth. I smiled. "I might free-lance this. Sign up the Doctor then sell him off to the highest bidder. Just like the good old slave trade."

"What makes you so sure you can get him?" Wallace challenged.

"I hold a hand of high cards." The words got away before I could stop them.

"Like what?"

I had to prove myself now. The look on their faces clued me in. They wanted to be sold a bill of goods. They wanted to believe I could solve their problem. They were like parishioners before their pastor, listening to the glories of heaven and the agonies of hell. Eager to hear more! To be sold on heaven!

I gave them what they wanted. "Doctor Grant and I are old army buddies," I lied. "I know him from way back." Wallace was the first to speak. "There's a grand in it for you, if you get him to sign a contract with Astro Dynamics." I waved Wallace's offer aside.

"Fifteen hundred," Wells said.

I was about to take it when the door opened. Laura Wallace walked in. I did a double-take. She could have passed for Sue's twin, if Sue had a twin. She was beautiful. She walked across the room and stood in front of the window.

"You remember Mister Day?" Wallace asked.

Laura smiled. My eyes went down the length of her body. I felt as though I was touching her.

"Mister Day and Doctor Grant served in the army together," Wallace explained. "We were just about to come to some sort of an agreement."

"What about it?" Wells asked. "Fifteen hundred for a signed contract."

I stood up and walked behind the chair. I leaned on it. I went through the actions of a man trying to make up his mind. I looked at Laura. Our eyes met. They were sea green. I was sure she was telling me not to accept. Why? I made my decision on what I saw in her eyes. I'd gamble. "I'm sorry," I said. "Those weren't the conditions I had in mind."

Wallace flared. "Just what did you want?"

"Half of the Astro Dynamics account," I said. His eyes bulged.

"I'm sorry," I said. I looked at Laura. A half-formed smile played on her red lips. "Gentlemen, thank you. I'll let myself out." I turned. Even before the door closed behind me, I heard the rapid babble of excited voices.

CHAPTER NINE

I left Wallace's office feeling as though I had suddenly found my pockets stuffed with thousand dollar bills. This lasted as long as it took me to walk from upper Park Avenue to the Automat on Forty-second Street. I put my hand into my pocket. I felt some scattered change and three singles. It wasn't even enough for a dinner in a good restaurant.

I brooded over my coffee.

I was beginning to feel like a first class jackass. I threw away fifteen hundred dollars because of a look in a woman's eyes. What the hell was I thinking? Nothing that made sense. Even now, whatever thoughts I had of Laura Wallace were concentrated in the animal yearning for a woman.

I ground my cigarette and stepped out into the cold night air. I went down into the subway. The ride downtown passed quickly and a short time later I was in my apartment. Nothing was worth watching on TV. I went to the bookshelf and tried to find something I hadn't read or would want to read again. There was nothing.

The hell with it, I thought. I closed the lights and sat down in the darkened room to smoke and think. I silently cursed Sue and railed at Jann. I even took myself over the red hot coals of my own frustrations.

A half of a pack of cigarettes later, I gave up the absurd game of "iffies." I'd learned early in life that if things weren't one way, they'd surely be another: usually worse.

This was slammed into me at the tender age of ten when my mother died. Up to that time, the dark cloud in my life had been her illness. It got so that I was ashamed to be well, to feel the thrill of life. Sometimes I would purposely feign illness, so that some of the attention heaped on her by my father would fall to me. Toward the end, I couldn't look her in the face. She had become a quavering voice and a sweetish antiseptic odor. Then she died! What I knew of the world fell apart. My father wasn't man enough to hold together. He shoved me off on to relatives. My food, my clothes, my life was dependent on their generosity. I hated them because they gave and I had no choice but to take.

As I grew, I wanted to bite the hand that fed me. I didn't. I had learned to play the role of the poor orphaned boy to perfection. It was like slipping into a well-oiled groove. I took to misfortune the way other teenagers took to sports. In a way, it was a kind of competition. Me against everyone else. The stakes were high. Love, instead of sympathy. I always lost. There was just so much love in the world and none of it rightfully seemed to belong to me. Even my father found no place in his life for me. Ill as my mother had been, he needed her and made the stupid mistake of thinking he could find her again with another woman. He married three months after he staggered away from my mother's graveside. A ten-year-old boy was not included in the deal. He stayed with his second wife just as long as it took him to find her in bed with another man. Then he came crying back to me. But-not for long. There was a succession of mistresses and finally another marriage to a played-out whore, who was wise enough to know that if he gave her nothing else, she would always be Mrs. Day, wife of the eminent classical scholar, Doctor Day. It was a good trade Whoredom for the guise of respectability.

But that was all in the past. It ran through me like an underground river. If I let myself, I could easily drown in those dark waters of self-pity. What happened at Wallace's office was more of the same. Part of the pattern of failure!

I was about to stand and go to the window when the door bell rang. I nicked the light on and went to the door. It was Laura Wallace.

She passed me and went into the apartment without an invitation. She twirled around and looked at everything, then she said to me. "You don't really know Doctor Grant, do you!"

Slowly, I closed the door. "I know of Doctor Grant," I countered.

She smiled. "We all do, don't we?" There was no edge to her voice. "Why did you come?" I asked. "Because Wallace wants you to reconsider his offer," she said. She unbuttoned her coat and draped it over the back of the chair. "Not a bad place you have here." She walked over to the book shelves. "You can read this Latin and Greek stuff?"

"Yes."

She swung around. I couldn't help staring at her. She was wearing a simple black dress but it was molded to her in a way that made every line of her body stand out as though she were stark naked.

"Have you anything to drink?" she asked. "What would you like?"

"Anything that will warm me. It's very cold out there." I poured two shots of scotch. She took hers with a chaser of water. "Tell me about yourself," she said, taking a sip. "There's not much to tell."

"Have it your own way," she said. She shrugged her shoulders. I couldn't keep my eyes off the rise of her breasts.

"But you didn't come here to find out about me," I said.

"No'," Laura admitted, "I came here to ask you to change your mind. Wells thinks that you can do the job."

"Wallace or Wells?"

"Does it make a difference?"

She laughed. "But the fact that you know Doctor Grant makes a difference with them."

She was willing to keep up the pretense. She was sent to help me change my mind. But she knew damn well I didn't know Doctor Grant anymore than she did. "I told Wallace my conditions," I said.

She shook her head and took another sip. "I told Wallace you wouldn't easily be persuaded." She put her drink down on the window-sill and came to the couch where I was seated. She remained silent. She sat down next to me and reached for the light switch. The room went dark. When she was so close that I could feel the softness of her breasts against my arm, she said: "You knew I'd come?"

"No," I said. My throat was parched. My lips dry. I ran my tongue over them. "No, I wasn't sure." She laughed. "Last night after I'd met you I could think of nothing else."

I turned toward her and put my hands on her neck. Then slowly I let them move down until they held the fullness of her breasts. We kissed. Our tongues touched and became wild things. My hand went to the hem of her dress. In a moment I was caressing her warm thighs above her stockings.

She broke from me and stood up. She lifted her dress over her head and let it fall to the floor. She knew I was admiring her body and she stood there to give me pleasure.

"Not on the couch," she said.

I stood up and we went into the bedroom. I stripped. Then I took her in my arms. She was still wearing her bra and panties and stockings. "Help me," she said. I did. Nude, she lay against me.

Our lips touched again and my hands roamed over the rounds of her breasts until her nipples stood erect. I kissed one and then the other. She moaned with pleasure. "I'm on fire," she said.

The next instant I felt the demanding touch of her hands. "Why?" I asked. "Laura, why?"

She moved so that she was all but under my body. Her face was close to my shoulder. "Some men look like men but they're not," she said. "They just look like the real thing." Her fingers sent jets of fire through my body. "Wallace is like that. He can't with a woman, nothing happens."

I began to understand the reason for Laura's reputation. Her marriage to Wallace was nothing more than a business arrangement. He provided her with all the luxuries and she provided him with the club he needed to hold over a client's head. Since he had no personal need for her body, he never hesitated farming her out wherever it would do the most good. Disgust swept over me in a gigantic wave.

Laura sensed it. "Don't be judge and jury," she murmured.

I didn't answer. My own experience with Sue rose up.

Laura's lips found mine and their fire rekindled my own. I took on the role of the aggressor and Laura welcomed me, meeting each kiss and each caress with fantastic responsiveness. I'd never known a woman so completely attuned to sexual leisure in my life and for a while I merely toyed QC with her, watching the wonder of her abandoned receptivity.

"Now," she breathed heavily." Now, please." I went to her and moved slowly. She followed my rhythmic pattern with beautiful grace. I could feel her teeth nibbling at my shoulder and her nails digging into my back. Little sounds kept coming up from her throat, matching each joint movement of our naked bodies. She seemed to be draining every ounce of sensation from our union and her appreciation made me all the more determined to control myself.

"Now," she whispered again. "Faster."

I ignored her plea and continued to pace myself.

"Oh, please," she whimpered. "Faster... faster..." I refused, enjoying her frenzy, wanting to prolong it.

"Damn you," she cried, erupting into action, bucking me to one side. I fell back and she followed me, reversing our roles with heart-stopping thoroughness and artistry. She drew in her breath with a hissing sound and flung back her head as her hips began to dance. "Oh, yes," she moaned happily. "Yes."

She was incredible.

A moment later I spun off into the exquisite vast-ness of human pleasure. I was only vaguely aware that Laura joined me there. Exhausted, we lay entwined in each other's arms. We slept a while. Later, I was awakened in the most pleasurable manner possible. I placed my hand on Laura's bare back and she looked back at me with a small smile, indicating her renewed desire. We made love to one another again and it was even better than the first time.

Dawn came and we slept again. Before closing my eyes, I looked at her and knew I had fallen in love with her. I had fallen in love with another man's wife, a woman who had given her body to countless men, a woman who had been used as a bonus in a hundred business deals.

Just before she left my apartment, I agreed to get in touch with Wallace and accept his offer of fifteen hundred dollars for Doctor Grant. I would have done anything she wanted me to. She knew it and accepted it as her due after a night of love.

After she was gone, her perfume lingered. It was in the bedroom and in the linen on the bed. I wanted to believe I had moved her so much that she had to come to me, that she would never go back to Wells or any other of Wallace's clients. I wanted to trust her!

CHAPTER TEN

I waited until the middle of the morning before I called Wallace. I told him I'd reconsidered his offer. He hesitated and tried to bargain the price down. But Wells cut in and said it was alright with him. Another appointment was set for two that afternoon.

After I shaved, showered and dressed, I headed for the bank. I withdrew the few hundred dollars I had on deposit and made out a bank check to Jann. Then I scribbled a note explaining that I would be out of town for a while and that the check would cover her salary and rent for the office. I assured her I would send her more money soon.

Around noon, I stopped for coffee and a sandwich. The next stop was the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue and Forty-second Street.

I took the elevator tip to the third floor and went directly into the Science and Industry Division. The librarian at the desk was a chicken-breasted woman of about thirty. She was very businesslike. "Yes?" she asked.

"I would like some information on a Doctor Grant." I told her where he taught and that he was a theoretical physicist. She reached over the cart nearby and picked up four books and one magazine. "You're the second person who came in here today asking about Doctor Grant."

"He's a very famous man," I answered. I let it go at that. I took the books and the magazine and sat down near one of the windows and began to read. Most of what I read did not mean much to me. It was very technical and required a great deal more mathematical knowledge than I possessed. But I began to understand why Astro Dynamics wanted the Doctor so badly. He had done some very important theoretical work relating to the use of atomic power for space ships. Getting Grant on the staff would be like guaranteeing a multi-million dollar contract from good old Uncle Sam.

I also found out that Grant was about my own age. He was married. And his main hobby, to my good luck, was Greek and Roman archaeology. In fact he had made many trips to Greece and Italy to take part in summer archaeological expeditions.

I was about to call it a nice hour's research when I happened to notice, under a list of the Doctor's published works, the odd title of: The Significance Of Numbers In Ancient Greek Religion. I jotted down the title and name of the journal where it appeared. I went back to the librarian. She told me I would find the particular magazine in the Philosophy and Religion Division. I thanked her and left.

The article was a brilliant one. It gave me the hook I needed. I wasn't too far from wrong by claiming I knew Doctor Grant. Though I had never met the man, we had a great deal in common.

I left the library and went straight to a public stenographer. I dictated a letter to Doctor Grant. I told him I was involved in some investigations on the same topic he had written on. I also explained I would be at the University within the next week and I hoped I would have the opportunity to meet with him. I took the liberty of signing my name: Doctor Enders Day. I knew he would recognize the name. Doctor Enders Day was my father. He was famous for his work on classical history. It was a liberty I justified by ends to be gained. Anyway, it was little enough to take from a father who never gave anything.

I glanced at my watch. I still had an hour to go before I met with Wallace. I walked leisurely up Fifth Avenue. Some of the stores were already displaying Christmas things. There was a kind of electric excitement in the air that always precedes the holiday season. I remembered as a boy I always looked forward to Christmas, not so much for the presents, but because at that time of year people seemed to be nicer than usual.

It was just two when the door of the elevator opened on Wallace's domain. The receptionist recognized me. She picked up the phone and dialed. "Mr. Wallace's secretary will be out in a few moments," she said.

I nodded and began to think of my luck. It was running good. I hoped it would go that way for a while.

The woman who escorted me into "Wallace's office the first time came to repeat the performance. She was dressed differently. A black skirt and a simple white blouse. But somehow the effect was the same. I enjoyed looking at the outline of her buttocks more than the first time.

The instant I entered the office, I saw Laura. She too had changed. Now she wore a two piece dark purple suit that gave her a very prim air. She stood near the window looking out across the river. When I was announced, she turned. I looked at her face. It wore a practiced smile. There was nothing in her eyes that betrayed our recent intimacy. My own reaction was different. I wanted to run and sweep her into my arms. It was a boyish thought. I flushed under the foolishness of it.

Wells stood off to one corner. Wallace greeted me and immediately went to the bar. "Scotch neat, isn't it?" he said. I nodded.

Wells shook my hand and said: "Let's get down to cases."

"Fine," I responded.

"Wallace here, has some ideas about how he'd like you to make your approach."

"No offense meant," I said, "but the last time he tried his ideas he gummed up the works."

Wallace stopped dead in his tracks. The drink he'd poured for me sloshed over the sides of the shot glass. His hand was trembling and his face was beet red.

"This has to be done by one man and in that QO man's own way. Otherwise the deal is off," I said.

"It's off!" Wallace fumed. "I'm not going to have some two-bit operator tell me how to "

"Function--is the word," I said.

"Cut the crap, Wallace," Wells said. He tried to hide his anger but it showed like bared fangs. "He couldn't do much worse than you... anyway he has an edge... he at least knows the Doctor." I shot a glance at Laura. Her face betrayed nothing. She had let them believe that Grant and I were old army buddies.

Once Wells put down the ground rules for Wallace, the meeting went smoothly. Wells wanted to be reassured that I'd be able to accomplish the mission. I told him I had discovered something very interesting about the Doctor. I refused to tell them what it was but I let them think it could always be used as a kind of club. With this information under his belt, Wells seemed to rest easier. "I guess no man is pure," he said.

I was on my way, in fifteen minutes. Before I left, I asked for five hundred for expenses. Wallace asked his controller for a check. I demanded cash and got it.

I was about to push through the revolving door in the lobby when a woman called me. I turned. It was Laura. "Mind if I walked with you?" she asked.

"No."

Once we were out in the street, she took my arm and we started uptown. "Going any place in particular?" she asked.

"No... not until tomorrow."

"Mind if I join you?"

"When?"

"Later tonight and tomorrow... for the next few days."

I stopped before we reached the corner.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Wallace send you this time too?"

Her face went taut. She fought to control her anger." No, this was my own idea." I separated my arm from her. "Tell me more," I shouted.

She looked around. "People are stopping," she said.

"The hell with them!"

She took my arm again. "Let's go somewhere we can talk... I know a place not too far from here."

I let her lead. A few minutes later we were seated in the dimly lit recesses of a cocktail lounge somewhere in the East Sixties. She ordered a whiskey sour for herself and a scotch for me. "I want to be with you," she said when we were alone.

"Last night it was," She looked at me, leaned forward and put her lips on mine. Fire sprung up in me and coursed through my blood.

Our drinks were set down. She sipped hers. "Do you understand now?" she asked. I nodded. My hand dropped from the edge of the table to her lap. She knew what I was going to do.

"If that's what you want," she said. "If it'll prove something to you."

"It's what I want," I said through clenched teeth.

She closed her eyes and slid down a little way in her seat. Through her skirt, I could feel her legs.

The next instant I ran my hands up her thigh. She sighed with pleasure. "Please" she said. "Don't torture me... I want you... I want to feel the heat of you.

I withdrew my hand. "Drink," I said. "Be at my place around eight." I took out a five dollar bill and threw it on the cocktail table. A few minutes later I was heading downtown to my place.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Doctor Grant taught at a university in a city that was an hour and a half drive from New York on the New England Throughway. From the time we left my apartment until we arrived at the motel, Laura didn't say a word. She'd come to my apartment the previous night but she might as well have stayed away. Whatever magic causes two people to want each other was lacking. Even though she undressed in front of me and I saw her body in all its remarkable fullness, I was not really moved. Mechanically, I reached out for her.

"Don't," she said.

I withdrew.

We slept side by side without coming near each other. It was as though we were married, had argued and each was too stubborn to tell the other that now the time for anger had passed. I had been down the same road with Sue. I wasn't going to travel it again. I didn't attempt to break the silence between us. I was determined to last her out, to make her come to me.

About eleven in the morning, I pulled into a motel off the Throughway. I turned to her before I went into the office to register. "No one is twisting your arm," I said. "You can get the next train back to the city."

"If that's what I wanted to do, I would have told you," she snapped.

"Suit yourself," I answered.

I registered as Mister and Mrs. Enders Day. The clerk gave me a suspicious look, but that's about as far as it went. He handed me the key for room twenty-seven. As soon as our luggage was deposited, I put a call through to Doctor Grant. His voice came over the phone loud and clear. "Doctor Day, I'm delighted to know you arrived safely."

I told him to call me En, explaining that everyone did. He asked if we might meet that afternoon. I lied and told him I had set up some previous appointments. He suggested we join him and his wife, Joyce, for cocktails and dinner. I hesitated, then said it would probably be an inconvenience for his wife. He brushed my doubts aside and gave me his home address. We agreed to meet at about five-thirty.

When I finished my conversation with Grant, I remained seated on the edge of the bed. Now that the wheels had been set in motion to snare Grant, I wasn't exactly feeling like a Rover Boy. Suddenly, Laura's fingers glided across the back of my neck. I inhaled deeply and let her perfume fill my lungs.

"That was real smooth," she said with admiration. She put her lips to my ear and nibbled at the lobe. "What do you want to do between now and the time we meet the Doctor?" she asked. Her voice was a husky whisper.

I knew damn well what was on her mind. But I wasn't ready for easy surrender. Sue had taught me a thing or two about the fine art of keeping a human being dancing on tenter hooks. I discretely slipped away from Laura's agile fingers and soft lips. "I don't know," I answered. "I'd like to look around the campus... maybe go into the library. You know, not too many years ago, I would have given my right arm to teach here."

Laura lay back against the pillows. "And now?" she asked. "If you had the opportunity, would you take it?"

Our conversation had taken an odd turn. It was as though we were acting out a marital role. Maybe it was a carry over of what took place last night and earlier this morning. But I didn't want to pursue it. I turned my back on her and went to the window. The early morning sun was gone and the sky was gray again. "Looks like snow," I said, to change the conversation.

"En?" Laura called.

I turned. She had taken off the top part of her suit and bra. She lay back on the pillows, her eyes half closed and her mouth was slightly parted. "Come close to me," she purred.

I sat down next to her.

Her arms went up around my neck. "I'm sorry about last night and this morning." She guided my head down to her warm lips. I kissed her and fought my own desire that was beginning to arrow through my body.

"Love me," she said. My hands went to her breasts, her nipples were hard and erect.

"I want you," she whispered. "I want you desperately."

I let my hand slip beneath her skirt, teasing her. She arched toward me. "Take me," she moaned.

I was about to move away. But her hand had already found me. Her touch was fire. Suddenly she slipped down and I was lost in the warmth. From my lap, she looked up at me. I reached down and ran my fingers across her hair. She stopped and said: "For you... only for you." Then once more she made my senses spin in a wild spiral toward that instant I could hold back no longer. It was over. I felt as though I had known all that could be between a man and a woman.

Coming out of my trance, I buried my face in her nude stomach. She reached down and touched my hair. "I wanted to do something for you," she said.

I fumbled with the zipper on the side of her skirt. She helped and I stripped her. It was my turn to look up at her. She nodded and closed her eyes. Now and then she moaned and finally with one tremendous burst she pushed toward me and screamed: "Oh... oh it's wonderful."

Much later we dressed and drove out to the campus. Laura clung to me and I was almost happy. I told her about my days as a college teacher, about how my father gave the greatest gift a man could give his son: the love of books, of art, of culture. "Some men," I told her, as we walked the cobble stone paths, "must be surrounded with people. They have nothing in themselves to sustain life. My father gave me food for this and I never stopped sampling it." It was a lie. He gave me nothing. Even my turning to the world of books was not his doing. I wanted to be better than he, to outdo him on his own ground. Perhaps I would have if I hadn't married Sue.

We went to the library and I found a copy of my Master's thesis. It was entitled: Eros, The Creative Agent In Greek Thought.

Laura ran her fingers along the binding. She did not open it. I was sure that if she had, she would not have understood what I had written. Her eyes went from the thesis to me. In them was the unmistakable look of pride. She linked her arm in mine and pulled me close to her.

* * *

"How do I look?" Laura asked, striking a pose for me just before we left the motel room to meet Doctor Grant and his wife, Joyce.

"Good enough to eat," I said. She was dressed in a black cocktail dress that was cut low enough to expose a tantalizing mound of her breasts without being vulgar. "Lean forward," I said, guessing that the mound of skin revealed would change. It did. The instant she moved, her breasts were almost completely bare.

"Think Doctor Grant will notice me?" she asked.

"Even if he wanted to avoid looking, you're shoving enough in front of him to make him trip over his own eyeballs."

"Good!" She laughed.

We started on our way. The Grants lived on the other side of town. As we drove, Laura asked me how I intended to handle the situation. I told her I did not have any preconceived ideas, with one exception. That was to gain Doctor Grant's complete confidence. She didn't say anything after that, except to comment about a pretty house we had passed or to point out a cow in the field.

I followed the directions Doctor Grant gave me earlier. Finally, we cut off the main road and followed a black top road for about one mile. Then we saw the house. It was a reconverted barn sitting about one hundred yards in from the road. I swung into the driveway and pulled up to the front. Immediately, the light went on. The door opened and there was Doctor Grant.

I took a moment to help Laura out of the car, then I went to greet the doctor. He immediately set everything on an informal basis by insisting he be called by his first name, Larry.

Larry Grant did not fit the stereotyped version of what the world renown scientist should look like. There was nothing moth-ballish about him. He was tall, solidly built with a strong masculine face and thick red hair. He greeted Laura warmly. "I'll go and see if I can hurry Joyce up a bit," he said. "You people make yourself at home." And off he went.

"Quite a hunk of man," Laura said.

I nodded. I was beginning to feel uneasy. Maybe I was jealous. I'm no stand in for a Mr. America. I have a good body that's tough and lean and my face looks as though somebody cut it out from an old tree stump with a dull axe.

My thoughts were interrupted by Larry. He came bounding down the stairs. "She'll be right down," he called. Then as he came up to us he said: "Let me show you around." He took us on the grand tour. It was a delightful home. It was unique in that it fully represented Larry. There was very little influence of a woman's touch around the place. By the time we were back in the living room, Joyce had come down. Larry introduced Laura and myself as Mr. and Mrs. Day. Laura immediately asked to be called by her first name.

"I'll do the drinks," Larry said and off he bounded. Joyce looked after him the way a mother does who watches her son run out of the kitchen without closing the door. Her face portrayed the duality of love and annoyance.

"That's the way he does everything," she said, turning to us with a smile.

I nodded to indicate I fully understood. She was a small woman, with a heart-shaped face, a small girlish bosom, wide hips and good legs.

"Larry told me all about your work," Joyce said, leading us into the den where Larry was violently shaking a Martini mix.

It was our second trip to the den. Larry had given us a quick look-see on our whirlwind tour. "I've done some work along similar lines," I said to answer Joyce's question. But my interest was in the room, on the stained paneled walls. Larry's sheepskins and all the other awards he ever took, were framed. Part of the wall space was given over to bookshelves. Outside of a library, I had never seen so many books on so great a variety of subjects. Off to one corner, facing a huge glass window that overlooked a meadow, was Larry's desk. The desk itself was unique: it was a cross between early American and Larry Grant. He saw me looking at it.

"Like it?" he asked. He'd stopped shaking the Martini mix.

I shook my head.

"Made it myself... I have a complete workshop out in the shed."

"Larry is a do-it-yourself man," Joyce said. I was beginning to think that there was nothing that Doctor Larry Grant didn't do.

Larry stepped out from behind the bar, holding a tray of drinks. The first one went to Laura. She gave him a big smile. I took mine next. Joyce followed. Finally, Larry joined the circle. "To your work," he said toasting me. I shook my head. "No, to yours," I answered. I felt like a first-class heel. "To our work," Larry laughed. After the first few sips, Larry said: "Let's talk... the women can take care of themselves." He put the drink down. "I can make them," he said, "But I'm not much of a drinker."

He did make a wicked drink. More than two could easily set me flying. I decided to hold my drink but not to take too freely of it.

Larry led the way to his desk. He sat down behind it and pointed to a comfortable chair that was alongside. Our discussion immediately got off to a flying start. He told me he'd read some of the books I had written. Of course, he meant my father. I laughed and explained that my father had done some brilliant work in the field of classical history. Then I began to speak about the paper of his I had read in the library. I could see he liked that. I took advantage of the man's ego. My own background on the subject was equal to his. Neither of us realized that almost two hours had passed until Joyce interrupted and announced that we had reservations for eight-thirty.

Larry insisted he drive because he knew all the side roads. He also insisted the four of us jam into the front of the car. He had his oddities but he was fun to be with and had so many bits of knowledge at his finger-tips that he was more bike a walking encyclopedia than a human being.

We piled into the front. Joyce was on my left, Laura on my right. Larry drove the way he seemed to do everything--with enthusiasm. A little too much, I thought, when he took some turns on two wheels. It was on one of these screeching spine tingling bouts, between the machine and the road, that I suddenly felt the closeness of Joyce. At first I wasn't sure what had happened. It could have been the motion of the car? But the next time I was sure. I glanced at her. Our eyes met. I felt like laughing. Doctor Larry Grant wasn't that good.

Dinner was congenial. The restaurant was small and intimate. A portion of the main dining room served as a dance floor. A four piece combo provided the music. Larry did most of the talking. He told us about his work in Greece and Italy.

What music he liked--it ranged from Dixieland to thirteenth century church music. Finally, the conversation got around to me. Where I taught.

I casually said: "I'm not teaching now." He raised his bushy red eyebrows.

Laura took up what I'd said. She was as keen as a knife. "He's engaged in some special work."

"Yes--I'm a kind of consultant to a large corporation," I explained.

Larry cocked his head to one side. "In your line of work?" There was a note of disbelief in his voice.

"You see," I explained, thinking as fast as I could to out pace Larry's doubts, "this corporation is working on an executive training program. It's management believes in introducing its junior people to the humanities. It is my responsibility to set this program up and then do some teaching."

The look on Larry's face told me that he'd bought what I said.

"That sounds very exciting," Joyce said.

Larry laughed. "And what's the name of this new patron of culture?"

"Astro Dynamics," I said.

His face darkened as though a huge cloud had suddenly flown between it and the light. "Wasn't that the company," Joyce asked, "that caused all that unpleasantness some time back?"

"Yes."

"AstroDynamics caused you unpleasantness?" I asked, feigning ignorance.

Larry told me the whole story. But the kicker was that he had considered going with AstroDynamics because it offered the best research facilities for the type of work he was doing. That was before Wallace turned his fine hand to the task of trying to hire him. I kicked Laura under the table.

"Why don't we stop talking about work," she said gaily, "and dance." She looked at Dr. Grant. "I don't see how I could refuse," he said. I turned to Joyce. "Would you care to dance?"

"Not particularly."

"What would you like to do?"

"Talk, but not about science or "

"Anything that Larry is interested in," I said. "No," she answered frankly." I would even talk about such an ordinary thing as the weather." We did talk. None of it was serious. It was light chatter. I told her about a musical review I'd seen and about something silly that had happened to me on the subway a short while back. We were laughing when Laura and Larry returned. Larry's face was flushed. My guess was that Laura had danced close to him--real close.

By the end of the evening, it was as though we had known the Grants for years. I genuinely enjoyed myself. I honestly liked Larry. He was part boy and part man and a great deal of genius.

Before we left the Grants, we made an appointment for the following evening. But I had no intentions of keeping it. The rest of my plan was beginning to spin out. I wanted him in New York where I could dazzle him and get him off guard.

"He's a big charming boy," Laura said, snuggling down next to me, as soon as we were out of the Grant's driveway. "Is that what's bothering you?"

I shrugged my shoulders and watched the beam of my headlights stab through the darkness of the country road.

"Anyway," Laura said, "are you going to speak to him about AstroDynamics tomorrow night when we see them?"

"We're not going to see them tomorrow night," I answered. She moved away from me. "I thought "

"I am going to do this in my own way," I snapped. I suddenly felt very irritable and tired. "We're going back to the city tomorrow morning."

"But why?"

"Because I want it that way," I answered. Laura stayed on her side of the car for a few minutes then moved back closer to me. Whatever it was that caused her to change her mind was effective. She was so close against me that it was difficult to drive. When we reached the motel, both of us were ready to use each other to the fullest possible extent. We did.

Afterwards, Laura curled against me like a satisfied cat. Her nude breasts, moved against me and fell away with the regular pattern of her breathing. Her face was innocence itself. It seemed remarkable that this woman had been capable of an animal passion that matched my own. I was filled with the enormous satisfaction of knowing I had had her.

I put my hands behind my head and stared at the ceiling. Except for the occasional sound of a passing car or truck, everything was very quiet. I thought of the afternoon and of what I had told Laura about my father. I was annoyed I had lied, ins not for moral reasons but because what I had said, I wanted to believe.

In all the years I knew my father he was nothing but a weak man, except for one time just before I married Sue. He had stood on his own feet and took a positive stand.

I was living in the Brooklyn Heights section of the city and he made the trip all the way down from an upstate college where he held a professorship. I had written to him, telling him I was going to marry and if he wanted to see my future wife, he was welcome. He wrote back saying he would like to have dinner with us on Saturday night.

Sue and I met him in the lobby of the Hotel Commodore. He was older than I'd remembered him. But then I hadn't seen him for three years. The last time was just before I shipped out. Now he was all gray and very gaunt. We shook hands formally.

He had a corsage for her which he presented with a kind of pathetic old fashioned gallantry. The flowers were orchids. They didn't go with the sea green dress she wore. She was flabbergasted. She didn't know whether to shake his hand or kiss him. To solve the dilemma, she did neither. Dinner was a stiff affair with sudden bursts of words from myself or him but neither of us had much in the way of conversation.

I spent most of my time trying to avoid his eyes and avoid choking on what I swallowed. We parted as swiftly as we could. Later when Sue and I were alone, she made fun of him. I even joined her. Just by looking at him, one knew that he was a shell. To me, in my still youthful ignorance, there was something delicious in this. "He doesn't like me," Sue said. "He doesn't approve."

I told her she was talking nonsense. How could he approve or disapprove? By what right? Why, he didn't even know her!

That night stood out very clearly from all my other nights with Sue, except the last one, because it was the first time she let me make love to her. In my eagerness to take her, I mistook frigidity for shyness. She let me strip her, move my hands over her soft body, make love to her, without any reaction. She just lay there to receive me.

"For you," she told me. "For you!"

I believed her.

But the next day, Sunday, my father was at the door of my place.

"May I come in?" he asked. He was very formal.

I nodded and opened the door for him.

"Is Sue here?"

"No."

He walked across the room to the window that looked out on the harbor. Slowly, he turned to me and asked: "Did you spend the night with her?"

I was going to slash at him: What business is it of yours? But instead I said, "I left her place about three."

He turned back to the window again. "Just because you sleep with her, that doesn't mean you have to marry her."

I was beginning to get angry. After all these years, he was worried about what I was going to do. Even when I was in the army, he didn't bother to write, except to send me a Greek or Latin book once in a while.

"She's a bitch," he said, suddenly wheeling around.

I could see he meant what he said. His gray eyes seemed to be on fire and his gaunt face flushed. He ran his long fingers back through a shock of gray hair. "I don't know what her game is," he said. "But she has one... she has one..." Sue's guess was right. He hated her. "I'm going to marry her," I said quietly. "Don't say I didn't try to warn you," he said. "That girl is a cold fish... mark my words!" He straightened himself and marched to the door. "Mark my words," he yelled, then left.

I knew I was dreaming. But the same spine-tingling fear that seized me then, grabbed me again. I awoke with a start. It took a moment to remember I was with Laura. I reached out and with my hand cupped a bare breast. She moaned contentedly.

CHAPTER TWELVE

It had snowed while we were sleeping. The weather was still threatening and very cold by the time we managed to got up. The first thing I did, as soon as the cobwebs were out of my head, was to call Larry. I told him I had to return to New York immediately, but I expected him and his wife to join us for the week-end. He tried to get out of it. Maybe he smelled something odd. But finally he gave in. I told him there would be a suite of rooms in his name, at the Pierre.

When I hung up, Laura started to laugh. "So you wanted him on your own grounds before you delivered the telling stroke, eh?"

I didn't bother answering.

About an hour later, we were moving slowly up the Throughway toward New York. It was two o'clock when I dropped Laura off in front of her apartment building on the upper East Side. She asked me up for a drink. I turned the offer down. I took the car back to the rental agency and took a cab from there to my office.

The sign on the door read: Closed... for more information call--my home number was listed. I let myself in. There was a stack of mail splattered across the floor. The letters had been shoved through the mail slot. Most of them were bills. One was from Sue. I recognized the handwriting. "The hell with her," I said. Without opening it, I stuffed it into my pocket. My thoughts went to Jann. I considered calling her, but decided it would be better if I went to her place.

I took the subway uptown. It was quicker than waiting for a cab.

The moment I rang the bell, Jann opened the door. It was as though she were waiting for me. "Come in," she said. I followed her in. "Why aren't you at the office?" She wheeled around. I saw she was holding a drink in her hand. Her face was pale and drawn. "Why haven't you been there?"

"I was out on business," I said. She ambled across the room. I watched her. She was dressed in tight black toreador pants and a tight, black jersey pullover. When she reached the other side, she stopped and turned to face me. "I might be the woman you sleep with from time to time, but I'm not a rag."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Sue was here," she said.

I remembered the note. My hand went to my pocket.

"She told me what kind of business you were on," Jann sneered.

I was about to turn and go. There was no reason for me to stand there and let myself be a target for Jann's anger. She had no claim on me.

"Tell me lover boy, is that hot bitch Laura all she's cracked-up to be or is it sugar frosting with nothing really behind it?"

"Obscenity does fit you," I said. She put the glass down and ran across the room. She grabbed my arms. "I want to know," she screamed. "I want to know!" She became hysterical. I slapped her across the face a few times. She quieted down.

"I love you," she sobbed. "I love you and you go chasing after whores!"

I waited for her to get a hold on herself before I asked how Sue knew where I was. "Why don't you ask her?"

"I will," I answered. This time I turned and went directly to the door. A few minutes later I was in a telephone booth. I dialed Sue's number. She answered. "What do you want to see me about?" I asked. "Business."

"What kind?"

"The kind that you're doing for Wallace."

"How do you know about that?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," she laughed. "Yes I would."

"You know where I live. I'll see you in half an hour," she said. The sharp click told me she'd hung up.

"Bitch!" I swore. I didn't want to go to see her.

But my curiosity got the better of me. How did she know I was with Laura? There was a cab on the corner. I gave him Sue's address and tried to relax. Laura and Jann were enough for any man in one day. Now there was Sue to face. I shook my head in disgust. Sue lived in our old apartment. I hadn't been there for almost two years. I didn't really want to go there now. It would bring back too many memories. The driver had already turned down the street and slowed to a snails pace. "That's the building, right there," he announced. I paid him and walked slowly into the lobby. The elevator went up ten floors and the door opened. The apartment was at the far end of the hall. For a moment I considered going back into the elevator. But I took a deep breath and went forward. I rang the bell.

"It's open," Sue sung out.

I pushed it open. Sue was in the living room. I could see her from where I stood in the foyer. I looked around me before moving. It hadn't changed. She had kept everything just about the same, even the books I once owned were there.

"Come in," she called. She was curled up on the couch. At her feet was a cheap movie magazine. I had forgotten her low reading tastes. She saw me looking at it.

"I was never one for culture," she said, stretching.

It was a movement made on purpose. It forced the negligee she was wearing to open just a little bit more, so that the full mounds of her breasts were restrained by part of the gown.

"What's the play, Sue?" I asked.

"Care for a drink?" she asked.

"This isn't a social call."

She looked at me for a long moment, then turned away. "I guess not," she said.

"I want to know why you went to Jann and how you knew where I was and with whom?"

She smiled archly. "The second part of your question is my secret... but for the first part." She swung her legs down to the floor. "You'd better sit down. Go ahead."

I did.

She smiled broadly. "To put it in a kind of folksy-way, I'm with child." I jumped up.

"I knew that would shake you up a bit."

"I... I...."

"You say the funniest things," she said. Her voice was acid.

"What's that got to do with me?"

"I have no intentions of having you marry Jann."

"You think you still can get me?" I questioned. I began to walk around the room and look at the things I had once put a value on. "You must be out of your mind! You get yourself knocked up and then you come back to me and expect, what ?"

"Marry me again!"

"You're crazy."

She leaped off the couch with amazing speed.

"Marry me... you love me... and I know how to give you what you really want!" I laughed in her face and started for the door. She blocked my way.

"Better move away," I said. My own anger was beginning to mount. I hated her for what she did to my love, to me. After her, no woman was ever the same. Even my feelings for Laura were twisted by what Sue did.

"And if I don't!"

"This!" I yelled. I slapped my hand across her face. She staggered and sunk to the floor. I stepped over her." That was long overdue," I said.

She looked up at me. "I swear to you," she said, "I'll get even with you."

"I'm sure you will," I answered. I closed the door behind me.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The Grants checked into the hotel early Friday evening. I called them and set up a dinner date. Then I called Laura. I told her to go into her wife act again. But I specified to leave the allure out of it. I don't think she took too kindly to that. She agreed to meet me at her place about seven-thirty. "Is Wallace going to be there?" I asked before I hung up. "Do you want him here?"

"No. Not before we go out or after we return."

"My you're becoming possessive," she laughed. "Cut it!" I snapped. "I just don't like him," I said and hung up.

I'd called from my office. I had spent most of the time there since I returned to the city. I did a lot of reading and a lot more thinking. I tried to put the pieces together: Sue, Jann and the person who connected them. My first impulse was to point an accusing finger at Laura. It would be her kind of game. I had no illusions about her. She was a bitch. But I also knew I loved her. Not the same way I once loved Sue. That only happens once in a lifetime. Once it has gone, nothing can ever take its place. But Laura wouldn't gain anything by turning my former wife on my mistress. She had me and knew it. It had to be someone else. Someone who wanted to box me in. Who! Why? I spent a few days on the problem. "Hi! buddy boy."

Harn's voice startled me. He caught me looking at the phone after I spoke to Laura. I was trying to put two and two together, but all I could draw was a big fat goose egg.

"Aren't you glad to see me?" Harn asked. He was standing at the door. "I see your secretary isn't around to keep you company."

I looked at him. A grin was slashed across his baby face. Behind him was someone else. A tall man with a gray color to his skin, like ten day old bread. He wore a black coat, a black suit and, from what I could make out, a black shirt with a narrow black tie. His face had a vacant look that made him look like a robot.

Harn turned to him. "This is the guy I've been telling you about," he said. The robot spat. "A real lady killer, eh?"

"Yeah!" Harn exclaimed. "He'll take anything as long as it is fully equipped."

"Doesn't look like the type."

Harn laughed. "Can't tell by looks."

"I thought you were back home, crawling to your wife," I said.

"I'm with Wallace," Harn explained. "The shoe fits better, eh?"

"I'm not here for a social call," he said. "Just what are you here for?"

"Caesar has some work to do," Harn said with a smile. "It seems like some guy objects to you being a big man with his wife... he wants you to learn a lesson."

"Wallace?"

"You're getting smart."

Harn gave Caesar the nod. He came for me expecting me to just sit in my chair, too frightened to move. I was going to suck him in and then let the best man win. I remembered what I was taught in the army, what I once had to do in order to survive. I let Caesar come real close. Then, I slowly stood up. He crouched low. Harn began to move also. But Caesar stopped him. "I want to take this one alone... I like guys who think they're torn cats."

"What's the matter, Caesar? No guts?" My words struck. He stood up straight and came at me. I slashed across his throat with the side of my hand. His eyes popped. He began to sink to his knees. To make sure he was out, I drove my knee into him. He hit the deck.

It was Harn's turn. He came at me like a locomotive. We traded blows. I worked in close and belted him in the gut. His face went yellow and he began to retch. He ran from the office.

I dragged Caesar into the men's room. Then I called the police. I didn't wait around to see the outcome. The man I wanted was Wallace. I'd get him after Larry Grant was signed sealed and delivered. But I knew now who my missing link was. It was Wallace.

He hated my guts for two very good reasons. I cut in on his business and I was sleeping with his wife. Why should the last point bother him? He himself had set her up with Wells and others. I knew the answer before I finished asking the question. Because he knew that between Laura and myself it wasn't a business arrangement. It was real. "The bastard did love her," I thought. "In his own warped way, he did love her."

I went back to my apartment to change for dinner.

It was slightly before seven-thirty when I rang Laura's bell. Like Sue, she left her door unlatched. I pushed it open. From another room, in the rear of the apartment, came the sound of a radio. It was a big place. My guess was eight rooms or more. I called her name. She didn't answer. I walked deeper into the apartment and called again. For a moment, I panicked. I remembered Sue's threats.

"I'm here," she called. "Just follow the sound of the water."

Believed, I listened. The unmistakable sound of a shower was off to the left. I followed it to a half opened door. "Laura," I called.

"I was wondering when you'd get here. I came home from the office and fell asleep. Before I knew it, it was almost time for you to arrive."

"Do you usually leave the front door open?" She laughed: "No... but then again, I'm long past worrying about my virginity."

I pushed the door to the bathroom fully open. I saw Laura's silhouette against the transparent frosted glass of the shower door. She stood with her legs apart, her back slightly arched. Her hips were pushed forward. The water poured over her.

In a few moments, the sound of the water stopped. Behind the glass she shook herself like a puppy. Then she opened the glass door. She looked at me. "What happened?" she asked. "Wallace paid me a visit after I phoned you." A moment later, she stepped fully out of the took a huge towel and draped it across her shoulders. She ran her fingers across my bruised cheek. Slowly, I began to move the towel across her shoulders. She leaned into me so that the freshness of her filled my nostrils and made me heady. Desire began to pound in my blood. She turned and the softness of her rump moved against me. I spun her around. The sudden movement made the towel drop to the floor. "We're going to be late as it is," I said. She didn't answer. Her arms went around my neck and her lips were fire against my own.

I clutched her to me. "It won't take long," she whispered. "We're almost ready now!"

I wanted her. But I knew if I picked her up and carried her to the bed that simple act of love would become much more. I patted her rump. "Later, when we come back from dinner." She stepped away and picked up the towel. In an instant her mood changed.

"Are you angry?" I asked. "No... will you take off that silly coat." I went into the living room and slipped out of my coat. Then I poured myself a scotch and went back to the bathroom. "Laura," I called. She didn't answer.

"Laura--" she continued to dry herself.

I reached out and grabbed her hand. She spun around. "Let go!" she said.

"There's a difference," I said, "between not wanting you and knowing that there's a time and place for making love."

Her eyes blazed. "I give myself to you and you talk about a time and a place!" Talking wouldn't have done any good. I went to her, picked her up in my arms and carried her into the bedroom. Without undressing, without any foreplay, I went to her. She took me and lunged to my stride. It was over quickly. It was different from all the other times. She looked up at me and smiled. Whatever caused her to smile, was her secret. I wasn't going to start prying.

In the cab, on the way to the Pierre, I told her about my visit to Jann and Sue. I didn't tell her I thought Wallace had got hold of Sue to put the bee on me.

"Does Jann love you?" she asked. "She says she does."

I didn't really know. What I felt for Jann was like slow burning coals compared to what I felt for Laura. I wondered if she knew I loved her. I put my arm around her and drew her to me. "It's not the same with Jann as it is with us." She turned and brushed my ear with her lips.

A few minutes later the hotel doorman was helping us out of the cab. The Grants were in the lobby waiting for us. I made some apology about being late because of crosstown traffic.

Laura suggested that we start the evening with a round of drinks. Larry thought that was a fine idea. Laura dropped my arm, scooped Larry under the arm and started down the hallway to the cocktail lounge. I looked at Joyce. She had made herself look attractive. "Shall we follow," I said, gallantly offering her my arm.

She shook her head. "I wish I could lead just once."

In that one instant, I knew I had made a friend. She would help me sign Larry for Astro Dynamics. "Do you really?" I asked. She laughed. "Really what?"

"Want to lead."

"Doesn't everyone?"

We crossed the lobby. Larry and Laura swung on ahead of us. They were out of sight. "No, not everyone wants to lead. Only those who are willing to gamble really lead," I said.

"You lead, don't you?" Joyce was more perceptive than I'd given her credit for. She knew I wanted Larry for another reason other than our mutual interests in Greek and Roman antiquity. It was my turn to gamble. "You know why I'm interested in Larry?" I said.

"Not completely... but I have been able to guess that it has something to do with Astro Dynamics."

I nodded. We were about to turn the corner of the lobby when I stopped. There was Sue and Harn. They were seated on a couch looking like two vultures. She looked up at me. The hatred she bore me was splashed across her face.

I started to walk again. My guess about Wallace's fine hand was right. I wondered what my two watch dogs were supposed to do.

"Do you know those two people?" Joyce asked.

"No," I answered.

The next moment we had moved through the swinging doors of the cocktail lounge. Laura and Larry were already at a table set for four.

"What have you two been scheming about?" Larry asked. Again, I decided it was time to gamble. "Your future," I said, helping Joyce into her seat.

"Oh!... tell me more," Larry said. "My future is of great interest to me."

A waiter took our order and I had time to look around. A three piece combo took their positions on a small bandstand. They began to play a fast cha-cha. I looked at Joyce and asked: "Shall we start the ball rolling?"

Her response was instantaneous. We walked out to the highly polished floor. When we were close, I said: "Astro Dynamics would be very interested in hiring your husband."

She laughed. "I thought that must be it." I nodded. The music swept us closer than we had been before. Her eyes were ablaze. There was no mistaking what was on her mind. "I always play second fiddle to Larry," she said. "You know at things other than his work he's just a boy."

I glanced back at the table. Larry may have been just a boy but Laura was no young innocent. Her and was on his and they were bent close to each other. For a moment I tried to figure what her game might be but Joyce interrupted my thoughts.

"I'm a simple woman," she said. "I'm married to one of the country's leading figures in the world of science. I have no illusions about myself but I would like to have something that's mine and mine . alone." She looked up at me.

I'd seen that same look in Laura's eyes not too long ago and, before that, in the eyes of other women who had pleaded to be loved. I held her closer to me and she rested her cheek on mine.

"All I ask," she whispered, "is that you be gentle. Make it beautiful!" She tightened her arms around me.

The music stopped and we went back to the table. Our drinks were waiting for us. After we settled down. Larry asked: "So what about my future?"

"I think you're kidding yourself," I said, bolting half my drink down. Larry cocked his head to one side. "First, you're interested in my future, then Laura tells me that Joyce and I should be living in Southern California."

I knew what Laura was up to. She was trying to solo this. The businesswoman in her couldn't let it alone... she had to try. I had to restrain my anger but I managed to give her one good solid kick in the shin. She winced with pain but immediately the smile came back.

"Perhaps we see things that you don't," I said.

"Like what?"

"A man in your field must have the latest equipment to work with if he's going to prove out what he has put down on paper."

Larry nodded.

"There's only one place you'll ever get that... Astro Dynamics."

Larry smiled. He looked at Joyce and said: "You were right."

"Sure, she was right," I said, guessing that she'd told him this. "Joyce may not be a scientist but she's got a strong streak of just plain common sense."

"I'm flattered that they thought so much of me to employ you to hire me," Larry said.

I wasn't sure how Larry meant that, so I said: "All I'm asking you to do is think about it... I don't have to tell you what Astro Dynamics is doing these days."

"No you don't!" Larry said petulantly.

"All right then, let's not talk about it this evening... let's just enjoy ourselves."

I took the rest of my drink and caught the waiter's attention. I got the check and before the others knew what was happening, we were on our way. I had to move quickly. I didn't want Larry to sit and sulk. Intuitively, I knew he would be the kind to mentally climb all over himself for the rest of the evening and make everyone else miserable if he had the chance. I wasn't about to give him the opportunity.

We dined at the Waldorf and took in the midnight show at the El Morocco. Larry couldn't take his eyes off the chorus line. Laura overdid herself to help him out. He held back but, in spite of himself, he was forced to respond. By the end of the show he had drunk too much and his hands roamed across Laura's body.

In the meantime, I worked to make Joyce feel as though she was having a real experience of her own From time to time she'd look at Larry, then cozy up with me. Just before the end of the show Joyce whispered: "Tomorrow at two."

I nodded.

.

"You'll get Larry for Astro Dynamics.' The night was just about over. I looked at my watch. It was two-thirty in the morning.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

What was left of the night, I spent with Laura. I slept in her arms. But my dreams were wild, filled with the sinuous movements of a woman's body who held out to me not only her breasts and sex but the head of a man. I awoke feeling dirty inside, something I never felt before.

Laura served breakfast about eleven. She told me she had some shopping to do. I nodded and let it go at that. She asked me if anything was wrong. I laughed and answered the only thing that was wrong was that the party we were having would end as soon as Larry signed. She asked me if I was sure he would sign. I nodded. She came around to the back of my chair and put my head against her breasts. "You try so hard to be tough," she said, holding me close. "But underneath it all you're just a softy... you like the guy, don't you?"

"Yes."

"Never let emotions get in the way of business... that's a cardinal rule."

"One of Wallaces'," I flashed.

"It's a good one," she said moving away from me.

"Yeah," I said. "I suppose so."

Laura left me brooding over my coffee. I looked at my watch, it was almost noon. In two hours, I would be making love to a woman who wanted something she couldn't get from her husband and for it she would be willing to trade her husbands career. What a lousy world! I stubbed out a half finished cigarette, gulped down the rest of my coffee and began to dress. Laura was already to go out. "I'll call you," I said.

"Sure," she answered. "Be sure to turn the lock when you leave." I nodded.

About half an hour later I was on my way downtown to my own place. I showered, shaved and changed my clothes. I was beginning to feel a lot better. "After all," I said, "it's being handed to me... why throw it away."

I was prompt. I knew that if I were late, Joyce would be rattled. I wanted to do what had to be done, quickly. For the occasion, she was wearing an eggshell blue housecoat that had seen more than one washing. She was nervous. "I don't know what to do," she said with a slight laugh. She sat down on a chair opposite the coach where I sat. "It's the first time..." I stood up and went toward her. She shrank back into the chair.

I reached down and took her hands. They were ice cold." You know," I said," we can forget about this part of it... I mean, if you've changed your mind." I was hoping she had.

She looked at me for a few moments, took a deep breath and stood up. She'd made up her mind. Quickly, she undid the three large buttons that held the front of her housecoat together. The next instant it was at her feet. She was completely nude. The sight of her naked body took my breath away.

I moved toward her. "You're beautiful," I said. I took her hand and looked around.

"It's through here," she said haltingly. Hand-in-hand we went into the bedroom. She waited until I undressed, then slowly we lay down. She ran her fingers across my face. "You're such an angry looking man," she said. "Someone must have hurt you terribly."

"I've had my knocks," I answered. I put my hand on her breast.

"Will you kiss my nipples?" she asked. From the tone of her voice, I knew she'd never asked Larry. Perhaps she was afraid or too shy to tell him what she really wanted.

I put my lips to them. She pressed the back of my head with her hand. "You don't know how often I've longed for that," she said. "Larry isn't much for preliminaries... he likes his sex straight and quick. Sometimes I feel as though I've been cast out at the sea and left high and dry. Do you know what I mean?" Before I put my lips down on hers, I answered: "Yes." Her response to my kiss was electric. I was filled with a strange mixture of pity and rising passion. I wanted to make it beautiful for her. I let myself go. My hand went to her breast again then down to her firm stomach.

"You make it seem like an art," she said.

"In its own way, it is." I stopped talking and let my hands do the rest. She responded and arched toward me.

All this time she had not touched me. It was as though she were allowing herself to be loved. But when my fingers moved across her, she held me and whispered: "I wish it could be this way all the time!"

The moment had come.

I slid my body across hers and was about to take her when the door was flung open. Several blinding lights flashed on and off in rapid succession.

Joyce screamed! And tried to cover her nakedness. The more she tried the more her nude body became exposed.

The shimmering circle of light finally left my eyes. I saw who it was. My watch dogs, Sue and Harn! Harn was the camera man. But he also was taking in as much of Joyce's nakedness as he could. Sue just stood there. A satisfied smile on her face. I turned to Joyce. "Get dressed," I said. I looked at Harn. "Give me the camera," I said.

"Not on your life buddy boy. 0l' Wallace wants these shots. He just doesn't trust your ability. He figures the good Doctor will sign anything to get these shots." He patted the side of the camera. I didn't bother answering. I leaped. My shoulder hit Harn in the gut. He went down. I grabbed the camera and smashed it against the wall. Sue tried to get it from me. I fought her back until I was sure none of the film in the camera would be worth anything.

In the melee, I didn't notice Larry Grant. He was standing in the doorway. How much had he heard? He looked at me. I was still nude. He looked at his wife. She'd seen him and had stopped dressing. Most of her was still naked. Without saying a word, he turned and left.

"Is that your doing too?" I asked Sue.

Sue laughed. "I can't take credit for everything."

I felt sick. I went back to the bed and slipped into my clothes. Joyce had finally put something on too.

"You can tell Wallace," I said, "the deal is off."

"He doesn't give a damn about anything, except getting your scalp. That's why he got in touch with me," Sue said.

"And that's all you care about, isn't it?"

"Yes."

Harn was coming around. "Take him," I said to Sue, "and get the hell out of here. I don't ever want to see or hear from you again."

I turned to Joyce. "I'll find him," I said. She knew I meant it.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The first thing I did after I left Joyce was to call the train station to find out when Larry could get the next train home. It was going to leave in twenty minutes. Larry had a long lead. More than enough time to get to the station. Next, I called Laura. She was not home... or not answering the phone. Then I hot-footed down to the car rental place and made a bee line for the New England Throughway.

I figured if Larry would go any place, he'd head straight for the place where he'd feel most secure... home. I drove without making a stop. I was at the Grant's place by eight o'clock. It was pitch black when I got out of the car. The temperature had dropped considerably. I pulled my overcoat around me and went up to the front door and pushed the buzzer. I heard the chimes go off, but no one answered. I went around to the back of the house. It was as deserted as the front. It was a wasted trip. I was tired and didn't really feel much like going back to the city, but decided it would be best.

The drive back seemed longer than the drive out. Usually, it's the reverse. But this time I knew I was going back to find one man in a city of eight million people. The man wasn't an ordinary guy who might wind up in a bar or with some woman. The first seemed improbable. The last impossible. But I made no pretense at being able to second guess Doctor Larry Grant. He was a real brain and I was just a guy with some education.

It was close to ten-thirty when I finally stuck my key into the lock. I was looking forward to a nice hot shower, and some tea. I'd skip the usual dinner because I was sure that I'd have indigestion afterwards. No sooner had I pushed the door open, than the phone began to ring. I answered it. "Mr. Enders Day?"

"Yes."

The voice seemed vaguely familiar. "This is Wells."

"Oh!" I worked one arm out of my overcoat then the other.

"I must see you," he said. "If it's about business, forget it. I've had enough of you and Wallace... and you can throw Harn in for good measure."

"It's about Wallace," he said. "Forget it. Anything about him doesn't interest me at all."

"He's going to kill Laura."

"What?"

"I must see you."

"Okay," I said and gave him my address. Before Wells showed up, I tried calling Laura again. Still there was no answer. Just to make sure that Larry was still missing, I called Joyce.

It was a mistake. She was weepy. "I don't know what got into me," she cried. "It was the first time in my life that I was with a man other than Larry." I told her I believed her. But that didn't stop her from tearing herself apart. "Larry and I grew up together, we were childhood sweethearts. Any woman in the world would give her right arm to be Mrs. Larry Grant. Oh! How am I ever going to look at him again? What will he think whenever he holds me in his arms? What if he's done something foolish?"

The questions came too fast for me to answer. I just listened. But to the last two, the answers came. I knew if Larry ever held Joyce in his arms again it would never be the same for him as it had once been. Perhaps, if he was really a man, it would be better. Knowing Joyce was with another man might humanize the experience, might even make him more aggressive and that, in the last analysis, was all that Joyce craved.

I didn't tell her all this, I just said: "I somehow think that it will work out... men and women have a way of surviving these things." I don't think she believed me. Then I told her that Larry was far too rational an individual to do something foolish. I was going to add, far too egotistical. But at that moment my bell rang. I was thankful for the opportunity to break off the conversation.

I put the phone down and yelled that I'd be at the door in a moment or two. It was Wells. He had dark rings around his eyes and tiredness spread across his face like a white mask.

"Make yourself at home," I said. "I was just about to get some tea. Care for some?"

He nodded.

After I put some water on the stove to boil, I went back to Wells. "Now what's this about Wallace threatening to kill Laura?"

"You haven't seen her?"

"No. Not since late this morning. She said she had some business to attend to."

"I thought she was with you."

"Here?"

"With you," Wells said obstinately. "All right," I said, leaning back. "I spent the night with her at her apartment."

Wells rubbed his hands across his chin. He needed a shave badly. "Laura and Wallace must have had an argument over you."

"Why?" I asked. I already knew. Harn's visit with Caesar gave me more than a clue that things were not going right between Laura and Wallace.

"He didn't like her running around with you," Wells said. Then he threw up his hands. "I know that sounds nutty. But Wallace drew a sharp line between what was necessary for business and what was not."

"You were necessary for business?"

Wells flushed. Maybe he even wanted to become angry but he controlled himself. "I came here," he said, "because I hoped you would be with Laura or at least help me find her. Wallace is not responsible for what he does."

"Did you dump him?" I asked. Wells nodded. "I had no choice after what happened this afternoon. I was in Wallace's office when Harn and your ex-wife came back."

The tea pot on the stove began to whistle. I went and poured two cups of tea. I gave one to Wells. Then I said: "Grant is missing too." He stopped stirring his tea. I guessed that Harn and Sue hadn't mentioned anything about Larry.

"I drove up to his home, hoping that he would have bee-lined it to there. But he didn't."

"Did you call the police?"

"No. Did you call and tell them about Wallace's threats?"

"Of course not."

"I think he'll turn up in a few hours or days," I said. I began to drink my tea. Some of the things that had happened in the past few days which seemed to have no connection to each other, now seemed to be making sense. Back in the library, when I was doing some research on Larry, someone was there before me." Did you go down to the Forty-second Street library to look up something on Grant at the beginning of the week?" I asked. Wells put his cup down. "Why no!"

"Do you know if Wallace did?"

"Wallace isn't the type... but wait a minute, Laura did. I distinctly remembered her saying that she wanted to look something up on the remarkable Doctor Grant." I smiled. It was after we'd spent our first night together. She was a very trusting woman. She'd one-upped me. While I was playing footsy with Joyce she was giving Larry the velvet glove treatment.

My mind flipped back to the morning, which now seemed to be a thousand years ago. Laura's attitude came screaming back at me. It was as though she were trying to tell me something. I was too stupid to get the message then. I got it now. She was going out to meet Larry Grant, that was her business.

"Wells," I said, "if you came back into the apartment and found your wife half nude with another man, what would you do?"

"I wasn't born yesterday," Wells said. "I'd jump to the obvious conclusion, then I would rip the guy apart, if I could. Then I'd beat the hell out of my wife."

Larry could have. He was bigger than me and more athletic. Why hadn't he?

I looked at Wells and considered putting the question to him. But I didn't. I was afraid he would arrive at the same conclusion that I had. Larry Grant didn't do anything because he himself had just left a woman. The woman was Laura.

I couldn't help pitying the man. To have come from adultery to adultery must have had the impact of a two ton jack-hammer. It was worse than being caught. It was the height of obscenity. His own act was flung in his face by the act of his wife and her lover.

"You look like you're chewing on something." Wells said. "I am."

I wasn't about to make it easier for him. I finished my tea and gave every indication I was tired and wanted to go to sleep. It wasn't so much of an act. He took his cue and stood up.

"Please," he said," if you find Laura, tell her to take care of herself until Wallace cools down."

I said I would. But Wells wanted to talk. I let him. "Laura is very dear to me," he said. "I know she doesn't love me. But we've had some good times together. I wouldn't want anything to happen to her."

I nodded. But my own thoughts weren't as generous. I felt as though she had ground her heel into me. Finally, Wells left. I had the feeling he would walk the streets for awhile then hit a few beer joints until he got himself good and tanked up. He had troubles beyond Laura and Wallace. Without Grant in his hip pocket, he will probably be walking the streets looking for a job, in the not too distant future.

I sat down and untied my shoe laces. It had been a long day. I hoped tomorrow would be a better one though, at the moment, I couldn't see how. A few minutes later I had finished with my shower and slipped into a clean pair of pajamas. I was about ready to turn in. "Laura," I said out loud so that the four walls of the room could hear me, "we could have had a good thing between us... but you had to have a deal." There was no anger left in me. I shut off the light and slept.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

It was not yet light when someone was banging at my door. For a few moments, I hung suspended in that gray world between wakefulness and sleep. The knocking grew louder... more demanding. I was suddenly fully awake. I looked at the clock on the end table near my bed. Its green luminous dial indicated it was just five in the morning. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and grabbed a bathrobe.

"Who is it?" I called, as I went to the door.

The only response was a persistent knocking.

"Who is it?"

The knocking stopped. A man on the other side mumbled something. I undid the lock and opened the door. A foot was thrust between the opened door and the frame. I didn't react fast enough. The next instant I was looking at the short fat muzzle of a .38 special. I knew who it was.

I stepped back.

Wallace grinned at me. But he held the gun steady. Then the grin changed. "Where is she?" he demanded.

"I don't know," I said stepping back.

He followed me in and shut the door behind him.

"Laura," he called.

I waited a moment. Then I said: "I told you she's not here."

He moved sideways across the room so he could keep the gun pointed at me and looked into the bedroom. When he was satisfied that Laura was not in my bed, he looked back at me. "Sit down," he said.

I did.

"Where is she?" He came across the room. His hand slammed across my face.

"I told you, I don't know where she is."

The back of his hand slashed across my face. I fell to the floor. Wallace stepped back. "You look good on the floor," he said. I tried to get up and realized that it was a foolish thing to do. Wallace struck at me with his foot. I caught the blow in my rib cage.

Standing over me with the .38 pointed at my stomach, he said: "Harn thought you were a tough one. I saw what you did to Caesar after I stood bail for him and I don't think you're so tough," he sneered.

"You're holding a stacked deck," I said pointing to the gun. "It's my insurance."

"Now may I get up?"

"No... please?" He cocked his head to one side as though he were waiting to hear something. I remained silent.

"Stubborn, eh! Okay... stay on the floor." He moved to the window and pushed the curtain to one side. All the time he kept his gun trained on me. "Another crumby day," he said. For the first time since he forced his way in, I was able to get a good look at him. He looked as though he hadn't slept for days. There was a wildness about him. My guess was that he had been drinking before he came to play tough guy with me.

He saw me looking at him and immediately left the window. "Don't try anything stupid," he said. I feigned laughter. "You're the one who is being stupid," I said. "What the hell do you expect to gain by coming here and waving a gun around?"

"Satisfaction," he said from behind clenched teeth.

"Get off it, Wallace," I said, risking a show of bravado. "You've sold Laura for business more times than you can probably count."

He charged across the room and kicked at me. I rolled myself into as small a ball as possible. But he connected with my back and shoulders. He stopped as suddenly as he had begun. "Keep your filthy mouth shut!"

I wasn't in the mood for talking now. I lay on the floor rubbing my bruises.

"What've you got around this place to drink?"

"There's some stuff in the cabinet behind you," I said.

He eased himself closer to the cabinet and without taking his eyes off me, reached around. He took the first thing he could get his hands on. A bottle of gin. He worked the cork free with his teeth and spat it on the floor. He put the bottle to his lips and tilted his head backwards. "You think you've got this thing knocked up," he said, taking the bottle from his lips with his free hand. I didn't answer.

"I came up the hard way... from a crumby little office that traded in day laborers. Half the time you couldn't collect a fee from them. Then after the law would be turned on them, they would come charging back after me. It was easy then. A guy wanted a job, a simple job like digging ditches or hauling garbage. And if a woman wanted work, she was either a domestic or if they were good looking and clean enough, you'd give them a few bucks for a quick lay." He laughed and took another slug from the bottle. "Be surprised how many of them took the chance for easy money."

I was hoping he would continue to drink. He didn't. He wanted to talk. "A two bit crumb like you comes along and knocks the stilts out from under me. You take Laura." He stopped and drew his sleeve across his nose. "What gives you the right to take another man's wife?"

"What about Wells and Laura?"

"That was different. She always came back to me. She didn't give a damn about him... she used him like a tool."

"She told me about you," I said. His neck flushed red.

"My token from the war," he said bitterly. "Tough."

He took the bottle again.

"How long do you expect to keep me here?" I asked.

He put the bottle down. "As long as it takes Laura to come here," he said. "Now all I got is time."

I considered what he had said. There was a remote possibility that Laura would show after she got what she wanted out of Larry. If she did, Wallace would probably start squeezing the trigger without waiting to ask too many questions. I had tried two approaches with Wallace. The first one put me down on the floor. The second got me a set of black and blue bruises all over my body. The third might get me a bullet in the gut but I wasn't going to stay on the floor just to suit him.

"Wallace," I said. "You're just wasting your time." He looked at me as though he were seeing me for the first time.

"Laura isn't here and she's not coming here. She's gone a rutting with a new guy."

"Shut up!" He started for me.

I pulled back just in time. His foot slipped by.

"Kicking me isn't going to change things. Laura is just a bitch in heat. I'd like to get my hands on her too. I thought she really cared but all those oh's and ah's were just an act. She's as phony as a three dollar bill."

"Who's she with?" he snarled.

"Guess!"

"I'm not here to play games, damn you! Who the hell is she with?"

It was a long shot but I had to play it. "Larry Grant," I said. Wallace's jaw dropped. His arm went down and so did the gun. In a moment I flung myself into his legs. He went down. I grabbed the gun and threw it across the room. He tried to go for it but I held fast. Finally, I pinned him. Breathing hard, I said: "Now let's forget the gun." I let him get up.

He sat down and put his face in his hands. The next instant his body was convulsed by sobs. "I loved her," he repeated over and over again. "I loved her."

I watched him and felt sorry for him. I knew what it felt like to lose the woman I loved. I moved close to him and put my hand on his shoulder.

It was a mistake!

He lunged and connected with my jaw. I staggered and went down. He was up, across the room and out of the door before I could regain my feet. But he had left the gun.

I walked across the room and picked it up. I checked it. It was loaded.

If he got to Laura, he would get satisfaction, even if it meant killing her.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I put the gun down on top of the bar. There was little I could do. I hadn't the foggiest notion where to start looking for Laura. "Anyway," I told myself, "at least Wallace isn't packing a gun."

I went back into the bedroom. It was almost seven and I didn't see much point in pretending that something would happen at the office. I decided that sleep would be far better than making like a nine-to-fiver so I crawled back into bed and stretched out. My body still hurt from Wallace's kicks.

I slept like a top. My dreams, what I could remember of them, were pleasant. I awoke slowly and not to the sound of a screaming phone or a thumping on my door. When I was fully awake, I looked at the clock. It was almost two.

Before I finished my shave and shower, my stomach began to growl. I hadn't had anything solid in me for almost twenty-four hours. As I dressed, I carefully planned what I would eat. Tomato juice first, a nice tall glass. Ham and eggs with the eggs flipped over and the ham nice and thick. I'd order a double portion of hash brown potatoes. Black coffee would finish the feast.

I had almost forgotten about what had happened the day before. But my doorbell rang and everything came back to me. I could pretend I wasn't at home and hope that whoever was out there would go away. But I didn't like the idea of playing possum. I didn't think it would be Wallace again. He would not come back and announce himself by ringing the bell. Wells? Perhaps. It might also be Harn and his robot. If it were, they'd be here to finish the work that Wallace couldn't. I remembered the gun Wallace left behind. I went to the bar, picked it up and stuffed it into my belt.

"Hold on," I sung out. "Hold on!"

The bell stopped ringing and I went to the door.

A moment later, I was face to face with my father. I just stood there surprised.

"Aren't you going to ask me in?" he asked.

"Sure... sure... come on in." I opened the door for him. As he passed me, he looked down at the revolver grip. I pulled the gun out of my belt. "I thought I might need this," I explained with a weak smile.

He made no comment.

"What brings you down to the city?" I asked. He sat down and shrugged his narrow shoulders. "Some unfinished business."

I laughed. "I think it's the unfinished business that makes the world go round."

"I stopped at your office first," he said. "No one was there."

"And no one will be there," I said. "I don't think I'll open it again."

"Oh?"

"It didn't work out. In fact, it became rather a mess."

He shook his head as though he knew what I was talking about. "Is that the reason for the gun?" he asked. I looked at the revolver then put it down on the table. "Yes, in a manner of speaking."

"Are you in trouble?" He looked at me. He wore an expression of honest concern. But then something in me switched. I remembered! The worried look could just as well be for himself. "He wants something from me," I told myself...."that's why he's here."

He must have detected the shift. "Is anything wrong?" he asked.

I tried to cover myself. I shook my head. "No. Nothing is wrong. Nothing at all."

"But the gun? Have you seen Sue?"

"Yes, just yesterday."

The same worried expression came back to his face.

"The gun isn't for her," I said.

He looked relieved. "Because of the office?" he asked again.

I shook my head. "It has something to do with that."

"Guns," he said, looking down at the floor. "That's all most of the world thinks about today... guns and violence." He waved his hands hopelessly.

"Yeah dad," I said roughly, "it's a stinkin' world."

He stood up and shook himself free of his coat. "I came here to talk to you about something that has been on my mind for a long time."

Mere it comes, I thought. Here it comes. The real reason for his coming here... haven't enough troubles of my own, he has to come here with his.

"You know ever since you left your teaching post, I've been uneasy. I know that it was because of Sue... but your place is at school, teaching...."

"Is that why you really came down here?" I asked. I wasn't sure whether to believe my ears or not.

"Yes."

"Was this your unfinished business?" He nodded.

I rubbed my hand across my chin. It was a little late for a father and son act. "Look," I said. "I don't want to pull the wool over your eyes. I'm broke. I've got debts a mile deep and I don't know what tomorrow will bring. But I can't say I haven't thought about it."

His eyes lit up. "You know you really have a great deal of insight into the classics. I reread your paper... it was good, very good." I couldn't remember when he had ever said anything I ever did was good. It put a warm glow into me. I was about to tell him that lots of things would have to be straightened out. But the phone rang. I looked at it without moving.

"Aren't you going to answer it?" he asked.

The pit of my stomach seemed to go suddenly hard. I walked over to the phone and picked it up. The screaming stopped.

"En?"

It was Laura.

My father came up to my side. "Who is it?" he asked.

I cupped my hand over the mouthpiece. "It's a personal call," I said.

He went back to the chair he originally sat on. "En?"

"Yes... I'm here."

"Who are you speaking to?"

"My father paid me a visit. Now will you tell me where you are?"

"Home."

Sweat began to pop out on my forehead. "Have you seen Wallace?" I asked.

"No... why should I? He's probably at the office."

"He's looking for you," I said. "He came to my place, half loaded, looking for you. He came with a gun, Laura. He threatened to kill you."

She started to laughed in that superior way that only a woman can. "You sound positively alarmed," she said.

To tell her what happened between me and Wallace last night, would not have meant anything to her. Anyway, it would have taken too much time. I was about to tell her to get out of the apartment IRS and meet me somewhere. But she said: "Larry is back with Joyce." I smacked the front of my forehead. It was there as plain as day all the time and I was blind not to have seen it. Larry went straight back to Laura, his idea of carnal love.

"Did you hear what I said?"

"Yes," I answered.

"What, no comment?"

"You're a big girl, Laura," I said. "If that's what you wanted to do or what you had to do, then you did it. That should be enough for you."

There was more laughter from her. "You know, En," she said, "you sound positively philosophical about all this." I wanted to throw the phone away. But I didn't. "Why did you do it?" I asked quietly.

There was a long silence on the other end. Finally, the self composed, superior voice broke. It was choked now. "Because," she began, "I was afraid."

"Of what?"

"You. Of loving you."

"What?"

"I love you En."

I suddenly realized we had been talking a long time. Each minute she remained there brought Wallace that much closer. "Listen," I said quickly, "you get the hell out of there and meet me."

"No."

"What do you mean, no? You said you loved me."

"I do... very much."

I was losing my patience with her. "For godssakes, Laura, he's going to kill you if he finds you there. He means it."

"I can't run away," she intoned tiredly. "I have to face him."

"Laura!"

There was a long silence and then her voice, softer, emptier. "It's too late, En. He's coming now. En... I do love you. Believe that, please. I do love you."

"LAURA!"

The line went dead.

Dead.

I felt my father's hand on my shoulder. "You'd better call the police, En," he offered quietly, calmly.

I let out my breath and nodded slowly. "Yeah... I guess that's all I can do." I dialed the number and recited the information to the desk officer and all the while I talked, I was hearing Laura's voice telling me of her love. I wondered if I'd ever forget it.

THE END
The Come On ....(67k)    by Vin Fields




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