End of the Tiger by John D. MacDonald Read Free Book Online Page A

said.
    “I was afraid he was going to tell me she’s a
nice
girl,” Marie said.
    “Look, it was a good evening,” Quent said. “Let’s break it off good.”
    “Okay,” Marie said. “Nightcap at my place?”
    “Not tonight,” Mack said. “Tomorrow is a working day. Landers and Dale have got stuff piled up. Right, kid?”
    “Right, Mack,” Quent said.
    Mack drove back toward town, parked in front of the blonde stone and glass apartment house where Marie lived on ample alimony. He got out, and Marie slid out on his side, and he said, “Back in a second, kid.”
    He walked into the sterile tile lobby with Marie. He grinned at her. She was a sturdy blonde with shrewd eyes, good clothes, and a sulky mouth. They were easy with each other, and he knew she had learned that if she got rough, it was always a few weeks before he called her up again.
    “Now we shake hands, maybe?” Marie asked. “An evening with sweet young stuff and you can’t even come up for a drink.”
    “You want him up for a drink? You want to listen to him talk about love’s young dream for an hour perhaps?”
    “Please. Not that.”
    “Okay, so I drop him and come back for my drink. That makes better sense?”
    Her slow smile came. She ran her fingertips down his cheek. “Mmm,” she said. “Good sense.”
    “Within an hour, honey,” he said, and turned and walked out. His heels made loud firm noises on the tile, and as he pushed the front door open he heard the soft closing of the door of the self-service elevator. He walked out toward the car where he could see the glow of Quent’s cigarette. He got in and slammed the door and headed through town.
    “I’m conversational,” Quent said. “Nightcap?”
    “A short one.” The streets were empty, and he parked in front of The Alibi. They went in and sat at the curve of the bar. Mack tilted his hat back off his broad forehead. There was a party in one of the big booths—two girls and three men, all loud and out of focus.
    “The usual, Joe,” Mack said. “What about you, Quent?”
    “Just a beer, I guess. Millers is okay.” The bartender moved off. Quent said, “God, she’s a hell of a girl, Mack. Never met anything like her.”
    “From the way you’ve been acting, kid, I knew you had something on your mind. How did you say you met her?”
    “I didn’t. I didn’t want to be laughed at. You know that Dowling case I was working on, where she wanted to leave her money to the church. I called on her and she had a lady with her, a friend. While I was there Erica came in a car to pick up the other lady, and it turns out the lady is Erica’s aunt. Erica was in the east for a couple of years and she got homesick and came back out here. She lives with her aunt now and she’s got a part-time job at the library. She works mornings, but I guess I told you that already. What do you think of her, Mack?”
    Mack lifted his drink and took a long slow sip. He glanced at his partner’s intent young face. “It’s really stacked,” he said casually. “I bet it would be fine.”
    Quent turned sharply and frowned at him. Quent’s cheeks were red. “Damn it, that’s no way to talk.”
    “Don’t get in an uproar, kid.”
    “You can’t look at any woman in a decent way, can you?”
    Mack grinned. “Sure. I’m an evil old man. Ask anybody.”
    Quent finally smiled, reluctantly. “All right. You were kidding me. Seriously, I’m thinking in terms of marriage, Mack. It’s time, I think.”
    “I was married once,” Mack said. “It is, indeed, a very unpromising relationship.”
    “You had bad luck.”
    Mack thought of all the implications. He took a few sips of his drink, slid the glass a few inches along the bar top, and examined the wet streak it left.
    “Do I have to like the idea?” he asked softly.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Look, kid. The business is growing. And you know why. We both draw peanuts and put the rest back into the firm. We’re hot. Equal partners. Look at