Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye by Horace McCoy Read Free Book Online Page A

Book: Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye by Horace McCoy Read Free Book Online
Authors: Horace McCoy
corner to get off the bus where six or seven others also were getting off, going out in the middle of them starting down the street towards the garage as if I had been doing the same thing for years.
    Jinx was in the office with Mason, waiting for me.
    ‘I’ll say one thing for you,’ Mason said. ‘You sure don’t waste a lot of time getting started.’
    ‘I want to get Holiday out of hock,’ I told him. I looked at Jinx. ‘You got everything?’
    ‘I’m set,’ Jinx said. ‘But I don’t think Mason is.’
    I looked at Mason. There was a wise smile on his face and he made a point of stroking an imaginary beard. ‘I shaved ’em off last week,’ he said.
    ‘I don’t get it,’ I said.
    ‘The whiskers,’ he said. ‘Who do you think I am Santa Claus? Ten per cent and I furnish the car! You think this is a gravy train you’re riding?’
    ‘Is that what Jinx told you ten per cent?’ I asked, laughing. ‘He misunderstood me’
    ‘I didn’t misunderstand no such a damn thing,’ Jinx said. ‘You said ten per cent.’
    ‘I said twenty-five per cent, Jinx,’ I said, winking at him so that Mason could see, so that he would still think he had me over a barrel. ‘I said one-fourth to Mason for the use of the car.…’
    ‘That’s more like it,’ Mason said. ‘Now, what’s this about you not liking the color of the Zephyr?’
    ‘I don’t even like the Zephyr,’ I said, dropping my lunch package into his wastebasket. ‘It’s too conspicuous. I want a black Ford sedan with a Mercury motor. Exactly like the cops use…’
    ‘Well, now, ain’t it just too bad that you got to ride around in a Zephyr.…!’
    ‘I’ll ride around in the Zephyr for this one job,’ I said. ‘For just this one job. But arrange to get me a black Ford sedan with a Mercury motor. And eight or nine sets of out-of-state license plates.…’
    ‘Jesus,’ he exclaimed, shaking his head. ‘For a punk who’s flat on his can you sure talk big.’
    I ignored him, turning to Jinx. ‘What about the guns?’
    Jinx pointed to Mason. ‘He’s got ’em.’
    ‘I hear you don’t like a revolver,’ he said.
    ‘You know what I like,’ I said. ‘Get ’em.’ He stared at me for a moment, dubiously, and then opened the top drawer of the desk and picked up two blue-steel, bone-handled .380 Colt automatics. I took them, holding them in my hands, looking at them. I swung my hands up and down, feeling their weight, and then I put one down on the desk and sprung the clip from the other one, thumbing the cartridges into my palm, one by one. I tested the spring of the clip for tension. I put the cartridges back in, slipped the clip in the butt, and tested the other one. Then I looked at them again. They were flawless, precise, perfect as a circle is perfect.
    ‘Jesus, that’s a great act you put on,’ Mason said with heavy sarcasm.
    I drew back my leg and kicked him on the club foot as hard as I could. He grunted and doubled over, and when he straightened up his face was corrugated with pain.
    ‘Don’t you ever say that to me again,’ I said.
    ‘Jesus! Ralph,’ Jinx said. ‘What the hell…’
    ‘You understand?’ I said to Mason. ‘Don’t ever say that to me again.’
    ‘You beat it,’ Mason said. ‘Beat it. Get out of here.’
    I just looked at him. ‘How much for these automatics?’
    ‘Get out,’ he said, with a little moan. ‘Beat it. Put them pistols down and beat it.’
    ‘How much?’ I asked again.
    He glared at me. Finally, he said: ‘Two hundred dollars for the both of ’em.’
    ‘It’s a deal,’ I said. I knew this was far too much, but I didn’t want to argue with him. ‘Come on,’ I said to Jinx. ‘Let’s push …’
    ‘Cash,’ Mason said.
    ‘I’ll have the cash in an hour,’ I told him. ‘I’ll settle for everything then. Including a Ford sedan with a Mercury motor.’ I could see the wheels going around in his head. ‘Stop worrying,’ I said. ‘I’ll be back. You know

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