Stop This Man! by Peter Rabe Read Free Book Online

in a tuxedo asked for their cards.
    “No cards,” Catell said. “Just blew into town and haven’t joined yet.”
    “No card, no enter,” said the tuxedo.
    “I been here before,” Catell said.
    “No card, no enter.”
    “Call Paar. Tell him Catell is here.”
    The tuxedo picked up a phone in the wall and talked into it. Then he hung up and said, “Wait here. He’ll be right out.”
    They waited while the bruiser looked Catell up and down. He didn’t give Selma a second look.
    Then Paar came through the door that led to the club proper. He was short and his tuxedo was built around himlike a piece of architecture. Above the upholstery in the shoulders his head looked small, even though his thinning black hair left him with a monstrous forehead.
    “My dear Selma,” he said, and kissed her hand. “And Tony, of course. Come in, come in.”
    They followed Paar through the door and into a dim, low room with a fireplace, a long bar, and scattered couches. A girl in black stockings and very little else took Selma’s fur and Catell’s overcoat. Then they took one of the couches while Paar sat opposite on a low coffee table.
    “Well, Tony, what have you decided?”
    “No business, Paar. We came on a social visit.”
    “Of course, Tony, and forgive me, Selma, but answer me just this, Tony. Am I your man, or do you do it directly?”
    “Directly.”
    “Fine, Tony, fine. No hard feelings, you understand, but do call on me for any help, eh? And now I want you to have a drink on the house. I may join you later.”
    He smiled at both of them, patted Selma on the knee, and was gone. He did it all so smoothly that Catell felt like a clod. He saw that Selma was smiling at Paar’s back, but he was in no mood for an argument.
    A blonde waitress brought them their drinks. She was wearing a little apron that was attached to her body in some mysterious way. “On the house,” she said. Catell didn’t know whether he should smile back at her or not.
    “What did he mean by that remark, is he your man or not?” Selma caught Catell in the middle of a thought.
    “Huh?”
    “Paar. What was he talking about?”
    “Oh, nothing. About the heist. I talked with him about unloading something.”
    “So?”
    “He was interested but I wasn’t. He’s too high.”
    “He knows what we got?”
    “What we got?”
    “Yeah, what we got! You weren’t thinking of leaving me out of this, were you? You weren’t thinking you could pay me off with rent money and an occasional date in a nightclub, were ya?”
    Selma leaned her large face close to Catell and he could see the make-up and the pores of her skin. One of her curls was still hanging down and bobbed up and down like a spring when she talked.
    “Calm down, damnit. We came here for a good time.”
    “So I’m asking again. Does he know what we got?”
    “No, he doesn’t know what we got. All he knows is there’s a lot of it.”
    “So you said no to Paar. And how, big shot, are you gonna move the stuff we got, seeing you ain’t too pleased with Paar?”
    “Selma, for chrissakes, let’s have a good time, huh?”
    “How ya gonna move it?”
    “All right. Stop yelling. I’m going to take it where Paar would take it. He let slip with something. Out on the West Coast.”
    “Where?”
    “I don’t know yet. I gotta make connections there first. L.A., probably.”
    Selma let herself sink back on the cushions of the couch. Catell could see where her corset pinched her and looked away.
    “I love the sunshine. Gee, Tony, won’t it be fun on the beach there and everything?”
    “You want another drink?”
    Selma didn’t answer. She was looking up in the air,smiling and saying “ Gee ” every so often. When the fresh drinks came, Catell took her hand.
    “Honey, listen. Let’s get one thing straight. This deal isn’t through yet, and until it is, we gotta go easy. When Schumacher was around he staked me to some dough, but now there isn’t any. Not till the deal comes