the Big Bounce (1969) by Elmore - Jack Ryan 0 Leonard Read Free Book Online Page B

water, then stepping back out of sight as he lowered the revs and rumbled close to shore.
    The following week she pulled up next to his pickup at a Geneva Beach stoplight, seeing his vacant expression crack open into a big dumb grin as he looked her way and leaned out the window.
    Hey! Where you been, stranger?
    Going out the next day, Bob Jr. was relaxed and smiling, smoking one cigarette after another as he pointed out cloud formations and identified landmarks along the shore and commented on how nice the boat was handling.
    You know, he said finally, cutting the motor, I don't think I ever met a girl like you before.
    Maybe it's just a feeling, Nancy said.
    Sure it's a feeling, a pretty good one.
    Maybe I understand you better than your wife does. She thought: And he says
    You know, it's funny you should say that.
    I've never met a man quite like you before, Nancy said.
    Bob Jr. drew on his cigarette and flicked it over the side, way out, then looked at her again.
    You going to take your top off?
    Not today.
    What do you mean not today?
    It's too cold.
    Too cold! For Christ sake, it's eighty-nine degrees out!
    I don't know, Nancy said. I must have a chill or something. Do you have a sweater?
    He didn't say much on the way in. He kept looking at her sitting back there with her legs tucked beneath her and his sweatshirt down over her knees. She would smile at him every once in a while, letting him know that if he wanted her badly enough, it was going to take more than a boat ride, buddy.
    Now, while Bob Jr. was still trying to find out what exactly it would take, Nancy had shifted her interest.
    She had a clear mental picture of Ryan standing by Ray's car showing her his muscle. She had met a few Jack Ryans before, in Florida, and she could see him at the dresser combing his hair, looking at himself in the mirror, or in the kitchen opening a can of beer: dark brown and stringy hard above and below the tan lines, thin and slow-moving, a poser.
    But there was more to him than that, more to him than the posing and the police record the resisting arrest and breaking and entering and what he did to the crew leader. Nancy had a feeling about Ryan. Not an emotional feeling, a girl-boy feeling, but a clearly focused zeroed-in feeling, a seeing-him-and-knowing-right-away feeling that Jack Ryan, or someone just like him, was the answer: her way out of here with a lot more than furniture and a few clothes.
    The idea had come to her suddenly right after seeing him at the migrant camp. The idea was wild, so far out she had only smiled at first, thinking of what it would do to Ray Ritchie. But the more she thought of the idea, the more she liked it. It was fantastic, way out, and beyond anything she had ever done before. The trouble was, the whole thing would depend on Ryan. It would depend first on whether or not he was staying around Geneva Beach instead of going home, and second, it would depend on his nerve. She had a feeling that if he really wanted to stay, if he had a good reason to stay, he would.
    If he didn't have a reason to stay, she might have to give him one. Which shouldn't be too hard. Then play with him to see what he was really like.
    But the whole deal, staying and going along with her idea, both, depended really on how much nerve he had.
    Which she would have to find out.
    Chapter 5

HEY, YOU GOT TIME to have one with me? Mr. Majestyk was swiveled around, heavy legs apart, his heels hooked in the rungs of the bar stool.
    Ryan had noticed him, three stools away: the guy looked like an ex-pro guard hunched over the bar, leaning on his stubby arms and a dead cigar in the ashtray. He had been talking to the bartender about fishing, how the perch must have all been asleep today, and Ryan had listened because they were close and he could hear them. He was going to have another beer, so if the guy wanted to buy, it was okay. He could leave anytime he wanted. The guy moved over and it was funny how they got to talking right