Trust by George V. Higgins Read Free Book Online

standing. He parked the car, locked it, and went inside the terminal.
    He spotted the same man and the woman standing outside the velvet rope excluding nonpassengers from the baggage-claim area. Inside, many people competed for places closest to the incoming cargo doors. Porters in blue uniforms stood aloof from the travelers, waiting with aluminum carts and glancing repeatedly at tags clipped to ticket folders. The carousel began to revolve. Earl saw four bags come down before Penny’s three-piece set of Gucci luggage appeared. He went quicklyback outside and opened the trunk of the Dodge. As soon as Penny and the man escorted the porter outside the door, he waved his right arm. The man waved back and directed the porter toward the Dodge.
    “Mister Simmons,” Earl said, bending from the waist and extending his right hand as though to assist the porter loading the luggage into the trunk, but touching nothing, “nice trip?” Earl straightened up. The porter put the last of the three pieces into the Dodge and stood back, expectantly.
    “Very nice, thank you, Earl,” Simmons said, putting on sunglasses. “Oh,” he said, as though just noticing the porter. He reached into his right front pocket, fished out a roll of bills, and peeled off a twenty. “Thanks very much,” he said to the porter. “Thank you, sir,” the porter said. “Never last long enough, though,” Simmons said, clutching Penny around the waist. “Never last long enough, do they?”
    “Oh, Allen,” she said, pushing him away. “Now come on now, all right?”
    “Well, they don’t,” he said. He leaned toward her to kiss her, but she pulled away.
    “All right,” she said. “Tell you what we’ll do. Earl’ll just take my luggage home, and I’ll get on your connection to Boston with you. And that way it won’t be over. Least for another hour. You could tell her I’m just someone you happened to meet on the plane. But she might not believe you. And a lot of things might start.”
    He stepped back. He smiled. “Thank you very much, Penny,” he said. “I guess I asked for that.”
    “Thank you for a lovely week, Allen,” she said. She pecked him on the cheek and stood back.
    He nodded. “Got to catch my plane,” he said. He went back into the terminal.
    Earl and Penny stood by the car until Simmons was back inside and they saw him go up the escalator. She put her arms around Earl and kissed him full on the lips. “Ummm,” she said, standing back, “glad to see you again. Always nice to come home.”
    “Hard week?” he said.
    She shrugged, releasing him and heading for the passenger door. “Not especially,” she said. “I’m an ornament, mostly.” She opened the door and got in. He slid in on the driver’s side. “Get dressed up at night, get the bikini on, the daytime—‘Oh, that’s Allen’s girl.’ Well, he wants to pay me ten grand a week to hang on his arm and show to his friends, who’m I to complain?”
    “Oh, cut it out,” Earl said.
    “Don’t get shitty with me, chum,” she said. “You knew the deal when we started. You gonna tell me, when we get home, you won’t touch the cash? You won’t live the apartment, and you won’t drive the damned car? It’s Allen that’s paying for it. And now I got two whole weeks off. Three, if I like. He’s going the Vineyard, his wife. But Allen is generous, say that for the guy. We fly first-class, and we stay first-class, and he gives me a lot of money. So lay off of him, all right? Allen’s a generous man.”
    “Look,” Earl said, putting the Dodge in gear and pulling out of the illegal space, “all I’m asking you is this: When we gonna do it? I got about sixteen more pictures just now, and if they turn out like I think, which they will, they’re fuckin’ beautiful.”
    “That worked all right, then,” she said. “The part with ‘I twisted my heel’?”
    “Oh,” he said, “it was beautiful. But when we gonna
use
them, all right? When’m I finally