Trust by George V. Higgins Read Free Book Online Page B

much a minute was that?”
    “Look,” he said, “Penny, I don’t want a fight. You don’t understand what I’m telling you. Allen is paying you very good money, but Allen is good for much more. But just for a little while, he is good for it. We just got to explain this to him, before the time runs out. Because this, well,
job
, you got with him, it isn’t permanent. You know what happened to Nancy.”
    “I don’t want to hear about the bitch,” she said.“Allen ditched Nancy because of the drugs. Allen was right to do that.”
    “Allen may’ve
said
he ditched Nancy for that,” he said, “but we both know that wasn’t it. Allen ditched Nancy because she made a mistake. The mistake was letting you move in, and letting him see you. Nancy was branching out. Thought she had an assistant, handle some of her business. Nancy was moving up, and you were the first one she picked. Bad choice. She didn’t count on you scooping her best customer. Didn’t think about how she’d begun to sag a little bit, he might like a newer model.”
    “Bullshit,” she said. She put her head back and shut her eyes again.
    “ ‘Bullshit,’ nothing,” he said. “You’re in a business, lady. It’s purely a matter of business, and your attitude about it bothers me. You don’t
want
to think about it, so you
don’t
think about it, and that means it isn’t a business. Well, it is, just the same. I used to be in a business just like it. They were using my ass like a bastard, getting rich off me, paying me chickenshit, I think I’m big time, while they’re the ones getting rich. Buying me drinks, and getting me laid, and then who goes to the slammer?
I
go to the slammer. And where did
they
go? I dunno. Vegas, most likely. Never heard from the bastards again. Hell, I never knew most of their names.
    “I’m trying to tell you, okay? Experience counts, all right? It counts against you. The longer you been at it, the less interested the customers are. I used up my eligibility? ‘So long, baby—Ciao.’ Just like Allen will do to you, some fine day. It goes with your line of work.
    “And then what?” he said. “You wanna be an oldwhore someday? Because you’re
gonna
be old. You don’t have a choice about that part. And the hooker part you won’t, either. Old whores don’t make much money. Old ladies with money don’t hook, and old ladies with money don’t care. You wanna be an old lady, with her own money? Or an old whore who can’t make a dime? It’s the same thing with me.
I’m
gonna get old. I don’t wanna be an old ex-con. Nobody hires them for nothing. I wanna be a nice,
secure
, old man. Spending the winters in Florida. Playing the golf and stuff. Clipping my coupons and washing my false teeth. Driving my own Cadillac.
    “That’s what you don’t understand,” he said. “Or pretend you don’t understand, ’cause you know what I’m saying is right. That’s what I’m telling you, all right? There’s only so many chances. You’re lucky, you get one. I had my one, and I blew it. My brother had his one—he took it. He was smart, and I was stupid. I admit it. Tough shit for me. Now you never had one, but this comes along, and I’m telling you: this is your one. Now listen to what I am saying. I got myself in the shit once, and I climbed out of the shit. Which very few guys ever do. You haven’t been in the shit yet, and believe me, you don’t want to
go
in. Listen a guy who knows how it is, and we both stay out of the shit. Don’t throw your one away. Just listen to what old Earl says.”
    “Shut up,” she said. “Too hot to talk. Just drive and let me sleep.”
    He grabbed her by her upper left arm. “Listen to me,” he said in a low voice. “I didn’t know
you
till I met you, but I knew a lot of ladies in the same damned line of work. I met them, got introduced, by guys likeAllen, there. They
gave
those ladies to me. ‘Here’s a freebie on the house. Don’t beat Temple by nine. Eight’ll be