Chapter 13
The Schuyler Hotel in the West Forties was pretty modern and used a lot by the air lines to put up their crews overnight. Russ appreciated this as he watched one gorgeous stewardess after another pass him by in the lobby. If he weren't waiting for that contact call, he knew there were at least three swell pieces of ass he could have picked up already. He'd have to remember this spot.
In the meantime, Russ listened carefully every time the bell captain paged someone. It was getting a little late and Russ wondered if everything was going to be all right. If the call didn't come through, there was that tall, red-headed stewardess hanging around the news stand who'd been giving him the eye for the last five minutes ...
Russ fidgeted. He didn't like doing this sort of thing. It wasn't really what he was cut out for. But the chance to harvest himself a crop of lettuce had been too good to pass by. All he had to do to reassure himself was to think how long it would have taken him to make twenty-five thousand by working on some housing project, or breaking his back on a road-building job. Hell, he would never have been able to get that much loot together at one time by working for it.
Really it was fifty thousand he was going to have. Penny's twenty-five would be just as good as his because he'd make it a point to see that she stuck with him until the money was gone. By then he'd be tired of screwing her anyway and he'd be ready to kiss her off as he'd kissed all the others.
Until then, however...
It wouldn't be bad at all, he decided. Fifty thousand bucks and a cute little cunt like Penny to fuck for him whenever he was in the mood. Concentrating on this combination made him feel a great deal better. He felt so good, as a matter of fact, that his blood pressure hardly jumped a notch when the hotel's P.A. system proclaimed: Telephone call for Mr. Eddie. Telephone call for Mr. Eddie."
Russ got up and walked to the nearest house phone. He picked it up. This is Mr. Eddie. You have a call for me?"
"Yes sir," the operator said. "Just a moment, please." There was a click, then "Go ahead please."
"Eddie?" It was the heavy-set man's voice-husky and kind of deep-pitched. Russ remembered it.
"Hello, Dave."
"Is everything okay?" the fat man asked him. Russ detected a note of suspicion in his tone.
"I found her. Where do you want to meet?"
There was a moment of silence and then the other man said, "I'll pick you up in my car. Wait on Fifth Avenue, across from the library. Know where that is?"
"Yeah."
"Half an hour. Be alone." "Sure."
The phone clicked in Russ' ear.
The hotel wasn't far from the library, so Russ had fifteen or twenty minutes to kill. He sauntered across the lobby and into the bar. He ordered a beer.
At the appointed time Russ stood by the bus stop on Fifth, right at the side entrance of a large department store. The library was on the other side of the one-way street. He waited for several minutes.
Finally a car pulled to the curb and stopped. As the driver leaned forward Russ recognized him. Though the car was a Chrysler rather than a Continental, it was driven by the man he'd met several days before on Main Street in Lynbrook.
"Get in," the man said as Russ approached the Chrysler.
He did and the car lunged forward, back into the traffic stream.
Russ studied the man behind the wheel. So this was what a murderer looked like, huh? Russ guessed he'd probably seen murderers before, but never been aware of it at the time.
Bull Zelman guided the Chrysler-which he had rented as a precaution against Russ taking the license number of one of his own cars-up Sixth Avenue.
"Well?" he said, not looking Russ' way as he talked. "What name's she using and where can I find her?"
"Her name's Penny Williams." Russ eyes twinkled. "It turns out that she's a pretty important person-a witness to that murder they had in Lynbrook three or four nights ago."
"I don't know a thing about it," Bull said, still looking straight ahead.
"Don't give me that?"
He glanced at Russ quickly. "Say, what's the matter with you?"
"Let's just get our business finished, huh?" Bull was still guiding the car along Sixth Avenue but they were moving more slowly now. He was concerned about the younger man's attitude.
"Suits me fine," Russ said. "Tell me where the girl lives."
"She doesn't live in Lynbrook any more," Russ replied smoothly. "Huh?"
"She doesn't live in Lynbrook any more," Russ repeated. "She's right here in New York."
Bull saw an open stretch of curb and veered the Chrysler to the right. He parked.
He twisted his body toward Russ. "Alright! Let me have it straight. What's this all about?"
Russ' eyes continued to twinkle confidently as he talked in a slow easy drawl: "Well, this girl and I got pretty well acquainted during the last day or two. We're kind of what you might call a team now. We're in New York together."
"Yeah?" Bull said cautiously. Anxiety was playing along his spine like fingers on the keyboard of a piano.
"Penny was a little afraid to stay in Lynbrook with you looking for her, so she came along to New York with me. It isn't that she had anything against you, understand, it's just that she's thinking about herself, too. Just like I am, Dave."
Bull was nervously fingering an unlit cigar. "Make sense, will you?"
"Okay. Here it is, flat out: Penny and I know you're the one who killed that woman over in Lynbrook the other night. She can identify you and I can help the police with a tie-in here." Bull's face was blanching, but Russ went on as if he hadn't noticed: "As I said, it isn't that either one of us wants to make you any trouble. Hell, live and let live-that's what I've always believed. All we want from you is fifty thousand dollars to make it worth our while. Then we'll both forget we ever saw you."
"We'll get out of New York and go some place where we can't do you any harm."
"You louse!" Bull growled.
"Take it easy," Russ said crisply. "I'm doing you a favor man. Look at it that way, why won't you?"
"You're all wet! I had nothing to do with no murder over there."
"Like hell!" Russ' smile said he didn't believe a word of it.
Bull stared at him for a few seconds. Then his expression changed slowly, slyness replacing fear and rage. "Maybe ... you and me and the girl should all get together. Maybe we can talk this out, huh?"
"No." Russ said firmly. "There's nothing to talk about. We know you're the killer. Penny can identify you and I can let the cops know for sure that you're in New York. I can give them a description of this car, too."
"The car ain't mine," Bull said quickly.
"I bet it can be traced to you easy enough," Russ responded. "You know damn well that the girl and I can cause you bad trouble. Fifty grand isn't a very big price to pay to keep us quiet."
Bull didn't say a thing, but just stared. He'd had no idea something like this would happen. He hadn't been prepared for it at all.
"The only thing for you to do, big boy, is to hand over that money," Russ went on. "What do you say we head for your bank right now?"
Bull had to think. Pressure seemed to be closing in on him like a vise clamped to the sides of his head. He'd had the same feeling a few times before in his life and he'd always reacted violently. The last time he'd felt this way he'd been driving back from Long Island with Valerie.
But he had to be careful now, he knew. A misstep could be costly. Too costly. From the corners of his eyes, he studied the determined man beside him. Russ was lighting a cigarette, apparently confident of his ability to force Bull to go along with the shakedown.
In a controlled tone of voice Bull said. "Fifty grand ain't gonna make me or break me. I could give it to you.
Hell, it might even be worth it if I was sure the girl-this Penny Williams-would really drop out of sight. The hell of it is, I ain't sure she's in this with you. You could be running a bluff."
He watched for the younger man's reaction. Russ narrowed his eyes as he looked at Bull. "You see what I mean, don't you, Eddie? You could be pulling this thing on your own. Maybe the girl skipped out of Lynbrook and you don't know where she is any more than I do."
"You've gotta take my word that she's with me," Russ said.
"Oh, no." Bull grinned wisely. "Not when fifty grand's involved. I gotta be sure who I'm dealing with. I'll have to meet the babe."
Russ considered. The man had a point. Unless the three of them got together face to face, Russ would have no way of convincing him that the girl was really on Russ' side. The man might just decide to take his chances and refuse to pay.
"All right," Russ said finally. "You can meet Penny. But there's gonna be no stalling. We'll all get together thus afternoon and you've gotta have the money with you. You pay us spot cash and then we haul out of here. Gear enough?"
"Sure, Eddie."
"I'll get out now and grab a bus. This afternoon we can meet at your office." "That's out." "Where then?"
Bull thought it over. "Do you have a car?" "Yeah."
Bull said, "I've got a little place up in the mountains. It's not far from the city. I'll be parked along the road... say at about 2:30 this afternoon. Well go the rest of the way together."
"That seems like doing things the hard way," Russ told him. "Why go to all that trouble? We can meet somewhere here in town."
"Nope," Bull said. "The deal has gotta be private. That means no witnesses. You do it my way or it's no dice, understand?"
"Okay."
"And have the girl with you. That's the main thing." "You have the money and I'll have the cunt!" Bull nodded.
Russ got out of the car and walked along the sidewalk toward the nearest intersection. It was 57th Street and there was a taxi stand on the corner. He decided to take a As he glanced back in the direction of the man's car, he saw that it had been driven away. Russ made a mental note of the license number... just in case.
Russ was uneasy as he rode to the downtown hotel where he and Penny had a room. It wasn't the Schuyler, but a cheaper place south on lower Broadway.
The idea of meeting the fat man at an out-of-the-way location didn't really bother Russ. He was sure he could handle someone like this guy without any trouble. Still, there had been something about his manner.
In the first place, why in hell had he insisted on meeting up in the mountains? It was understandable that "Dave" would want to keep their deal as private as possible, but there were other places, near at hand, where they could get together. He was a crafty one, Russ thought. But what could he do?
Pull a gun maybe?
Russ would guard against that by frisking him as soon as they got together. He'd do it right on the road before "Dave" had a chance to try anything fancy. As long as they were just man-to-man, Russ would have nothing to worry about, he assured himself.
Penny wouldn't like the idea of meeting the man, Russ was sure of that. She'd be afraid. But Russ also knew that the girl would do what he told her to. He had her hooked so strongly that if he told her to walk up and down Fifth Avenue in her pink silk panties, she would do it.
He let his mind run ahead in time-past two thirty that afternoon to when he would have the man's fifty thousand in his hands. Then the whole world would be spread open to him.
He and Penny would buy a wardrobe first of all, and then they'd hop a jet for some place. Hell, this would give him a chance to see all the places in the world that he'd never be able to get to on the kind of wages he made.
Rome. That would be a good place to start. Penny would dig that too, he was sure.
But Penny wouldn't be with him every minute. Not in Rome anyway. No, sir. He'd see to that. Rome was one place where a man had to do some exploring on his own. Russ had heard a lot about the women over there and this would be his chance to see if what he'd heard was true.
Then it would be Paris, London and Athens. Maybe Switzerland. He'd always wanted to see Switzerland.
Then they'd spend some time in New York and, after that, maybe take in Acapulco. And later, the Far East. He'd heard interesting things about Japanese cunt, too.
It would be several months of big fun with the sky the limit and money enough to do whatever struck his fancy.
Russ grinned to himself as he entered the hotel room.
Penny was still undressed and had been waiting for him reading in bed. Well, they had a little time. He went over to the bed, kissed Penny, cupping her lush breasts at the same time. He enjoyed feeling her nipples harden between his fingers. He tore off his clothes and pulled off his shorts. She clutched him in bed as he decked her, her tits pressed against his chest. His loins felt the tantalizing thrill of her thighs and asscheeks squirming against his stiff prick.
Penny felt the urgency in his big, erect dong as her curved belly ground against Russ. As his strong hands clasped the lovely rounds of her shimmering buttocks, she guided him to her eager hot cuntlips. She shuddered with passion at his pile-driver thrusts into her vagina and then her cunt met his frigging cock in abandoned rhythm. Waves of supreme bliss rolled through her as Russ zoomed into a peak and his prick shot a terrific load of hot scum into her torrid, writhing cunt. She "came" too as she felt his semen scalding her vagina.
As they lay entwined in gasping bliss, Penny sighed, "I'm your woman, Russ, only yours."