Chapter 1
At nine that morning it had been merely drizzling, but, now at half past eleven, rain fell in heavy torrents. Water gushed along Minnesota avenue in Kansas City, Kansas in front of Smiley's tavern. Along the curbs floated loose newspapers, loose twigs and other litter.
On these kind of rainy mornings, Alice Ingram usually felt dejectedly sick. She felt desperate enough for sensual emotions. Even now, despite where she was behind the bar at Smiley's, her body screamed for utter fulfillment. She needed to be inside a room where it would be most permissible to quench her bodily thirst. Not that she would lose her bearings, yet the hunger lingered in her flanks, developed and took hold of her flesh. It was like a cancer in her stomach and thighs, and her soul screamed in desperation. Liquor which was available might have done something to ease the persistent craze in her soul, had she not been at work. Yet, hardly to any extent that she would have been utterly relieved. She knew very well that the only remedy for the persistant demands of her body was to be with Eddie. He was her joy, her pleasure, her only love. This morning, more than ever, her soul bled for him. Eddie knew just how to pleasure her, to strip away her terror of loneliness and the persistent headaches which usually accompanied such vague, sensual terrors.
They were engaged, but Eddie hadn't been round to the apartment for three whole days now. Even though he had phoned her, stating that he was working nights and sleeping mostly days during the moments she was at work, thus this hampered them from seeing each other. He had never said what type of work he was doing which kept him away from her. She hated to go around his various gambling haunts in order to hunt him up. Did he mean to stay away from her after becoming engaged to her? Why was she so doubtful about his love? Had the detective, Thomas McShane, been the reason that Eddie had been frightened away from her the past few days? McShane had met them two weeks ago coming from a movie on the Avenue. Frieta, her daughter, had been along. Frieta was twenty-one. McShane hadn't said anything out of the ordinary to Eddie. The detective was an old friend of hers. He'd married her best girl friend, Sophie, after his wife had passed. She and Sophie had come to Kansas from Waco, Texas ten years ago. And had been here ever since. McShane had merely been showing his courtesy to her, not caring who her company was. Eddie acted as if the detective had eyed him for a suspicious reason, afterwards, the way he flushed and kept a hushed mouth. If he wasn't in any trouble why did he shun away from a city cop?
The tavern was practically empty, excepting an old gent seated at the front bar sipping a straight whisky. Smiley, the boss, had been gone since having unlocked the door at eight. He had other businesses and hardly spent any time at the tavern, only at night when business picked up, and on Fridays and Saturdays when business rushed.
The cook was in the kitchen, busily cooking ham and baking off his various meats which sandwiches were made, and the porter, having finished his cleaning out front as well as his bar work, was in the kitchen helping the cook. The other two waitresses who worked at Smiley's wouldn't be on until at noon, so Alice was alone for the time being.
Momentarily, she took a quarter from a pocket of the yellow smock she wore, turned to the counter to one of the music vendors and inserted the money and pressed the button for the song she wanted. Immediately, 'Finally' started playing.
Alice had finished her work and leaned her elbows on the counter, resting her chin in her hands. Riveting baby-blue eyes at the hard rain, she visioned herself curled up in bed in a dingy hotel room with her arms and thighs wrapped tightly round Eddie's dusky body. As the sensual scene struck her, her blond flesh flushed and she clenched her fists from the drudgery of having to work every day except Sunday of her life. Working was compulsory in order to live. Unless one was rich. And she was one life span away from that.
At thirty-five, Alice was very attractive, despite the fact that she had lead an unusual life of indulgence. Her blond hair was cropped but reminded one of fabric of silk. Her breasts were small, yet very thrusted and showed somewhat underneath the smock. Her hips were broad, and her buttocks rounded and heavy. She was well stacked, and tempting to any man.
Suddenly a black car cruised up out front. Looking out the side window, Alice saw two men, wearing heavy gray slickers climb out and hurry towards the front door. Coming inside the men flung their coats open and rain splashed on the floor. Without pausing, they crossed over to the bar and took stools.
Alice stared into the pug-nosed, swarthy face of Thomas McShane.
McShane was short and stocky, but his companion was unusually huge and tall, perhaps, six four. While McShane pushed fifty, his partner looked to be thirty-five or more, yet both wore firm, hardened expressions, the strain of detection.
The detective showed no alarm when he saw Alice. She had told him the last time she had seen him where she was working, so his appearance was probably instinctively more than accidentally.
"How'dy, Alice," he said to her, smiling easily. He nodded at his companion. "This is Wayne....Duke Wayne."
"Hello McShane," she spoke. Then to the big cop. "Please to meet you, Mr. Wayne."
Wayne's fat face beamed with pride as he nodded curtly at her.
Alice pulled two glasses of water and placed them. "What you guys gonna have?" she asked.
"Duke wants a drink," said McShane, nodding at Wayne. "Thought I'd drop in on you for a chat. Here's your gal, Duke."
"You sure pick 'em pretty, Thomas," Wayne said, eyeing Alice's broad hips. "It sure gives me a pleasure to be off duty, so I can be my own judge 'bout livin'. A highball, sugar. Order what you want, pal. On me."
McShane refused a drink. He continued to sip the water as Alice turned to the bar and fixed the highball for Duke. When she handed Duke his drink, he caught her hand and held it. She didn't resist, but wished he'd stop it. A roused feeling in her stomach made her breathless, a Utile.
"What you doin' tonight, sugar?" Duke asked aggressively.
Alice smiled over at McShane, then rested her eyes on Duke's handsome features. She certainly didn't wish to discourage him. Not tonight, though. Perhaps some other time, when she could be sure Eddie wasn't going to be her man.
She looked past his broad shoulders towards the window at the rain, then back into his light-brown eyes.
"When it rains," she said teasingly, "I like to sleep."
Duke looked at McShane, and they deceived each other.
"So do I, sugar," Duke said. "Maybe we can join each other. Huh?"
"Maybe?" she giggled and turned over to McShane, who laughed outright at their sensual pryings.
"Hows Sophie, McShane?" she asked the detective.
"Right well, Alice," he said. "I told her we met last week or so. Wants you to stop by and see her. No need to stay away because her old man's a cop, is there?"
"You don't keep me away, honey."
"Maybe your boy friend does?" McShane asked more seriously.
She dropped her gaze, thoughtfully.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Name's Eddie LaRose, isn't it?" McShane pried.
She nodded suspiciously.
"He's the wrong type of person for you to be associating with, Alice," he advised her. "You know him?" she asked.
"Sure. Who doesn't here? Had over a dozen or more arrests."
"On what charges?" she inquired nervously.
"Various ones," he smiled. "Don't be frightened. Nothing like murder. Only gambling and a few petty jobs. Nothin' serious. Maybe he'll come out of it"
"Got anything on him now?" she asked.
"Nothing."
"Then he'll be all right," she imagined. "He's working. He's got a job, at night. We're engaged. See." She showed the white-diamond engagement ring to him. McShane took hold of her long-tapering fingers and looked at the diamond. Then he showed it over to Duke. They smiled back at Alice as if it was a joke of some kind.
In order to drop the subject McShane asked, "How's Frieta?"
Alice was still troubled at the detective's cautioning of her with Eddie, but she managed to force a smile. "She'll do," she said.
"Must be nearly nineteen, by now," he smiled.
"She's twenty-one," Alice informed him.
"Finished college this year?"
"She finished Junior College last year."
"What's she gonna do now?" he asked.
"What's left for her to do?" Alice said. "Wants to be a dancer, and she's taking lessons in singing from a guy named Charley Boyles. He stays up the street from us."
"Frieta always was quite a dancer, even when a tiny kid. Well, we'd better shake. Finished your drink, Duke?"
Duke nodded, dug into his coat pocket and extracted a dollar bill. He placed it on the counter and stood. "What time you get off, Sugar?" he asked, grinning.
"At six," she said, picking up the money.
"I'll drop by 'bout that time," he said.
"Do then. Nasty as this weather is, I sure could stand a lift home."
McShane looked into her eyes before he left the stool. "You're very pretty, Alice," he smiled. "Don't spoil your life. Marry some decent chap who you can depend upon."
Her suspense strangled her. She eyed the engagement ring and looked hard at McShane.
"What have you got against Eddie?" she asked. "What has he done so horrible? I don't care what he's done in the past, I'll stand by him. I'll give my life to help him, McShane. What's he done, so bad, so horrible, now?"
He looked back at the nervous look on her face, shook his head. "Nothing," he said. "Eddie's clean right now. He's nothing but a bum. What he'll do tomorrow? Who knows?"
Alice snarled, her temper had intensified. "All right ... all right, you just don't like the guy. Cops never like anybody, anyway. I've been down there. You ought to know that. Every soul, in your opinion, is dirty. Can't reform. Can't be good once dirt's been smeared on you. Well, as long as you don't have a damn thing on Eddie, I needn't worry. Why don't cops trust anybody, once they've been in a little trouble. Nobody's all clear, not even you flawless cops, I'd think. Well, I'm goin' to marry him, see. I'm so crazy about Eddie until I can't think about anybody else but him, right now."
McShane shrugged and left the stool. He flipped a half dollar tip to her on the counter and walked away. When he reached the door, before following Duke out, he turned and looked wearily disgusted back at her.
"Remember I warned you," he said. "I don't have pity for anybody that stubborn. I've only been studying criminals for thirty years. So long Alice."
She waved at him, and he went out the door.
After she had watched their car drive off, she covered her face, feeling depressed for several moments. She could not imagine Eddie as a thief, or robber, or murderer. He treated Frieta and her so kind and gentle. Above all else, he was so loving, so able and young to pleasure her into a contented ecstasy beyond all her dreams. She loved him more so for his sensual moments. Greatly!
Certainly no stupid cop could remind her to break her marriage engagement because of her lover's past morals. She had never found any fault in Eddie, and until she did, she would not suspect anything of him which would disrupt their love and their future plans to marry. Still the detective's words lingered on her mind, and was so annoying upon her conscience until she went back into the rest room and cried.