Chapter 8
A COUPLE of days later, Cy Scott formally filed his candidacy. As he stepped from the courthouse, he found himself confronted by a slinky blonde. She was wearing green eye-shadow and long green fingernails.
"Why, it's Cy Scott, the man who's running for sheriff," she bubbled giving him the benefit of fluttery eyelids. "I've heard so much about you-but I'll bet you don't know me from Adam."
"I'm afraid you're right," Cy confessed, hating the apology in his voice. "Should I?"
The girl backed away a bit, hands on hips, so that he could get a look at her. Her legs were long and shapely. Her complexion reminded Cy of strawberries and cream. She was squeezed into a tight skirt and a skimpy blouse.
"I'm Kitty Manning-Fleur's sister." She compressed her features into a knot and playfully pinched Cy on his rear end. "I know you like Fleur a lot. But after all, she's older than you are. Much older. Bet you'd rather have a less mature girl, wouldn't you, Cy? A girl my age?"
"Hardly," he said, resisting an impulse to turn her over and paddle her. "You're much too young."
She lifted bold eyes to his. "Am I, now? Too young for what?"
Her mouth was caked with pale lipstick and she held it half open, as if deliberately trying to appear sexy; it was as round as a golf ball. Her face seemed not much bigger than his fist, for the tremendous balloon of her platinum hair, worn according to the latest teen style, dwarfed her countenance.
"Oh, oh-here comes Fleur," the teen-ager said. "She'll skin me alive."
Cy, intrigued now, said, "Fleur has practically promised you to me. She and I are only good friends, and she wouldn't be jealous or anything-so why would she skin you alive?"
"On general principles, silly. She just doesn't like the way I behave-and particularly with men."
Just the same, when the older woman approached, she was smiling. "Well, I see you two have met. Isn't Kitty a doll, Cy?"
"She sure is."
Fleur grinned. "You aren't busy now, are you?"
"I'm as free as a bird, Fleur. Your boss heard the news?"
There was a moment of difficult silence. Grinning expectantly, Kitty glanced from Cy to her sister.
"Yes, he's heard," Fleur said finally. "And he doesn't like it. Going to shut us down, Cy?"
"If Corey doesn't keep his nose clean, I will," Cy threatened. "Think I'll win this election?"
"You couldn't lose," cooed Kitty, poking a lithe, assertive breast into Cy's arm. "I wish I were old enough to vote."
"Cy, would you do something for me? Kitty has to get back to the house and since I can't leave town yet, she's stuck for a ride. Give her a lift home, will you? You'd be doing me a favor."
"Yourself, too, Cy," said Kitty brazenly.
He pointed to his car, half a block away. "Go get in, Kitty. I want to talk politics with Fleur."
With an arch look, Kitty turned and walked away, her lavishly curved derriere swinging prettily.
"Whooie," Cy breathed as he turned to Fleur. "This whole deal, from start to finish, has the ring of a lead nickel."
"What? I don't follow you, boy."
He fixed his gray eyes on her. "You told me that Kitty is a juicy catch. But look at her. With that hairdo and that gunky crap on her mouth-why, she's a freak. A cute one, and too sexy a little bitch for a man to look away-but a freak just the same."
"Oh, Cy, you're so right," Fleur agreed unhappily.
"Besides that," Cy complained, "she pours out hints that aren't hints at all, but promises. Kitty talks like an undereducated streetwalker."
Fleur sighed and turned away. "I know, Cy. I love my sister very much, but...." She shrugged. "Let's face it. Kitty is a spoiled, scheming brat. I had hoped that you would see her at home, without all that war paint on. Unless I'm wrong, Kitty represents just about everything in a girl that you don't like."
"That's putting it mildly," Cy said crisply. "All right, then. Why were you so anxious for me to meet her? Why are you pushing her on me now?"
"I've been hoping," Fleur said in a dull voice, "that you would take a tumble. I thought that maybe you would be a good influence on her, straighten her out A real man can do wonders for a girl."
"I see. Well, maybe I can do something." Cy added mildly, "By the way, forgive me for not seeing you last Sunday. I-I was tied up."
"Oh, that's all right. I was planning to take you home to meet the problem child, though. Getting you two together has been on my mind-"
"Is that why you sent her to waylay me at the courthouse?"
Fleur was so astonished by this that her rosy mouth fell open. Then a flush of anger rose to her cheeks. "Waylay you? What are you driving at? I didn't even know you were in town!"
"Well, Kitty did. She was standing at the steps, watching for me. I don't get it. I still say something is as phony as a lead nickel." He tried to keep suspicion of Fleur out of his thoughts and his expression. But after all, she did own a piece of the club. Maybe she was not so anxious to see an honest sheriff elected.
Fleur was controlling her temper with difficulty. "Cy, we're not strangers. You don't think I-" She stopped, drew a fresh breath. "Come out with it What's on your mind?"
"Jake is planning to put an extra spoke in my wheel. The tip is that he might be using a girl."
"Who told you that?" demanded Fleur skeptically.
"Davis Wilde, that's who. He's a deputy. He comes by all sorts of information."
"Davis?"
Fleur's countenance changed. She seemed to forget her anger, and a soft look came into her eyes.
"Davis is an old admirer of mine," she confided. "He's a wonderful fellow. If it hadn't been that I was carrying the torch for you, Cy-"
"Let's not get off the subject." Cy watched her closely. "Has Jonas spoken to Corey about me?"
"I don't know. They met at Les's camp. Jake stays away from the club. Why?" Before Cy could reply, she jumped as though she had been shot. "Oh, no!" Then she blurted, "I've just remembered something."
"It's about time. Are you for me or against me?" Cy gripped her arm. "What's the scoop?"
"Les Corey rolled out the welcome mat for Kitty last night. She spent hours in his room."
"Did Les deflower her?" Cy asked.
Fleur smiled wanly. "I doubt that. She gave it up a long time ago." She considered for a moment. "I hadn't thought about it happening up there, but now that you mention it, it might have. She was so bubbly and high when we left that I felt like smacking her bottom."
Cy nodded. "On the ride home, did she mention me?"
Fleur looked a little startled. "That's what I'm trying to tell you. She asked a hundred questions about you. Cy, is it possible? Surely, you don't think that Les...."
"I'm trying to think of everything," Cy said. "Les Corey knows that cute chicks are my weakness."
Fleur touched his shoulder. "Cy, don't let that little bitch get you into trouble. I was a fool to think that you could learn to love her."
"Love her!" Cy shivered, then laughed tensely. "We'd be as compatible as water and gasoline."
"I know. It was one chance in a million, anyway. But you won't marry me, so I was dreaming that maybe you would marry her. You're the one man who could control her, give her a good life-"
"Especially since I happen to be fairly wealthy," Cy commented wryly. He stared closely at Fleur. Could she be play-acting? Was she in on this plot-and, now that he had caught on to it, was she trying falsely to convince him that she was not a part of it. After all, Kitty was her sister. Who more than Fleur would have the influence to put the kid on his trail?
"The more I think about it, the more worried I get," Fleur said, as if aware of his doubts and trying to slake them. "I wouldn't put it past Kitty to get you into trouble-some compromising situation, maybe a phony assault or rape charge, or something. Cy, watch your step!"
"Do you think that Kitty is that bad?"
"Money is Kitty's god," Fleur said. "Maybe Les offered her money-or Jake did." She gave him a trembly smile. "It's a good thing Davis Wilde is on your side. You know, he's the kind who would make a wonderful husband. Maybe he's the one on whom I should have turned Kitty loose."
Cy's face was grave. "Fleur-Davis is a great fellow. I've known him a long time. He'd be good for any girl."
Fleur's smile tried to widen, but broke and disappeared. "Tell Davis I've been asking about him, will you? I've been thinking a lot about him lately."
"I'll do that, Fleur. It's a promise."
"And, Cy, be careful. Please don't take my feelings into account. Protect yourself from Kitty any way you have to."
As soon as Cy reached the car, Kitty started jabbering. "Well, Mr. Sheriff, it took you long enough. I'm sure that you weren't discussing politics all that while. I may be young, but I'm not innocent."
"When I was nineteen," Cy said, "I thought that I was the smartest guy around. It's a disease of youth."
Kitty's eyes grew hot and she promptly lost some of her spurious poise. "Says you, big boy."
"That crack would have been appropriate thirty years ago," Cy remarked. "However, it's better than all this modern hip talk."
"What's wrong with being hip?" Kitty was growing hotter by the minute.
"Nothing. The stuff is fine for adolescents. It's the next step up from baby-talk."
Kitty decided that he was pulling her leg, cheerfully abandoned the debate and relapsed into her pose.
"Come off it, Mr. Sheriff. I don't want to go home yet. Let's travel!"
"Where to?" Cy asked. "And for what?"
"For three martinis, of course."
"Sounds good. Shall we try the club?"
"Ixnay. Too ickie. I want kookie."
"How about that place over near the airport. The one where the kids go?"
"Man, that's the greatest. Those rainbow lights send me. What's starving your horses?"
Cy kicked his car into action. By the time they reached the neon-dripping shack, full night had fallen and the garish display of electric color made a great gash in the darkness. If and when he won the impending election, Cy mused, he would look into the tavern's affairs. It was well-known that the proprietor sold liquor to teens.
No matter what the reputation of the place, its martinis were excellent. While lapping them up, Cy did some serious thinking. He decided to go along with Kitty as far as she wanted to go. His best procedure, he figured would be to give her enough rope to hang herself. He could not get over the conviction that she was the bait in some kind of trap-Corey's trap, or maybe Corey's and Fleur's. And Cy decided further that since it was a game anyhow, he might as well enjoy it to the fullest.
Accordingly, he ordered U. S. Prime and salad for himself, but the girl refused to eat. She began to bubble and effervesce with such vivacity that even the hard-faced bartender was forced to raise an eyebrow.
"Gotta see a man about a dog," Cy said, standing up and heading for the men's room. Kitty giggled and flounced along behind him, arching the muzzles of her impertinent breasts. "I've got a date with John. When I come out, I'll be a big girl."
"I'll check into that," Cy replied.
"Is that a promise?"
"If you want it to be."
The car moved down the crooked, tree-shrouded road and Kitty found her voice. "I'm having a ball. Those drinks got to me." She slid closer to him on the seat. "You promised I could show you what a big girl I am."
"How can you do that? You're still a kid, really. Cute-but a kid."
"Oh, you think so, do you? Just find us a hole in these woods."
A mile later, a dirt side road led them to a woodsy bower among the slash pines. Cy parked the car, killed the motor and turned to meet a woman whose lips were fire. Kitty twisted and writhed, her mouth trying to suck Cy's breath from his lungs.
It could not be an act, Cy told himself. Kitty was too vibrantly lustful, too bursting with need, to be pretending.
She proved shortly thereafter that she was no virgin, but it was clear that her experience had been solely with lads of her own age. When Cy carried her along that star-spangled path to the heights, she sobbed fitfully.
Later they drove slowly toward the Manning house. Kitty was balled up on the seat, her head in Cy's lap.
"We're there," he said lightly.
"I want to stay with you," Kitty said with the stubbornness of a woman who has just been loved to her absolute limit. "I don't want to go in."
"I'm afraid you'll have to," Cy said gently.
At the gate, her eyes were large and soft and lips trembling. "When will I see you again, Cy?"
"Hard to say. I've got to get my campaign rolling. I'll give you a call as soon as I'm free."
Her eyes hardened. "That sounds like a brush-off."
"Corey will help you to wile away the time." Kitty went pale and stumbled back a step. "Get out of here," she flared. "Get out, you crum!"