Shoot the Moon

Chapter Twenty-Four - The Cosmo Girl Gone Bad

When the phone rang it was still pitch dark. I managed to pick up the guest room extension before it rang again.

"So what's happening, doctor?" Mickey was happy.

"Where are you, Mickey?"

"Out here in the Naked City. Let's leave it at that. Never know who's listening."

"You read too many comic books, Mickey."

"You contact my friends?"

"That's right. They miss you. Want to go see them?"

"I pass, doctor."

"Thought you would. I saw Charley Royce at your former place of business. He came out with money to go on a binge."

"Don't worry about it. Charley can't help them."

"You'd better be careful, Mickey. Buddy Cruz wants his business back. He's in a hurry."

"He has an audit from the front office to deal with."

"He wants his dog, too."

"How's the dog doing by the way?"

"I'm supposed to call the vet tomorrow."

"Okay. Leech has the stuff. You understand?" Leech at the Kiwi II. "Leech starts his shift at six o'clock. He's expecting you. Arrange to give it to them tomorrow."

"And everything will be swell, right?" I said, heart sinking all the way.

"Well, I hope so. Never can tell, can you?" Mickey said cheerfully. Then he hung up.

Four hours later Echo prepared to rejoin her company in Ithaca. True to my word, I kept her informed as we took her bags down to the limo.

"You'd better make copies of these books, Jack, and leave me word where it is. If they kill you, I'll fix their ass."

"What's this, The Revenger's Tragedy?"

"I just don't want them to get away with anything."

"Echo, these people are dangerous. I want to be sure that you're - ."

"Think I'm afraid?"

"Ah...no."

"So don't be silly. Tell me it's not a good idea to take out insurance. You're certainly not putting your trust in them are you?"

"No."

"And I might need a little insurance myself, don't you think?"

"You know, your legs are so good, I forget you have first class brains."

"Just makes sense. No need to mix sentiment up in it."

"Right."

She suddenly hugged me so hard my back cracked and for a second our bodies were thrumming with something a lot more powerful than sentiment. Then she got into the car and went to the airport.

*****

The "books" Leech gave me were six portable hard drives in a big brown padded envelope. All I had to do was turn them over to Cruz and my part would be done.

Isn't it pretty to think so? as Ernest Hemingway says. There would be the police to deal with. I doubted that TJ would accept nothing but my best wishes. And I doubted that Cruz was the let-bygones-be-bygones type he pretended to be. I thought I better stop following Mickey's lead on this deal and start up a few angles of my own. I left the Kiwi II with the envelope under my arm and went around to Hinchman's apartment on Ninth Street.