The Mike Hammer Collection - Mickey Spillane [67]
She let her coffee go on the other side of the door and I didn’t give a damn because anybody that careless with a shotgun or any other kind of a gun needs it like that to make them remember. I wiped the barrels clean, reloaded the gun and put it down in place, butt first.
When I came out Laura said, “Man, are you mean.”
“It’s not a new saying.” I still wasn’t over my mad.
Her smile was a little cockeyed, but a smile nevertheless. “Mike—I understand. Please?”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Then you watch it. I play guns too much. It’s my business. I hate to see them abused.”
“Please, Mike?”
“Okay. I made my point.”
“Nobly, to say the least. I usually have a strong stomach.”
“Go have some coffee.”
“Oh, Mike.”
“So take a swim,” I told her and grinned. It was the way I felt and the grin was the best I could do. She took a run and a dive and hit the water, came up stroking for the other side, then draped her arms on the edge of the drain and waited for me.
I went in slowly, walking up to the edge, then I dove in and stayed on the bottom until I got to the other side. The water made her legs fuzzy, distorting them to Amazonian proportions, enlarging the cleft and swells and declivities of her belly, then I came up to where all was real and shoved myself onto the concrete surface and reached down for Laura.
She said, “Better?” when I pulled her to the top.
I was looking past her absently. “Yes. I just remembered something.”
“Not about the gun, Mike.”
“No, not about the gun.”
“Should I know?”
“It doesn’t matter. I don’t really know myself yet. It’s just a point.”
“Your eyes look terribly funny.”
“I know.”
“Mike—”
“What?”
“Can I help?”
“No.”
“You’re going to leave me now, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Will you come back?”
I couldn’t answer her.
“It’s between the two of us, isn’t it?”
“The girl hunters are out,” I said.
“But will you come back?”
My mind was far away, exploring the missing point. “Yes,” I said, “I have to come back.”
“You loved her.”
“I did.”
“Do you love me at all?”
I turned around and looked at this woman. She was mine now, beautiful, wise, the way a woman should be formed for a man like I was, lovely, always naked in my sight, always incredibly blond and incredibly tanned, the difference in color—or was it comparison—a shocking, sensual thing. I said, “I love you, Laura. Can I be mistaken?”
She said, “No, you can’t be mistaken.”
“I have to find her first. She’s being hunted. Everybody is hunting her. I loved her a long time ago so I owe her that much. She asked for me.”
“Find her, Mike.”
I nodded. I had the other key now. “I’ll find her. She’s the most important thing in this old world today. What she knows will decide the fate of nations. Yes, I’ll find her.”
“Then will you come back?”
“Then I’ll come back,” I said.
Her arms reached out and encircled me, her hands holding my head, her fingers tight in my hair. I could feel every inch of her body pressed hard against mine, forcing itself to meet me, refusing to give at all.
“I’m going to fight her for you,” she said.
“Why?”
“Because you’re mine now.”
“Girl,” I said, “I’m no damn good to anybody. Look good and you’ll see a corn ear husked, you know?”
“I know. So I eat husks.”
“Damn it, don’t fool around!”
“Mike!”
“Laura—”
“You say it nice, Mike—but there’s something in your voice that’s terrible and I can sense it. If you find her, what will you do?”
“I can’t tell.”
“Will you still come back?”
“Damn it, I don’t know.”
“Why don’t you know, Mike?”
I looked down at her. “Because I don’t know what I’m really like anymore. Look—do you know what I was? Do you know that a judge and jury took me down and the whole world once ripped me to little bits? It was only Velda who stayed with me then.”
“That was then. How long ago was it?”
“Nine years maybe.”
“Were you married?”
“No.”
“Then I can claim part of you. I’ve had part of you.” She let go of me and stood back, her eyes calm as they looked into mine.