“What about other times?”
“Boy,” she said, “you and Perkins are just the same. What’s going on, anyway? What are you?”
That stumped me for a moment.
“What sign are you?” she said.
“Oh. Aquarius.”
She seemed puzzled by that. “You don’t give Aquarius vibes,” she said. “You must have something in your moon like Gemini.”
“Maybe.”
“One thing I feel very bad about,” she said, “is that I didn’t tell him about the drugs.”
“Who?”
“Perkins. I didn’t tell him about the opium.”
Now, I can’t explain what that wordopiumdid to me. For once, I was going to be one up on Harlow Perkins, and it gave me the best feeling in the world. I was suddenly wide awake and full of energy for the first time all day. For the first time in a couple of days.
“I don’t blame you,” I said.
“Well, I don’t want to get anybody into trouble,” she said. “Look, you know and I know that Al deals. He can always get stuff. He’s been getting Mr. Mann his coke for weeks now.”
“Uh-huh.”
“So naturally he went to Al for the opium.”
“Absolutely.”
“And it was hard to get too. There’s not a lot of opium around in September.” She frowned. “I don’t know why that man didn’t take care of it himself.”
“Who?”
“McDougall. If he was so fond of pipes, why didn’t he arrange his own supply?”
“Beats me.”
She finished her wine and pushed off from the bar. “Well,” she said, “I better go see if Al is asleep. Maybe I can give him a back rub if he’s still awake.”
“That’s a good idea.”
“You think it was wrong not to tell Perkins?”
“No,” I said. “You did the right thing.”
She seemed pleased to hear that. “Good night,” she said.
“Good night.”
I must have stayed in the bar another twenty minutes, sorting things out. The real question was whether I would say anything to Perkins. I finally decided that Ihadto, but it was something that could wait until the morning.
I paid Ben, wished him a good evening, and went off to bed.
* * *
Now here’s something I never mentioned to anybody. About an hour later, just as I was falling asleep, I heard a quiet knocking at my door. Just a soft little femininetap-tap-tap. I listened, and after a moment it came again:tap-tap-tap. I hesitated, wondering who it was.
