you’re not supposed to move them unnecessarily. It isn’t raining and it isn’t cold. Somebody’s coming for her.” I hesitated. “You wanted to know who she is. She’s the wife of a guy named Mark Steiner. I shoot targets with him occasionally. Don’t ask me what she’s doing here because I don’t know.” I gestured toward the borrowed robe. “You’d better get some clothes on before we have company.”
“Well, I’m not getting back into my lawyer suit; I just put that on to impress you. Get my suitcase out of the Mercedes, will you? The keys are in my purse, somewhere in that love nest of yours. . . .”
“You might have told me you wanted stuff from your car before I locked the gate.”
But it was a comfortable kind of bickering, and I realized that I liked having her around—and at least this one wasn’t likely to be turned off by my violent profession at this late date; she’d known me too long. While she was dressing in the house I covered Ruth Steiner with the blanket and, kneeling beside her, pulled back her eyelids the way I’d seen it done. Her pupils were the same size, which could indicate that her cranium wasn’t too badly damaged. Her left ear was split near the top, swollen and bloody, and the growing lump on the side of her head was already spectacular. Still kneeling beside her, I knew, by the change in her breathing, when she started to become aware of her surroundings.
I said, “It’s all right, Mrs. Steiner. Mark’s coming.”
She turned her head painfully to look at me. “What happened . . . ? Oh, take him away!” She was staring past me fearfully.
I said, “He’s a very gentle dog and he’s never bitten anybody in his life, but if he bothers you, I’ll put him inside. . . . Come on, Happy.”
I rose and went over to open the front door and let him in; when I returned, Ruth Steiner was sitting up, pressing both hands to the left side of her head.
“Gentle!” She was rocking back and forth with the pain, and her voice was angry. “Gentle? You should have seen him; he leaped right for my throat; if I hadn’t shoved my purse between his jaws, I’d be dead now!”
I laughed. “Lady, you had a pistol in one hand and an interesting object in the other, didn’t you? Happy thought you were going to fire the gun and toss something for him to fetch, just as I do when I’m training him. I use a blank pistol and a training dummy, but you can’t expect him to tell the difference. Well, you fired the gun, but you were a litde slow with the throw, so he got impatient and jumped for what you were teasing him with, he thought. He had no interest in your throat; all he wanted was your purse.” I looked down at her grimly. “And just for future reference, Mrs. Steiner, if you ever take another shot at my dog, hit or miss, I’ll use the other end of my shotgun on you.”
“Well, that figures!” she said sharply. “I can well believe you’d consider a dog more valuable than a human being, considering how you and your friends behave toward human beings!”
I looked at her for a moment. “What friends?”
“You know what friends! There’s one sitting up the street from our house right now, if he hasn’t followed me here. Oh, damn you, damn you, damn all of you, why can’t you leave us alone? Hounding us, hounding us, finally making us live in this ghastly desert where the wind never stops blowing and there’s always dust in your teeth. . . . Well, maybe we can go back to civilization now that you’ve found us again! Obviously we’re no safer from you hiding under a phony name in our miserable little development shack in this primitive mud-brick town."
I said, “You’ve lost me, Mrs. Steiner. I don’t know where you came from or why you had to leave there; and if any friends of mine are parked near your place here in Santa Fe, they haven’t told me about it.”
She laughed angrily and winced at the pain in her head. “That’s what you would say, isn’t
“Well, I’m not getting back into my lawyer suit; I just put that on to impress you. Get my suitcase out of the Mercedes, will you? The keys are in my purse, somewhere in that love nest of yours. . . .”
“You might have told me you wanted stuff from your car before I locked the gate.”
But it was a comfortable kind of bickering, and I realized that I liked having her around—and at least this one wasn’t likely to be turned off by my violent profession at this late date; she’d known me too long. While she was dressing in the house I covered Ruth Steiner with the blanket and, kneeling beside her, pulled back her eyelids the way I’d seen it done. Her pupils were the same size, which could indicate that her cranium wasn’t too badly damaged. Her left ear was split near the top, swollen and bloody, and the growing lump on the side of her head was already spectacular. Still kneeling beside her, I knew, by the change in her breathing, when she started to become aware of her surroundings.
I said, “It’s all right, Mrs. Steiner. Mark’s coming.”
She turned her head painfully to look at me. “What happened . . . ? Oh, take him away!” She was staring past me fearfully.
I said, “He’s a very gentle dog and he’s never bitten anybody in his life, but if he bothers you, I’ll put him inside. . . . Come on, Happy.”
I rose and went over to open the front door and let him in; when I returned, Ruth Steiner was sitting up, pressing both hands to the left side of her head.
“Gentle!” She was rocking back and forth with the pain, and her voice was angry. “Gentle? You should have seen him; he leaped right for my throat; if I hadn’t shoved my purse between his jaws, I’d be dead now!”
I laughed. “Lady, you had a pistol in one hand and an interesting object in the other, didn’t you? Happy thought you were going to fire the gun and toss something for him to fetch, just as I do when I’m training him. I use a blank pistol and a training dummy, but you can’t expect him to tell the difference. Well, you fired the gun, but you were a litde slow with the throw, so he got impatient and jumped for what you were teasing him with, he thought. He had no interest in your throat; all he wanted was your purse.” I looked down at her grimly. “And just for future reference, Mrs. Steiner, if you ever take another shot at my dog, hit or miss, I’ll use the other end of my shotgun on you.”
“Well, that figures!” she said sharply. “I can well believe you’d consider a dog more valuable than a human being, considering how you and your friends behave toward human beings!”
I looked at her for a moment. “What friends?”
“You know what friends! There’s one sitting up the street from our house right now, if he hasn’t followed me here. Oh, damn you, damn you, damn all of you, why can’t you leave us alone? Hounding us, hounding us, finally making us live in this ghastly desert where the wind never stops blowing and there’s always dust in your teeth. . . . Well, maybe we can go back to civilization now that you’ve found us again! Obviously we’re no safer from you hiding under a phony name in our miserable little development shack in this primitive mud-brick town."
I said, “You’ve lost me, Mrs. Steiner. I don’t know where you came from or why you had to leave there; and if any friends of mine are parked near your place here in Santa Fe, they haven’t told me about it.”
She laughed angrily and winced at the pain in her head. “That’s what you would say, isn’t
Similar Books
