“Say that again?”
“You heard me. At a motel in Bogalusa. That
broad is one great piece of ass.”
My fist caught him squarely on the mouth and knocked him to the floor, his head bouncing off the rim of the urinal. He stared up at me, his wrist running with blood when he pressed it against his bottom lip.
I washed my hands in the lavatory and went outside, almost colliding with Siegel and his girlfriend. They stepped back, smiling, amused rather than polite. “Blow your horn so we’ll know you’re coming,” Siegel said.
“You’re Mr. Siegel, aren’t you?” I said.
“I was when I got out of bed this morning.”
“My name is Weldon Avery Holland. I just knocked a man down in the restroom. He called y’all riffraff. That’s not why I knocked him down, but I thought you should know.”
“You’re kidding me, right?” Siegel said.
“I think he’s looking for his tooth in the urinal. He said you use the unions to extort the studios in Hollywood.”
“You get off a spaceship?”
“Check it out,” I said.
Siegel pushed open the restroom door and looked inside. He let the door swing back in place. “Who’s the guy?” he asked.
“His name is Jack Valentine. He’s with Castle Productions. He says you live next door to Jack Warner but Warner hates your guts.”
“Do you believe this guy?” Siegel said to his girlfriend.
“He’s just having fun. Keep it in your pants, Benny,” she said.
“That’s what you’re doing. Playing a joke?” Siegel said.
“Not me. Not with you. I know better.”
“Yeah?” His eyes were a piercing blue and reminded me in their intensity of the warning light I used to see in Grandfather’s. “Have a drink with us.”
“My wife is waiting on me.”
“Go get her,” he said.
“Can’t do it.”
“No, you need to sit down and have a drink.”
I shook my head.
“Virginia says I’m full of shit,” he said. “Is that what you’re saying? I’m full of shit?”
“It’s an honor to meet both of you,” I said. “Miss Virginia, you have the same shade of hair as Bonnie Parker.”
Her mouth opened. “That hag who smoked cigars?”
“She wasn’t like that. I knew her. She was my first love. I was sixteen. I put a .44 round through the back window of her automobile. Clyde Barrow was driving.”
“I’ve got to get to know this guy,” Siegel said. “Go find your wife. We’ll get us a table.”
“What I told you about the fellow in yonder is straight up. He did a serious wrong to a friend of mine. That’s why I knocked his tooth out. I hope y’all enjoy your stay in Houston. I’m sure I’ll see you on another occasion.”