Peggy giggled.
‘I’ve got a hundred dollars in my bag for you, Adam, darling. If you go I shan’t give it to you.’
Gillis was already walking stiff-legged down the long aisle to the exit. Sweat beaded his face as he saw people staring at him.
Peggy picked up a spoon and began to hammer with it on the table, chanting drunkenly, ‘Gigolo!
Gigolo! Dirty little gigolo!’
Gillis went hurriedly into the men’s toilet. He was so furious he could have gone back and murdered the bitch. He ran cold water into the basin and plunged his face in it.
That was the finish of him in the club. He couldn’t come here again, he told himself, as he groped for a towel. Damn her! He might have known the vulgar little fool couldn’t have held her liquor. He was crazy to have thought he could have persuaded her to go back to his room, after what had happened the first time. Then she had smashed a window, scratched his face and nearly wrecked the room. It was a wonder the police hadn’t turned up. He had thought if he could get her tight she might be more amenable. Instead, he had let himself in for this scene. To look at her you’d have thought she was an absolute pushover. He stood staring at his reflection in the mirror, while he called her every name he could think of.
Well, he wasn’t going to leave by the front entrance. She might be there to start another scene. He’d go by the back exit.
Pushing open the door on his left, he stepped into the passage that led to Rico’s office, the changing rooms and the back exit. He hadn’t taken more than a dozen steps when he came to an abrupt standstill.
Someone was talking in Rico’s office. He recognised Baird’s soft tones. He moved forward silently, opened the door next to Rico’s office and slipped into a smal , dark room used by waiters for changing into their outdoor clothes. The room smelt of damp wool and unwashed bodies, but Gillis was far too intent to notice. He put his ear against the wall and listened. He heard Baird say, ‘You can come to Red River Basin. That’s where I’m going. Have you forgot en? There’s half a mil ion or more to be picked up there, and it’s where Olin can’t get at us. What do you care about this lousy club if you can get your hands on money like that?’