“You really want to get linked up with this heel?”
“He is rather nice. You don’t know him as well as I do.”
Ackie looked at me over his shoulder. “You’ve done a nice job grabbin’ yourself this one,” he said. “Why, sure, if I can help you, just count on me.”
I fetched a bottle of Scotch and we two had a couple of quick ones. I said to Mardi, “Honey, while I talk with Mo, would you like to put my things together?”
I showed her where my grips were and left her sorting out my clothes. I got Ackie in a huddle. I told him the whole story, and he just sat there drinking it in along with my Scotch. When I had finished he heaved a sigh. “That’s a swell story,” he said. “Maybe when you’ve been bumped off I can print it.”
A nice comforting sort of a guy to have around.
“There ain’t goin’ to be any bumpin’,” I said sharply. “I’m goin’ to get under cover and I’m goin’ to stay that way for a little while. Kennedy’s let me have his lodge. We plan to get married right away and then move on over there.”
Ackie scratched his head. “It beats me how you do it. How you get a swell jane like that to have anythin’ to do with you beats me. You certainly know how to look after yourself.”
I gave him some money. “Go along an’ see how quickly you can fix things. We’ll go over to the Belmont Hotel until everything’s fixed. I ain’t too keen to be hanging around here. You get goin’ and then come on over to the hotel.”
I gave him another drink and he went in to say ‘good-bye’ to Mardi. Ackie was an all-right guy, and I could see he was pleased that I’d got Mardi. It was just his way of putting things.