Didn’t I tell you this guy smothered me? I sat up sharply. “You be careful what you’re saying,” I said, “I might take you seriously.”
He smiled a little. “I reckon it would be a bit heavy for you to carry, anyway,” he said. “There’s a hell of a lot of upkeep that goes with it. But this I will promise you. When you get married, you can use this place as often as you like. I’m getting out pretty soon. I want to go to China. Maybe I’ll be away a number of years. So when you’re fixed up, let me know.”
I said it was mighty white of him and we let the matter drop. All the same, I kept thinking of Mardi, and I kept thinking what a surprise it would be for her to come here for our honeymoon. I kept thinking about it until I got restless. I told myself that I’d been there too long. My eye and nose were back to normal and I was anxious to get away.
The following morning I broke the news to him. He just grinned. “I believe you’ve got a girl, after all,” he said.
I nodded. “You’re right. It’s just a matter of fixing things up.” Although I spoke like that, I was wondering how long it would take to get Mardi on the dotted line. Maybe I would come unstuck. Anyway, it was worth a try.
I got back to town the next afternoon. And I rang up the Mackenzie Fabrics right away. “I want to speak to Miss Mardi Jackson,” I said to the operator.
“Hold on a minute,” she snapped. I heard a faint plopping as she jerked out the plug and connected it somewhere else. Then she came back over the line again. “Miss Jackson no longer works here,” she said, and cut off.
I put the telephone down very thoughtfully. So Mardi wasn’t working any more for the Mackenzie Fabrics. Why? Had she walked out on them, or had they given her the bird? How long had she been gone? I suddenly felt annoyed with myself for staying with Kennedy so long. If I’d ’phoned her on the day Ackie took me out, I might have caught her.
Now where was I going to find her? I hopefully checked the telephone-book, but she wasn’t in that. Maybe she stayed with her people or in a boarding-house. There were about a thousand Jacksons to choose from.
I suddenly remembered that on the day we had first met, Katz had seen us together. Did that mean anything? Had Katz scrammed back to Spencer and told him that I had contacted her? Was that why she no longer worked there? I remembered Ackie saying that Katz was as dangerous as a rattlesnake, and I began to get a little hot and bothered. Did Mardi know anything? Had they got her out of the way? It was no use sitting around asking myself dumb questions. I’d got to find out.