Chapter TWELVE
THERE was no sign of Myra when I got to Manetta’s, so I went into the bar.
“I’ll have a mint-julep,” I said to the barman. “And listen, I belong to the crushing school. Don’t just soak the mint leaves, crush ’em. Do you get it?”
“We always crush them here, sir,” the barrnan said, smiling, “and we wipe the rim of the glass with mint as well.”
“That’s fine,” I said, “I don’t have to tell you anything, but there are guys who soak their mint.”
“They’re just ignorant, sir,” he returned and went to the end of the bar to fix my drink. I lit a cigarette and thought about Peppi. I just couldn’t make out why he had offered me a job. Knowing Peppi I guessed there was something behind. It all and I wouldn’t mind laying a bet that he knew Kelly and that Kelly had been to see him.
While l was thinking, a girl came in. A girl in a flame coloured silk dress that reached an inch below her knees. Across her shoulders she wore a white silk scarf-handkerchief with large red spots and her cute little hat of red and white felt was perched on the side of her head in a saucy tilt.
It was Myra.
And yet, somehow, I didn’t recognize her for a moment. There was something in the way she moved and an unfamiliar expression in her eyes that made her almost a stranger to me.
As soon as she saw me she waved, smiled and came over.