The counterman's hawking laugh filled the room. "Let him wait, Mandy. I might as well wait to later to sweep it in."
Her face caught fire for an instant. "The Board of Health don't go away just because you can read their dirty minds."
"So take him out," the counterman snarled.
Malloy suddenly decided he had played hard to get long enough. This was his first chance to get in with the Jockeys. From what he had heard, they had some kind of underground set-up to help their own in business and the arts. He needed that help.
"Let's lope," he said, pushing his chair back and leaving silver on the table for the drink and a tip.
He touched the girl's lacquered arm and steered her toward the door.
Behind him, the floor fell in.
Ripping, tearing, rendering, splintering, crashing, crushing, reverberating bedlam!
Of course, it couldn't have been the floor caving in, Malloy thought as he turned to see a great hole where the floor had disappeared.
The hole was where the table and chair he had been using had stood a moment before.