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Show page 159 "You haven't told me, yet," Rathburn said. "Don't you get it? I called the busdriver from a booth after watching Louder go upstairs. I told the driver that Louder had been with his wife three nights running, that he could catch 'em together if he hurried. He had to get another driver to take his run, I suppose." "I suppose he did," Rathburn agreed. "I'd planned it two years," Pruitt said. "Judy liked every detail of it. Louder was getting too careless with other women." "It's a common mistake," Rathburn said. "It benefitted you. It got you a vrife, a farm, a home, two social clubs, and a slice of our distribution." "I think the commissioner staged all that publicity for Judy. You ever get a feeling you're being used?" "Nobody around here will use you anymore," Rathburn said. He stood, brushed at his trousers, prepared to leave. "All the help gone? I didn't realize it was so late. How 'bout running me out to the airport?" "Sure thing," said Pruitt. "Now about the booze, how much can you boys in Washington let me have?" "You're going to get everything you need," Rathburn said. "We look after our people." In Pruitt's Cadillac they cut through the city to the airport boulevard. Near the Hollywood Inn, about two hundred yards from the airport entrance, Rathburn said, "Hold it a minute, Charlie. I dropped my cigarette lighter overboard." Pruitt reversed the oa^r to the side of the road. Rathburn |
