Mean Woman Blues

look.”
    “Very hip. Come on out where I can see you.” She led him into the guest room proper, lounged on the bed, and gave him the onceover. “Too bad there’s no time to grow a goatee or something.”
    He shrugged. “I’ll be okay with shades and a cap. I need clothes.”
    She nodded, licking her lips. Good. Maybe an excuse to get the gun. Todd’s clothes wouldn’t fit him, but she didn’t have to mention that.
    “And money,” he said.
    “Oh?”
    There it was. Finally on the table. “Look, I’ve got plenty under another name. But I can’t go in the bank. I mean I did, and someone recognized me; so I split and came here.”
    “I don’t believe you.”
    “For Christ’s sake, Rosemarie, give me the phone and the number of your bank account. I’ll have it transferred right now. I need cash; Mr. Right’s dead. I’ve got to get the hell out of here or I am too.”
    “What about Karen?”
    “Karen.” He stood stock-still, as if he hadn’t even thought of her. Finally, he said, “Don’t you get it Rosemarie? I’m Number Two on the FBI’S Most Wanted list. I’ve got to get out of the country. Today.”
    “That’s all Karen means to you? What about if it were us?” She stretched back on the pillows. He sat down on the bed and caressed her cheek. She curled her body close to him.
    “Come with me,” he said.
    “Where?”
    “Wherever you like. I have passports to burn— that’s one little precaution I took. What I don’t have is cash.”
    “Neither do I.” She snuggled closer.
    He swung a leg over, straddling her, and pinned her shoulders. “Goddammit, find some,” he shouted.
    Almost instantly, Rosemarie heard running. Todd. He must have heard the shout. Damn. He didn’t know where the gun was and wouldn’t think to bring it if he did. He was bigger than most men in Texas; he didn’t think in terms of guns.
    Earl rolled off Rosemarie, grabbed for his briefcase, un-snapped the outer pocket and extracted his own gun. She tried to stand, but he grabbed her arm. When Todd came into the room, at a dead trot, Earl was holding Rosemarie’s elbow with one hand and the gun with the other, pointing at the door. “Whoa, boy. Slow down,” he said.
    That was the last thing Todd was about to do. Poor Earl didn’t know him at all. One reason she’d picked him was that he was part bodyguard. He was about six-five, had shoulders like a table, and the long hair of a blue-collar worker. Earl rolled off the bed; Todd crashed onto it.
    Earl rocked back, training the gun on the big man. “Take it easy, now. Let’s all just catch our breath here.”
    Todd said, “What the hell is going on here?” He pronounced it “hay-ull.” “You okay, darlin’?”
    Rosemarie stood up and smoothed down her flowered capris. “He didn’t rape me, if that’s what you mean.”
    She realized Todd didn’t recognize him. Maybe the shaved head worked better than she thought.
    Earl was swiveling his head, looking at Rosemarie, then Todd, then back again. She could tell he was getting furious, the way he always had when he didn’t get his way. “
Rosemarie, you whore!
” he shouted.
    Okay, it was now or never. She looked at Todd, caught his eye, and inclined her chin very, very slightly, giving the go-ahead sign. Todd turned to Earl, but he wasn’t quick enough. As if in a dream, she saw her ex-husband steadying his weapon. Todd leapt on him. Earl fired.
    Todd fell backward, blood spurting. Rosemarie screamed.
    Earl fired again and then he seized her and pounded her face with the butt of the gun.
    She screamed again, knowing it was over, the game she was playing, unable to feel a thing for Todd, even to worry about her face; just terrified, knowing Earl was going to kill her. But he pulled back before be hurt her too badly. Why, she didn’t know. Maybe he needed her for something. With Earl, it was always that. She had to convince him she was his devoted slave in about a millisecond. But she knew he’d seen her signal Todd.
    “You killed him,” she said, putting all the shock she could muster into her voice.
    “Oh, come on, Dragon Lady. One of us was going to die; you set it up like that, didn’t you? Only the plan was, it was going to be me.”
    “Earl, look at me.” He obeyed, as she knew he would. “Earl, I love you, baby. You were my first love. And my only love…” She was pleading for her life.
    “And your best love, kid. Because I got rid of that surplus husband of yours that time,