Hunter and the Trap Read Free

someone snorted.
    â€œSo it’s five quarters,” Pete said. “And if he isn’t entitled to five quarters, who the hell is? No, you’re not out of line, Andy. You were never out of line.”
    â€œYou’re too much,” the belly dancer said. “I’m a Catholic. I’m a rotten Catholic, but I am a Catholic and you’re not stepping on anyone’s toes.”
    â€œAnd I want Marc Connolly and Bette Davis there, and Eva Gabor and what’s-his-name, that marvelous kid who conducts the Philharmonic?”
    â€œBernstein, and he’s not a kid any more.”
    â€œWell, I want him to come with his wife and all his friends—”
    â€œAndy, people like that have unlisted numbers and I don’t have them.”
    â€œPete has them. Pete has the phone number of everyone on earth who matters. Even what’s-his-name in the Soviet Union. You got a number for the Kremlin, Pete?”
    â€œI got,” Pete grinned, and everyone else was grinning now because they knew that the party was in the making, and that it would be a great, fabulous party that the town would remember and talk about for years to come.
    â€œAnd I want the mayor and his wife.”
    â€œAndy, it’s not like old times. This is a different kind of a mayor, and he’s a Republican—”
    â€œI don’t care if he’s a Single-Taxer,” Andy said. “Invite him. All he can do is say no.” And then, to show that even if he had been away, he was as cool as any of the snotty young kids around town, Andy said to O’Brian, “Who’s the lieutenant of the Nineteenth Squad? Is it still Rothschild?”
    â€œIt is.”
    â€œAnd how are his ulcers?”
    â€œRotten.”
    â€œWill you call him, lieutenant, and tell him that we will be having a drink or two with friends at the Carlyle, and that Andy Bell begs him to exhibit the quality of mercy if there is a complaint?”
    Pete brought me the phone then, and I got City Hall. Everyone lapsed into a careful silence as I worked my way up to the mayor; and finally I got him and told him that Andy Bell was in town. Which he knew. And then I told him that Andy was giving a party at the Carlyle tonight and it was short notice, but would he come and bring his wife?
    â€œI’d be delighted to come,” he said. “I can’t promise because it is short notice—but I’ll try.”
    Andy and Pete hugged each other.

6
    There are all kinds of parties around town. There are wild parties and lush parties, and sometimes people plan all year for a party they are going to give, and with some of the rich ones I know, a party is to be put together only by a professional party manager, like the late Elsa Maxwell. There are other parties that bear the stamp of a personality, and when Andy Bell threw a party, it grew around him, like a vine around a tree. There are parties where the host sets out to corner a few personalities and to build a certain amount of status; but if people in New York were in and important, it was up to them to know that Andy Bell was giving a party and to turn up there. It was a good thing that the suite Jane Pierce had rented at the Carlyle was a big one, because most of them turned up there.
    Jane was waiting for us at the Carlyle, and she said to me, “I heard that Andy was giving a party. Was that your idea, Monte?”
    â€œMy idea? Anyway, how did you hear?”
    â€œBecause the President’s kid telephoned from Texas. She wants to come, I told her to come. The hell with it. I’m going to tell the hotel to set up a bar and a table with sandwiches and junk. You know what this will cost Andy? At least two grand. And he’s damn near broke.”
    â€œWhy don’t we get that Max what’s-his-name to pick up the tab?”
    â€œBecause Andy would blow his stack.”
    â€œHow can he be broke? I heard that Life is paying fifty thousand dollars for