Description: Still at the top of the Empire State Building, after receiving the news that Glenn Sabine is just a blowhard with a scam complex, Julie starts to test Pike Setter's sincerity. If Eve is in trouble, Julie wants to make sure his claims are the truth.
Eve Goes to New York. PART 19.
Besides her continual curiosity about whether or not there was ever a moment Pike Setter did not have the desire to light up a new tobacco-stick, Juliet Jones was beginning to question his sincerity. Okay, so he had shown up at the Hotel Star with news that her sister Eve was in trouble, claiming to be her Sir Galahad with a knock-off smoke-reeking suit and tie. She could handle that part. Of course, he couldn’t talk in the lobby of the Star. Oh, no, far too dangerous, Pike had said.
In the coffee shop around the corner, in whispers and double-checks to see if anyone was eavesdropping, he had eluded to the fact that the Miss Teenager contest that Eve was participating in was “a fake, see, and it’s all Glenn Sabine’s fault.” Obviously suffering from paranoid delusion that he was being continually “watched” by Sabine, Setter had dragged Julie up to the top of the Empire State Building in order to spill the beans and blow the whistle on his illustrious employer. Then there were the false claims that King Kong had actually been a small chimp from the Brooklyn Zoo.
There was something about all of this that didn’t add up. If King Kong had actually been a chimpanzee, why did the film makers make him a giant ape? The two animals were clearly not the same. Then there was the fact that Pike and Sabine had been bromance buddies since birth, or so it had seemed in their dingy hotel room in Queens. It was time for some answers.
“Why are you telling me about Glenn Sabine, Mr. Setter?” Julie inquired. “Isn’t he your employer?”
Pike leaned back against the stone wall, cool and suave like he was the poster boy for a Marlboro ad. He swiped a match and lit up yet another death stick. Here we go, Julie thought, rolling her eyes. He sucked in smoke and blew it back in Julie’s face, making her cough.
“If the definition of an employer is one guy who pays another guy a salary,” he remarked with distain, “leave me throw some doubt on our relationship. Sure, he promises me a juicy cut, but Sabine’s long on promises, short on performance.”
Julie let that sink in for a few silent minutes as the breeze picked up on the top of the Empire State Building, flapping her scarf in the wind.
Pike took a seat on a nearby bench, leaning back and stretching out his arms on the top of the backrest. He watched Julie with a knowing nod, his cigarette hanging loosely from his lips.
“Then Eve can’t win anything,” Julie said, disappointment tearing through her heart. “Except grief!”
“So be it, mayor,” Pike replied. “You sum it up neatly.”