"Strip For Violence" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lacy Ed)

She was an expensive call girl and spending a night with her came high. But he never figured on a price as high as murder.

The photograph did justice to her generous statistics. Any private eye would enjoy tracking her down, and Hal Darling was no exception.

Her name was Marion Lodge. She'd put her impressive body to good use as a call girl before she'd dropped out of sight almost a year before. Hal was being paid a fortune to find her.

But someone else was also looking for Marion—with a knife. Hal had to get her fast, or the killer would strike first.

BOOK ONE

I

“Whatcha looking for, Tiny, a bruise?” This was said by a big joker, about two hundred pounds of lard-ass, and trying so hard to be tough, he was strictly for laughs.

And that's how it all started. How a guy can live a peaceful, normal life for years, then the fickle finger of fate gives him a slight goose... and in my case put me on a three-day merry-go-round of women and murder.

It was I a.m., Monday morning, when I dropped into this dance hall. There's two kinds of dances: the hustling sort where a couple of guys or gals throw a shindig to raise some bucks for themselves; and there's the social club-office type where the main idea is to have a good time. This was a dance some company was throwing for its employees.

The big clown on the ticket-box was high. When I flashed my badge he laughed at it, looked my five-foot-one up and (mostly) down, sneered, “You a dick?” As an afterthought he had added, “Whatcha looking for, Tiny, a bruise?”

He had one of these tempting bull necks, but bouncing him around would be bad advertising for the hall. I said, patiently, “Call the private cop, or the manager.”

“Call nobody. Either you pony up a buck-fifty to get in, or scram, shorty,” he said, trying hard to make his watery eyes focus.

I didn't mind his silly chatter, but then he tried to push me. Grabbing his right hand with both of mine, I spun the hand up and outward, as I put my left leg across his right foot. I jerked him forward and let go of his hand. His head hit the dirty carpet first.

Bobo Martinez came running up, his tremendous shoulders straining at his cheap, blue uniform, his battered face angry. “What's going on...? Oh, hello, Hal,” he said seeing me. “Anything wrong?”

I nodded at the ticket taker who was sitting up, his dress shirt open, a puzzled look on his fat face. “How's things?”

“Quiet,” Bobo said, pulling the guy to his feet with one hand, neatly slamming him against the doorway to sober him up. “Usual drunks, but no trouble. Dance is about breaking up.”

I grinned at Bobo's cream-colored face, the slightly flattened nose, ridge of scar tissue over the hard eyes, his six-foot body I envied. Bobo was the perfect special cop —looked too tough for trouble.

“Tell this joker not to stuff his pockets with ticket stubs. Too obvious a hold-out on the tax man,” I called over my shoulder, as I went up the worn steps that led to the dance floor. In a wall mirror I watched fat boy feel his bulging pockets, heard him ask, “No kidding, that shrimp a private dick?”

“That's Hal Darling, head of the agency. And a rough stud, no matter how blond and baby-faced he looks.”

Bobo could lay on the baloney nice and thick.

There's always a certain air of sadness about the end of a dance. Bleary-eyed women were waiting in line for their coats, and their men stood against the wall, half-asleep. Even the music sounded tired. The whole joint stunk of stale body and whisky odors.

The coatrooms faced this little lobby, just before you got to the dance floor. A girl was sitting in the one big leather chair—stupid drunk.

She was average-pretty, although her eyebrows were painted a fantastic shape, and her sleeping face was full of that loose, contented, drunk look. Her legs sprawled straight out and part of her white evening dress was caught on the arm of the chair, showing some strong, fleshy thigh. The dress had slipped off one shoulder and a bra strap cut into her pale white skin. She had full breasts—and plainly not built-in stuff either. Her hair reached her shoulders and was dyed an outrageous red.

A guy standing beside her was begging, “Snap out of it, babe. Wake up, Louise, everybody's staring at us... whole damn office. Aw, come on... Louise!” His tall, bony frame was a good clothes hanger for a tux, but his neck was too scrawny for his wide face.

Eddie Logan, manager of the hall, came out of his office with some gray-haired fat slob whose tux was ready to pop at the seams. Eddie said, “Hello, Darling,” and the fat guy smirked and said (as I knew he would), “What's this, you two going together?”

I could see it was going to be a big night for me.

2

Eddie laughed too loudly, so I knew the fat character must be the boss of the company throwing the dance. Eddie introduced me and the boss jammed a thick cigar in my hand as he said, “Great dance. Always try to give my employees the best, a fair shake. Say, this cop you have here, haven't I seen him in the ring?”

“Where else could he get that face?” I asked. “Name's Bobo Martinez. Used to weigh in at 175 pounds—nine years ago.”

A flabby smile lit up his face. “Sure! Knew I'd seen him. The Puerto Rican flash who gave the champ a great battle. Licking the champ, too, till he was tagged in the guts in the eighth, or maybe it was the ninth round. Yeah, remember that fight, had to buy a dozen seats for some buyers and cost me...”

I took Eddie's arm. “Excuse us for a second, got some business talk with Mr. Logan.”

“Sure,” the fat guy boomed, like a king granting a favor.

Once in his office Eddie said, “Damn, that windbag's been hitting my eardrums all night. Want a shot?”

“Too late.” I'm always suspicious of a dance-hall owner's whisky—probably a combination of all the bottle heels left after every dance. Eddie poured himself a big hooker, took out his wallet and gave me fifteen bucks, asked, “Thought you was going to have two men here tonight?”

“Bobo can handle anything comes up in these Sunday night affairs,” I said, writing a receipt on the back of one of my cards. “Saving you dough, two guards cost you twenty-four dollars and...”

Eddie mumbled, “Save me hell. Just want to give that spick a bigger cut.”

“Don't ever call Bobo a 'spick,' he'll take you apart,” I said, wanting to sock him myself, but wanting his business more. “I'll have three men here for the Friday night dance, three for Saturday, and one for that Sunday tea shindig. Okay?”

Eddie said okay and we went out into the lobby. The babe in the chair was still feeling no pain but her boy friend was cursing and banging her head against the back of the chair. I went over, told him, “Easy, buddy, that's no punching bag you're handling.”

“No, it's a drunken bag. Goddamit, Louise, wake up!” He grabbed her over-red hair and started banging her noggin again. I held his hand—by the thumb—and he looked down at me, asked, his voice almost a whine, “Who the hell are you? This is my girl, so scram.”

The last button on his silk vest was inviting me to smack it, but I didn't want him to puke all over the place. Eddie was saying, “Now we don't want no trouble, mister, just...” when Bobo came up. Shoving his ugly kisser in front of the guy's face, Bobo asked softly, “What's the matter, chum?”

As usual, the sight of Bobo's tough pan took all the fight out of the guy. “My girl, Louise,” he said, “soaked up too much. I can't get her to...”

“Come with me,” Eddie said. “We'll get some smelling salts, bring her around.”

As they walked away, Bobo yawned and I gave him eight bucks, which was a good cut since I also supplied the uniform. “Drop in the office tomorrow. Got a construction job. How's the wife?”

Bobo shrugged his heavy shoulders. “Worked couple days in a dress factory, was beat. Wished to Christ I could get me a steady job.”

“This construction job is good for at least a week,” I said, wondering why Bobo never fought the champ a return match, which would have meant half a million dollar gate.

Bobo yawned again. “Chisler comes around to see me yesterday. Says if I return to the ring...”

“Forget it, you're thirty-four, way past your prime. Won't do your wife any good if you're in the nut house.”

“But a few fights mean a grand or... Sure, you're right, Hal.” He turned and abruptly walked away.

I was tracing Louise's real eyebrows, glancing now and then at the gray lace bra strap, when her boyfriend returned with a wet napkin which he held under her nose. She moved her head, pushed his hand away, and he suddenly said, “Damn you, Louise!” and punched her in the eye. Her head snapped back, she opened her eyes for a moment, sighed, and blacked out again.

As he started to follow through with another wallop, I grabbed him by the back of the collar and the seat of his pants—yanking the pants tight around his groin, said, “On your way, socker,” and rushed him toward the door. Bobo took him from there, growling, “No funny stuff or I'll beat the slop out of you!” He had that growl down perfect.

Eddie came over, pointed to the gal. “What we going to do with this study in still life?”

To make him happy I said, “Okay, I'll take her home. Opening her white evening bag, I found the usual lipstick and compact, some keys, crumpled pack of butts, a cheap wallet with three bucks in it, and her Washington Heights address.

I picked up Louise and carried her toward the door. Eddie said, “Let me help you. Must be too heavy for a little guy, Hal.”

“You know me, the half-pint Atlas. See if she had a coat or wraps.” At the top of the stairs, as the ticket taker gave me a bug-eyed look, Bobo picked her out of my arms like she was a baby, said, “I'll handle her, Hal.”

There wasn't any point in getting sore at him or Eddie, or being too sensitive about my smallness. I ran down ahead of Bobo and opened the door of my old convertible. I figured a little night air would sober her up. Eddie called out that she didn't have any coat as Bobo dropped her beside me, said, “A heavy built broad. Have fun.”

3

I drove over to the West Side Highway. This Louise had her phony dyed head on my shoulder, those painted eyebrows shooting up like lightning from her eyes. The right eye was puffed and beginning to turn purple. I hoped to hell she didn't get sick all over me. What a guy had to do to make a few bucks!

It was cool driving along the Hudson, and when we passed the yacht basin on 79th Street I saw my boat bobbing at her mooring and wished I was in the cabin, getting some sack time. The fresh air was working on this Louise and she opened her eyes—or rather her good left eye—tried to sit up, then fell back against my shoulder again. “Oho, what a head. Whole... whole side of my face feels... gone.”

I didn't say anything.

“Never felt this hung-over before.” When the thickness left her voice she sounded throaty, her tone full and sort of warm.

I could have told her about her face having nothing to do with the kicks in her liquor, but I didn't say a word. She curled up closer to me, put her fingers around my right hand. “You're a regular old chatter-box,” she said. “Never give me a chance to get a word in. Don't remember seeing you around the factory or...”

“My name is Hal Darling, I'm a private detective, you passed out at the dance, and as a favor to the owner of the hall—I'm carting you home.”

Her left eye looked over at me as she giggled. “You a dick? What's the gag, buster?”

We turned off the Highway at the George Washington Bridge, and I took my hand out of hers. She took the hand back again, asked, “Where we going? My name is...”

“Know your name and address.”

“My, my, you are the little detective. And how did you find that out?”

“By deduction—and opening your purse.”

She dropped my hand fast, felt for her purse. I told her, “Don't worry, I didn't rob you.”

She giggled, started playing with my hand again. She toyed with the callus at the edge of my palm, asked coyly, “How come your hand is so hard at the edge, Hal? Said that was your name, Hal Darling, didn't you?” At least she didn't crack wise about it being such a “cute” name, which always drives me nuts. “Aw come on, talk to me. What kind of work would make the edge of your hand calloused?”

“Spend a lot of time hitting my hands against a rubber pad.”

“Why?”

“You can kill a person with a blow from the side of your hand.”

She said, “Oh,” as though she knew what I was talking about. Then she asked, “What are you, a tough joe?”

“No, I'm not tough—being tough is a lot of crap. No, I'm just small and don't like to be walked on. That's all,” I said as we stopped for a red light at Broadway.

“Would you mind buying me a cup of coffee? I need one—but bad.”

“You'll be home in a few minutes.”

She dropped my hand. “I'll pay for it You men are so...”

I nodded up at the windshield mirror. “Seen yourself lately?”

She looked up, let out a small scream, then began to cry. “You miserable bastard, what you hit me for?”

The light turned green and I stepped on the gas. “Your boyfriend seemed to think a punch in the eye would be a sobering influence.”

“Charles would never do that!” she sobbed.

“Stop it, Charlie looks like he's slapped you around before.”

Louise lived in one of these small, old apartment houses near Amsterdam Avenue that are on the verge of becoming slums. As I parked, I saw the white of a tux shirt in the dim hallway. “Your Charlie is waiting, ask him about it.”

I opened the door and she staggered out. Charlie came over, said loudly, “So that's it, coming home with another...”

“Did you hit me?” Louise asked soberly.

“... Take you to the dance, pay for the tickets, all the booze you slobbered up like a damn blotter and now...”

“Latch off. Did you punch me in the eye, you cheap sonofabitch?”

“Watch the words or I'll shut the other one,” this Charles said bravely, reaching for her.

“Take a walk, jerk,” I said, moving between them, turning my back to help Louise; she wasn't too steady on her legs. Soon as my back was turned he came at me, as I knew he would, tried to grab my throat. When I felt his stomach against me, I dug back with both elbows.

He let out a hissing grunt, stepped away, doubled up in pain. He stood like that for a split second, then began to vomit. I pushed his hat off his head and it fell into the mess. Grabbing his oily hair I jerked his head up, crossed a right to his eye. He sat down. I turned to Louise. “Now you're even. Want some interest on his loan?”

Her good eye was staring at me with surprise. She didn't say no, so I told him to get up. He still sat on the sidewalk and I bent down and banged him on the other eye. He began to moan. I didn't want a cop to find him there, get me jammed up. “Where does this slob live?”

“On... 115th Street... and Broadway. Please, don't hit him again.”

“Hold on to the car door, or something, for a moment. I'll send Charlie-boy home.”

“Please don't hit him again.”

I snapped Charlie to his feet. He didn't look too bad, eyes weren't puffed yet, and he hadn't puked on himself. Holding him by the vest and his right arm, I walked him to Amsterdam Avenue, hailed a cab, shoved Charlie into the back seat. Giving the cabbie two bucks, I told him, “He's had too much bottle. Let him off at 115th and Broadway.”

The cabbie was a thin old man with a face full of gray stubble. Looking at the two bucks he said, “This guy gets sick in my cab, I'm done for the night.”

“Already been sick. Get going, pal.” I gave him another buck. The profits on tonight's job were shot to hell. The old man mumbled something, pulled his flag down, and took off.

4

Louise and I walked up two flights of stairs that smelled of garbage and other human stinks that made me glad I lived on a boat. She nodded at a door and I got her keys out and opened it. She staggered in, asked, “Want some coffee?”

“No. Good night, baby.”

“Come on in, talk to me. I got the jitters.”

“What's that, new name for a big head?”

“Isn't only the liquor—it's you. Way you... you hit Charles. It was so... so cold.”

“And when you were out and he socked you, what was that, a love tap?”

She shivered. “That was just being... sneaky. It's different. Come on, don't make talking to me a big deal.” I stepped in and she shut the door and I asked, “Where's the lights?”

“Forget them, the place is a mess. And I don't like you seeing me with a black eye.”

I felt along the wall till I found a switch. It was a one-room apartment with a kitchenette stuck in the far end like a sore thumb. I opened a door leading to the John, and the only other door, a closet. There was an unmade studio couch, and all her furniture was the buck down and buck-a-week kind. I came back to her and she snapped off the light. “So you had to see my shoddy place.”

“I'm the careful type, don't want any enraged poppas or husbands coming out of the darkness.”

“You're too suspicious. Don't you think I've had enough trouble for one night,” she said, and in the darkness I felt her come close to me. She did something I liked—she was a couple inches taller than I was and she suddenly kicked off her high heels. I could feel her hair level with mine. She put her arms around my neck and I smelled the odd smell of her, mixed with the stale odor of whisky.

Louise whispered in my ear, “Suppose you think I'm a pushover?”

“Could be, are you?” I said, not touching her. I knew a lot of good reasons for not laying strays.

She laughed, breathing into my ear. She began talking, fast and low. “Yes, if being a pushover means you need some loving, a feeling you're wanted in this crazy world. You work hard every day, building up to a dance and it all turns out so dull and boring, lot of empty noise. And you wake up to find a strange man driving you home, a blond-haired, doll-faced little...”

“Cut that,” I said, trying to push her away. My hand touched a great deal of cool skin, and that lace bra strap.

“... And he talks tough and you don't believe him, only he is so hard he frightens you. It's almost like a new thrill, gives the evening a new tone, a sharp edge.”

I was fooling with the strap and it broke or came apart and I had my fingers on the heavy rise of her breast. I could still remember all the reasons for not tangling with strays.

“Aren't you even going to kiss me?”

I moved my head down to duck her lips and ducked into her firm breast, the hard nipple stabbing me in the eye. She giggled. “Now you'll have a shiner.”

“But this is the best way to get one,” I said, my lips moving against the lush smoothness of her breast.

Her laughter was a high note of hot triumph in the still room as her hands tore open my shirt.

I could still remember all those reasons for skipping quickie affairs—but I didn't believe a one of them.

5

The shrill sound of an alarm shattered my head. I sat up. The room was dim with the hard early gray light of morning. The alarm claimed it was five-thirty. Louise got out of bed and shut the damn thing off. She threw her arms back, stretched; even the morning light couldn't change the comfortable curves of her strong body, nor the wild red of her. I didn't object to seeing them, I don't believe in mixing the two “B's”—business and bed. After I talked my last secretary into working between the sheets, the office went to hell. In Anita's case there was another danger—despite her saying she was nineteen, I was sure she was jail-bait, and I'm not that sex-slappy.

Anita was a slender, almost skinny, dark-haired kid, with an eager, sharp face that reflected her constant drive. She looked more like a bobby-soxer than a secretary, but she was an efficient office worker, and I wasn't paying the world's highest salary.

She was honest, a hard worker, and a nice kid—and she was driving me nuts. Aside from throwing her young bosom all over the office (when I once politely suggested she ought to buy a bra out of petty cash, Anita said, “Hell, those two-piece jock straps are for old women.”) the kid also had the private eye bug. Her mother must have been frightened by a comic book for Anita thought being a detective was strictly being a super Humphrey Bogart. It was a source of painful astonishment for her to learn that I'd never been on a big robbery, much less a murder, that the private eye business is 99.99 per cent guard work, skip tracing, and maybe now and then shadowing a two-timing wife or husband. Anita lived in a private world of “big rewards,” childish daydreams about the “sensational capture of Public Enemy 1 to 10,” and junk like that.

Taking my mail, three letters, I sat down at my desk, asked, “Anything worth reading in these?”

“You got two bills, and a case—a great big one, a hundred bucks worth,” Anita said with mild disgust. “The boys called in, patrolled the stores last night, everything okay. We're out of cards, so I called the printer. I've also typed out four letters to dance-hall owners, usual baloney. At noon you have a lunch appointment with a slob named Boscom, owns the 5th Street Casino, a real fire-trap.”

“Thanks,” I said, opening the one letter that wasn't a bill. “Keep working through the directory, sending form letters to the other dance halls.”

“Okay, okay, Hal, and don't think it isn't just all too, too thrilling. See this?” She waved an FBI circular. “There's a two hundred grand reward on that armed car robbery in Frisco. Gee, think of lifting two million bucks... even bigger than the Brink's job up in New England. Two hundred thousand bucks... reward.” There was a far-away, dreamy, quality to her voice.

I grinned at her. “I know, two more box tops and you can send away for your tin badge.”

Anita made a comment about my mother living on a diet of bones. Talking tough was another of her charms.

The case was from Guy Moore, who was my MP officer in Tokyo. Now he was a struggling lawyer in St. Louis. An old man had died leaving an “estate”—if you can call a rundown farm by such a fancy handle—to his niece, one Marion Lodge. The case meant a lot to Guy because a bank was handling the estate and if he showed fast action on this, they'd give him some real important cases. After a lot of remembering what buddy-buddies we'd been in the army, Guy wrote he could only afford a hundred bucks, and would I kindly break my back and locate the gal. There was a check enclosed and a snapshot of the girl. The check looked prettier than the gal—she was an ordinary-looking, big kid of about twenty-one, with an overlong nose, and black hair that hung in corny curls. Guy gave me her last known address, as of 1949, on the lower West Side.

“Get your book out.”

“I'll come over,” Anita said, although the office was so small I could dictate from one end of the room to the other without raising my voice. She came over, moving her hips like a lazy heel-and-toe walker, sat down beside me, her skirt above her knees. She had on an interesting perfume. I sent Guy a letter saying I'd do my best and to airmail me any info on Marion Lodge's background, education, birthmarks, and what she was supposed to be doing in New York.

Then I knocked off a couple of mild dunning letters to remind several storekeepers they were behind on their ten bucks a month for “Darling's Protective Service.”

I was in the middle of another letter checking on a character who had skipped town with a partly paid for TV set, when the door opened and a mailman came in—a big lumbering fatso with thick graying hair. He asked, “You the dick?”

“What's wrong, a due letter?” I asked, noticing he didn't have his bag on his wide shoulders.

He shook his head, giving Anita a fast going over, which she enjoyed. “Naw, I'm here on business.” His voice went with his bulk, a deep, rumbling voice.

“Grab a chair and tell me about it.”

He glanced at Anita, then back at me. I said, “Miss Rogers is one of my most trusted ops, in on all my good cases.” Anita slipped me an amused look, told him in a hammy slinky voice, “Rest your load, big boy.”

He slid into a chair opposite me, and from the hesitant look on his face I knew he was having wife trouble. After a while you can spot things like that I was absolutely wrong.

He said, “Johnson is my name, Will Johnson, see? Want to see you about this.” He dug into a pocket of his blue-gray uniform and carefully took out a small envelope, out of this came tissue paper wrapped around a sliver of cloudy dirty-looking stone. It was less than half an inch long, almost paper thin, wide as a match stick. As I picked it up he said, “Careful, don't break it, see?”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Rock of some kind. Get this, Mr. Darling, there's no mystery or crime involved here, just curiosity. Want to find out where this rock came from.”

“What makes you so curious?” I asked as Anita took the sliver from my hand, fingered it, smelt it. He sighed. “It's a silly story. About a month ago I come home and was sitting in my living-room, reading. Was about four in the afternoon, see? I hear a sharp noise at the window, then over my head. I go over and there's a small, clean hole in the window pane, another in the metal Venetian blinds. Back of where I was sitting we got one of them imitation fireplaces and a copper vase on top of it There's a dent in the vase and on the floor I find this little hunk of rock. See, at first I didn't think nothing of it, was sore about the hole in the window. Then I start thinking this sure had a hell of a force.... Excuse me Miss....”

“Sure,” Anita said sweetly, “you mean it had a goddamn hell of a lot of force.”

Johnson blinked and I told him, “Miss Rogers takes shots —in the head—to make her sound rugged. The rock had plenty of force, so what?”

“So what? It went through glass, a metal blind, made a dent in the copper vase over my head—see, it might have killed me!”

“You think somebody is trying to murder you?” I asked as Anita became bug-eyed.

Johnson shook his big head. “No, no, only telling you why I got so interested in the rock. Nobody hates a postman. Like I say, it's been on my mind so much. Thelma, that's my wife, she says 'Willie, stop thinking so much about it, see a detective before you get a nervous breakdown.' See, that's it.”

“And you picked me—just like that?”

“No sir, not just like anything,” Will said. “Figured you're a small agency, wouldn't charge much, see?”

“Yeah I see. Of course you realize this may all turn out to be as simple as a kid playing with a slingshot and...”

“It ain't simple, Mr. Darling. I live five flights up, nothing higher than two-story private houses around me. Have to be some slingshot, wouldn't it?”

“I'm not turning down the case, Mr. Johnson, only don't expect any fantastic solution, like this coming from Mars or...”

“How do you know it didn't come from Mars?” he snapped.

Anita giggled and I wondered if the postman was nuts or just a plain liar. Anyway, I wasn't dropping cases—even the stupid ones. I said, “You know I charge thirty dollars a day, and expenses.”

“That much? We mailmen don't make much and with the high cost of living —”

“And we dicks aren't exempt from the high cost of living.”

He sucked on his fat upper lip. “How many days you think it will take? And expenses, what will they amount to?”

“Hard to say. Let's turn our cards face up, Johnson. What were you planning to spend?”

“Well...” he coughed and swallowed. “See, I'll make a deal with you. I'm a poor sucker and...” he waved a hand at my office ”... so are you. Suppose I give you all I can afford—a hundred and fifty bucks—and let's say you put in a week on it, full seven days, and forget the expenses? That a deal?”

He clinched the deal by taking out an old wallet and decorating my desk with fifteen tens. “I'm buying it, only remember, I can't guarantee a solution in a week. But I'll give it a good try.”

“That'll all I want, just try hard for a week—seven days.”

“Where do you live and when can I see your apartment?”

“I live at 22 Staymore Avenue, that's Marble Hill, up past Spuyten Duyvil. I'm off today, it's my comp day. See, any time you want to....”

“Have a lunch appointment Suppose I get up there around two?”

The mailman said fine and we stood up and shook hands-at the door he turned, said, “Don't lose that stone, or break it. It's... well... a memo to me.” He sounded worried.

“I'll take good care of it.”

When he left, I gave Anita four of the tens, told her “Might as well pay your salary for the week. This is a weirdie.”

“He's lying,” she sad, looking at the stone. “Odd dark color.”

“You'll probably find there's some construction work near by and this came off while blasting.”

“I'll...?”

“Sure, I'll look the apartment over and then you can make like Dick Powell.”

“Oh no, not on this crummy stone?”

“If you'd rather pound out form letters....”

Anita thumbed her nose at me. “Giving me a big choice, but I'll take the stone deal, Hal... Darling.” The way she said it left no doubt as to her meaning.

7

I phoned a couple of fellows working for the electric and phone companies whom I sent some good rye to every Christmas, asked if they had a Marion Lodge as a customer... and drew a blank. At eleven Bobo dropped in, got the address of the construction job he was to guard, signed out for a night stick. Curly Cox who'd been a fair lightweight when I was an amateur flyweight, came in to put the bite on me for work. I promised him something over the week-end, slipped him two bucks, then drove down to the 5th Street Casino.

Thirty or forty years ago this had been a club for wealthy sports, now it was a seedy-looking place, badly in need of a coat of paint and about everything else. It had a capacity of 250 people, and a sagging balcony with a few dozen tables and a dirty bar. Boscom looked like a walking caricature of an old-time saloonkeeper: short and fat, beady eyes, pink nose, thick little mouth—even an ancient pearl stickpin in his loud tie. He had a bullet-headed punk with him, local tough written all over his nasty puss. Evidently this was my competition.

“When I introduced myself, they both looked astonished and bully-boy, whose name I never did get, asked Boscom, “Hey boss, you kidding? This little blond nance is a guard?” I let the “nance” crack go by, although the punk's short thick neck was interesting. Boscom was sitting at an old desk, puffing on a cheap rope, and he squeaked, “He's been keeping order at my dances... Ain't had no trouble and...”

“And you pay him off with a few bucks and leftover bottles,” I cut in. “You're a businessman, Mr. Boscom, and policing your dances should be done on a strict business level that...”

“Look, anybody starts anything, I give them the business all right—with this!” The punk held up a beefy fist.

It was a warm day, I had on one of my good suits and the carpet was dirty as hell, so I didn't want to take this joker. I tried to keep calm as I told Boscom, “Bet this clown hasn't a license—that means if there's a real rumble, you not only could be sued, and lose your liquor license but...”

“Who you calling a clown?” tough-boy growled. Boscom seemed to be amused by it all.

“Let me tell you something about policing a dance,” I said to Boscom but watching the punk's feet. “There's a difference between a guard and a bouncer. Using your fists or a billy is the last thing you want done. Know who the best guard I ever had was? A midget! Lost him when he got a steady job with a carnival. Only real trouble you get at dances are drunks, and when they saw this midget bawling them out, they laughed and that was that Of course, always had another man that could handle any real trouble. Now for twelve dollars a man, I supply you experienced, intelligent, uniformed men who...”

“Intelligent? You cracking I'm a dummy?” bully-boy snarled, shifting his weight to the balls of his feet.

Guess I still could have avoided trouble, but there was a gleam in Boscom's eyes that got me sore. He deliberately had the punk in so he'd have a ringside seat for a free brawl. I said, “Two-bit goons like you come at bargain rates, dime a dozen. And in a real scrap you're not even worth a dime.”

“You little sawed off...!”

He didn't try to sock, instead he charged, a horrible scowl on his face. I grabbed his lapels, pulling him toward me, jockeying around till I had Boscom at my back. The punk had a hand at my throat, another about to wallop my kidneys, as I sunk one foot in his stomach and suddenly fell back on my shoulders. We landed with a boom, but his arm and my other foot broke the fall for me. I pushed my shoe in his gut as hard as I could and let go of his suit—fighting down a desire to grab his neck. His body made a neat arc as it sailed through the air and crashed into Boscom and his old desk. There was a deep grunt from Boscom, then the sound of broken wood and glass. I jumped to my feet, brushed my suit.

The punk was sprawled across the desk top, a busted ink bottle dripping on Boscom, who was doubled up in his chair, both hands holding his pot belly. The goon must have kicked him as he came in for a landing. For a second I stared at bully-boy and was scared the clown had broken his back—even a simple judo fall can be dangerous as hell. But when he got his wind back, he sat up and worked his shoulders, blinked his glassy eyes.

With mock politeness I said, “Sorry, Mr. Boscom, but you saw him start the show. Now you know what I mean by knowing how to handle yourself. Shall I call you tomorrow, talk over a contract?”

Boscom's doughy mouth was sucking air but he managed to grunt, “Yeah,” as I walked out.

8

I drove up the West Side Highway, watching the shad fishermen working their nets out in the Hudson, turned off at Dyckman Street and went up Broadway. Will Johnson lived in one of these neighborhoods where everybody had been averaging fifty a week for years—nobody real poor, nor eating high off the hog either. I climbed five flights, stabbed the doorbell with my finger. A plump woman in a worn, pink housecoat opened the door. When I introduced myself, she said, “Come in. I'm Mrs. Thelma Johnson. Willie—the detective is here.” She sounded nervous as she called Willie, and when she spoke, all her face seemed to work.

Will came shuffling down the hallway in slippers and as he shook my hand, Thelma said, “Excuse me, I'm cooking,” and went into the kitchen.

Their living-room was a comfortable, standard job, a couple of bad paintings on the wall, even some artificial flowers. Except for being neater, it reminded me of Louise's place. Will said, “Of course I've had the window fixed, but there was a hole in the bottom pane, and here's the one in the Venetian blinds.” I examined a jagged hole in one of the thin metal slats. He showed me the copper vase over the fireplace, the dent in its side. “See, I was sitting here, reading, when it happened. Little lower and it would have ploughed through me.”

“If it hit the bottom pane, then it must have come up, from the street,” I said, brightly, pulling up the blinds. He had a nice view, nothing around but open lots and private houses. I could see the Empire State from his window, and part of the Hudson and New Jersey.

Will said, “The view is worth walking all them stairs. Hey, want to see something real good?” He took an old pair of binoculars out of a desk drawer, handed them to me and pointed to a tennis court about six blocks away. The glasses were powerful, I could plainly see a girl in white shorts banging a tennis ball against the side of a small house. She had her back to me, but her legs were lean and muscular, and her small breasts jumped against her T-shirt.

“Man, you should see the broads there on a Sunday,” Will said, winking like a school boy. “That one you see now, she's there all the time.”

“Nice-looking dish,” I said, scanning the rest of the area. “Any building or excavating near here?” He said no and as I turned to give him the glasses, I saw part of a pink housecoat in the doorway. Thelma was listening hard.

I asked the routine questions, to make it look like I was working and again he told me the bunk about it only being curiosity on his part. As I was leaving, Thelma asked if I wanted tea and cake. I told her no, and Will said to be careful not to lose the sliver of rock. I assured him it was in my office safe, but when he mentioned the stone Thelma looked sick and worried.

It was a little after two-thirty when I returned to the office. I couldn't make Will and his wife, they didn't look the type to be mixed up in anything shady. Anita was reading a true detective magazine. She asked if I'd read about this gal working behind a soda counter who recognized Public Enemy No. 3 by this wart he had on his pinky? Got a reward of two thousand—”

“Forget it,” I said, giving her the sliver. “Knock off for the day and snoop around Will Johnson's place. Some open lots around there, see if any of the rocks look like this sample. Ask around if anybody else got their windows busted. Check with the weather bureau as to what kind of a day it was a month ago... unless it was real sunny he wouldn't have the blinds down in the middle of the afternoon.”

“This assignment is jazzy as all get-out!”

“Look Humphrey, or are you Robert Ryan this afternoon? The guy is paying us, we give him a day's work at least. I'm going to hunt for this Lodge babe, will stop back here before I go home. Call me at six. And grow up—life isn't all cream puffs and excitement.”

She screwed up her cute face at me, pointed to my cheek. “You shouldn't walk around with lipstick there.”

“Where?”

“Here.” She kissed me hard on the cheek, pulled away and laughed. She dropped the rock in her bag and walked out—her hips waving goodbye.

9

I washed up, stopped for coffee and a sandwich, then drove to the last known address of Marion Lodge, a fairly clean rooming house on West 22nd Street. The owner vaguely remembered her, thought she had moved to some place on West 67th Street. There, I had to show her picture to a dozen candy store and newsstand people before one of them remembered Marion lived in a house down the block. This was a real flea-hive, stinking of insecticide and the blowsy old bag who ran it stunk from a lot of other things. It was a small apartment house that had been made into rooms and she said she had seen too many people come and go to recall any. A couple of bucks acted as a refresher course: Marion had fallen behind in her rent, been locked out. A month later Marion had sent the back rent and a truck called for her two suitcases. “Don't know why she bothered, nothing in them but cheap rags and... What? Aw, how do you expect me to remember the name of the trucking company? Some big truck all painted a baby blue...”

At a bar I got a handful of dimes and started calling the various moving companies in the phone directory, asking what color their vans were painted. A buck-twenty later I struck pay dirt. The rest was easy—the company kept records and I found Marion had moved up in the world—to a high-priced brownstone on East 71st Street. This had been converted into small, ritzy, furnished apartments—the kind you pay two hundred a month for. The janitor lived in the basement of another house down the block. A quiet, middle-aged man who liked to talk, he studied the picture, told me, “Tell you, mister, I've only been on the job less than a year and I never saw her. But people don't move around much, far as I know, we've only had one vacancy in last two years, apartment 3F, and I sure remember the last tenant there, Miss Margrita de Mayo!”

My face showed the name didn't register and he added, “Margrita, the TV sensation!” A silly note of pride crept into his voice, the way nobodys talk about a celebrity.

“Sure, girl with the fine, fine legs,” I said. “Still live there?”

“No, sir, moved to a big suite in some hotel. But when I first came she was a struggling young actress and...”

“Got any old rent records here?”

“No, sir. But when she got her big break, it made me feel right good that a nice, quiet, young woman like her...”

I left and called my buddy in the electric company, dialed him back ten minutes later. “No record of any Marion Lodge in 3F, Hal,” he said. “Bills were sent in the name of a Mary Long. After four months it was changed to Margrita de Mayo, with a letter from Miss Long requesting her deposit be applied to Miss de Mayo's account.”

“What's all that mean?”

“Probably sharing the apartment and then this Spanish one took it over, often happens when people who share a place split up. You know: the Long girl took the table radio, or something, instead of the deposit, or... Say, isn't that Margrita the...?”

“Yeah, the owner of the world's best legs. Thanks. See you.”

Mary Long and Marion Lodge—same initials, and when a person takes on a phony name they usually keep the same initials. The next step was to see Margrita—which would be a pleasure. But it was nearly six and I was pooped. Going to the office, I read the evening paper as I kept the edges of my hands hard by hitting them against a rubber pad. The ads said Margrita was singing at the Emerald Club, a swank spot, and I decided to drop in on her later.

At six-ten Anita called and when I asked what was new, she said, “I got a date for supper. Some joint at 60th Street and 1st Avenue.”

“Well, eat well.”

“You never ask me out for supper...”

“I do better—I pay your salary.”

“And that's nothing to brag about. One of these days I'll stuff an apple in your puss and eat you.” She sounded excited.

“I'd be tough chewing. See you in the morning, early and belching,” I said, hanging up.

Before closing the office, I made the usual check of the safe and one of my three guns was missing—a .38 special, I was so mad I nearly busted the glass slamming the door.

I drove over to the construction job Bobo was guarding. Although he had a permit to carry a rod I never let him —his face was all the protection he needed. No sense packing a rod unless you intend to use it.

Bobo was sitting in a chair propped against the shack that was the contractor's field office. He had his nightstick across his lap, an old cigar in his mouth—the picture of a guy with a snap job. When I started bawling him out, he asked, “What gun, Hal? I wouldn't take a rod without telling you.” And his rough, tan face showed real surprise.

When I mentioned that only he and Anita knew the safe combination, Bobo said, “Cheez, Hal, I wouldn't pull a dumb trick like that. Maybe Anita took it, she's wacky enough.”

If Bobo said he didn't have it, that was that And Anita would most likely be in the movies—she went every night —I could stop at her house before I turned in.

I drove to the yacht basin and Pete, who was just coming on duty as night man, called out, “Hal, looking for you. Be there in a minute.”

He finished gassing up a small cruiser, then came down to the floating barge that was the landing dock, pointed to my dinghy. The seat was busted. “One of those fat-assed drunks off the big sloop out there was horsing around, fell into your dinghy. Have it fixed by morning. He gave me a ten spot to do it. Sorry but...”

“Forget it,” I said, as we both stepped into the 16-foot inboard launch, and Pete gave her the gun, telling me, “Yell when you want to go ashore.”

“Yeah. Right now I'm going upstream after some shad.” Pete licked his thin lips. “I go for a juicy broiled shad.”

“Catch you one,” I said, leaping aboard my boat. I opened the hatch, waited for a moment till the stuffy cabin air went out. I changed to bathing trunks, put on my running lights, and started the old Packard. The tide was coming in fast and when I untied the boat, I had to race like a rabbit back to the cockpit, throw the clutch in, give her a sharp rudder to avoid the craft anchored upstream from me.

In the spring, shad come up the Hudson from the Atlantic to spawn. The silverbacks run in deep water, in the center of the river, and while I might have battled the six-mile current while trying to fish, instead I ran up to a point just below the George Washington Bridge. There, on the New Jersey side, there's a neat cottage that is a fishing club. Due to an irregularity in the bed of the river, the water is deep right up to the shore line, and shad can be caught from the bank. A few old duffers knew of this spot, fenced it in, and set up this fishing club.

In the darkness of early evening, I saw the lights of a couple pipes and cigarettes on the porch of the club as I put the anchor over, waited to see if it caught, then shut off my engine. I hooked a sleek blue and silver two-pounder within a matter of minutes. The fish put up a good battle, but like the guy said, “I ain't here to fight 'em but to eat 'em.” Then it took me nearly a half hour and two eels before I got the second one—a big three-pounder.

I cleaned the fish and on the way back to the mooring at 80th Street, I put the smaller one on the stove with some corn. After I tied up, I ate, sat around and listened to the radio over a couple of highballs, then showered, dressed, and yelled for Pete. I gave him the shad and he thanked me for cleaning it. Leaving him at the dock, I got my car out of the parking lot. It was almost ten as I drove east toward the Emerald Club.

10

THIS WAS a low-ceilinged room with the walls done in a violent lobster red, covered with nude women painted a bold purple. The ceiling was supposed to be one great green emerald and a lot of indirect lighting gave it a cut-stone effect. It looked like hell to me, but then I'm no art critic. A lot of upper-bracket jokers gave the joint a big play, and it was crowded. I stood at the bar and had a Tom Collins which looked like a fruit salad with all the sliced melons, oranges, and cherries floating around the top of the frosted glass. It must have been expensive fruit—they charged two-fifty a drink.

When I finally got past the fruit, the drink wasn't weak, and the music from a five-piece band was blue and moody. The barkeep said Margrita came on at ten-forty-five. I watched the playboys and dolls milling around, wondering how many millions they'd add up to if their bankbooks were put end to end. A big, strapping character who looked like he was born to a tux came in, followed by a stocky ex-pug who had bodyguard written all over his rough face. The pug looked familiar, but I couldn't call his name. Without even glancing at the head waiter, the big character sat at a table, and without asking a waiter rushed over with a soda and Scotch. The bodyguard had a beer.

The character was Big Ed “The Cat” Franklin, the star of one of those Congressional investigation committees television shows. Franklin's smooth voice, his good looks, made the citizens roar with laughter as he made a monkey out of the investigator, made the audience ferget Franklin's criminal record, that he was called “The Cat” because of the number of times he'd been gunned and lived. At the tail end of prohibition he'd started as a strong-arm goon, pushed his way up. I asked the barkeep, “'Cat' Franklin own a piece of this club?”

“I believe Mr. Franklin owns the entire club,” he said coldly, but like he was sure the sun rose and set in Franklin's behind.

About this time the lights dimmed and Margrita came on. She was a tall blonde with a full figure, and a passable voice. She wore a transparent skirt that clouded up near her waist. As she moved about, you saw two shapely legs, and if you were lucky, the solid curve of her hips and... well, I guess she wore a G-string or something.

Some ten months before, Margrita had been merely another singer, with a bit role in a TV musical, one of those heavy-costume jobs. She'd be still playing bit parts if she hadn't tripped over a power cable, landing flat on her back —exposing a pair of lovely legs in close-up to thousands of living-rooms and bars. You remember the hassle this caused, the TV program apologizing all over the screen, then the flood of letters and calls, demanding to see more, saying there was no need to apologize for legs like those. Overnight the big blonde guest-starred on several programs, packed them in at a Broadway theatre, was in every column. She had a smart publicity agent, was exploited to the hilt—I remember one front-page picture of her in a museum, raising her skirts to compare her gams with a famous statue. Within two months she had her own TV show, was said to be raking in the folding money.

Her legs were something: not the thin stems most show girls have, rather they were heavy and strong, her thighs a lush curve of real muscle. I was embarrassed, for watching her sent a warm wave of excitement crawling over me. I was staring at her open-mouthed, like a fresh kid. Considering the energy I'd spent with Louise that morning, nothing should make me get up steam for days.

When she finished her act, I gulped my drink, asked where I'd find the manager. The barkeep's eyes got a little troubled till I said, “Want to see him about some insurance business.”

Via the head waiter and a lantern-jawed bouncer who had a neck thicker than Margrita's thigh, I finally made the manager's office. Flashing my tin, I told him about the estate, that I wanted to see Margrita about locating a former roommate of hers.

He was a sharp-faced guy with tired, suspicious eyes. Calling her on the house phone he said, “Miss de Mayo, there's a private dick claims he wants to see you about an estate. Expecting any process servers?... Certainly.” He looked up at me. “She's too busy to see you and...”

“Tell her it's about Marion Lodge,” I shouted at the receiver.

He was about to hang up but we all heard her say, “Wait—I want to see him.”

A waiter took me to her dressing-room. We walked through a cramped kitchen and sweating cooks and pearl divers—all in sharp contrast to the lush atmosphere of the club.

Although she was a big-name star, Margrita's room had barely enough space for a dressing-table, a closet, and a single chair. She was seated at the table, combing her long honey-blonde hair. “Make it fast, I have to change for my next number,” she said, looking me over in the mirror.

I dislike all six-footers on sight, but she was six feet of lovely stuff that I could sure go for. The tiny room was hot and she was sweating a little, a warm sultry smell. I told her about Marion Lodge, and still talking into the mirror she said, “Yeah, I remember her. Dizzy kid, bitten by the stage bug. You know, yokel girl coming to storm Broadway. Last I heard of her she was marrying some rich old character out West.”

“Know his name, the city?”

She was brushing her hair—her hands up—and she shrugged and it was simply unbelievable she was that well stacked—that it was all real. “No. That was nearly a year ago.”

“Remember who you heard this from? Anybody else know her?”

“I just heard it—someplace. And we only shared that flat for a short time—didn't know her well. You say this uncle left her a farm?”

“Not much of a farm. Tell me, I've traced her through several cheap rooming houses, then she suddenly blossoms out in this expensive set-up. She suddenly lands a good job?”

Margrita said, “Sure, dumb country kids always land a 'good' job! She had a second-hand mink, several high-priced gowns, and no visible means of support What does that make in your book?”

“Call girl? That when she became Mary Long?”

Margrita shrugged again and all she was wearing was this thin blouse and that transparent skirt, and she was so big, had so much of everything, it was overpowering. I told her, “Please, cut it out.”

She finally turned, stared directly at me. “Cut what out?”

“Honey, I'll be the first to admit you pack a lot of high-powered sex. Now stop teasing me into making a pass so you can have me thrown out on...”

“You louse!” she snapped, jumping to her feet, standing like a monument to desire. “You little miserable bastard of a man!”

I didn't stand up—I would have looked ridiculous, not even reaching her shoulders. I said softly, “Relax, Miss de Mayo. Wouldn't mind tangling with you, but at the moment I'm only trying to locate Marion Lodge, help her get some dough. So the poor kid went all the way down the road, selling herself for...”

“Save your tears, you'd stand in line too. Oh, sure she was a sucker! Broadway seemed something clean and high, beautiful and exciting... only she found it was raw and filthy, heartless, and so... so... terribly lonely!”

I clapped my hands lightly. “When you get too old for the stage, you can always write a sob column.”

Margrita's full lips sneered at me, “Mac, when I get old I'll have this racket licked, spend all my time reading the most interesting book in the world—my bankbook!”

“Let's get back to Marion Lodge. Does she ever write you? She must have mentioned the city she was moving to? Must have...?”

“Told you I haven't heard from her in a year. Besides, she was doing okay, this two-bit farm wouldn't mean a thing to her.”

I got up. Even standing on my toes I wouldn't be level with her eyes. “Okay, Miss de Mayo, sorry to have bothered you. Have to report Marion Lodge's last-known occupation—whoring, end of the trail. Or would you say, Another innocent little moth was burnt by the Great White Way, seduced by the greatest whore of them all—ambition?”

Her lips quivered for a moment, then she said harshly, “Wise little pimp, aren't you. Say what you like. I have to change now.” She fiddled with some buttons on the back of her blouse and her “dress” suddenly dropped to her feet. I was wrong, she wasn't wearing a G-string, she was stark naked.

She turned, picked up some cold cream from the dressing-table, began to rub her face—as though I wasn't there, but watching me in the mirror. There wasn't any point in my saying a word—everything I wanted to say she could see too plainly in my eyes. One crack from me and the jar of cold cream would be bouncing off my face.

I walked out There was something screwy about her, and dangerous, that I didn't try to understand. Or maybe it was all in my mind, angry at her height, at her teasing me. I stood in the narrow hallway outside her door for a moment. I thought I heard her crying.

“What you doing, short-ass?”

The voice was deep and suave; I looked up to see “Cat” Franklin standing in the kitchen a few feet from me.

“I'm listening at the keyhole, what the hell did you think I was doing?” I snapped, walking past him, ready to knee him if he tried to stop me.

He merely stepped aside, smiling down at me.

11

The two-block walk to my car cooled me off somewhat. And driving back to the boat I tried to figure out exactly what I was angry about. I'd talked less than ten minutes to Margrita, it was the only time I'd ever spoken to her, yet I felt as steamed as if I was an old boyfriend she was handing the brush. It didn't make sense.

Pete took me out to my boat and I undressed. It was too warm for pajamas, so I climbed into my bunk, snapped the lights off. From a nearby express cruiser I heard dance music, sounds of several women and men laughing. My own boat was rocking gently and I kept thinking of Margrita and Louise, how the relationship between a man and a woman should be so simple, and always ended up so damn complex, full of knots. Maybe it was a reflection of our world, where even the relationships between nations were all screwed up.

I tried to sleep, but then I started thinking of Marion Lodge, wondering how hungry and disillusioned she must have been when she started peddling it, if she still wore her hair in those corny curls when she was hustling, what a lousy thing it was that society made a commodity out of that, how lucky men were that they were not built so they could sell....

I heard the launch coming and it didn't pass me, but came alongside. Pete called out, “Company, Hal.”

I said, “Come aboard,” and sat up and snapped on the light and there was Anita coming down the cabin steps! I pulled the sheet across me like a startled school girl as Anita said, “Well, well, so this is where you live. Very cozy.”

“Get me that robe hanging on the door. What are you doing here?” I asked, as she sat down on the bunk opposite me, lit a cigarette. She had on high heels, a smart suit, and her face was flushed and covered with a lot of make-up. She looked older, almost a little hard. Maybe it was her overbright eyes—I was certain she'd had a few drinks.

“Now, Hal, is that a way to greet a friend, barking at them?”

“Stop the chatter and get me the robe.”

“Get it yourself, I like you the way you are,” Anita said, blowing a cloud of smoke at me. “I really go for all those nice muscles ridged across your tummy. Hal, you look much better undressed. My, warm in here.” She fanned her skirt showing the V her thighs made to her black-lace panties.

“If I get up I'm going to fan something—your backside. Now what the...?”

She came over and sat on my bunk, stared at me with big sad eyes. There wasn't any liquor on her breath. “Why don't you stop with this big-brother act? Hal, am I poison, that hard to take?”

There was a serious, pathetic quality to her voice—this was my big day with the gals! And for a fast moment I asked myself why I was playing the brother clown, Anita was young, pretty, and burning up.... But my so-called better sense kept warning... lay off!

“Don't start that, Anita. You're not hard to take, on the contrary you're—Hell, baby, you're a kid. We'd only end up in a mess. I like you; if I didn't I wouldn't worry about hurting you or...”

“You drive me nuts with this kid routine, that little girl-with-a-doll line. I know what I want, what... Here, is this a child's kiss?” She fell on top of me, her lips hard and pressing, her hair all soft on my face.

I tried to push her off, or at least I was thinking about it, as I managed to say, “Anita, give us time. If it's to be you and me... we'll know it.” Having her on my bunk, so near me, was almost too damn much to resist.

“Why should we wait?” she whispered, her lips moving against my ear. “I'm sure, and you... you just said you liked me. Darling, you're all I've been thinking about these last couple months. When I first started working for you... you gave me a laugh kick. I mean, you weren't at all what I thought a shamus would be. Then, I've gotten so crazy about you I can't think straight, I...”

The “shamus” did it, reminded me she was merely a thrill-happy kid. I pushed her away. “I'll give it to you straight—I'm scared of you. You're pretty and impulsive and probably would be terrific in the hay, but honey I'd never know when you'd change, when all that pep and energy would be directed against me, find myself doing time because you're under eighteen and...”

“Do I have to bring a birth certificate to bed?” she asked, poking a finger at the hair on my chest.

That sounded so silly we both laughed and that really tore it. She stood up, looked around, dropped the ash from her cigarette in the sink. “Gee, this is like a little apartment What a compact kitchen, everything....”

“We old sailors call it a galley. Find anything on the rock?”

“No, walked my legs off around that part of town. Found nothing. Hal, if I did something big, say like finding that Frisco money, grabbing that big reward would...”

“Don't you ever stop thinking about rewards?”

“Why should I? Think of the mugs who did the job, all those millions around them and every buck too hot to spend. Must drive them nuts. But suppose I did find that, or got one of the other rewards, would you run away with me? To Mexico, to Europe?”

“Honey, with that sort of green stuff I'd fly to the moon with you!”

“All right, keep making fun of me, one of these days I'll do something big and take your bluff—one of these days soon.”

“Sure you will. Sydney Greenstreet called me this afternoon, said he was afraid you'll drive him out of business.”

She stuck out her tongue at me. “You'll see. Is there a bathroom here, or is it any porthole in a storm?”

I pointed to the large picture of the blowfish that covered the door to the bow, and the John. “That's a door—the handle is the piece of food under the seaweed—what the fish is diving for.”

“That's a door?” Anita said, going over to examine it. “How clever.”

“Called the 'Blowfish Madonna.' Anchored off Fire Island last year and some artist got the bright idea of painting the door. Really got a soulful expression on the fish. There's a light switch on your left—and you work the pump handle beside the John to flush it.”

Soon as she shut the door I jumped out of bed, put on pants and shoes. She'd left her bag on the bunk and I opened it, took out my .38 special and tossed it under the covers. The hand line I'd used to catch the shad was drying over the sink, and I cut off two heavy sinkers from it, dropped them in her bag—so the bag would feel heavy.

I was putting on a T-shirt when she came out. “Come on, I'll put you in a cab, send you home.”

“I about expected that—brother!”

“Who you all dolled up for tonight?”

“You.”

She sounded so blue I didn't have the heart to bawl her out for taking the gun—that could wait till morning. “Come on,” I said, taking her arm, starting for the deck. She gave me a hug and a kiss that nearly smothered me. “For the... stop it!” I said, breaking away.

“Knew I could get your water on,” Anita said, walking by me, a silly triumphant sway to her small hips.

I whistled for Pete and we stood on the deck, my arms around her shoulders. Again I felt confused, feeling leery of her and at the same time almost sorry for the kid. It was a clear night, with a half moon and all the stars out. Anita said quietly, “Sorry I was a pest.”

“You're no pest, only... things like this can't be rushed. Maybe some day I'll wake up, start chasing you and...”

“You'll never have to chase me, Hal. Gee, it's great standing here, all those stars—”

“If we were out on the Sound, away from the city lights, see many more stars.”

“Okay, let's go.”

As Pete came into view, I said, “Just take it slow, Anita. I don't mean to be so... so...” She lowered her head and I kissed her softly and she straightened up, said in a queer voice, “Thanks.”

I helped her into the launch and we were lucky, there was a cab at the parking lot, unloading guests for one of the big yachts. I slipped her five bucks for cab fare, told her that since it was after midnight, she should sleep late, not be in the office till noon.

Taking me back to my boat, Pete said, “First you're lucky with shad and now this girl—don't know how you little guys do it—”

“Stop it,” I said, feeling tired and let-down.

12

I fell asleep the moment I hit the sack, had a crazy dream where I was judging a beauty contest and as far as I could see there were rows of legs—all of them the strong legs of Margrita, but when I raised my eyes the faces were all Louise's, complete with black eyes and cockeyed eyebrows. And they were all saying, “Thanks,” and it was the haunting voice of Anita. And then reporters were all about me, shaking my shoulders, asking...

I opened my eyes to blink into a flashlight. A hard voice asked, “Where's the damn light?”

I fumbled among the blankets for the .38 I'd taken from Anita. A big hand shook me wide awake, asked for the light again. I switched it on. Two burly jokers were standing there, filling the cabin, the five-foot-five headroom making them stoop. In the doorway I saw Pete's frightened pale face.

One of them was hatless, his hair crew-cut, giving him a flat-headed odd look. Neither of them had to flash their badges, I knew they were cops. He grunted, “Lieut. Hank Saltz, police department. Get dressed.”

I got up. The other dick picked up the gun lying at the foot of the sheets. Slipping on my pants I said, “I've a permit for that. What's this all about?”

“Got an Anita Rogers working for you?” Saltz asked in that ragged voice of his.

I nodded. “What did the kid do, steal a car or...?”

“She got herself beaten to death,” Saltz said slowly, as though enjoying the words. “I'm from Homicide.”

BOOK TWO

I

The night was still warm and clear, the same stars and moon above, but now standing on the rotten dock, I shivered with cold—and maybe fear. It was an old unused dock on the East River, big gaps in the rotted planking. Across one dirty, weather-darkened beam Anita's body had been flung—that's how she looked, battered arms and legs outstretched like a broken doll flung on the floor. Her thin face was a bloody mask of bruises, her teeth knocked out, dried blood on her hair where her skull had been smashed, red blotches where she had been beaten on the shoulders and thighs. The murderer had done a sadistic job, even her skinny fingers were busted.

What chilled me most was her pocketbook, lying torn beside her body—the compact, some change... and those lead sinkers. I could picture the terror on Anita's face, hear her childish scream when she reached for the .38 and found useless pieces of lead. Saltz told me, as we drove to his office, that the official cause of death had been a savage blow on the head with a “blunt instrument.” And all the time I was sick with guilt, for I knew the cause of her death had been... me.

Saltz and I sat alone in his office, a dull, neat, efficient-looking place. For a while he sat there, hunched over his desk, staring at me. He had a strange face, all his features were too big, gave him the appearance of a hammy actor registering strong emotions. I didn't try to outstare him. Finally I asked, “What... what did she have on her, in her pocketbook?”

He dumped her stuff out on his desk. The sliver of rock wasn't there. It might have fallen into the river, but I somehow was sure it hadn't. The rock was the only thing that made sense, hinted at any reason for the awful beating. I was trying to make up my mind whether to tell Saltz about the rock, when he asked, “Those sinkers—what would a young girl be carrying them around for?”

I said I didn't know.

Saltz gave me a thoughtful look, as he put a finger against the side of his nose, turned his head, and blew a “pearl” on the floor. He rubbed it into the floor with a big shoe, asked, “They yours? We know... What's the matter, never see nobody blow their nose before?”

“Tell you the truth, never as neatly as that. You're quite a floor-waxer.” I guess I couldn't kick—he had turned his head.

“Forget me. Now those sinkers—yours? We know Anita was on your boat tonight.”

“She might have taken them. But why? She certainly wasn't going fishing,” I lied.

Saltz was silent for a moment, then he thundered, “Come on, Darling—talk!”

It was crude, he expected me to jump. And I jumped—a little. I told him about Anita being my secretary, the office routine. He snapped, “She on a case for you?”

Maybe I should have told him about the rock then, but I was supposed to protect my client—and myself—and I'd have to tell him I'd sent her trailing the rock. Hal Darling, the big-time private eye, letting a school girl work on a case! All I said was, “Stop it, she's—was—only a kid. Answered the phone, did some typing, that's all.”

“You laying her?”

“No. Just told you she was a kid.”

Saltz grunted, took out a cigarette, put the pack on the desk. I didn't want a smoke—didn't feel anything except this sullen, roaring anger, deep inside me. With all her dizzy ways Anita had been a sweet kid, and I'd probably sent her to her death without even a gun. Big brother Hal, coyly switching the rod from her bag!

The office was full of the dead quiet of early morning and it seemed to weigh on me like a blanket, smothering my mind. “Let's get on with this,” I told him. “Got work to do.”

“What sort of work?”

“Mainly finding the killer or killers.”

Saltz sat up straight, his face red with anger, the short, rabbit-tail hair atop his dome standing up straight, “Finding the killer,” he repeated, mocking me. “You lousy little blond bastard, let me get you straight—you private dicks are an insult to any real cop's guts! With the best equipped police force in the world, why should anybody hire a private cop unless it's a crooked deal, unless they're afraid of the law? Every time I see a movie glorifying one of these all-clever private 'eyes'—I want to puke!”

I said, “Most of them are sickening. But no matter what you think, the State of New York gives us a license to do business. And while we're busy-busy putting things straight, people don't go to the cops because they're afraid of you servants of the law. Some cops are too handy... have their palms out, or think with their nightsticks first.”

“Handy like this?” Saltz was fast for an elephant. With one sweeping motion he reached over the desk, hit me on the chin. I flew backwards, found myself scrambling on the floor. Working my mouth to clear my head, I tasted blood on my lips. I stood up, eyes on Saltz's muscular neck.

“That make you feel like a big man with a big wild hair?” I asked, waiting for him to come at me.

He came in swinging. Ducking under the heavy arm, I jumped high on his heavy body, wrapped my legs around his hips, digging my ankles under the back of his knees. He chopped by my kidneys as I locked my hands, pressing the edges against his Adam's apple.

We stood like that, his fists punching at me wildly, in an embrace of death. His blows stopped as his face turned blue and he fought for air. I increased the pressure on the back of his knees and he slowly fell backwards. We landed on the floor with a loud thud. His eyes began to pop so I eased up on his throat, told him, “Don't ever push me around, you big ape! Get this through your damn thick head—I can kill you now, and if you ever try any strong-arm crap on me again... I will kill you! That's the truth.” I eased up a little more, let him take in a couple of deep breaths.

“I don't know if you think I'm the killer or not, but I imagine you checked with Pete at the yacht basin, know I didn't have a dinghy, couldn't have gotten ashore unless I swam. That's not the strongest alibi in the world, but it will do for now. And no matter what you think, I'm more anxious to find the killer than you are... I got a personal reason; I wasn't in love with Anita but I was fond of her. Now let's get up and stop this rough-and-tumble crap, get to work.”

I jerked my legs out from under him, stood up. He sat up, rubbed his throat, then got to his feet. I kept my eyes on his hands. Somebody opened the door behind me but I didn't turn to look. A man asked, “Everything okay, lieutenant? Heard a crash in here.”

“Beat it,” Saltz said hoarsely. The door shut and Saltz opened his collar, felt of his neck as he went back to his desk. He sat down and looked me up and down, as though he still didn't believe I'd thrown him. “I'll be damned... so you're a judo man.”

“Black Belt, First Degree,” I said, sitting down opposite him.

“I had a little of it in Police College, that Jap stuff really any good?”

“Jiujitsu... the 'soft or gentle art,'“ I said. “Really isn't Japanese, the Chinese had it about two thousand years ago, and maybe it started in India before that. It was hot stuff then, but now...”

“It still works!” Saltz said, stroking his throat.

“It depends upon surprise, knowledge of the vulnerable spots of the body. Today, with boxing and wrestling on TV, kids learning how to handle themselves in school, judo isn't so much. And it's frustrating as hell.”

“Why?”

I grinned. “You can never finish a good hold—without killing the other guy. But it works—for a shrimp like myself. Forget the lecture and let's get back to Anita. Could this have been a sex job? She was a hot kid, might have got mixed up with...”

Saltz shook his head. “No marks of attack, underwear wasn't touched. Doc says she was a virgin.”

“Then why the awful beating? Think it's the work of a loon?”

“We're considering that. Most cases of torture—they're trying to make the victim talk. You on any big cases, anything important?”

“Hell, I never had an important case in my life.”

He asked me about the other people I had in the agency and I told him about the pugs and he said, “I remember this Martinez, a good boy with no heart. Ran out on the champ. How come you got all these punchies working for you?”

“They're not punchy. Did some boxing myself... I was a good little man. You know the old adage—a good little man can't beat a good big man. Outside the ring, whenever I had to handle myself, always seemed to run into good big men. Why I turned to judo. The point is I got to know a lot of pugs around the gym and...”

“And they work cheap.”

“I give them a fair shake. I give them guard work because there isn't much else an ex-pug is suited for.”

We talked some more about Anita and it astonished me how little I actually knew about her. By the time it was starting to get light outside, Saltz told me I could leave. “But don't try anything fancy, like leaving town. Until I get a better one, you're number one on my suspect parade.”

2

It was a little after 6 a.m. and I had three cups of coffee and felt better. But the more I thought, the less things added up. The rock didn't make any more sense than when Will gave me the case. The fact that it was missing didn't mean a thing—wouldn't be hard to lose a sliver like that. But if it wasn't the rock...? I ran into an absolute blank wall. Yet Anita must have known she was in danger or she wouldn't have taken the gun. Every time I thought of the gun, a wave of bitter shame and rage shook me.

I had another coffee and the counterman said cheerfully, “No feeling worse than when you're really hung over.” He favored me with a yellow-toothed grin. “Bet you tied a good one on. Nice lip you got there, too.”

I finished the coffee. A bar across the street was opening and I went in, downed two quick ryes. As I came out, my buddy, the counterman, was standing in the doorway of his shop, sadly shaking his head at me.

When I got to the office, the door was open and the place looked like a hurricane had struck it. There's only a plain lock on the door so they didn't have any trouble with that. The safe was scratched and marked but they hadn't opened it. But every drawer had been turned inside out and the floor was ankle deep in papers and files. About twenty bucks of new stationery was shot to hell. I got Bobo on the phone and out of bed, told him to come right down. Then I called Artie Jenks who was going fine till he got a concussion banging his head on an unpadded canvas, told him to take over Bobo's construction job.

I found my rubber pad among the paper, sat down and hit the sides of my hands against it and tried to think. Ransacking my office meant Anita hadn't been killed by any jerk she'd picked up, but what were they looking for? It couldn't be the rock, they already had that. Or did they? I thought till my head ached but nothing came. I still felt the rock was behind everything, but I was damned if I knew why. I went over every job we'd had in the last month, everybody I'd met or spoken to, and it all ended in a dead end.

Bobo came breezing in a half hour later, asking, “Why the early morning rush call? Got a big job that...?”

I told him about Anita and he fell into a chair, his rough face going pale as he mumbled, “That poor kid... murdered? But... why?”

“'Why' will be the jackpot at the end of our rainbow. When we know 'why'—we know all the answers. She called yesterday at six and told me she had a supper date at some joint on 60th Street and First Avenue. In her language a joint meant a ginmill, so we can assume she lucked up on something during the afternoon and...”

Bobo stared at me. “Lucked up? Some luck!”

“... and made that date for supper. She had to take the rod before I returned to the office yesterday at about five, so that meant she expected things to happen at supper. But she came aboard my boat shortly after midnight and I took the gun from her so...”

“Hal, for Christsakes! You... you let her go to... wherever she was going... without a rod? Why that's the same as...”

“Shut up, Bobo! How did I know she was in danger or that... Oh hell, Anita was always playing cops and robbers. The thing is, she didn't seem frightened on the boat. She was gay, excited, maybe she expected something big to break. The last thing on her mind was death. No, she either met the killer at the ginmill and made another date with him—or her—or she was fingered there for the after-midnight date where she... got it.”

Bobo cupped his square jaw in his wide hands, said softly, in Spanish, “May God have mercy on her soul.” Then he added in a louder voice, “She was a funny kid—played detective once too often. And who parked it on your lip? What's the matter, Hal, why you staring at me?”

“You just said most of the answer—she played detective once too often. If we could find out who she was playing with, or rather who wasn't playing with her, we'd get places.”

“The big IF. Who busted your lip?”

“A cop with big ideas. Come on, let's clean up this office.”

3

At nine-thirty I called the New York State Employment Service, told them I needed a secretary. Then I got Thelma Johnson on the phone. She said, “Will's working. Did you find anything...?”

“Where's he work?”

“W-what did you find out?” Her voice was so eager she nearly stuttered.

“Nothing, yet. What post office does Will work out of?”

“164th Street near Amsterdam. Tell me, did...?”

“Later,” I said, hanging up. I dialed the post office, but all some snotty-voiced character would tell me was, “Mr. Johnson will be off duty at two... You can see him then.”

It was a messy job picking up the papers, sorting them. About an hour later the door opened and a slight, brown-skinned young woman stood there. She wore a print dress and owlish-looking glasses, and on second look she was rather pretty. “What do you want?” I barked.

She held out a card.

“I'm not buying any...”

Bobo asked if she spoke Spanish and she said, “You asked for a stenographer.” She had a clear, fierce voice that was like a chip on her shoulder.

“Yeah. What...? Oh,” I took the card. Her name was Shirley Lee. “I'm Hal Darling, this is Bobo Martinez. I run a detective agency. We've had a little rough stuff, but that doesn't usually happen. Can you type, take dictation, Shirley?”

“Miss Lee, to you. The office wouldn't have sent me if I couldn't do office work,” she said coldly.

For a moment I didn't get it, then I knew—my barking at her, the brush-off she must have received as “colored” on other jobs. “The job pays $40 a week, five days, nine to five. We have a simple routine—not hard work—but for the next day you'll be busy getting these files back in order. Want the job?”

“Yes, Mr. Darling.”

“Take off your hat and start working. By the way, everybody calls each other by first names around here. Right, Bobo?

“Sure. Here, I'll show you how we file these cards, Miss... Shirley,” Bobo said.

Telling Bobo to hang around and wait for me, I drove up to 164th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, which wasn't far from Louise's place. The first postman I saw told me Will's route was “Some place on 170th Street.”

I had to drive around the neighborhood a few times till I saw Will go into an apartment house. He seemed to have a little guy tailing him. I went in. Will had his bag on the floor, was busy putting letters into the nest boxes. When he saw me he said, “Hey, get out of here. Have an inspector timing the route. Can't talk to you, see? Find anything?”

“I want to ask you a few...”

“Later. You want me to lose my job?”

“Well... Okay, where?”

“I'll be in your office about three. You find where the rock came from?”

“Just be damn sure you're at my office by three. All I've found is one of us sure has rocks—in the head!”

I got into my car, headed downtown. In a million years I couldn't see a slob like Will mixed up in a murder. For that matter, I still couldn't believe Anita was dead. And I felt like a dope, the lack of clues, of motives, lack of something to start on. Hell, maybe I was playing this all wrong, should give everything to Saltz. I was only a small-time operator, this might be over my head. That would be my out....

But there wasn't going to be any out—I, and I alone, had to find the killer because Anita was working for me, because I'd robbed her of a chance to save her life when I took the gun away.

I looked like hell, so I drove to the yacht basin, took a shower and a shave, changed my clothes and felt better— but still half asleep. I put on an old pair of shoes—the kind with a metal shield over the toes—used to prevent industrial accidents, and as good as brass knuckles for kicking.

It was a little before noon when I returned to the office. Shirley and Bobo had done a good job, things almost looked normal again. Bobo had the afternoon papers for me—they had a picture and a one-column story on Anita. Shirley said, “You've had quite a few calls. All requested you phone them back.”

She handed me a list of every dance hall I was working for. Bobo said, “What's the pitch? Odd they should all call.

“Beats me,” I said, reaching for the phone.

I made exactly eighteen calls—they were all the same, nearly word for word. Soon as I'd say, “Hello, this is Hal Darling,” a frightened voice at the other end would say, “Darling? I'm canceling our contract—at once!” I'd ask “Why?” and the hall owner would say nervously, “Can't say why, Hal, but everything's off. Sorry.” And they would hang up. Some of them skipped the “Sorry” finish.

When I was done I told Shirley, “Don't buy anything on the installment plan....”

She tried to smile. “Knew this job came too easily.”

“Well, I have enough in the till to keep us going for a few months, but I sure as hell can't understand this. Bobo, you stick around the office, I'm going to have a chat with a few of these characters.”

I drove up to see Eddie Logan and when he saw me he got pale, wouldn't explain a thing except, “Hal, leave me alone. Somebody big is pressuring me.”

“Who?”

“You expect me to risk my life by telling you. Maybe I told you too much as is...”

“Stop this movie dialogue... risking your life. Don't make sense or...”

“Hal, I like you, all I can say is I was surprised myself at the pressure. I mean, all this trouble for a lousy thing like a policing job. Now do me a favor—get out of here!”

I didn't bother calling on the others. I still had the dizzy feeling I was running around in circles. I had to stop, sit back and wait for a break, something that made sense would give me direction. But there was one more chore to handle.

4

I drove to 60th Street and First Avenue. There were two bars near the corners. The first joint didn't look like a place where you'd eat supper—and Anita had said she had a supper date. I showed the barkeep her picture in the Paper, asked, “What time was this girl here last night?”

“Wasn't here last night, or any other night.”

“Who's on at night?”

“Me. This is my place, run it myself. Who are you?” I flashed my badge too fast for him to read it, said, “I know she was here last night, she was to meet me. I couldn't make it.”

“Not here, bud. Maybe she stood you up too. I'd remember her if she'd been in.”

“Why would you remember her?”

“Because she looks under age and I wouldn't have served her.”

The minute I walked into the other bar I had a feeling this was the one... it was a big place, with tables and a waiter, couple men eating lunch. The barkeep was a well-built lean fellow. When I asked if he was on last night about six, he kept on washing shot glasses, finally asked, “What you selling?”

I flashed my badge but he grabbed my hand, said, “A private copper,” and didn't seem much impressed. “Spill it, what's on your mind, snooper?”

“Who was on at supper time last night?”

“Let's say I was on.”

“Work long hours, don't you?”

He started drying the glasses—this was a high-class bar. “I'm not kicking.”

I put the paper on the bar, pointed to Anita's picture. He didn't blink an eye. “Ever see this girl before?”

“No.”

I slid a folded ten-dollar bill on the counter. “Sure?”

He grinned. “Save your green, mac. You asked me and I told you—I never seen her, except in the paper.” He walked down to the other end of the bar, started slicing oranges and lemons.

I stepped into the phone booth, checked on the liquor license. It was owned by a corporation that was a front for “Cat” Franklin, but the “Cat” owned plenty of bars.

Stopping at the bar on my way out, I said, “Tell the 'Cat' hello.”

The barkeep bent down and picked up a big sleeping tomcat from behind the bar, said, “Tell him yourself.” He laughed at me—with his eyes—as I walked out. He was a sharp joker.

5

I FELT SO RESTLESS, baffled, I didn't know what to do. I drove over to East 28th Street, to a studio gym run by Prof. Amatu, an old Japanese man with a face as wrinkled as a prune who was my judo teacher. After I got into my judo clothes, I did some warm-up exercises, practiced a few falls, and he took me on. He was about my height and even though I was half his age, he threw me twice in succession, jarred the tired restlessness out of me.

Then we worked on a hold I was specializing on—use it to get my Second Degree Belt. This was a variation of the overhead throw, where you sit down, pulling your opponent with you, your legs kicking into his gut, sending him sailing over your head. Only now I suddenly let go of his shirt or coat, got a neck grip. If I held on to his neck right, the force of his own body going over would snap the neck.

After we'd worked out in slow motion Prof. Amatu said, “Now you work with dummy-man—this much too dangerous.”

I worked with a full-sized dummy and the old man watched, said, “Very good, very fast.”

“And frustrating as hell. I'm curious to see if this will really work.”

He said softly, “Never be curious about death, my student. I pray you will never have need of this hold.”

“Sure but... seems silly to perfect something and never use it.”

“No, a weapon is a force in itself, without ever being put into use. A gun need never be fired to be an effective force. Remember, knowledge is the greatest weapon of all.”

I didn't feel up to hearing a lot of philosophical cracks, so I showered and went back to the office. Bobo said Shirley was out to lunch. I hardly touched my can to my desk chair when the phone rang. A man's voice obviously disguised, said, “Darling?”

“Yeah, this is Hal Darling.”

“You've lost your girl, your business. When you going to smarten up, play ball?” There was the click of the guy hanging up.

Bobo said, “Sure a short call. Who was it?”

“Wish I knew. Some punk telling me to play ball.”

“Jeez, Hal, what's going on here? Anita killed, office looking like a wastebasket, jobs called off and... Hal, you working with the cops? I mean, don't try to play badge like Anita was...”

“Can it, Bobo. Sure I'm working with the cops, but... I also am doing everything I can, too. As for the rest of this puzzle, your guess is probably better than mine.” I took out a scratch pad, wrote down the name of every person I'd seen or heard about yesterday, today. It sometimes stirs your brain, but now it didn't do a thing. Will Johnson's name popped up three times, “Cat” Franklin was down twice, seeing him at the club last night, being in his bar this morning... but it didn't mean anything.

As I was playing around with names, the phone rang and I motioned for Bobo to grab the extension on Shirley's desk as I picked up my receiver. A man said, “This the Darling agency?”

It wasn't the voice that called before. “Yeah, Hal Darling speaking.”

“I'm Edmund Winn, Mr. Darling, manager of the Light Fantastic. Would you be interested in bidding for the police concession in our hall?”

“What? I sure would!” The Light Fantastic was the biggest dance hall in the city, used two dozen guards every night.

“I've heard of your good work, am favorably impressed. If you'll kindly send me your bid today, I'll give you my decision in a day or so.”

“Be in the mails within an hour.”

“Splendid. Good day.”

I hung up. Bobo yelled, “What is this? They usually hire the big outfits like Pinkertons, Burns. What a break this can be for us!”

“First my business is taken away, then I get the biggest deal of my career. Somebody is playing cat and mouse with us, and I have a strong hunch who the cat is. Franklin own the Light Fantastic?”

“Everybody knows that.”

“Wanted to be sure.” This was the third time the 'Cat's' name had come up in less than twenty-four hours. It was two-fourteen. “Bobo, ask around, find out where Franklin's office is. Going to pay him a visit.”

“That smart move, Hal?”

“I got to stop this running in circles. Get going, I have to wait here till three—the postman is coming.”

“What postman?” Bobo asked, getting his cap.

“Some... eh... crummy case we got in yesterday. Be back by three-thirty.” I was really playing this too close to the cuff, not telling Salts; or even Bobo about the rock.

6

When Shirley returned, I sent off the bid to the Light Fantastic, then showed her the forms for checking our nightly patrol service—so far no storekeeper had canceled that—and the rest of the office routine. She was good, caught on fast.

Bobo returned at three, said the “Cat” had offices under the name of the City Amusement Agency over on Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street. I waited till three-thirty, called Will's house. Thelma said, “Oh my, Mr. Darling, he must have been so excited he forgot to call you. Will's rehearsing!”

“He's what?”

“It's all so wonderful—he was picked this afternoon for a TV program! Out of all the people in New York, they picked my Will. You know, the postman, the forgotten man, and all that And he gets a hundred dollars and...”

“He be home for supper?”

“Oh no, he'll be their guest for supper and...”

“Damn it, this is serious. I must see him. Soon as you hear from him, tell him to call my office at once.”

“You mean you've found something about the stone?”

“Not a damn thing!” I said, dropping the receiver in its cradle.

Bobo said, “How not to win friends and influence clients!”

“Got to stop blowing my top. Come on, let's see the big shot.”

“Maybe I'd better stay here.... I mean, never know what will come up, who'll pay us a visit?”

“Shirley will be okay. Whatever they were looking for, they know it isn't here. And we'll return soon.” But Shirley worried me, we weren't playing with kids in this deal. I told her, “On second thought, best you lock up now, call it a day.”

“I'm not afraid to...” she began.

“Bobo is right. See you tomorrow morning.”

“Suppose this mailman calls?” Bobo asked. “I'd better stay here and...”

“What's wrong with you, Franklin got something on you?”

“Naw, ain't that,” Bobo said, fingering his suit. “I look kind of shabby and...”

“So what?” I asked as Shirley got her hat and I set the lock on the door. We walked her to the subway, then kept on walking toward Fifth Avenue. Bobo puzzled me, seemed frightened. After a few minutes he said, “Hal, Franklin's bodyguard is... is Lefty Wilson.”

“The champ who kayoed you? Thought I'd seen him before.”

“I... eh... just as soon not see him. There was a mess about the rematch, lot of bad feeling.”

“I remember now, your manager held out for 40 per cent of the gate and the whole deal went up in hot air. Shame, would have been a two hundred grand gate at least.”

“Biggest payday in my career. Some managers, you know how greedy they are,” Bobo said. Suddenly he stopped walking and when I turned, he said, “Hal, that's all a lie. I run out on Lefty. I was scared shitless of him!”

“Scared? What you talking about?” I asked, as we started walking slowly again.

“Hard to explain,” Bobo said, his voice shaking a bit. He ran his hand over his worried, tan face, wiped the sweat away. “I wasn't a kid, had over a hundred fights before I met Lefty. My face shows I wasn't punch-shy.”

“Heard you were out front when Wilson tagged you. That must have been a tough one to lose.”

Bobo nodded. “Yeah, southpaws never bothered me much. I was reaching him with my right plenty... it was the best feeling in my life, trying to decide whether to win the title by a kayo, or be careful and win by a decision. Then in the eighth round he slammed one into my guts. Honest to God, Hal, I thought his damn fist was going clean through my stomach, come out my back. Why I was pissing blood for days after. The blow stunned me and then he crossed that left hook of his to my jaw and I went down for the count. That was it.”

“Every pug gets hit by a lucky punch, so why all the fuss?”

“You don't understand,” Bobo said in a low voice. “We signed for a rematch and I started training but every night I'd dream of that wallop to the guts, wake up in a sweat. Two weeks before the bout I couldn't take it no longer —I ran out. Abe Berger, my manager, was a square cookie. He made it seem like he was holding out for more dough, so I wouldn't look like no coward.”

“But why did you stop fighting?” I asked, amazed at Bobo's confession. I'd never questioned his courage before, seen him handle a crowd of drunken dock wallopers at a shindig once, or charge into some hopped-up punks flashing knives and brass knuckles.

“I kept fighting for about a year,” Bobo said, “but it wasn't any good. I could trim most of the other light heavies, but I didn't have the spirit in me. I'd think, what am I trying to win for, another crack at Wilson? That would make me slow down, started losing regular, on my way to becoming just another meathead. Hell of it is, a pug can tell when his opponent goes chicken, and Lefty knows, never forgot I screwed him out of a big payday.”

“Always one guy that has our number. Anyway, it was nine years ago, so forget it. I'm sure Lefty has.”

7

The City Amusement Agency was a large office, many girls banging away at typewriters. I suppose the business end of the dance halls, bowling alleys, bars, Franklin owned really were big business. The receptionist, a tall babe with impersonal eyes and a tight poodle hair-do that looked swell on her, asked, “Is Mr. Franklin expecting you?”

“I think so.”

She glanced through a snappy pigskin-bound datebook. “Sorry, but I don't see any appointment for a Mr. Darling.” She smiled a little when she said the name.

“Still think Franklin wants to see me, so as one darling to another, how about asking him?”

She put through a call, seemed to switch from one office to another before she put the phone down, told me, “Mr. Franklin will see you. I'll have an office boy show you in.”

The “boy” was built like an All-American tackle, and it wasn't only his behind filling the back of his pants—he was packing a rod and a sap. He took us down a long hallway flanked by rooms full of people typing or working adding machines. If the “Cat” had all these people working on his legitimate deals, I wondered how many he had working in out of the way lofts, figuring his bookie business and his rackets.

We stopped before a door and the “boy” pressed a button. There was a moment of waiting, while somebody probably gave us the eye through a concealed peephole, then the door buzzed open and the office boy said, “Gowan in” and left us. When he spoke he showed two rows of dirty teeth that looked like they grew on the mossy side of a swamp tree.

Franklin's office was strictly out of this world; only slightly smaller than Madison Square Garden, it was a study in contrasts. It looked like a business office with “Cat” sitting behind a modern metal desk, a typewriter and a dictaphone near him, the wall behind him full of books. There weren't any windows, but the air conditioning was perfect. The walls were a loud pink with red stripes, the chairs were stuffed banana-shaped couches—the kind that fit the contours of your body. At the other end of the office was a small bar, a tremendous TV set, a fireplace, and several pinball machines. A plush, deep-red carpet covered the entire floor, with a nude woman at least twenty feet long woven into it.

Lefty Wilson, the same gorilla-faced bodyguard I'd seen at the Emerald last night, was sitting at another modern desk. It took us a few seconds to walk across the huge carpet and Franklin stood up, held out his hand. “Glad to meet you, Mr. Darling. Didn't I see you last night, listening at a keyhole?”

“That's right,” I said as we shook hands gingerly.

“Said I wanted to see you? What makes you think I wanted to...?”

“You wouldn't let me in here if you didn't...” I was saying when Lefty recognized Bobo, yelled, “What you chicken-hearted sonofabitch! I been waiting a long time to give you a pasting!”

Lefty came around his desk, adding, “Now you'll get it!” Lefty had a rubber tire around his waist, bags under his eyes. Since Bobo was a physical culture bug and always in top shape, I knew he could take Lefty with little trouble. I had time to glance at Franklin, see if he was going to call off his man. But he was watching it all with an amused look. I glanced at Bobo... he was backing away, hands down, mouth open in panic!

I didn't want to see Bobo beaten up, among other things it would be a wrong start with the “Cat.” As Lefty came at Bobo, I stepped in his way, said, “Cut the clowning, we're here for some talk.” He had a handy neck for grabbing, but I was watching his feet.

He put his weight on his left foot, tried to push me aside with his hand. I ducked, whirling on my left shoe so we were both facing the same direction—then I got my right foot behind his left knee, gave him a kick that added to his own momentum—sent Lefty sprawling on his hands and knees. I called over my shoulder, “Franklin, tell this punk to lay off or I'll have to hurt him.”

“Lefty, take a walk,” Big Ed said.

The ex-champ got to his feet, split a scowl between me and Bobo, walked out of the office. Franklin pointed to one of the odd half-moon shaped chairs, said, “Take a seat, Mr. Darling.” He motioned Bobo to another of the chairs. “You'll find these chairs unusually comfortable, they take much of the strain off your heart. People don't realize how they constantly overstrain their hearts. By the way, your exhibition was very neat. What do you call that?”

I sat—or rather stretched out—on the chair. It was comfortable. I said, “That's Hicki O Toshi, Japanese for tip and fall. I seem to be giving too many 'exhibitions' these days.”

“That the same as judo?” Franklin asked, taking a bottle and several thermos-pitchers from his desk.

I nodded. “You've seen the basic idea of judo—take advantage of the other guy's rush. Judo is mainly redirecting the other chum's energy, turning it against himself. The more powerful your opponent, the less good it does him.”

“Sounds interesting. Like a shot? I have gin—with grapefruit, orange, pineapple, or grape juice.”

I took mine with orange juice and Bobo tried it with grape juice. It was a very smooth drink, warming my guts at once. The “Cat” poured himself a straight juice drink, asked, “Now—what is it you wish to see me about?”

“What you wanted to see me about,” I said, fencing with words.

Franklin smiled. It was hard to think he'd ever been a strong-arm goon—looked more like a fugitive from a man-of-distinction ad. But he had the beefy shoulders of a muscle-man, and when the rest of his face smiled, his eyes were always alert, watching... waiting.

He said, “You're an interesting little man—and I'm not referring to size, but rather that you're a very, very small businessman. I could buy and sell you a hundred thousand times over. However as businessmen...”

I finished my drink. I didn't know whether it was the chair or the drink, but I sure felt relaxed.

“... let's have a talk. I operate on the theory that there's two ways to do things, the hard way and the simple way. Like all other businessmen I have certain... eh... trade secrets. Now I believe in live and let live, but let us assume you—or somebody—stumbled on to some of my trade ideas. In that situation I can do it the hard way, take my secrets back. Or play it the easy way—let you in my business, there's enough for all. You understand?”

I nodded. I could have dozed off then and there. I reached out, put the glass back on the desk. Bobo's eyes looked watery, he was half high. I told Franklin, “Let me have another shot. This is great stuff.”

He made another drink, gave it to me, said, “I find people can think best when relaxed. You're not drinking gin but straight hospital alcohol, 190 proof, with juice.”

“190 proof? I thought a 100 proof was...?”

Franklin smiled, pleased with his own knowledge. “Most people confuse volume with proof. 100 proof, for example, only means the contents are 50 per cent alcohol by volume. This is a handy drink, puts people at ease, off their guard.”

“Think I'm off guard?” I asked, taking a big gulp, acting like a kid showing off. The stuff sure gave me a glow.

“You and I, we haven't any reason to be on our guard, or have we?”

“That's right,” I said, not having the faintest idea what he was gassing about. But of course I couldn't tell him that. “And my end of the deal is the Light Fantastic concession?”

He spread his large hands on the desk. “That's it, I throw business your way... you throw some my way.”

There was an awkward silence. He was waiting for me to carry the ball. I said, “Have to give it some thought,” and climbed off the chair.

“Very sensible,” Franklin said, standing up. “Only don't think too long. Sometimes a deal goes cold—dead cold— if a person waits too long.”

“You don't have to spell it out.” The thought that he might have something to do with Anita's beaten body sobered me up. I finished the drink to get the glow back again. I waved to Franklin, started for the door. The “Cat” said to Bobo, “Amigo, you smoke Havana cigars? Take some.” He held out a box.

Bobo took one, hesitated, took another. The “Cat” laughed at him. “You should have battled my Lefty again, you had the style to whip him.”

As we walked toward the door, Franklin must have stepped on a button under the carpet, the door buzzed open. He said, “I'll expect a call from you—soon.”

“Yeah.”

The hallway was empty and we walked—or floated— past the offices, nodded at the cute receptionist, and took the elevator to the street. I was drinking with one of the biggest mobsters in the city—that old merry-go-round was getting up speed.

8

When we hit the sidewalk Bobo said, “Hal, I am ashamed of what happened....” Martinez couldn't take liquor and he spoke thickly, like a real lush.

“Forget it, you've stepped in for me plenty of times.”

“Funny office, funny drink.”

“And a not-so-funny 'Cat',” I said. “Soon as my head settles down, I have to do some real good thinking.”

“Lot I fail to understand and it's not the drink,” Bobo said. “What you got on Franklin?”

“That's what I have to think out. Whatever I have—I don't know what it is.”

“Like holding the tiger by the tail. A difficult situation,” Bobo said in solemn-drunk talk.

“Look, go home and sleep it off. I'm going back to the office for a moment. See you in the morning.”

“Hal...” Bobo hesitated. “I... eh...”

I took out my wallet, still had seventy bucks of Will's money. I gave Bobo two tens, walked him to the subway.

The phone was ringing as I unlocked the office door. I didn't make it. I sat down and banged away at the rubber pad, but it was hard to think. In a vague way things were starting to take shape but I was a long way from putting the pieces together—or from having all the pieces. The phone rang again. Curly Cox asked, “Hello? Boss? Me and the other guys ain't got no more cards to stick in the doors tonight. Called you earlier but no answer. Told Anita about it yesterday and... What's with this Anita?”

I told him I'd ordered some and would pick them up from the printers, and that he and the others should drop in around midnight to get them.

I had to hustle down to the printer before he closed at five, then, having nothing to do, I dropped in on Saltz, to see what he knew. He greeted me with, “Deadeye Dick, the famous two-bit private investigator. Suppose you got the case solved?”

“Have you?” He sure irritated the hell out of me.

“Been talking to a couple of stoolies. They claim the word is Anita was shaking down somebody—somebody important.”

“That's a crock of slop; Anita never knew anybody important. And she wasn't a shakedown artist. She was a kid.”

“Is that why she's a dead kid, because she never knew nobody important?”

I said, “You're crazy if you take a stoolie's word that she was shaking down any...”

Saltz laughed in my face. “Darling, you're not even a two-bit detective. How the hell do you think the police work? Let me give you a little course in scientific detection —more cases have been solved by tips from stoolies than by all the laboratory methods ever invented. Maybe in the movies they look through a microscope and come up with the answers, but in real life—a dick is only as good as his list of stoolies. Sure, a stoolie is the worst kind of a rat, but if you squeeze him, all the grapevine gossip comes out, and that's what you work on. But, of course, you wouldn't know that.”

I shrugged, kept my trap shut. I wouldn't touch a stoolie with a fifty-foot pole.

Saltz brushed his hair with his hand. “Here's something else, I'm going to fool around one more day, then I'm cracking down. Somebody isn't talking enough!”

“Meaning me?”

“Could be. I've talked to her folks, former schoolmates, and always end up with the same stupid spiel—'Anita was just a kid.' You don't have to be over twenty-one to be a crook. And no matter how they do it in Hollywood or in books, in life nobody murders without a damn good reason. I'm going to find that motive!”

“I'm all for it. Did you trace the cab that picked her up?”

Saltz nodded. “Nothing there. Driver claims she only took the cab far as 59th Street. Probably took the bus across town. What you been doing all day, bird-brain?”

“Nothing much,” I said, weighing my words. “My office was ransacked early this morning; nothing missing or...”

“Why didn't you tell me that?” Saltz roared.

“Don't crowd me, that's what I'm doing—now. Rest of the day I spent on another case,” I lied. “By the by, the police ever have anything on a Marion Lodge, also known as Mary Long? She was a call-girl a year or two ago. Dead uncle's estate is looking for her, she came into some property.”

Saltz grunted a few words into his desk phone, then took out a package of mints, tossed one at me. “You stink like a saloon. Looking for the killers in a bottle?”

“Never tell where they might be?” I said, chewing on the candy. We didn't speak for a few minutes, Saltz staring at me as though I wasn't there, then he said, “Darling, I find out you're holding out on me, I'll give you a chance to try your judo against a couple guys with rubber hoses. Remember that.”

His heavy neck would be almost perfect to try out my new hold. I didn't know why I disliked the jerk, but I sure did. I said, “Have to ask the professor what to do in a case like that.”

His phone rang. He listened for a moment, then hung up. “A Marion Lodge was arrested for hustling in 1950. Released on a thousand-dollar bail. Case dismissed without coming to trial.”

“Why?”

“Usual reasons—witnesses changed their minds, refused to talk.”

“What was her home address?”

Saltz shook his head. “Knock off. That was two years ago or over, she wouldn't be there any more.”

I got up. Saltz said, “Keep in touch with me.”

I said I would and at the door he said, “This might interest you, couple thugs tried to burglarize Anita's folks' home this afternoon. Old man scared them off with a shotgun blast. Interesting?”

“Another piece for the jig-saw. Interesting to you?”

“Saltz and Darling, the TV quiz kids! Get out of here.”

9

Outside I called Thelma Johnson and she still hadn't heard from Will. I stopped for gas, drove out to Queens, getting hooked in the late traffic. I'd seen the Rogers once or twice when Anita had worked late and I'd driven her home. Mrs. Rogers was a heavy woman in her late forties who worked in a local bakery. Rogers worked in a gas station, was thin, the quiet type: spoke with stilted words as though his choppers were false and he was afraid they'd . drop out if he opened his mouth too wide.

They lived in one of the cheap-looking bungalows that mushroomed up all over Queens and Long Island immediately after the last war, and sold for about three times what they were worth. When I rang the bell he opened the door, dressed in a faded pair of coveralls. We shook hands and he said, “Glad you came out, Hal.”

He led me to the kitchen where he was boiling hot dogs, had a bottle of beer working. “Emma is staying at her brother's. Upset, of course, and then today this robbery.... Eat supper with me.”

I speared a frank, wrapped a slice of bread around it, poured myself some beer, asked about the robbery. The old man had taken the day off, to be around Mrs. Rogers, and shortly after eleven in the morning he'd heard a noise at the rear porch door, saw two men trying to jimmy the door. He couldn't describe them except that they looked “rough.” He'd taken down a shotgun from the wall, slipped in a shell... they took off when he fired. He showed me where most of the porch door was ripped away. “Aimed high. I know, at fifteen feet I could have splattered them with a shotgun, but... after what happened to Anita, I didn't want to hurt nobody. Too much hurting and killing in this world.”

We finished the franks and a few more bottles of beer as I asked about Anita's boyfriends... could be I was going off half-cocked about the importance of the sliver of rock in all this. Rogers said, “Hal, Emma and I made a mistake, although I suppose it wasn't our fault—we had Anita late in life. As a result, when she grew up we were both too old to give her much companionship, and maybe she wasn't too happy at home, that's why her drive to... Well, now that she's gone I feel like my own life is done, empty.”

“One thing you can be sure of—I'll get her killer or killers if I don't do another thing in life.”

He gave me a tight smile. “Revenge—what does it mean? Won't bring our Anita back. Hal, you asked about boys.... Well, it was hard for Emma and me to understand Anita, we weren't one generation apart, we were several. She was a little wild, excitement seemed to be in her blood like a drug. She was too eager, intense, to have any boyfriends, or any friends, her own age. Guess she sort of frightened them off. I don't mean she was a wanton but... you spent eight hours a day with her, know what I mean.”

“Let's say now and then she was silly.”

He nodded his head slowly, kept nodding for a few seconds. “Hal, I want to ask you something, frankly and honestly. Seem like an odd question for a father to be asking... but... she was mad about you and knowing how impulsive she was, did you... two... ever... sleep together?”

His eyes were hard on me and I wondered where that shotgun was at the moment. “No, sir, Mr. Rogers, we never did. Frankly, I was afraid of Anita. That's the truth.”

He sighed. “That's too bad.”

“Too bad?”

“Hal, when a loved one dies you sit back and take stock of her life. Anita never had much and I hoped she had at least known and enjoyed the thing she wanted most—love.”

The old man amazed me, but I knew I was talking to a hell of an honest man, even if he thought sex was “love.”

He said, “That must sound like an awful thing for a father to say.”

“I understand what you mean. Anita would have made any man a fine wife.”

He stared at the kitchen linoleum, his head nodding again, and began to quietly weep. It gives me the creeps to see a human cry. I stood up. “Mind if I look around her room?”

He pointed to a door on the other side of the kitchen.

Poor Anita—instead of pictures of movie stars, school pennants on the wall, she had reward circulars taken from the office. There was also a proudly framed diploma from a correspondence course the kid had taken in “detection.”

I nosed around: there wasn't much, piles of old detective magazines, newspaper clippings about various stick-ups, swindles... a closet with a few worn dresses, shoes and stuff.

Mr. Rogers came in, said, “We live in a crazy age: your child dies and all you have left are your memories, a few snapshots, dresses... and pictures of criminals.”

“Anita come home yesterday afternoon?”

“Yes, while we were both working she came home, changed her dress.”

“Where's the dress she changed from?” He took it out of the closet. “The police were here this morning, went over the room.”

I said I knew... and didn't say they wouldn't be looking for the same thing I was. The dress had one pocket— it was empty. I went through her dressing-table, poked my finger in the powder-box. She had a pile of cheap costume jewelry in her drawer, some hairpins... and then I saw it! Either carelessly or wisely, Anita had tossed the sliver among the hairpins. Palming it, I slipped it into my pocket. It was almost a letdown finding it... knocked my ideas about “Cat” Franklin into a cocked hat—which I could pull over my head and call it curls.

I went through the motions of looking through the rest of her stuff, said, “Nothing here. I'll be getting on...”

Stay for a while. It's lonely here. Come on, we'll look at TV.”

We went to the living-room and he dialed in some corny dance act, opened more beer. The TV made me sleepy... I'd only had a few hours of shut-eye in the last twenty-four hours. I dozed off.

I slept hard and when I opened my eyes again, I had trouble getting the old man into focus. I yawned, said, “Sorry I dropped off. What time is it?”

“After ten. You.... What's the matter?”

I was staring at the TV screen. It was Margrita's show and she was clowning with a guest—Will Johnson looking fat and sloppy in his mailman's uniform! Margrita had on a pair of shorts that showed off her fine legs and a sort of halter that didn't hide much of the rest of her. The scene was a beach and she had Will down in the sand, was trying to kiss him. I guess it was funny—the studio audience sounded hysterical. Willie was merely acting himself—the embarrassed oaf—and she finally got his shoulders on the sand and a cop suddenly ran into the scene, made like he was a wrestling referee and slapped Margrita on the shoulders—as though she'd won the bout.

When Willie sat up, she planted a big kiss on his fat lips that made the characters in the audience give out with corny whistles... and there was a lipstick smear on Will's dazed face, and the audience howled. That kiss didn't look like any stage peck to me, looked like Margrita really went for the big jerk! And I was downright envious!

“You like her? Has a nice voice but all this leg stuff...”

I glanced at my watch. It was ten-twelve. “When does this show go off?”

“Half past ten. I think....”

“Got to run, Mr. Rogers. Have a... business appointment at ten-thirty,” I said, getting my hat.

10

I drove as fast as I could, but it was after eleven when I pulled up in front of the former movie house that was now a TV studio. The usual autograph hounds were hanging around the entrance, and as I parked my car, they set up a howl. Margrita—in a flowery red dress—and Will were pushing through the crowd toward a sleek, chauffeured car. This was strictly a Cadillac-rich job; it had a lot of shiny gadgets on it and two big silver aerials that stood up like outriggers on a fishing boat. I tried to fight my way through the crowd but couldn't buck the women and kids tightly clutching their stupid autograph books. I ran back and got into my struggle-buggy.

It was easy to follow them, and I kept wondering what she saw in a slob like Will. They got out in front of one of these swank residential hotels on Park Avenue and Will's puss had the goofy how-did-this-happen-to-me? look of a guy who knows he's going to bed with a dream gal.

Parking on a side street, I decided to wait till he came out, nail him for the truth about the rock. I stared up at the building, wondering which one of the lighted apartments was hers. The doorman was a guy I felt sorry for; dressed like a rear admiral in a technicolor musical. I said, “Wasn't that Margrita I saw come in a few minutes ago?”

“Yes, sir. Sure is pretty.”

“Quite a car she has, too.”

He leaned over, whispered, “Rented job. Part of her publicity.”

“You don't say.” I pointed to a couple of windows over the entrance. “Guess you see plenty, with her living right up there?”

“No, she lives in the penthouse, around there,” he said, pointing to the side street. He looked down at me with an amused glance. “One of her fans, junior?”

“Any chance of getting her autograph?” I asked, giving him a goof-grin.

“Always bothered with you pests. Have to wait all night to catch her now. She told her chauffeur she was in for the night.”

I went back to the side street, looked up at the top of the hotel like a hick. I could see the lighted windows of what I thought was the penthouse, and while I was straining my neck, the lights went out. I walked back to the corner and waited—but no Willie. It dawned on my thick head that the lucky slob was spending the night with Margrita— and that sure wasn't any TV, prize! It may have been jealousy on my part, but Will didn't look like what a big-time show girl wanted—but he was up there!

I went back to the side street, threw my head back and stared up at the dark terrace and windows. Vaguely I heard steps behind me and then the whole damn hotel fell on me.

11

When I came to, I was sitting on the sidewalk, everything spinning like mad. The old merry-go-round was getting up speed. I shut my eyes and waited, opened them again and everything had stopped. A few curious people were staring down at me, a young cop was kneeling at my side. The back of my head felt like it was trying to take off. The cop asked, “Suffer from fits?”

Like a dope I touched the back of my head, had to fight off screaming with the pain.

“Quite an egg you got there—must have hit your noggin when you fell. Just take it easy, got an ambulance coming and...”

Holding his hand I stood up. The street did tricks for a moment, then settled down. But when I bent over to pick up my hat I nearly blacked out again. This cop liked to talk, went into a lecture about people suffering from fits shouldn't be out alone, all that.... I felt for my wallet. It wasn't there. The cop grinned. “Lose something?” He held up the wallet. “Found it near the curb, must have dropped out as you hit. See you're a private...”

I tried to be casual as I opened the wallet. Everything was there—except the stone. I started for the car. The cop said, “Hey, the ambulance is coming.”

I couldn't tell him I'd been sapped, I grunted, “Forget it, always go to my own doc when I get these... attacks.”

He walked me to the car. “You in condition to drive?”

“Only get these attacks once every ten years,” I said, driving away. I headed for the yacht basin but as I crossed Broadway, saw one of these big advertising clocks, I headed downtown. I was to be at the office at midnight to give the patrol boys their cards. My head was only faintly buzzing. One thing was for sure—the rock was the key to the works, and some man-to-man talk with Will would straighten out many things.

It was ten minutes before midnight when I unlocked the office door, reached for the light switch... and the business end of a gun cut into my back as an even harder voice said, “Keep your meathooks up—high!”

I was frisked in the darkness, then the lights went on. Two burly goons were staring at me, one with a Luger in his hand. The office was a mess—again. I said, “You went through this act once. What's the pitch?”

The joker behind the gun asked, “Tiny, where's the bundle?”

“The what?” He was close enough to try brushing the gun aside, but the other punk worried me.

“Give me no questions,” the gunman said, slapping me across the face with his free hand. My nose began to bleed and my head started buzzing with static again. The other clown picked me up like I was a puppet, said, “Tie him up and get to work.”

I was furious—my feet dangling in the air, his stinking breath covering my face. But I had to stall for time. “If you tell me what this is all about, I might...”

The gunman slapped me again and I swung like a punching bag. My head hurt and blood gushed down my chin, over my shirt and good tie. “Open the safe, bud, and you won't get hurt.”

The other giant let go and I got to my feet, opened the safe. It was five to midnight. There wasn't much in the safe, papers, petty cash, and two guns. The guy with the gun took off his coat, said in a bored voice, “Guess we got to work you over, shorty, after all. Where's the dough?”

As he reached over to smack me, I kicked him on the knee-cap with my metal-toe shoe and he screamed. I turned to sidestep the other mug's rush, but didn't quite make it. He threw himself on me and we both went down. He had at least a hundred pounds on me and I could hardly move. When I tried to get a finger under his ear, he brought his elbow down into my guts and I had to fight hard to keep from passing out. I managed to grab his left thumb, started working that back, trying to break it, as he roared with pain and began clubbing me with his right fist.

His buddy managed to crawl over and swung at me with a sap. Although I blocked this with my shoulder, the blackjack felt like a crowbar. They both were swinging at me when the door opened. Curly Cox and Dan Rosen were so surprised they hesitated a second before swinging into action. Rosen had only been a run-of-the-mill middleweight—ring rules hampered his style—but in a street brawl he was strictly champion stuff. He landed on the gunman with his hands and feet working, while Curly hit the joker who was pounding my guts with a solid right that made him forget me.

I took time out to get my breath, then chopped at Curly's guy, hitting him on the temple with the edge of my right hand—and that was that. Rosen was enjoying himself with the other goon and as Curly grabbed the guy's arms, Danny smashed a right and left to his face, added a terrible right to the belly as a finisher.

We got to our feet and it took me a long minute to straighten out. Curly asked, “Boss, what's all this?”

“I don't know, exactly,” I said, taking the gunman's Luger and sap. The other sport had a knife and a .22 strapped to his ankle. They were careful, no identification on them, not even clothing labels. All they had between them was about a hundred bucks and a set of car keys... and the sliver of rock!

This threw me entirely off base, if they had the rock, what else did they want? What money...? The phone rang. Thelma Johnson sounded hysterical as she asked, “Mr. Darling, have you seen Will?”

“Yeah—on TV.”

“Oh the way she was kissing him! Where is he now? I'm worried sick, have a feeling he's with that woman and...”

The numbness was leaving my shoulder and head, and I had to spit out a mouthful of blood before I could shout, “I'm as anxious to find Will as you are. And if...”

“You must find him! If he's with that... that... slut, I'll... I don't know what I'll do! I'm about crazy now and... and...” She began to weep over the phone.

“I have some business to take care of, but I'll come up to see you soon—and your Will. I want to...”

“Please come up at once. I'll go nuts if I don't talk to somebody and...”

“Hold your water, I'll be up as soon as I can.” I hung up.

Rosen said. “Boy, you're a mess. Hal, shall I call the cops?”

“No.” I dug through a couple of overturned drawers till I found an extra sport shirt I kept around the office. It wasn't too clean but a big improvement over the bloody one I was wearing. I tossed one of the guns to Curly, told him, “Keep an eye on our guests,” and went to the washroom. When I washed the blood from my face, it didn't look too bad. I stuffed my nose with toilet paper to stop the bleeding, changed shirts.

When I returned to the office, Dave Moore, my other patrolman, was there. The two hoods were sitting up, looking ugly. I got out the patrol cards, took the gun from Curly and told them, “I can handle this from here—get going.”

“But, Hal...?” Curly began.

“Look, far as you're concerned, this is a simple case of robbery. Forget it.” I handed him the hundred dollars I'd taken from the thugs' pockets. “Split this between you— for your trouble.”

Dave, who talked with a rasping voice because of his flat nose, looked at Curly splitting the dough with Rosen, asked, “Hey, what's the deal here?”

I pointed to my wrist watch, which by some miracle was still working. “It's twenty after twelve. If you'd come on time you might have found out. Curly, give Dave a ten spot... and all of you get out of here.”

They didn't want to go but I finally convinced them it was okay. When they left, I locked the door, put the .22 and the knife in the safe. I sat on the table, the Luger in my hand, the leather sap beside me. I said, “You've had your fun, chums, now start talking!”

12

They glared at me with silent suspicion.

“Maybe you jerks don't realize the spot you're in,” I pointed around the office. “I can knock you both off and it would be a clear case of self-defense, caught in the act of robbing my office. The police would pin a medal on...”

The character whose thumb I'd tried to break mumbled through puffed lips, “You ain't calling no cops.”

“Maybe. Why did you punks sap me outside the hotel? Who you working for?”

“Just a job to us,” the gunman said, “we was hired. Come from Philly. Don't know a thing.”

“What's this money you were asking about?”

“You asking us?” he said, working his bloody mouth into a sneer.

“Sit on the floor, with your backs to me. Come on, move!” I cracked the gunman on the side of the head with the sap—but not hard enough to kayo him. He went down. I had the Luger in my left hand, covering the other monkey. He scrambled down on the floor beside his pal.

“Now reach forward and grab your toes—stay like that.”

They grunted and finally made their toes. Standing far enough behind them so they couldn't spin around and try anything, I swung the sap back and forth through the air. In the quiet of the office it made a faint swish sound.

“Look, fellows, I'm pooped, in no mood to futz around. You've jumped me twice, kicked the slop out of me, if you don't talk I'm going to beat your heads to a pulp.”

They didn't make a sound.

I said, “Know how your noggin is constructed? Your brain is a very delicate mass, suspended inside your skull. Know what causes a kayo? The sock on your jaw rattles the bone against your skull and that jars the brain against the bone structure, makes you black out If it gets rattled too hard, if the brain is bruised, you get a concussion. A bruise on the brain matter leaves a scar, if that's reopened by another blow, you either die, go blind, or end up paralyzed for life. That's why they don't let a pug with a concussion fight again. Or if he does, well—you know the ring deaths in recent years. Now a sap does lots more damage than a punch, sometimes it splinters the skull, a hunk of bone sticks in your brain.”

As I talked I kept swinging the sap through the air. The backs of their necks turned a flush-red, then went pale.

“Little lecture because I want you to think about all that soft spongy brain matter being rocked like this...” I socked the gunman again—lightly. “Think of it, that's two bruises your brain's had in the last five minutes. Another one and you may be blind or...”

“Cut it out!” he said, his voice a hoarse scream. “Told you this is only a job to us.”

“Honest!” the other goon whispered.

I tried to laugh. “Sure, just a good day's work!”

“We're getting a grand, must be a big deal,” the gunman said. “But it isn't the dough. Like I told you, we was hired in Philly and you was fingered to us this afternoon on the street and...

“By whom?”

“A guy called Gus. He come in from Atlantic City yesterday. We was to look around your joint for a bundle of folding money. We drive along Hudson Street for an hour till we see a Dodge sedan with a busted right headlight, give Gus what we had, get paid off.”

“Mac, that's the God's honest truth!” the other guy said. I cracked him on his balding dome. He fell over, then sat up again. I told him to grab his toes and he did, moaning. The whole mess was starting to get me a little sick.

“What kind of a story you dummies handing me? If you found the bundle, what's to stop you from crossing this Gus and...?”

“It would mean dying.” the gunman cut in. “Told you we're dealing with big stuff.”

“With Big Ed Franklin?”

“We wasn't given no names. We didn't ask for none.”

“This bundle—how much dough is it?”

“Didn't say,” the other joker chimed in. “We was to get that hunk of stone you had, then look around your office— and your wallet—for any hundred buck bills we could find.”

I was still whipping the sap about and his voice shook with every swish. He finally gulped, said, “Mac, that's the ticket, all we know.”

“When did you hit New York?”

“About noon this afternoon,” the gunman said.

“How about one in the morning, where you beat a girl to death on an East River dock!”

“You mean that one they got in the papers?” the second hood asked.

I slapped him with the blackjack and he fell on his side, shouted up at me, “What you want, us to make up a story to sell you? Like you said... don't want to get my brains... scrambled... we're leveling with you.”

“Catch your toes,” I said, pointing with the sap. “What's with this rock?”

“Beats the hell out of me,” the gunman said. “Looks like ordinary hunk of crummy stone to me. But I don't ask questions. Can I let go of my toes? My stomach and back are killing me.”

“Certainly,” I said. As he took his hands off his shoes I swatted him lightly. “But you get this.” He grabbed his toes again—but fast.

I didn't know what to think: I not only was on a merry-go-round but as Bobo said, I had a tiger by the tail and didn't know what to do with it. If Saltz found out I was holding out on him, the least he'd do would be revoke my license. I said, “Okay, get up—slowly—and keep your hands in the open. The three of us will meet this Gus in the busted Dodge.”

The gunman shook his head. “Buddy, you don't get the set-up. We ain't just a couple of hoods, we're big operators in Philly. We took this job because we had to... it was that important. They've imported guys from all around the East Coast. I'll lay you odds there's somebody watching us and...”

“Who's the 'they'?” I asked.

“You can kill me and I can't tell you because I don't know. We take orders, that's all.”

I don't know why, but I believed them, they were just a couple of errand boys. I was confused, weary, and tired of beating them, sick of all this crazy violence I'd been through. Only an idiot gets a bang out of smacking anybody. I saw a stamp-pad on my desk. “One at a time, go over and open that pad—leave your fingerprints on those papers next to it.”

“What's the idea?”

“Your calling cards—in case I want to look you up sometime in the future. Then you can beat it.”

“Beat it?” the gunmen repeated, relief and astonishment all over their bloody faces.

“No sense in licking a dead horse. We'll leave together, in case you have any pals waiting outside. Come on, make with the prints.”

From the way they left their prints, I knew they'd been printed before. I herded them out of the office, down the steps. The street looked deserted. I said, “Start walking toward Third Avenue and don't look back.”

They almost ran down the empty street. I jumped into my car and drove off. I still had the keys to their car, where-ever it was. Tomorrow I could trace it, but it would probably be a stolen job. At the moment I had only one thing on my mind—a talk with Willie Johnson, the lover-mailman.

13

It was almost two when I climbed the five flights to the Johnson apartment. Thelma was in the same housecoat I first saw her in and her eyes looked bad—red.

She squeezed my arm. “Oh Mr. Darling, you don't know how glad I am to see you. I'm simply a nervous wreck! Will kissing that woman before... millions and now.... Why in all the years we've been married I never...”

I sat down on the living-room couch, tried to think. Her chatter seemed to snow me under. Finally I cut her off with, “Mrs. Johnson—Thelma—I'm beat, tired, on edge. Got a drink around?”

“Why... yes. My, you do look... your poor face is a little puffy. Your nose—”

I dug out the wadded toilet paper from my nostrils. She gave out a mild scream and I said, “Only paper and blood. Where's the bottle of courage?”

“My... something happen to you?”

“Everything

has happened to me! You going to yak-yak me to death or get me a drink?”

She returned with a full bottle of Canadian whisky, sat on the couch beside me. I poured myself a good hooker, drank it, then poured one for her.

“Oh, Darling... that's such an odd name...”

“Skip it. Call me Hal.”

“I really don't drink, Hal. The doctor told me...”

“Take it, relax you. And for Christsakes, shut up.”

“Well!” She gave me a fish-eyed stare for a moment, gulped her drink down, turned pink as she sputtered, “I never heard such rudeness!”

“What do you know about that rock? The truth, not that crock of crap you and Will gave me.”

She began to whimper. “I don't know anything. Oh what's... happening... you insulting me and Will....” Thelma poured herself another stiff drink, took it down like a veteran lush. “Always been a good wife to Will and now....”

I shut my eyes, tried to think. The hoods had mentioned hundred-buck bills. Could be they had me mixed up with somebody passing the queer, a ring of...

“How could he do this to me? Another woman!” Thelma's whimper began to take on an hysterical note. That would be the finishing touch—all I needed! I told her, “Stop moaning. Will is with one of the sexiest women in the world and if he... hell if he gets the chance to lay her, you can't blame him.”

“How can you say that? Blame him! I'll break his head for him!” she said loudly, her whisky beginning to talk.

“Well, let's chatter about it some other time, I...”

“I can't understand how Will could...”

“Thelma, your Will is probably a good faithful guy but... there's always a point where any man can be tempted, and Margrita is that point. Doesn't mean he doesn't still love you but.... How long have you been married?”

“Nineteen years. Nineteen lovely.... Oh, Will!” Fat tears started down her face.

“Like everything else, a marriage can get stale, married people get used to each other; the excitement of sex wears thin and... Look at yourself, Thelma, and at Will, you're both sloppy and...”

She really turned on the tears. I quickly poured her another shot, which she gulped down, held her head in her hands and started to bawl.

My nerves were so raw the sound of her crying gave me a grating chill. I took a fast shot myself, had to do something to stop her tears. I put my arms around her, placed her head on my shoulder. “Thelma, forget Will. After all, you're a pretty woman, warm and exciting.”

“You're being nice... Hal. I used to be sort of good-looking. Now I'm too plump.”

“Nuts, you're beautiful. Not pretty the way a hard-faced chorus girl is, but full of charm.”

“Mr.—Hal, you really think so?”

“You bet,” I said, not entirely lying. “Will takes you too much for granted. A clown like myself, who hasn't a wife, can appreciate a home, all you do to make a man happy. Only it's wrong for a woman to devote her whole life to a man, fall for that lord and master pitch. She must think of her own right to happiness....”

Thelma stopped crying, was listening to me, her hand warm and moist on top of mine. I slipped her a corny line of sweet talk and she was very quiet. Either my words or the three slugs of whisky she'd had, were working on her.

“... You see, you've let Will be the big I-am in your life, forgot your own right to happiness.” I suddenly kissed her on the mouth. Her lips were surprisingly alive and exciting.

For a moment she pulled away, then her arms tightened around my neck. I held her close with one arm, kissing her, as my other hand was probing inside her robe, sliding around her hot back to her bra. She whispered, “Hal, this is so crazy! We mustn't—”

“It isn't crazy if we both want to.”

“But... it's wrong to... Oh, Hal!”

My hand was caressing her great breasts, ringing the hard nipples. Her head fell back against the couch as she gently pushed my hand away, but her eyes were soft and willing.

For a moment my whole idea nearly backfired—for some reason her plumpness, the pillowy-bosom, got me on fire and I nearly went through with things—but sex was really the last thing on my mind. I mean, I had enough troubles without latching on to more. With an effort I stood up. “There, see what I mean, Thelma? I'm no Margrita, but I am somebody new and... you're willing. So don't blame Will. You've both been taking each other too much for granted, the star-dust has worn off, the...”

The door opened down the hall and a second later Will came in. He looked a little crocked. One of his eyes was shut and turning purple, he had a couple of skin-bruises on his face, and his uniform was dirty. Thelma jumped up and as she did so part of her white bra hung out of her robe, like a flag at half-mast.

“What the hell's going on here?” Will thundered.

“Nothing.”

“You—you've been with that woman!” Thelma wailed.

“You're a fine one to talk! I find you undressed and this shrimp...!”

I stepped over to his towering bulk, snapped, “Shut up! You and Thelma can straighten this out later. We got a lot of talking to do.”

“We sure have! I demand an...”

“Can the self-righteous slop.” I buried my right in his belly. He grunted, bent double as he slipped to the floor. Thelma ran over, knelt beside him, bawled, “You little thug! What are you doing to my Will?”

Trying to convince him the time for games is over. Yesterday you came into my office, handed me a cock-and-bull yarn about being 'curious' about a rock. I'm a peaceful guy, love the quiet, easy life... but since you've brought that rock to me, I've been punched and blackjacked, my office has become a shambles, my secretary has been murdered...”

Will stared up at me, his one good eye wide with fear. “That girl in the papers—thought I recognized her!”

“And she got it the hard way, beaten to death. Now stop the bunk and tell me the truth about this damn rock!”

“Will, tell him... tell him everything!” Thelma pleaded.

He got to his big feet, helped Thelma up, said in an offhand voice, “Fix yourself up, Thelma. Your... is loose.” He pointed to her bra. She gasped, ran out of the room.

“That little girl... dead,” Will whispered. “See, I never thought anything like that would come....”

“What about the rock?” I asked, shaking him.

“See, it was like I said, came through the window and all that. Only, when it hit the copper vase it split. Mean, what I gave you was only a sliver. The rock was about a half inch long, maybe a quarter of an inch thick. I kept the big piece, only now I ain't got it... they robbed me.”

“Who did?”

“Two big guys.” He lowered his voice to a whisper again. “See, I was up at this Margrita's apartment, had some drinks, she was... nice to me. Then suddenly she gets cold, gives me the gate. When I step outside, two guys jump me, knock me cold. When I came to, the rock is gone. Had it sewn in here.” He held up a torn part of his gray mailman's coat. “And it was worth ten grand. See, that's why I came to you, find out where it came from, if it was mine, if I could sell it and...”

“Take it slow. This little hunk of stone was worth ten grand?”

He nodded. “About a week after it hit this room, I got curious, took it to a jeweler on my route. He said he never saw one so big. Comes from Brazil, what they call a carbonado.”

“What the hell you talking about? What is a... carbonado?”

“It's a diamond, see?”

BOOK THREE

I

I sat or fell down on the nearest chair. Will sprawled on the couch, called out, “Thelma, bring some tea.” Then he saw the bottle, took a good hooker.

“Are you telling me a diamond...?”

“An industrial diamond, the jeweler called it.”

“... an industrial diamond worth ten thousand bucks came tearing into your living-room... just like that?” I asked.

“That's the truth, Hal.”

I ran over and grabbed him by the collar. “Stop handing me fairy tales! I want the truth, the...”

“I swear it!” Will gasped.

“Let him alone, what he said is the truth, all we know.” I turned and saw Thelma standing in the doorway. She sat down beside Will, opened his collar, stroked his face, said, “Tea is on, dear.” He buried his face in her hands, mumbled something, and began to sob.

I stood there, staring at the two of them with my mouth open. I knew they were telling me the truth, yet it didn't add up... made less sense than before.

“Look at your face, Will,” Thelma said, “how will you go to work tomorrow?”

“I'd better call up sick. I am sick, too, Thelma, a sick, frightened fool!”

“Aw, Will, you...”

I said, “Thelma, pack a bag—right now. Got any place in the country you two can go for a few days?”

“My sister has a cottage in Lakewood.”

“Can't stay away for a few days,” Will said. “Even if I called up sick, they might send an inspector around and if I wasn't home, lose my job....”

“You can both lose your lives if you don't get out of here! Get this through your dome, we're playing in the big leagues now. At the moment I may not know my can from a base on balls, but I'll find out. Meantime, we're dealing with a killer, and through chance you seem to be involved with him up to your ears. Thelma, get dressed, pack that bag!”

“But I have an icebox full of food...?” she said, thinking aloud.

“Stay here and it will be eaten at your wake!”

She fled to the bedroom. I heard her drag out a suitcase. Will said, “This all sounds like a bum movie, unreal....”

“Anita's body was damn real!”

“That poor child. But they have the stone now, they'll leave me alone.”

“How do you know? How do we know what the stone means? They slugged me, took the sliver, but that didn't stop them from giving me another going over, asking about money.... Will, you involved in any kind of mail fraud, a swindle with dough?”

He said indignantly, “I wouldn't tamper with a postal card! Twenty years I been a carrier, see, never lost a letter, or got a demerit for...”

“Skip it. Haul your ass to Lakewood, don't write or phone anybody. Don't come back till I write you there— care of general delivery.”

“What will we tell Thelma's sister?”

“Tell her you two are taking a second honeymoon—you can use one.”

“Say, what about you and Thelma? I saw...”

“Stop it, you've got nothing to worry about Call the P.O. and get going.”

He phoned the night clerk at the post office, said he had a strained ankle, then we went down—after Thelma came rushing back to water some damn plants—and I drove around the block slowly, didn't see anybody watching the house. Will had an old Chewy and I followed them down the West Side Highway. We were the only two cars for miles.

At the yacht basin I honked my horn, turned off for the parking lot. As I drove in I saw a couple of large characters leaning against a big Caddy and smoking cigarettes. They looked like goons. Maybe I was jittery, but I turned around and sped out.

They didn't follow me, but at the moment I was too tired to get into any more rough-and-tumble acts. And I didn't want my boat wrecked. I headed for a Times Square hotel, then got a better idea and started uptown. There was a little traffic on Broadway but I couldn't make out anybody tailing me. I cut over to Amsterdam Avenue, raced up to Louise's place.

It was after 4 a.m. and I had to ring the bell several times to get her up. When I gave her my name she opened the door a crack, then all the way, sleep vanishing from her eyes, as she said, “Hal, what a wonderful surprise!”

I kissed her, feeling her warm body through the flimsy nightgown. There was a faint odor of whisky on her lips, her eye was still dark, but she'd washed the phony eyebrows off, making her look older. “I'm so glad you came back,” she whispered. “Why didn't you call? I've been waiting for...”

I closed her mouth with a kiss. “Sorry, honey, but I've been busy, busy. I'm dead tired.” I snapped off the lights, locked the door carefully, undressed in the dark. I still had jerko's Luger in my pocket. I slipped it under the pillow as her arms pulled me onto her naked waiting body.

It seemed a second later when she was shaking me, saying, “Darling, it's six, I have to get up.”

“Can't you take the day off?” I asked, my voice lazy with sleep. The hard early light made her room look drab, mean... the harsh meanness of living on the edge of poverty.

“Let's not start that argument again. I'd make you a whopping big breakfast, except I'm out of coffee.”

“Get you some,” I said, hating to leave that soft bed. I threw back the sheet and the thin blanket into a messy bundle at the foot of the bed, got up. With two hours' sleep I felt much better. “We'll eat, then I'll drive you downtown.”

She smiled at me oddly. “Too late now. Tried to wake you at five-thirty, but couldn't get you up.”

I kissed her, not quite understanding what she was saying. She stroked my face, asked, “Hal, you're not sorry you came back?”

“What you talking about?”

“I don't know, that first time was so great... I don't want it spoiled.”

“Stop it Nobody bats a 1.000 all the time, so...”

“Then it wasn't so good this time!” she said with a hurt cry.

“Honey, I came in here in the middle of the night dead tired. Sure, I'd like to sleep the rest of the day, waking now and then to find you beside me but.... What the hell are we talking about?” I kissed her again and shuffled off to the bathroom.

Her underthings were hanging on the towel racks and the bathroom stunk of stale washing smells. I stuck my head and shoulders under the cold shower, got wide awake. I knew what she meant—in time this crummy joint could take the romantic veneer off anything. There wasn't any towel in sight, so I dried myself with one of her slips.

When I opened the door, Louise rushed by me, giggling: she was in a good mood again. Dressing, I stuck the Luger in my belt, called out, “Be back in a few minutes.”

“There's a delicatessen down on Amsterdam that should be open. I'll be dressed by the time you return....” Her voice was lost in the sound of the shower.

I found the delicatessen, bought a couple pounds of coffee, cream, bread, and coffee cake. As an added thought, I asked for half a dozen cans of frozen orange juice and the sleepy-looking counter man said, “You're my first customer of the day. The others should buy an order like this.”

“Yeah, I'm the early bird, or the worm, or something,” I said, picking up the big bag of groceries. It was going to be a clear, sunny day. I felt rested, ready to step.

I sprinted up the stairs to Louise's apartment, pushed the door open and put the bag on the table. She was still in the shower. I got a drink of water, said, “Come on, thought you were in such a big hurry, baby?”

She didn't hear me over the sound of the water. I took the stuff out of the bag, put the cream and juice in her little icebox. “You'll be late—might as well take the day off,” I said, pushing the bathroom door open.

The shower was running but the bathroom was empty. I stepped back into the room, snapped on the fight There were wet tracks on the floor, leading to the door.... But Louise would hardly leave the shower and go visiting a neighbor... even to borrow a towel. Of course she....

I glanced at the bed and there in the bundle of sheets and blanket I saw it—the two red splotches: one was the awful red of her dyed hair and a little farther down the sheet was the very bright red of blood.

I ran over to the bed and pulled the sheet away from her. Her body was still wet and there was a terrible look of fear on her face... and her throat was sliced from ear to ear—one long slit.

For a long moment I stood there, dazed. Still in a trance, I walked over to the bathroom, shut off the shower. It didn't matter, my fingerprints were all over the place. The delicatessen man would remember me and my big order. And Louise's boyfriend would be overanxious to tell the cops about me. All I could think of was one thing—I didn't want the cops to pick me up now—not till I settled two scores with some murdering bastard!

I followed the wet footsteps to the door—vaguely thinking it had all happened so recently the water hadn't even dried. Hell, I hadn't been out of the apartment more than ten minutes. Somebody had knocked, rung the bell, and Louise—thinking it was me—had left the tub and opened the door to her murderer....

The ringing of the phone cut the chilling silence of the room. I knew who it would be before lifting the receiver. The goddamn mocking voice, speaking through crumpled paper or something, asked, “Well, wiseguy, ready to play it smart?”

I was too choked with fury to say a word. There was a hollow minute of silence at the other end of the line, then the sharp click as he, she, or they, hung up. I gently put the receiver back in its cradle, went over to the bed. The bloody stain was growing larger and larger. It seemed a horrible thing to do, a final insult to Louise, but I had to leave her—leave her in that bloody bed.

Fixing the door so it would lock behind me, I softly shut it.

2

I stood on the sidewalk, looking up and down the street, the windows of the houses across the way. Some big kids were walking toward the subway—that was all. Except I knew there was a murderer watching me. A killer who had tailed me here, waited most of the night for me to leave so he could kill a girl unknown to him—to spite me. The ruthless extremes to which this murderer went made me shudder. Whoever was watching me didn't know one thing —they were looking at another killer.

I may have had some doubts deep in my mind about being responsible for Anita's death... but Louise, the unhappy lush I'd come to sleep with... I'd brought her a fine lover's gift—death.

Oh yes, as I gave my car the gas I had only one clear thought in my stunned mind: one thing was for sure—there was another killer loose in the city—and sure as hell that was me!

BOOK FOUR

I

I gassed up the car and drove for two hours, just driving around, going no place in particular. I kept watching to see if I was being tailed, but couldn't make anybody following me. And if I was driving in circles, my mind was off the merry-go-round, starting to think in a straight line.

It was a bad shock to realize that up to now, despite Anita's death, I'd been horsing around, waiting for the breaks instead of going out and making them. Now I had to get off my rusty-dusty damn fast, find the murderer. It wasn't only a matter of avenging the two girls... once Saltz started on Louise's death, all roads would lead to me and my story was so silly I wouldn't believe it myself. “I went down to get coffee and when I came back she was dead....” It sounded phony even as I repeated it.

The trouble was, all the time I'd been acting like the small-time operator I was... I was fighting their kind of battle, doing what they wanted me to. Either I had to admit I was in over my head and let the cops handle everything, or find the killer goddamn quick, before circumstantial evidence had me warming my behind in the electric chair.

After a solid breakfast, I drove to the office. It was an even bet Louise's body wouldn't be found for a day at least—take several days before it began to decay and smell —and after they found it, be another day before the fingerprints boys and her boyfriend put me on the hook.

Shirley and Bobo were straightening up the place. Shirley said, “This is where I came in. Go through this routine every night?”

Bobo said, “See you stopped a few with your face. What's the...?”

“Forget the files and junk. Shirley, here's five bucks, get me copies of all the morning and evening papers for...” I looked at the wall calendar, gave her several dates—all about four weeks previous—about the time Will said the rock came busting into his room. I was going to start from the beginning, the very beginning.

I told Bobo to go with her. I didn't want to see her killed and this maniac I was dealing with... you could never tell.

Bobo pointed to the mess of papers on the floor. “But, Hal, we lose any of these, the agency will fold like an...”

“Hell with the agency. I'm starting to think that as a private detective I'd make a good dressmaker's dummy. Come on, I want those newspapers soon as possible.”

2

I cleared my desk by the simple process of sweeping everything on the floor. Then I took out Marion Lodge's picture, the paper on which I'd written the list of people that kept cropping up since yesterday, added the fact that the stone was an industrial diamond, that Louise was dead, that I'd received another mysterious phone call.

I stared at the paper, knowing that somewhere in this list was a clue, the key I'd been overlooking all the time. I had a hunch that Anita, with her cock-eyed correspondence course, was probably a better dick than I—she'd somehow found the answer in her first few hours on the case, and that was why she was killed.

Shirley and Bobo returned loaded with papers, and we all started reading. I told them, “Want you to read every story... and when you run across anything about diamonds, mailmen, or anything that happened up near Staymore Avenue... or in the Marble Hill section... sing out.”

It was an odd feeling reading last month's papers, to see all the scare headlines, the predictions that came off wrong. I finished one day's batch of papers when Shirley said, “There was a double killing up around that neighborhood. Here, see.”

She placed the paper on my desk and there it was— the headlines jumped up and hit me in the face. It was a case I'd read about and forgotten but Anita, with her morbid kid's curiosity, had probably filed it away in her mind.

Two middle-aged men, Ralph Brody and George Shelton, who worked in the safe deposit vault of a bank a block from Will's house, were killed in an attempted hold-up. As they were leaving the bank on this rainy afternoon, they had been shot and killed. Their assailant, who was described as a “tall, swarthy man wearing a brown trench coat,” had been frightened away by a citizen who witnessed the whole thing and emptied his gun—in vain—at the fleeing thug. No reason for the attempted hold-up was known, since the bank men only had a few dollars of personal cash on them, and there were hints in the news story about a “crazed killer on the loose.”

The joker in the deck was... the sterling citizen who did his duty by shooting at the gunman was Big Ed Franklin!

3

Brother, the pieces to one part of this puzzle began to fit so tight it made my head hurt! Bobo asked, “So what does all this add up to? Remember thinking at the time, why hold up a couple of guys only making fifty a week.”

“See who the great hero was?”

Bobo pointed to a later edition, “Sure, they even got the 'Cat's' picture here. Still, so what?”

“I'm a guy who doesn't believe in too many coincidences, like Franklin merely happening to be driving by at the time the...”

Shirley, who was reading the same story in another paper, said, “But it says here Mr. Franklin had a safe deposit vault in the bank, got there after the bank closed. That's how he happened to be in his car, witnessed the killings.”

“Sure, Franklin is such a simple joker, doesn't even know banks close at 3 p.m., that's why he gets there at 4 p.m.!”

“Still can't buy it,” Bobo said. “Why would a big apple like the 'Cat' get himself mixed up in a couple of killings?”

He had me stumped there—Franklin was way past the stage where he did his own strong-arm stuff. But things fitted so tightly I knew I had to be right. I said, “Haven't got the whole picture yet, but it's coming into focus. Shirley cut out all stories dealing with the murders.”

I read through the next few days' papers but the case faded quickly. No trace was ever found of the “killer in a brown trench coat.” But a wild idea was flying around inside my head.... I dialed Saltz, had an uneasy moment while waiting for him to answer. If he'd found Louise's body... Saltz might be checking fingerprints by now and...

Saltz grunted, “Lieut. Saltz, speaking.”

“This is Hal Darling.”

“The little eye. What's up, Sherlock?”

For once I was glad to hear his corny humor. “Nothing. Called to learn if you had anything new.”

“We're still digging, expect the break any day.”

I wanted to laugh into the phone: Saltz must have thought he was talking to the press. “Look, Lieutenant, has there been a diamond cutter, or anybody in the diamond business, reported missing in the last three or four months?”

“What the hell has that got to...?”

“Case I'm on. Missing husband, think he worked in the diamond trade under a false name. Thought you might be able to give me a hand.”

“I got enough cases to work on without helping you. For a little guy you got more nerve than...”

“Okay, don't go up in the air,” I said, thinking it didn't make much difference if I located the diamond cutter or not—he would certainly be dead by now—if my brainstorm was correct.

“I'll boot your little can up in the air! Up to my neck in work and you pester me with looking for call-girls, for diamond cutters—what the hell you think this is, a quiz program?”

“Sorry,” I said. “By the by, happened to pick up an old paper on the subway—those two bank men who were shot about a month ago—wasn't it rather odd that 'Cat' Franklin was mixed up in it, the only witness?”

“What are you, mother's little helper today?” Saltz growled.

“I'm merely trying to learn how to be a detective,” I said sweetly, not laying the sarcasm on too heavy.

“You're nuts and I'm even crazier to bother talking to you! I was in on that bank case. Franklin had a permit for the gun. We made a thorough ballistics check of his cannon, wasn't the same one that killed the bank men.”

“Was it the same caliber?”

“Yes, but the ballistic markings were entirely different What you driving at?”

“Just wondering.”

“Stick to guarding dance halls and stop wasting my time!” Saltz said, hanging up.

4

I read the news stories again. Both men had been shot with one bullet apiece, clean through the heart. No matter what anybody says, a pistol isn't a very accurate weapon, especially for a punk firing during the heat of a stick-up on a rainy day. I read through a couple more editions till I came upon another item I was looking for—Franklin had emptied his gun at the “killer.” The fantastic idea was still pounding at the door of my brain, and crazy or not, it fitted in with everything else. I glanced at Shirley. “Take the day off. I got talk for Bobo.”

A hurt look swiftly crossed her brown face, then turned to anger.

“Look, Shirley,” I added, “it isn't that I don't trust you. Only there's a reward for what I know—a bullet or a slit throat. Don't want you collecting that kind of payoff, so less you know...”

“But I got off early yesterday. And only worked an hour or so today and...”

“Tell you what, come back about three. Meantime, go to the Paramount and...”

“I don't like movies, too stupid these days.”

I grinned. “Shirley, will you please blow.”

She hesitated, finally got her hat and left. I locked the door, told Bobo, “Don't you go blabbing what I'm going to tell you. Wouldn't tell you except I have to try this on somebody for size.”

“Did I ever have a big mouth, Hal?”

“Here's something you didn't know, that rock we had, it was a sliver off an industrial diamond about a half inch long, worth ten grand. It...”

“A diamond?”

“Yeah. Diamonds that have flaws, poor color, are used in industry for drills, polishing, stuff like that. This was made special.... I think it was a diamond bullet!”

5

Bobo looked at the cold stub of a cigar he was chewing, said, “Hal, I know what I'm smoking, so it must be you. You puffing tea? A diamond bullet!”

“Listen to this—all of it—before you sound off. Our client, the postman, is sitting in his living-room, five stories up and no roofs around him, when this slug comes tear-assing through the window and metal blinds, breaks apart on a copper vase. What else but a gun would send a diamond slug, or any slug, that high and with that amount of force?

“Now, Willie don't know what it is, takes it to a jeweler on his mail route, learns it's an industrial diamond, worth ten grand. He wants that dough but isn't sure the stone is his, wants to play it safe. He hires us with a bunko story, to find out who owns the rock, whether he can sell it. Assuming it is a diamond bullet, why should anybody spend at least ten thousand bucks having such a bullet made?”

“That's why it don't make sense,” Bobo said. “In cowboy stories I read about silver slugs, but never a diamond bullet. If a guy wants to wear it on a chain, wouldn't spend...”

“Wear it? This guy used it for shooting! I think I have the answer, though it may sound wild as hell. You know what ballistics is—same as fingerprinting for bullets. The nose of a bullet is made of lead and the gun barrel has grooves to keep the slug spinning straight. As the bullet comes out of the barrel, these grooves cut into the lead, leave markings that...”

“I know that, but...?”

“Willya listen? Being harder than lead, the steel grooves of the pistol barrel cut the bullet slug. Now, suppose a guy makes a diamond nose for a bullet, the diamond being harder than steel will work in reverse—instead of the grooves cutting the bullet, the bullet will cut the grooves!”

Bobo shook his head. “I still don't get it. Why should Franklin spend all that dough when he could hire a couple guns for peanuts and...”

“I don't know the motive—yet—but for some reason the 'Cat' can't trust anybody to knock these jokers off, he has to do it himself. He had this diamond bullet made by a guy who probably is wearing cement slippers at the bottom of the ocean this minute. Let's say the diamond slug is the fourth bullet in the gun. The 'Cat' can take careful aim, kill the two men with a shot apiece, then empties his gun at the supposed killer—being very careful to shoot at a high angle—which is how the diamond went into Will's apartment. That was the one thing the 'Cat' couldn't figure on, the luck factor that always screws up these perfect crime deals.”

Bobo, toying with the scissors, said, “I must be dumb as hell, but what has the diamond got to do with all this? Why couldn't he shoot the two of them and throw the gun...?”

“Diamonds are harder than steel.”

“And also a girl's best friend,” Bobo said, grinning. “You mean he wanted a slug that would cut through both guys at once?”

“No, no. Look, he kills the men with two carefully aimed shots, could have used two more—if necessary. Then he empties his gun in the air. When the cops check his gun against the slugs in the men, Franklin is in the clear because the ballistics markings are different—even though only one gun was used. Don't you see, any bullet fired after the diamond slug will show different markings than those fired before because the diamond has changed the barrel groovings!”

Bobo stared at the scissors for a moment. “Could be a sharp idea. Would it really work?”

“Why not? If it was made wrong might bust the gun, but we can assume for the bundle Franklin invested, he got a perfect job. This has to be the answer. How else can we account for a diamond hitting Will's window at about the same time two men are being shot nearby?”

“Sounds okay, except why would the 'Cat' kill?”

“That's the next thing we have to get on top of. We're going to make a call on the Brody and Shelton houses,” I said, standing up, reaching for my hat. Bobo handed me a newspaper clipping he had cut out, and it slipped from my fingers, traced lazy circles in the air as it gently landed on the desk... across Marion Lodge's picture.

6

I stood there, my hand still up in the air, near the hat-rack, my eyes glued to the desk. If I had a hunch I was on the right track with my diamond-bullet theory, I knew my luck was riding now for sure... for at that very moment I located Marion Lodge. “Bobo! Who is this?” I pointed to the snapshot on my desk.

He tried to push the newspaper clipping off the picture, but I caught his heavy hand. “Leave it—the clipping has hidden the tip of her nose. With blonde hair—who is this?”

“Looks like somebody I've seen in the movies or...”

“It's Margrita! I'd better enroll in that mail-order badge school Anita was attending, get the rust out of my brains. She bobbed her nose, dyed her hair, changed her name— to get away from her call-gal past. Damn, should have figured that from the start This is going to be my lucky day.”

“Don't overplay yourself. You've found the gal, but you still got nothing that will convict Franklin, Go to court with that bullet business and they'll stick you in a padded cell.”

“I haven't even got the diamond sliver any more, but at least I know what I'm looking for, and that's half the case.”

Bobo waved a strong hand, as though clearing the air. “Hal, that beating you got last night must of kayoed your common sense. All you need now is a motive. And if you find that, then all you got to do is hang a conviction on one of the most powerful monkeys in the country—'Cat' Franklin.”

“I got... something else waiting for the 'Cat',” I said, getting the telegraph office on the phone, wiring Guy Moore in St. Louis that I'd found Marion Lodge.

7

The newspaper stories on the killings carried the home addresses of Shelton and Brody—they both lived in Will's neighborhood, within walking distance of the bank.

Brody's was a modest brownstone, the kind of a house he picked up cheap in 1931-32, when the banks were foreclosing and trying to sell houses for the balance due on the mortgage. He could have managed it on the sixty a week the bank probably paid him, even made a few bucks if he took in roomers. They had roomers: there were three bells in the doorway—Mrs. Ralph Brody had the basement. A plain, faded woman of about fifty-five, answered my ring. “Mrs. Ralph Brody?”

She said yes and I had a sinking feeling I was on the wrong track, Franklin would only kill for money, big money, and she looked like she'd never seen anything larger than a ten-buck bill in her life. I showed her my badge, identification card, told her, “In handling a matter for a client, I've stumbled across something that may throw some light on your husband's death. Can I talk to you?”

She fumbled in her old print dress for her glasses, gave me the once-over. For once in my life I was grateful for my half-pint size, harmless-looking baby-puss.

“Why, yes. Come in.” She had a mild, dull voice that went with her personality. Bobo was sitting in the car, just in case I never came out of the house, and I nodded to him with my noggin, followed her inside.

It was a neat little apartment, everything old and spotless. There was an ancient, bulky radio, but no TV set, and there wasn't a piece of furniture newer than ten years. It was obviously the home of a couple just getting by on a weekly salary. She motioned toward a cane chair, sat down opposite me.

Choosing my words with care, I said, “Mrs. Brody, I may be off on a wild-goose chase, so until I'm... a... positive of my suspicions, I can't give you the name of my client, tell you much. But if you'll answer a few questions, I might be able to find your husband's killer.”

“I don't mind talking. Don't have much chance any more. I'm sure Ralph was killed by a youngster. Children are so wild these days, no security, and all this violence in the world tempts them to try anything. Even rob and kill for a few dollars.”

“You have any children?”

“Mr. Brody and I were never blessed with any.”

“Know this is personal, but did Mr. Brody bet the horses, gamble... play around?”

She gave me a flat, timid smile. “For the last twenty-three years Mr. Brody left this house at exactly 8:25 every morning to go to the bank, returned at noon for lunch, returned again at a quarter to five in the afternoon to putter around our back yard, have supper. In the evening he either read, played cards with me, or worked at his hobby —soap sculpturing. Sometimes on a Friday night we went out to a movie, or on Sundays we might visit an art museum. Does that answer your question, young man?”

Completely. One thing more, shortly before his death, did your husband mention anything about coming into any money? Perhaps a stock market deal, or a relation leaving him an estate?”

Every Friday Mr. Brody handed me his pay envelope and I gave him an allowance of eight dollars. That's all the money he ever had, ever needed.”

I looked at this dull woman, thought of her mild uneventful life, wondered if she'd ever been young and passionate looking, if she'd been happy. Yet in her dull way, she'd probably been happier than a Louise, or an Anita, or even Margrita. I wondered if a marriage like that was boring, or was this contentment, the real thing?

Standing up, I said, “Well, thank you, Mrs. Brody. I'll let you know when I have something definite about the shootings. By the by, was Mr. Brody friendly with Mr. Shelton?”

“Indeed he was. Mr. Shelton and his daughter often came here for Christmas and Thanksgiving.”

“Aha. Did Mr. Brody have any brothers or sisters who might have been involved in gambling or...?”

“We were both only children.” She got to her feet with an effortless motion that somehow seemed to reflect the whole pattern of her life. “Would you care to see his statues? Ralph was really very talented, always meant to give more time and effort to his hobby. But the bank took up most of his time, became a rut for us—a comfortable rut. Here, let me show you. Would you care for some lemonade?”

“Have anything stronger?”

“I'm sorry, but we never touched liquor.”

“Lemonade will be fine.”

She smiled at me, showing even white teeth. “That last question was a trap, wasn't it? Wanted to know if we drank, didn't you?”

“Yeah, I'm a clumsy detective.”

“We never drank anything except some wine at Christmas,” she said as I followed her into a short hallway, through a large, scrubbed kitchen, then into a glass-enclosed porch that opened on a back yard full of flowers. The porch held a showcase that had a number of small models of ships and dogs, a few heads of famous people—I recognized FDR as one—all carved out of cakes of soap. There was an old-fashioned icebox, with a pan under it to catch the dripping, near the door, and Mrs. Brody took a pitcher of lemonade out of the box, poured out two glasses.

It wasn't bad, either.

Pointing to the statues she said, “These mean so much to me. And those certificates on the wall—prizes Ralph won in contests. He once won a toaster, too. Yes, these little figures are all I have left of him. When two people live close lives and one of them suddenly... departs... at first the loneliness is unbearable. The bank had given Ralph, all its employees, a small insurance policy. I thought I'd sell the house, move to California. But somehow, I'm as busy as ever every day, doing the same things I've always done. Time passes and I'm still here. Probably never move, this house is my world.”

“How big was that policy?” I asked, bending to get a closer look at the soap figures. I'm not the artistic kind— soap was ringing a different kind of bell in my mind.

Mrs. Brody gave me a tight smile again. “Imagine being brash is part of your work. The policy was for $1,500. But you're not nearly as crude as that other detective. Mr. Brody was furious...”

I straightened up like I was goosed. “Mr. Brody...? You mean a detective was here before the shootings?”

“Oh yes, and a rather nasty man. Let me see that was... oh, about three weeks before the... Ralph's accident. I mean the hold-up. This man rang the bell one morning, waved a badge and practically forced his way into the house. Said he was from the banking department, I believe. He searched the apartment very thoroughly. I was afraid of that man, why, he hardly put things back in the drawers. Left before Ralph came home for lunch and when I told Ralph, well, never did see him so mad.”

“What happened when Mr. Brody reported this to the bank, the police?”

“I don't think he did. Mr. Brody wasn't one to look for trouble. I thought he should have told the police. Way that man threw things around—even on the floor.”

“Why didn't you call the police when he left?”

“He had a badge and...”

“Mrs. Brody, a couple of cereal tops will get you a badge! Didn't you think it odd Mr. Brody didn't do a thing about this, not even report it to the bank?”

“It did worry me for a few days, but I left such matters up to him. He thought it best to ignore the whole thing.”

“Did you tell the police about this—when they talked to you after Mr. Brody was killed?”

“Why—no. I didn't attach any importance to it And they never asked me.”

There wasn't anything more to say or ask. I thanked her again and she showed me to the door, said, “If you... you find the killer, well, I'd like to see that... beast.” Her voice shook slightly. I wondered if she'd ever got steamed about anything in her life. And what would she do to the killer, hit him over the head with an umbrella, scold him? I had a pretty clear picture of Brody: one of these guys that when his friends were told he was dead, they asked, “How can you tell?”

8

When I climbed into the car, Bobo asked what I'd learned and I said, “That marriage is a funny thing. Bobo, you find marriage dull?”

“What? Lack of dough makes it rugged at times, but not dull. I... What we talking about marriage for?”

“Just a thought. Ralph Brody liked to make statues out of soap... Interesting?”

“As a vault man he handled keys, could have used soap to make an impression, a duplicate key!” Bobo said like a school-boy reciting his lesson.

“You and me—two minds with a single criminal thought,” I said, starting the car. “Before we drop in on the Shelton family, want to look the bank over.”

Bobo held up his wrist watch. “It's noon, my belly would like to look over some chow.”

“You get a bite while I'm in the bank.” It was only a three-minute drive from the Brody house to the bank. Bobo stepped into a coffee shop across the street for lunch.

It was a small bank, half a dozen tellers' windows, and a bank guard who looked a gay seventy or eighty years old. His gun was so securely buttoned in its holster it would have taken him a week-end to draw it. You walked down a short flight to the vault, and a young fellow unlocked a steel gate for me when I said I was interested in renting a box. I cut his sales talk short by renting the cheapest one, seven-fifty a year, including the tax. As I was filling out signature cards, he opened a drawer, looked through a batch of numbered small envelopes till he found my box number, and handed me two keys. I took the box into a closet-like room, put in a few of my cards and an old letter, closed the box and gave it back to him.

I followed him into the cool vault where he first inserted my key, then a bank key he had on a long chain, shoved the box in, and locked the compartment, gave me back my key. On the way out I said, “Must get kind of lonely down here, doesn't it?”

“Not too. And it's the coolest spot in the bank. My partner is out to lunch now, but there's enough to keep us busy.”

Upstairs, I got into the car. Bobo was still feeding his face. Looking through the dashboard compartment I found a pipe I smoke now and then, a tobacco pouch, lit up. The picture was becoming as clear as the smoke puffing out of the pipe... Brody and Shelton down there alone, day after day, year after year, a couple of hard-working, respectable and low-paid slobs. And after they'd been working together for ten or fifteen years, one of them getting the smart idea. Brody would make a soap impression of all the keys to boxes that were for rent. He would make duplicate keys, or maybe Shelton did that. Then, after the boxes were rented, in their leisure time, the two of them opening the boxes— they had the bank key and a duplicate of the owner's key. Lot of black-market dough from the last war is hidden in vaults—it can't show up on a bank statement without getting the tax boys aroused.

Brody and Shelton would pick a box whose owner rarely came in, open it and examine the cash. They found a box stuffed with cash, “borrowed" a wad, played the horses, the market, returned the “loan” if they won. If they lost—it was an even-money bet that anybody stashing away a big chunk of dough isn't in position to call copper.

It was a nice, bright theory... and as full of holes as Swiss cheese.

I somehow believed Mrs. Brody—she was either telling the truth or the world's greatest actress. Ralph Brody wasn't a playboy, and if he had any loose cash around it was a few pennies. Supposing the “Cat” did have black-market green in various vault boxes, would he do a stupid thing like a killing if fifty or a hundred grand was missing? Offhand I couldn't picture Brody being anything but a petty crook, lifting a grand or two, and Franklin was hardly a wild punk, losing his head, getting boiled enough to murder, even over a hundred grand. And this was a carefully planned brace of murders, nothing done in the heat of a mad moment Yes, the theory had a lot of holes... but not too many to be plugged, maybe all at once.

Bobo walked across the street, a toothpick in his mouth, still plenty of cat-spring to his walk. He had on a thin summer shirt and when the hot wind pressed it against him, you could see all the big muscles. He got in beside me, said, “Better grab a bite. Food ain't too bad over there.”

I shook my head. The mention of food reminded me of the coffee and cream standing on a kitchen table.... Louise's bloody body.

“Learn anything in the bank?”

“Brody and Shelton would have had plenty of time to make duplicate keys, look the vault boxes over,” I said, turning the ignition key.

9

Shelton must have been poorer than Brody, for he lived in a small apartment house a few blocks west of Brody's place. It was almost a tenement, a walk-up with wooden stairs, the halls badly in need of paint and repairs. I rang the bell of his top floor flat—the cheapest rent—but didn't get any answer.

I went back down to the main floor, pressed the janitor's bell. She turned out to be a thin, elderly woman with a pleasant face, and like most janitors—full of gossip. I tipped my hat—and it touched the bump on the back of my head where I'd been sapped, and I damn near opened the conversation with a scream. I gulped, managed to say, “Good afternoon. Can you tell me when George Shelton will be home? Two months ago he ordered a...”

“Two months—oh my! The poor man was shot to death in a dirty hold-up last month!” she said, happy to find someone who didn't know the news.

I tried to look shocked. I didn't have to say a word for she went right on with, “Oh my, yes, it was a blow to all of us. I'm not one to speak harmful of the dead, and Mr. Shelton was a good man, I suppose, even though he did cause his poor wife's death and...”

“He did what?”

“That was many years ago, when I first took this job. A most tight man with money, George Shelton was. Had that good job with the bank, could have moved into a better house. His dear wife used to complain something awful about the stairs, but he was so thrifty... and in the end justice was done, like it always is. I always say things catch up with you in this world. That Mrs. Shelton was a meek, genteel soul and she took sick with a lingering illness. When she finally passed away, he was in debt for years paying off the doctors. That's what a person gets for being penny-wise and pound foolish. Would of driven him mad if it wasn't for his daughter Laurie. You've heard of her?”

“Don't think I have.”

“Name's in the papers all the time. She's the tennis champion of the state, or the East, some big thing. Girls these days.... Spends all her day practicing on the tennis courts here. Poor child, she and her father were close and his death upset her something awful. An only child is always...”

“Thank you very much, have to cancel the order. By the way, did Shelton have a new car recently?”

She let out a shrill cackle, revealing a cheap set of false teeth. “Him with a car? Why he wore a suit till it was threadbare, scrimped on everything he...”

I tipped my hat again—carefully—said I had to run... and walked out, her chatter following me. My theory sounded so damn good, yet something was wrong—there had to be a pile of jack some place.

10

Bobo and I started driving around, looking for the tennis courts I'd seen from Will's window. When I finally found them, they were empty except for a girl in white shorts hitting a ball against the side of a one-story building. I watched her legs moving around, realized this was the same gal I'd seen through Will's binoculars... and that she must be Laurie Shelton. Merely looking at her was a pleasure... she was short, but unlike most short girls wasn't bony or overfat, rather she was a lot of hard, healthy curves, and so well proportioned, she looked tall. Her face was almost pretty, dark hair cut close around the clean features. But it was a tired face, a little strained and hard—with the deadpan look of an athlete going through the monotony of the daily training grind.

Watching the smooth ripple of muscles as she moved about, the small pointed breasts shaking under her tight blouse... left me confused. There wasn't anything sexy about her. I almost suspected she had a lot of man in her —yet I found myself completely forgetting Louise, had that tight-hot feeling inside me I get when I want a girl real bad. I was as warm as a...

Bobo nudged me in the ribs. “That little hunk of fine stuff on our suspect list?”

“I'm sure going to find out,” I called over my shoulder as I stepped out of the car. Walking through the wire-fence doorway, I stopped about ten feet from her, watching the sure way her legs moved, the determined expression on her face as she whacked the ball—and she could really punish the pill.

The ball hit a warped plank of the wooden wall, went off at an angle. She reached too far to her right for it, lost her balance. As she fell, she neatly tossed the racket aside, broke the fall by slapping the hard court with her outstretched right hand, and with her left hand down by her strong hips. I ran over as she sat up, asked, “Hurt, Miss Shelton?”

She shook her head, jumped up. I got the racket. “Where did you learn how to fall? Judo?”

“You know judo?” she asked, looking me over coolly.

“Black Belt, First Degree,” I said and her eyes said she thought I was a liar.

“How did you know my name? Tennis fan?”

“Going to be. I'm Hal Darling. The janitor at your house said I'd find you here.”

She went over to a bench in the shade of the shack she'd been bouncing the ball against, brushed herself off, tossed a sweater on her shoulders as she sat down. She was sweating a little, but not as much as she should, a sign she was overtrained. But even her sweat smelt like perfume to me.

“All right, Mr. Darling—what is it?” Her voice was hard and tough, yet I had a feeling it was all a sham—an old act.

“I'm a detective and...”

“Christ, I've seen enough detectives.”

“Private dick. Have ideas about your father's murder.”

“Not interested in hiring you. The police are handling the hold-up and...”

I wanted to jar her. “I didn't ask you to hire me. And it wasn't a hold-up, it was deliberate murder.”

Nothing happened, except her eyes narrowed and her large mouth tightened. “The police will be interested in you—your ideas.”

“Going to the police when I can prove my... eh... ideas. Look, I was working on another case, but it keeps crisscrossing your father's murder, so I...”

“Murder?” she snapped. “I guess a hold-up killing can be called that.”

I wanted to reach over and stroke her tense face, or slap the coldness out of it. “Two more killings make it out-and-out murder. Interested in finding the killer...?”

“Yes!” she said with a savage fierceness that made me jump. “I must find the killers!”

I waved my hands. “We have a lot in common, same size, judo, now this. I'd like to ask you some questions, frank ones that may...”

“Be as frank as you wish.”

“Thanks. Mr. Shelton come into any money before he died? Talk of expecting any?”

“No.”

“Did he gamble, play the market, seem in debt... have any women...?”

She looked away as she said, “If you knew my father....”

“Hear he was a tight guy with a buck. Was he in any kind of money trouble?”

“Never.”

“Did a phony detective search your place week or so before the shooting?”

Now she stared at me. “Why, yes, a man from some insurance company. How did you know?”

“Upset your father a lot?”

She nodded. “His life followed a certain mold, anything out of way upset him.”

“Then why didn't he report it to the banks, to the cops?”

“Dad wasn't the kind to start trouble.”

I had to take a quick guess. “Why didn't you tell the cops this after the shooting?”

She stared at me with hard eyes, her mouth a sullen smear... and I was so nervous my legs were trembling. “What are you getting at?”

“That your father was dipping in the till, was shot because of that,” I said, giving it to her without any gloves.

She jumped up. “If this is your idea of a joke....”

Our eyes were on the same level. It was a relief not to have to look up at a girl. “Two dead women are hardly a joke.”

“I don't know what you're talking about. But I'll tell you about my father: he was a good man, devoted his life to me. Everything he did was for me. We played tennis, went hiking, hunting, fishing together. Ever since mother died, all we had was each other. Does that sound like a man who would rob?”

“Nope, but that's how the thing has to add up. Unless... you have a boyfriend in a jam or...?”

“I have no time for... boys.”

I smiled at her.

“What's so damn funny, Mister...?”

“Darling. I like you.”

“Now isn't that just peachy! You walk on the court, tell me Father was murdered, that he was a thief, and now that you like met What am I supposed to do, turn handsprings!”

“Bet you can, too. Look, Laurie, we're both driving at the same goal, and we can either work together or bat our heads together and...”

“You'll get nowheres thinking Father was a crook!”

“I can be wrong, but you still haven't explained why he didn't go to the police after that phony detective searched your flat. The point is, I don't care what he was—I only want to find the killer... want to find him worse than you do.”

“No one wants to find the killer worse than I...”

“Two women are dead, I got both of them mixed up in this mess. Feel responsible for...”

“I know how you must feel,” she said, her voice changing suddenly, becoming gentle. “All right, we have to work together, trust each other. What do you want me to do?”

“I have things about figured out—except for one piece: there has to be a bundle of green some place. Certain you never heard of...?”

“If we're going to work together, get one thing straight, Pop would never steal a bank blotter, much less money. Had a fetish about honesty, the value of money. Why the bank was part of him, in his blood.”

“One more question, did he ever mention an Ed Franklin? 'Cat' Franklin?”

“No.”

“If you're done bouncing balls around, let's have lunch, talk some more.”

She hesitated. “All right, but one thing more; there's nothing personal in our... eh... relationship. I mean don't start...”

“Have a car that comes complete with a chaperon. Get dressed. That outfit is a bit brief for the street, although I like it.”

“I hardly give a damn whether you like it or not!” she said, disappearing into the shack.

11

Laurie came out a minute later, wearing plaid slacks, the same blouse. As we walked toward the car I asked, “They leave these tennis courts open all day, nobody around?”

“The manager is inside, restringing some rackets. Why?”

“Merely curious as to what's left guarded and unguarded in this world. Here's your chaperon. Bobo Martinez, meet Laurie Shelton.”

They said hello and the three of us squeezed into the front seat. As I drove I kept watching the windshield mirror to see if any other car took off at the same time; didn't see a thing.

I parked in front of the first decent-looking luncheonette we passed, told Bobo, who was in the midst of explaining his face to Laurie that we were going to have lunch. He said, “I'll wait.”

It was nearly one. “Best you go back to the office. Shirley said she'd return around three and I'm not keen on leaving her alone. I'll call in later, but if you don't hear from me by five, both of you take off.”

“Sure thing, Hal. Well, so long, Miss Shelton.”

“Goodbye, chaperon.”

Bobo did a slight double-take, then walked away. Laurie said, “Large fellow, good shoulders. Was he really a famous fighter?”

“Yeah. You go for large men?” I asked, as we went inside, sat down in one of the booths.

“Only an idiot picks a man by size,” she said smugly.

The fat counterman waddled over to us with water and silverware and we each ordered a sandwich and iced tea. Sitting directly opposite her I examined Laurie's face with great care. She had high cheek bones and the angles of her face were so severe, they gave her an exotic look. It was an exciting face, but also strained and unhappy, the eyes restless. And every movement, even raising a glass of water to her mouth, was a movement of supple muscles. There wasn't anything “feminine” about her, not a thing that could be called sultry or sexy, yet she had me on edge.

As we ate, I kept examining her face, wondering why she gave me a fever, and glad she did.

She suddenly put her sandwich down, said, “If you don't stop staring at me, I'll throw my tea in your face!”

“Stop the tough act, Laurie, you don't have to impress me or...”

“Impress you? Why you...” She was so mad she couldn't talk. She started to get up but I grabbed her hand, held it on the table, hard. “Just stop it,” I said. “Remember, we're out to get a murderer—that's all that matters, for now.” I let go of her hand.

She rubbed the top of her hand, touched the callus on the side of my hand with her short nails. “You really are a judo man.”

“Told you, Black Belt...”

“I don't believe everything you tell me, Darling... Hal. Can't stand calling you darling! As I said before, don't try any mush stuff with me, this is purely business.”

“Sure is, and one of us has to be honest all down the line. I'm telling you I like you, and I'm going to try as much... mush stuff... with you as I can.”

“How dare you!”

“Laurie, cut the corn. 'Mush stuff' and 'how dare you.' We said we'd play it on the level, fine, but let's get two things straight: First, and most important, I want to get the killer. Second, I like you. That's no crime. Any relationship is a fifty-fifty deal. My fifty per cent goes for you, if your fifty per cent says no, then that's that. But it doesn't stop me from trying. Now, let's get down to cases. You sure...”

“Let's get to cases, in the romance department you're wasting your time.”

“But it's my time, so let me worry. Think carefully, anything you haven't told me?”

“I have a feeling I'm being watched all the time. Also, think my apartment has been searched. I can't prove this, but small items don't seem to be in their proper places.”

“Tell this to the cops?”

She shook her head.

“Why not?”

“Told you,” she said too quickly, “I'm not sure about these things. Could be all my imagination.”

I didn't believe that, but let it go. She finished her sandwich, asked, “What's the next step in finding the murderers?”

“Murderer—one guy. I know who he is, what I don't know is the motive—yet.”

Her eyes turned animal—hard and bright. “You know? Who is he?”

“Tell you in time.”

“Thought we were going to be oh so honest with each other?”

“We have to be, remember that,” I told her gently. “Not telling you who he is because the less you know the safer you are. Don't forget, I'm two killings and a couple of pastings up on you. Tell me, your father leave you any money?

“I fail to see what business that.... Oh, you keep harping on money! Yes he had a few hundred in the bank, a Long Island plot he always wanted to build on—and never got up stick one—and a fifteen-hundred-dollar policy the bank broke its heart by giving all its employees.”

“You don't like the bank?”

“They sucked my father's life dry. Oh, I suppose it wasn't all their fault. Pop was too... conservative.”

“You work?”

“I work damn hard—I'm a tennis bum.” She almost smiled and it did wonders to her face, made me realize Laurie was only a scared kid, made me want to reach over and hug her. “I'm not on the big time, but I will be. But there aren't too many women players, so I get an invite to most of the tournaments—with expense money.”

“Tennis must mean a lot to you. I never...”

“I'm sick and tired of it!” she said in that odd, explosive way she had of blurting out things. “Day after day, the same dull grind. But I'm twenty-two and tennis is all I really know, so I keep at it.”

She told me about playing tennis with her father when she was a youngster, becoming a star in high school. When I asked why she'd never gone to college, she said, “Couldn't afford it. Anyway, Father had old-fashioned ideas about education and women.”

“Couldn't your tennis bring you a scholarship?”

“Did get one offer, from a California university, but that meant I'd have to be away from Father and that... was that.”

“Poppa ever talk about retiring soon?”

“Will you please stop insinuating my father was a thief!”

“Laurie, detective work means running down each and every minor clue. There has to be a wad of dough in this, and I have to find it. That's why...”

What about those two girls you said were... were killed?” she asked, not so neatly changing the subject.

One of them was in the papers yesterday, Anita Rogers, my secretary. The other—police haven't found her body yet, but I did, and that's why I have to get this solved, but on the double.”

“You found the body...? Aren't you afraid I'll tell the police?”

I looked her square in the eyes, said, “No,” and wondered if I'd gone completely looney, trusting her and knowing she was lying to me!

She flushed, her sun-tanned face turning dark. “Stop staring at me like a kid. What do we do now?”

“I don't know. See what breaks in the next couple hours.” She stood up. “I'm going home to get some sleep, then back to the court.”

I paid the check. As we got into my car I asked, “Still feel you're being watched?” I looked around, casually. The street was too busy to make a tail.

“Yes. I've felt it all the time, since the... killing.”

“Yet you live alone. Sometimes being brave is the same as being stupid.”

“What else can I do?” Laurie said, almost desperately. “No family, no friends.”

I had to stop myself from going into a routine about the one friend she had now. It would have sounded very corny. I drove her home, didn't spot anybody following us. Outside her house I gave her my card, said, “Anything comes up, call me. Give me your phone number, I'll check with you around six.”

Driving downtown, I kept snaking in and out of streets, but if I was being tailed, the guy was damn good. I parked as near Margrita's hotel as I could, finding a space only three blocks away. When I asked the hotel clerk if she was in, he answered in that indifferent, chilly voice hotel clerks must be born with, “I'll see. Who shall I say is calling?”

I wrote on the back of one of my cards, “I've found Marion Lodge. She wants to see you. I'm in the lobby.” Handing the card to the clerk, I told him, “Send this message up.”

“I did not say Miss de Mayo was in.”

“And neither did you say she was out. Send this up.” He rang for a bellhop and I put half a buck on top of the card. I only had to hang around the lobby a few minutes before the desk phone rang and the clerk told me, “Kindly go up to Penthouse B. Front elevators.” He sounded as bored as ever.

Margrita opened the door herself, wearing a bright-red robe that clung to her fine body. I nodded and stepped inside. She had an expensive suite of rooms, all the furniture very modern and correct—and all of it the hotel's. Atop a wire and glass table there was a cheap china statue of a baby doll, kind of junk you win at Coney Island, and probably the only thing Margrita had added to the place.

She didn't have any make-up on and her face looked hard. Judging from the tiny balls of pus in the corners of her eyes, she must have just gotten up. She motioned toward a stuffed chair and I sat down. She squatted on a blue-leather hassock opposite me, her robe falling away, those wonderful legs pointing at me. I glanced at them once, comparing them with Laurie's muscular stems. Margrita lit a cigarette without offering me one, asked, “How's Marion?”

“I don't know, how are you?”

She blew out a dainty stream of smoke, asked, “Where did you get that dopey idea?”

“Cut it, baby. I stumbled on it, but if you want me to prove it the hard way, I can.”

“You're a lousy detective. Made a big mistake, I'm not..”

“Look, I'm tired, don't make me work. Marion was once pinched for hustling, her prints are in the police files. I can get yours any.... What's the point of going through that routine? All I want you to do is get in touch with my client, tell him what you want done with the farm.” I wrote Guy Moore's name and address on a card, dropped it in her lap and started for the door.

She ran over, grabbed my shoulder, spun me around like I was a toy top. “Stop the crap,” she said. “I'll pay you once, that's all!”

“Already been paid for locating you. Far as I'm concerned, the case is closed.”

“You think I'm simple? You have me over a barrel, with my past—”

“Look, your past is exactly that—past. Whoring is a crummy job and a person takes a crummy job only because they're hungry. I'm no Boy Scout, but neither do I set myself up as a judge of anybody's personal business. Only...”

“Come on, when does the shakedown start? Told you, I'll pay once, then...”

“Only personal feelings I have about all this.... I'm glad you made it, got out of the racket.”

“On the level?” Her eyes searched my face.

“So long, baby.” She still blocked the door. She stared at me for a long minute, then began to cry—hard, hoarse, jerky sobs. She suddenly leaned against me and I took her in my arms, only it was comical—my head hardly came up to her shoulders. I walked her over to the couch, said, “Take it easy, Margrita, that's all over.”

“You don't understand,” she mumbled. “My uncle was all the family I had. He was a gruff old man and I thought he hated me, yet—you don't know how much he loved the land, that was the only thing he really cared for, and he left that to me! This last year, I could have helped him with money, he always was poor as a church mouse, a few bucks would have made things easier for him... all I had for him was hate. That's why I didn't go home when I was on the verge of getting into the racket, thought he didn't want me. And here he left me his farm, not to his son in Chicago, or his sister up in Canada, but to me.”

“Hard to judge people, or even judge yourself,” I said, sounding like the hayseed philosopher.

“Now, I can't even claim the farm....”

“Nonsense. Dye your hair and you'll be Marion Lodge to the folks back there. Or write Moore that you'll take the farm, have him arrange to pay the taxes, rent it or sell it, and you don't have to go home. Use a P.O. box address for Marion Lodge, or my office, if you wish.”

She dried her face on my sleeve. “You know, I really believe you are on the level. Or I want to believe it... but never met a man yet who wasn't a selfish louse.”

“You merely haven't been around much,” I said softly, knowing I'd played my cards right—in a minute she'd pay off.

She stood up, bent down till her face was close to mine. “You're a strange little guy. I like you.”

She gave me a big kiss—the real thing, not a whore's lip massage. She pulled me toward her and I could feel all the soft curves through her robe, knew I could have her—that she really wanted me.

But I didn't give a damn!

12

Okay, IT amazed me too, but at that moment, with one of the most beautiful women on Broadway pressing me against her body, all I could think of was holding Laurie!

In a way it was a pleasant shock to realize how much I went for the kid.

Kissing her back, a brotherly peck, I pulled out of that wonderful embrace, feeling a bit like a fool. “Margrita, I've been on the square with you, want you to do the same for me. Going to ask you a couple questions that can be TNT, so if you don't want to answer, say so. But don't sell me any bunko stories. What's 'Cat' Franklin to you?”

She stiffened, her eyes turned cunning and tough, her hands fell away from me. She got another cigarette. I said, “Whatever you tell me stays with me, I promise you that. Let me guess—Franklin was running the call-girl racket, wouldn't let you pull out entirely when you got your break on TV?”

She didn't move a muscle, her eyes didn't tell me any-thing.

I went over, whispered, “I can get the 'Cat' off your back —for good.”

“Little detective—don't overreach yourself, you couldn't... Can you?” She lost some of her control, sagged, sat down hard on the couch.

“I think I can. Franklin lost his head, tore his britches badly on... something. You his girl?”

“Have to be—whenever he wants me.”

“Do favors for his friends, too?”

“Hell no! Just...”

“Like that postman, Willie?”

“He's the only one. Franklin insisted, got rough. Some funny idea about me searching his clothes for a stone. I didn't find anything. And that Willie—real childish bastard.”

“What was so important about the stone?”

“Don't be dumb, nodamnbody asks Franklin questions.”

“One last item—think back about two months ago, maybe three months or so. Was there any time during that period when Franklin seemed angry, mad as hell, about anything?”

“Ed never loses his temper, always has the same even, evil disposition. A couple months ago... say, remember he came here one night and tied on a big one. When he gets drunk he's a regular dirty slob, but I remember that night he didn't.... Anyway, he wasn't mad, he was upset, scared.”

“Scared? Of what?”

“Who knows? Sat up all night, nibbling at the bottle, begging me to, well, mother him. Never did see him frightened, before or since.”

“Thanks. Don't know if you've given me a clue or not. If the 'Cat' asks if I was up here, don't lie—got a million guys tailing me, it seems. Tell him about the farm, but that's all. Goodbye, honey.”

As I opened the door she said, “Hey...” and fumbled with my card. “Hey, Hal, will I see you again?”

“Sure, I'll catch your act every chance I get. And remember, we only talked about the estate.”

We winked at each other and I walked out, feeling very noble and pure... and a jerk. I never thought I'd see that day I'd pass up an invitation like Margrita!

13

I drove to the office. Shirley and Bobo had straightened the place up and it looked normal—again. Nobody had called, so I told Shirley to scram. She put on her hat, said, “This is the craziest job I ever heard of. Work a couple minutes and you tell me to go to the movies. I come back and work another hour and now you tell me to go home.” Her deep-brown face was puzzled—and a little worried.

“Things will work out. Maybe in a few days, when you've run out of movies, we'll get back to normal—start working. See you in the morning.”

“One thing, a girl certainly can't kick about the hours here.”

“Take in a movie tonight and you'll be on overtime,” I said, trying to make a joke, as she grinned and shut the door.

Bobo asked, “A couple days? Think you've found the key to this mess?”

“Not yet, but it's coming to a head fast. Go home, but hang around the house tonight, just in case I need you.”

“Maybe I should stay here, might be another rumble and...?”

“Naw, I think he's convinced we haven't got whatever he's hunting for.”

“He? You still think it's 'Cat' Franklin?”

“Bite your tongue—before the cat gets it! I'll be okay. If that's the afternoon paper, leave it.”

I opened my tie, sat at my desk, reading the paper carefully, chopping away at my rubber board. There wasn't a thing about Louise in the papers. That didn't mean the cops hadn't found her... but whether they had or not, when she didn't show up at work tomorrow, or answer her phone, the office would probably send somebody around... then it would explode in the headlines.

So Franklin had been scared—that made sense. He wouldn't risk a murder rap because he was merely p.o.'ed, but if he was frightened...? But what on earth could two old duffers like Brody and Shelton possibly do to scare the “Cat”?

I kept working it around in my mind, making like a detective—and ending up with nothing but a headache. Then I knocked the phone over grabbing it; I broke out in a cold sweat... all the time I'd been sitting on my bottom, I must have been sitting on my brains too—for I'd made another dumb move. The “Cat” had knocked off Anita and Louise because he thought they were my girls. Now, assuming he had me tailed while I was with Laurie... I'd really put the kiss of death on her!

14

IT was only five and I didn't get any answer, then... what a relief to hear her voice. I said, “Baby, you'll never know how good you sound!”

“You again. Did you get me out of the shower merely to hear my voice?”

“Not exactly. Have some talk for you—over supper. This is important, so do exactly what I tell you, don't ask questions. At exactly six-fifteen leave your place and walk over I to that joint we had lunch at I'll meet you there.”

“All right, but...?”

“I'll explain later. Don't forget, leave exactly at six-fifteen and...”

“Should we synchronize our watches, general?” Laurie asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Darn right. What time you got?”

“I haven't any time—I'm naked and wet.... Oh, it's two minutes after five on the big hall clock.”

“See you at the luncheonette, Laurie. Better dress, too.”

“Oh shut up, Mister... Darling!”

Locking the office, I left the building and walked into Joe Brocco, a two-bit manager. He asked, “What's matter, Hal, the dick business lousy? Couple of the punchies working for you been around, asking me to dig them up a bout.”

“And you're the guy to do it—for a fast buck!” He ran a hand over his worn, flashy suit.

“What you want from me? I tell 'em they're washed up but they say they got to eat, washed up or not. I stalled them—can't pick up fights so easy these days, anyway. But I tell you true, I don't like to see a boy get a beating, a real bad beating. So try to give them more work, Hal, and...”

“Try! Try! Hell, I got my own worries, no time to feel sorry for a flock of has-been leather-pushers. Leave me alone.” I pushed by him, got into my car. As I drove away, he stood there watching me, his pimply face bewildered.

I sped up to Laurie's as fast as I could, and it was five-thirty when I parked about half a block from her house, examined the street. There were five other cars parked and I didn't see anybody in them.

I got out my pipe, puffed on some stale tobacco. At exactly six-fifteen Laurie left the house, looking very lovely in a soft print dress that the faint evening breeze pressed around her body.

As she started walking toward the luncheonette, one of the five cars—an old Buick—slowly drove after her. The guy at the wheel was a sharp-faced joker and he knew his business—must have been slumped down in the back seat all the time.

I waited. I had a big advantage over him, I knew where she was going. There was only one tail: nobody else followed Laurie. Turning on the ignition, I followed him to the luncheonette. Laurie was waiting outside the store and he'd parked across the street, had already disappeared into the back seat. I honked my horn, motioned for her to get in, headed toward the park at Spuyten Duyvil. “What's the idea?” Laurie asked. “Thought we were going to...?”

“Look in the windshield mirror—but do it easily. See that Buick behind us a ways? He's tailing you.”

She looked. “Can't make out the man at the wheel. What do we do now, lose him?”

“We're going to stop at Inwood Park, get out and walk up into any place where there's trees. I'll hide behind a tree, you keep on walking—stop a couple yards away from me and wait. When this clown sneaks up on you, I'll take care of him. Got any cigarettes?”

“Yes. But...?”

“Keep chain smoking cigarettes.”

“What's cigarettes got to do with...?”

“To make sure he can follow you. In this twilight your cigarette glow will act like a guide for him. Now when I drop off in the woods, don't stop, or look at me, keep walking. And don't walk too far—about twenty feet. Got it?”

“Yes. Seems like a lot of movie stuff to me.”

I didn't bother answering her. When we parked, we hurried up the walk that ran through the park, left that, and slowly started up a slight hill thick with bushes. Laurie was puffing away on a cigarette. As we passed a clump of bushes, I dived into them, turned, and crouched in as comfortable a position as I could get.

Laurie did it nicely. She stopped about fifteen feet above me, among a heavy growth of trees, the bright red tip of her cigarette plain against the darkness.

It was a hot, muggy night, and for about ten minutes all that happened was a flock of flies, or some kind of bugs, decided to have a light snack on the back of my neck. I couldn't smack them, the noise would be a give-away. I kept shaking my head like crazy... and then I heard it —somebody walking with great care, trying not to step on any twigs or dried stuff. The bushes around me weren't too high, but enough cover for a shrimp like myself.

The tail covered the open ground by the bushes quickly, stopped some three feet from me, staring up intently at Laurie's cigarette glow. All I could see of him in the dark was that he was one of these tall, thin guys, the kind that dress big but really are only skin and bones under the padding. He had one hand deep in his right pocket. I got to my feet slowly, holding the palms of my hands stiff. I held my arms out at my sides, like a ham actor making a speech, then reached up and clapped my hands over his ears as hard as I could.

15

SHE SCREAMED—a short, breathless scream—started to grab his head, then crumpled to the ground. I called out “Come on, Laurie, let's blow.”

Laurie came running down, asked, “What do we do now, search him?” The punk was rolling on the ground, holding his ears.

“Forget him. We're going to my place,” I said, taking her arm and making time down the hill, and enjoying the feel of the firm muscle in her arm, her side when my hand brushed against her dress. We walked over to the car and drove off.

“Where is your place?”

“I live on a boat, off 79th Street and the Hudson.”

“A boat? You sure are the strangest fellow I've ever met. I'm not sure I want to go out on a boat.”

“It's a safe place, little chance of any punk finding us.”

“Very safe—back there, he heard you say we were going to your place and...”

“He didn't hear anything, and never will hear again. His eardrums are busted.”

I joined the traffic on the West Side Highway. She was staring at me, her tight face almost loose with fright. “You mean you made him deaf for life? Why how could you do...?”

“Laurie, try to get this through your pretty noggin— we're not playing potsy—but for keeps! I had to make sure he didn't tail us to the boat.” And I wondered if there would be a couple of hoods watching the yacht basin.

“But to maim a man for life. Hal... you... you frighten me.”

“The killer that shot your pop and Brody, what was he doing, playing by the rules?”

She didn't answer, lit a cigarette. In the light of the match her face looked worried. After a few puffs she asked, “What do we do on the boat?”

“Eat, cruise around for the rest of the night.”

“If you think I'm going to spend the night with you on a boat...”

“That's what I think. The killer has knocked off two of my girls, and I don't intend to have you make it a trio.”

“I'm not one of your girls!”

“Neither was one of the dead girls, but the killer thought she was. Could be he saw what I feel for you on my face this afternoon, or... the point is, we're not taking any chances. I don't want you as a beautiful corpse. And don't worry, I won't chase you all over the boat.”

“Worried?” Laurie snapped. “I can handle you.”

“Fine, then stop chattering about it.”

“Oh, stop acting so tough—little man!”

I laughed at her. “Okay, little woman.”

16

We turned off into the parking lot. I kept the motor running. There were a dozen cars there, but I didn't see anybody. I locked the struggle-buggy and we walked to the dock. Laurie looked around, pointed to the strangely beautiful amphitheatre-like structure with fountains in its center, that stands behind the yacht basin. She said, “Gee, I never even knew there was a place like this in the city, fit's lovely, like something out of the...”

“The Roman days,” I cut in, watching everybody on the floating dock. There was a couple of guys who looked as though they came off a boat, their wives or girls—and Pete, Although it wasn't time for him to go on duty. I asked him if anybody had been around to see me. He said no, asked where I'd been. I stepped into the launch, helped Laurie in, and from the way she stepped in I knew she hadn't been on boats much. Pete called out that my dinghy was fixed, and I said I'd leave it at the dock for now.

I told the attendant driving the launch to circle my tub a few times and when he asked why, I slipped him a buck, He made several lazy circles around the boat—everything looked normal. The moon was coming out bright and pale white light covered the boat. I motioned for him to bring the launch alongside, jumped aboard. I unlocked the cabin door, waited for the stale air to get out as I told Laurie to jump. The Hudson was pretty smooth, but she hesitated, then jumped and almost fell. I grabbed her, pulled her to me, my arms brushing her breasts. She tried to push me away, but I turned her around, said, “Step down into the cockpit—and relax. The boat may not look like much, but she's seaworthy.”

When she was safe in the cockpit, she said, “Don't ever say that again!”

“Slice the outraged schoolgirl stuff, and stay put—for awhile. Be out in a second.” I stepped down into the cabin, took off my shirt and coat, put on rubber-soled shoes that gripped the deck. I pumped out some bilge water, raised the motor hatch, gave the old Packard a brief going-over. She seemed okay and I closed the hatch. The motor turned the second time I stepped on the starter. Leaving it idling, I raced forward and let go the mooring line, ran back and put her in gear, steered out and up the Hudson.

No other boat followed us. A sightseeing boat was a few hundred yards ahead of us and making time. I called Laurie over. “Take the wheel. Keep the bow pointed toward the middle of George Washington Bridge. Don't get nervous and start turning the wheel this way and that. Just like driving. I'll be out in a moment.”

She took the wheel and I watched the wake for a second —she was keeping the boat fairly straight. I went down in the cabin, washed my face, changed to shorts and a T-shirt. I got out a clean pair of swim trunks, another shirt, left them on one of the bunks. Starting the alcohol stove, I took stock of the food situation. The bread was moldy, the butter rancid, and I tossed them out a porthole. I had some canned goods, a box of crackers, and a fifth of rye. Of course I didn't have any ice, but there was a bottle of ginger ale. I secured that with some fish line, ran up on the deck and hung it over the side. Taking the wheel I said, “There's some shorts and a shirt you can change into in the cabin.”

“I'm quite comfortable as I am.”

“Okay, okay, I'll see if I can get any outraged-virtue music on the radio to go with your act. But your dress will get a little messy on the boat.”

“I'll chance that.”

“It's your dress. Go down into the cabin and under the bunk on the port side—that's the left side, you'll see several drawers. In the top one is a metal box with some fishing tackle. Bring that up—we'll have to fish for our supper.”

She cautiously stepped down into the cabin, then called out, “Say, this is all very cute. I have the box, but where's the rods?”

“I'm a hand-line man.”

We were running against the tide and I headed for the New Jersey shore; the tide is always stronger in the center of the Hudson. Laurie was sitting near me, the fishing box beside her. When we passed under the George Washington Bridge, its string of lights like a fantastic pearl necklace in I the clear night she said, “Bridge looks so clean and beautiful from underneath. What's that bridge over there?”

“The Henry Hudson, and there's Spuyten Duyvil, where we left our friend.”

“I wonder what's become of him.”

“Devil probably has him.”

“The what?”

“That's how Spuyten Duyvil is said to have gotten its handle. Way back in the days of the Dutch, some character made a bet he could swim it during a storm— 'in spite of the devil'. Although some people think it's named after a 'spitting devil' because of a spouting spring there. See, I'm just full of folk-lore tonight, no seduction in me.”

“Yak-yak, very funny. Spuyten Duyvil's not very much of a swim—about a hundred yards. Kids swim it all the time.”

“Maybe they were scared of water in the old days. When we get a little farther up, we'll anchor, see if we eat or not. Ever fish?”

“Sure. Father and I often went fishing. Think we'll catch any shad or a tommy cod?”

“I'm so hungry anything gets on my line ends up in the frying pan—and I don't care what it is. I'm here to eat 'em, not to call their name. Glad you're wearing low-heeled shoes.”

“Now what has my shoes got to do with fishing?”

“Nothing, except high heels are murder on a boat. Also, I like the idea that you're not trying to be any taller.”

“Told you once before, I'm not interested in what you like or dislike.”

17

n another hour we passed Yonkers and I threw out the anchor. There wasn't another boat in sight... except for a few big cruisers passing in the middle of the Hudson. We were a bit north of Nyack and could see the lights of some houses in the woods near the shore. I took two hand lines, baited them with some bottled junk that was advertised as making the fish bite like stupid, told Laurie, “Try your luck. I'll get the vegetables going.”

“Perhaps you'd better fish and I cook.”

“With the temperamental stove I have, a man's place is the kitchen. You get the fish—I hope.” I cleaned out the pots and dishes, put a can of spinach on to boil, fried some spuds, and set the table—on the deck.

Laurie had both lines out and laughed like a kid when she brought in a fish that looked like a yellow perch—dark olive in color with patches of bright gold—and at least a pound. While I cleaned that, she hooked a small eel and took off the line without screaming—and threw it back. While I was telling her eels were good eating, she lost a nibble on one line, but landed a striped mullet that was big enough to eat.

“Now will you shut up?” she asked, taking in her lines.

Seeing the sinkers reminded me of Anita, gave me the shivers for a second, as I cleaned the fish, tossed the both of them into the hot frying pan.

Within a few minutes we were eating fresh fried fish, potatoes, and spinach, and sipping two fairly cold highballs. I had the radio going—and not only for the music, but the news—although finding Louise's body might not make the radio news.

It was all very quiet and peaceful and I forgot Anita and Louise as we lit cigarettes, had another drink. For some reason I thought of Mrs. Brody, wondered if being married to Laurie would give us the life the Brodys had, and whether I wanted it or not. “This Mrs. Brody, was she happy, I mean, she and Brody?”

“What makes you ask that? Guess she was happy—or beaten down by boredom. You know, Hal, this isn't bad, the boat and all, be a lot of fun under different circumstances.”

“Lot of fun now. I believe in taking your fun when you can—don't get too many opportunities these days.”

“Hal, please don't spoil things, don't start pitching.”

“I won't. Those clouds over the moon ruined my seduction scene. Hope we don't have rain.”

Laurie was silent for a moment. I put some water on—to wash the dishes—and she said, “Can't quite make you out. This morning, when I first saw you, I didn't trust you. And when you hit that man, I almost hated you because you seemed so... so... brutal. Now, I find myself liking you, your boat. And you suddenly ask about Mrs. Brody's happiness, and sometimes I think you're making fun of me.”

“Never make fun of anybody. Being a half-pint I know how cruel such 'fun' can be. Couple things I don't understand about you.... How come no boyfriends?”

“Tennis kept me busy.”

“That

busy?”

“Oh, what spare time I had was spent with Father, and he was rather strict and old-fashioned... about boys. I want romance, some day, but frankly, so far it's never bothered me. In high school, even around the courts, I'd hear girls talk about kissing and dating, and it never made my heart beat faster, or any junk like that. Or, at dances, I never let a fellow kiss me. I really had no desire for...

We were sitting side by side and I turned and kissed her full on the lips, held her tightly. For a second she was stiff with surprise, then her lips answered the pressure of mine, her hand circled my neck, the nails digging into my skin. Then—she pulled away and when I still held her she placed her thumb under my left ear and began to press. I let go damn fast. She jumped to her feet.

“I told you...!”

“Relax, Laurie, a minor turn has been made in the history of Laurie Shelton—you've been kissed. Now don't fly off the handle, it was pleasant and...”

“Pleasant? You conceited fool, I hated it!”

“Don't shout—sound carries over water. And if you hated it, how do you account for this?” I turned my back to show her the blood on the back of my neck.

“That was only a... a...”

“Only a little passion. Look, grow up, admit you like being kissed, that you have passion. Doesn't mean you go for me, but there's no point in hiding things, pretending you're made of ice. All I do around you is apologize, explain....”

“If you'd stop this stupid pawing and...”

“Okay, let's wash the dishes and skip the East Lynne bunko.”

She helped with the dishes, acting mad and sullen. It was after eleven and I tossed a couple of sheets on her bunk, told her, “You'll sleep here. I'll be on the other bunk and you can have a gun, every knife on the boat, to protect yourself.”

“So funny! Ha! Ha! I'll sleep on the deck.”

“It's all yours, but I'll make up the bunk—in case you change your mind.”

We went back on deck and it was windy and cloudy. I started the engine, gave her the wheel while I pulled up anchor. We headed down the Hudson. I told her, “To be on the safe side, we'll head for the bay, anchor off Staten island. Here, somebody could swim out from the shore, take a pot shot at us.”

Still sulking, she didn't say a mumbling word, made herself another highball, got an old sweater of mine out of the cabin, and put that on and sipped her drink. It was slack tide and we made good time. I kept to the New Jersey shore, stopped at a gas station near Edgewater, filled the tank, got some water and ice.

18

The RAIN BEGAN as we passed the Battery and it was really coming down so hard I could barely make out the Statue of Liberty. The wind had picked up and we bounced around on long, gliding waves. It would be calm for an ocean liner, but my thirty-four-foot boat was rocking like a cork.

Laurie was so quiet I didn't realize at first that she was seasick. When the rain started I sent her into the cabin, but she soon came dashing out, her face a sweaty, dirty, pale green, and gave up—happily not against the wind. I told her, “Get inside. No point in both of us getting wet.”

She shook her head, said in a far-off voice, “Lord, feel awful. Never felt this sick before. Can't stand it in the cabin—too muggy.”

“Be better off if you lie down,” I said, but she only shook her wet head; stood there staring off into the dark watery night, moaning now and then. The boat was going up and down each wave and I knew how she felt—being seasick is a worse feeling than being real sick. But I couldn't leave the wheel, get her into the cabin.

It took us a long time to cross the bay, finally reach Staten Island. It was rough in the dark, the great hulls of anchored freighters looming up around us, the ferry passing like a ghost, tugs making spooky, haunting sounds with their foghorns, and all the time the boat bouncing like a seesaw. I anchored off an unused pier near the Kill van Kull and the water was fairly calm. The Narrows probably smelled better, but would be rougher. I led Laurie down to her bunk as she kept moaning, “Lord, Lord, I never felt so awfully sick!”

“Sleep will make everything okay. Going to give you some dramamine, quiet your guts, make you sleep.”

“Let me... lie down. I feel... terrible.”

I got half a dramamine pill and a little water and she refused to take it, but I shook her and she swallowed it, mumbled, “Please don't shake me. My... insides are rattling. Want to sleep.”

She started to climb into her bunk but I pulled her up. “You can't sleep in those wet things. Get you some pajamas and...”

“Let me... alone. Feel like I'm... dying.”

“Take it slow, you're not the first person to be seasick. Undress, I'll turn my back and throw you a pair of pajamas.”

She was leaning against the wall, her eyes shut. I turned and opened the chest of drawers under my bunk, heard her getting into bed. Grabbing her, I said, “Want it like this— then stand still.”

She stood there in a daze as I unbuttoned her wet dress, let it drop to her feet. I unhooked her bra and her breasts were firm and small, but surprisingly full. She had on white panties and when I pulled at them, she pushed my hands away. I unrolled her stockings, ran a rough towel over her body, helped her into bed. When she was under the covers I said, “Give me your pants.”

The dramamine had started to work, for she made an effort to get them off, but fell asleep. Reaching under the sheets, I pulled them down her legs and off.

Hanging up her things as best I could, I went on deck to check my lights, see if the anchor was dragging. Then I washed up, went to the “head,” and got into my bunk.

Laurie was breathing evenly but I couldn't doze off, although I was tired as hell. Something troubled me, pricked at my brain. Had the same sensation you get when entering a familiar room—have a vague feeling something is out of place. I'd overlooked something, a word, a gesture, that had great meaning.

19

And at the moment Laurie annoyed me. She was lying to me, holding out on the dough she must have, putting my life and hers in danger. Maybe she didn't realize that, but either she or Mrs. Brody had to have the dough and I had this strong hunch it was Laurie. I was getting the patsy treatment. Her damn smugness... me feeding her, doctoring her, putting her to bed, trying to protect her... and all the time she was treating me like I was about to rape her. And yet—well, I'd known her less than twenty-four hours and already I was in deep, even passed up Margrita because of her.

Maybe my thinking was unfair to Laurie, confused, but I lay there full of a dull sort of anger... and back of every-thing was this thing jabbing at my mind, trying to make me recall whatever it was I'd skimmed over.

I'd doze off for what seemed a few seconds, then wake with a violent start, trying hard to recall whatever it was worrying me. Listening to the steady rain, the quiet lapping of the waves, I'd glance over at Laurie, wondered if I'd gone off my rocker—loving a kid who wasn't leveling with me. All the time—the valuable time that was fast running out—she was stalling me, Louise's body was waiting to be found, maybe put my rear in the chair.

Several hours passed like that when Laurie suddenly sat up, gathered the sheet about her, as she stepped off the bunk, swaying with the gentle ride of the boat. She looked around nervously in the dim light, opened the narrow closet door, started for the deck, shivered and stepped back as the rain wet her face and shoulders. She opened another closet—where I hung my clothes—poked around the galley, swore under her breath, then climbed back into her bunk.

I knew what she was hunting for—the John, the “head” as real sailors call it. Of course she had no way of guessing that the “Blowfish Madonna” was not only a picture but the door to the bathroom. She hadn't gone to the can all the time she'd been aboard.

I lay in my bunk, full of a strange, cruel satisfaction, almost amused. I wasn't going to make a move, till she came to me, asked me where the hell it was. Sure, it was petty and stupid on my part, but in some manner I didn't bother to figure out, it was important, a way of cracking that cock-eyed selfish pride of hers.

She twisted and turned in her bunk and I felt like a monster. She sat up, she stretched out again... and finally jumped out of bed, buck naked, shook me and asked, “Hal. Where is... it?”

“That painting there, it's the door to the John,” I said, pointing.

Laurie ran to the door, nearly falling, tried to push it open. “The food the blowfish is diving for—that's the knob,” I said, getting out of bed, opening the door. She ran by me and I shut the door for her.

I sat on my bunk, not sure this wasn't all a silly dream. I didn't know exactly what I was waiting for, but there isn't too much room on a small boat, and I was damned if I was going out on the deck, in the rain.

I heard the flush of water and then it was quiet for a long time. Finally she got tired of waiting, the door opened and she stood there, her body like a dream in the dim light.

Even her face had lost that tense look—maybe she was still a bit high on the dramamine.

She shook her head slowly, said—and it sounded like a deep sigh— “No.”

I stood up but didn't move. She kept shaking her head, mumbling, “No. Oh I don't know... Oh... No.” We were about two feet apart and she slowly edged toward me. I still didn't move and when she was a few inches from me, I saw the sweat on her face, the troubled brightness in her eyes.

“Hal... Hal, what shall I do? Oh, Hal...”

She stepped closer, her hot breath on my face, the wonderful clean softness of her breasts touching my chest. I didn't move, say a word. This was something she had to decide for herself, for...

With a savage cry she threw herself against me, our lips meeting in a hard kiss, her body eagerly pressing mine, her strong hands exploring my back, sweeping my body.

20

It was a night I never want to forget, and I never will: a night of passion and pain, of great tenderness and sheer desire; of whispered confidences and confessions. And out of it all, the tenderness and wonderful feeling, maybe love... one thing stuck out, a sentence, and it was neither tender nor sweet.

We slept in a tight hug, awakening now and then to talk, say the intimate things we'd each have known if we'd spent the usual weeks and months before becoming lovers. And she said, curtly, bitterly, “My father—Pop, I hardly ever called him Pop—but Hal he did everything for me and I hated him!”

“But you said...?”

“He was a coward, afraid of the world, running from life. All my life I've lived by the strictest conventions, by banal slogans, by stupid penny-pinching. It was all an escape for him. He thought if he lived by the... the... rules, obeyed them to the letter, then he couldn't be blamed for being a failure. And he was a failure, for he was unhappy. There was always a fight over every cent, a cross-examination every time I wanted to do something on my own. That killed Mama. I wish I could make you see it, spending exactly so much for food, so much for rent, everything figured to the exact cent, little budget envelopes, for that and this... The model way to live according to some books he once read. Instead of a heart he had a penny-bank!”

I didn't know what she expected me to say; what I wanted to say. The old man was dead, I never even knew him. I mumbled, “Guess he meant well.”

“Sure he did,” she said, her cheek against mine, and I felt all the muscles moving in the side of her face, her damp lips as she spoke. “In a way I couldn't blame him. Is there anybody in this rich country of ours who isn't haunted by the fear of poverty? I don't blame him for that, but for crawling all his life. If he'd taken a chance, showed a tiny bit of fight... but all he did was worry and worry, stay strictly in line. I was like his money, his furniture, his patched underwear... I was something that belonged to him, a property he had to guide and protect every second, be with all the time because I was his. He was a stone around my neck, a... Oh no, I don't mean that... I was such an ungrateful little bitch! He was a good man by his standards, and who am I to say he was wrong? All the time he was lonely, and so was I... so... so terribly alone, wanting friends, to be with people, be a part of things. We were both lonely, and in his own way he tried his best for me. That's why it's so important I avenge him. I must! Must!”

Her body stiffened, felt like a statue in my arms. “Laurie, honey, take it slow. No point in getting worked up now about...”

“Worked up?” she repeated, her voice rising with hysteria. Then she let me have it, right in the gut. “You don't understand, Hal. I... I'm the one... I killed him!”

BOOK FIVE

I

Her full sobs shook us both. For a moment I was so crazy about her, I didn't think—only felt heavy with a dull, sick, coldness. Then I snapped out of it—Laurie couldn't have killed him. I stroked her wet face, shook her gently, whispered, “Stop crying, you didn't kill him, you couldn't possibly have...”

“But, Hal, I did! As surely as if I'd pulled the trigger. If he robbed the bank, then he did it for me, because I was nagging him, wanted to go to California on my own—alone. He did it to give me the things I... I was so petty, so selfish, I hate myself!”

“Baby, one minute you're hating your father, the next, hating yourself. Stop that kind of talk. And nobody blames you, or hates you.”

“The world should hate me for driving that poor man to...”

“The world doesn't know you're alive. But I do, and I don't hate you, I love you.”

“Hal, I feel so guilty that...” She stopped abruptly. “Hal, did you say you loved me?”

“Yeah.”

“You mean that? You love me?”

“Laurie, I don't know what love actually is—the bunk we see in the movies, the slop we read about in books, maybe it's really sex, or companionship or... Whatever it is, I feel all those things about you.”

“Hal, sweet, it's so good to hear those words. I mean, I've been so lonely that... sometimes I'd worry if any man would ever be attracted to me, thought maybe something was wrong with me. And you, Hal, you seem a part of me,” Laurie whispered, her voice heavy with sleep. “It seems unthinkable that I ever lived before—without you. Is that love?”

“It'll do,” I said, kissing her eyes. “But love won't be anything if we don't get out of this jam. The money, Laurie, where is it?”

“There isn't any money.”

“But you said your pop robbed the bank?”

“No, no, you were the one that said that. I meant if he did it, then... it was my fault. Oh, Hal, my wonderful Hal, I feel so good, deep down good, now.” She snuggled up against me and gently fell asleep.

I kept kissing her face, covering it with small, hot kisses, my hand playing with her hair that was cut like a man's, but so very soft. I had a new definition of love... it sure was love if I could completely forget Anita and Louise, if I could kiss Laurie when all the time I knew she was lying in her teeth!

2

I got up once during the night to check the anchor and when I next opened my eyes, it was bright and sunny outside. My watch said it was after nine. Laurie was sleeping soundly, her face looking soft and young and refreshed. I kissed her and her lips formed a contented smile.

I took her clothes and hung them in the sun. The New York harbor isn't the cleanest place to swim, but I dove in. The second I hit the water I knew what had been bothering me all night—and it wasn't the shock of the cold water that did the trick, it was the water itself —this very water that went up and down the Hudson River. I broke the surface and grinned at the sun. Without meaning to, Laurie had told me where the dough was hidden. I swam around the boat, climbed up on deck and shook myself like a dog. I felt swell, had a feeling I would close the case before the sun rose again.

I took a soapy shower and a shave and when I came out of the John, Laurie awoke with a start and, seeing me, grabbed the sheet and pulled it to her neck. I laughed and she blushed and shook her head. “This has been all so... sudden, I forgot.” She dropped the sheet and proudly stretched. “I feel so delicious, if there is such a feeling.”

“When that feeling stops, baby, the honeymoon is over.”

“Honeymoon... we'll have to talk about that, mister. See how forward I've become!”

I kissed her and she said, “Hal, our being together—it's a whole new intimate world, a new life.”

I pulled out of her arms. “I know, but we have work to do, or our private world will crash on us. Get dressed and we'll put in and eat ashore. I'm starved and we only have canned stuff aboard. The shower is in there.” I pointed at the “Blowfish Madonna” and she giggled, asked, “You really mean it when you ask a gal to come up and look at your etchings!”

“Now you know all my secrets. Come on, get dressed.”

While she showered, I got her clothes—wrinkled but dry —pumped out some bilge water, started the motor and got the anchor up. We tied up at a nearby pier and I bought a paper and we went into a diner and ate like a couple of pigs. Louise still hadn't hit the papers. I called Bobo at the office, gave him the number in the booth and told him to call me back, from outside the office. He called in a few minutes, asked, “What's up, Hal?”

“Don't know. Being careful, in case our phone is tapped. Tell Shirley to take the day off and...”

“Again? Hal, she's getting suspicious of...?”

“Cut the clowning. Tell her to scram. You know that boatyard back of the Polo Grounds, where I dock in the winter? Meet me there in about two hours. Make damn sure you're not being followed, and don't tell anybody where you're going. Okay?”

“I'll be there. Anything else? Getting tired of this sitting on my rusty...”

“We may get too much action today. See you.”

The tide was with us and we cut across the bay like a speed boat—well, almost. Laurie said, “This is much better than last night. Thought I'd die. I'll go home now and...”

“You're staying on this boat all day, with Bobo as a bodyguard. I think I'm going to crack the case this day—said Darling, sounding like a big-time dick who solves murders every hour, instead of a four-flusher on his first murder—and I hope my last!”

“But why do I have to stay...?”

“Because we're going to have many more nights like last night, even better ones, if we stay alive. There's a boatyard in the East River, near the Polo Grounds. Old place, kind of run down, but I dock there in the winter—the yacht basin closes end of October. That's where we're going now. Bobo's meeting us.”

“You live on this ship during the winter?”

“Sure. Winters haven't been too severe. Have hot water piped in from the boathouse, and when it gets real cold, I spend the night in a hotel. Forget the winter: we're playing with a joker who's already killed four people, so a few more stiffs won't mean a thing to him. Why I want you to stay put, don't take chances.”

Laurie blew a kiss at me. “Yes, darling.”

“Is that with a small 'd'?”

“You're my darling, Darling. Big and small 'd'. That all right?”

“Love the sound of it.”

3

The trip up the East River excited Laurie, as it does all New Yorkers who've never seen the city from the water. Bobo was waiting for us and, after I docked, arranged to keep the boat there for the day. I dressed, and impressed upon Bobo the need for staying with Laurie. “Where you going, Hal?”

“Off to see what's on the rail for the birds,” I said, walking toward the Eighth Avenue subway, on my way to the 41st Street bus terminal. I couldn't chance going cross-town for my car.

Getting off a bus at North Bergen, I took a cab to a spot near the fishing shack. For what had been bothering me was an innocent remark Laurie made when we started fishing last night. She'd said she hoped we caught shad. Since she and her father did everything together, including fishing, and there was only one place to get shad—Shelton must have been a member of the fishing club. And what better place to hide a bundle?

There was a wire fence, about six feet high, running around the shack. I bounced a couple of pebbles off the windows, but the joint seemed empty. I climbed the fence, tried the door. It had a simple lock and I opened it the easy way—kicked the door open.

The cottage was one large room opening on a porch that hung over the river, from which the members could fish in comfort. There was a neat kitchen in one end of the room, a door that opened on the John, a large table, and a row of steel lockers along one wall. Names were lettered on each locker and one of the handles was George Shelton. It took me a lot of minutes to jimmy the locker open with a beer opener I saw on the table; inside I found a couple of rods, the usual toolbox full of hooks, lines, cleaning knives, and other fishing junk. Also a pair of old shoes and a torn raincoat. There wasn't any money.

I went over the room, which was kind of silly—nobody would leave dough around loose. Before I busted open the other lockers, I went through Shelton's again. The toolbox was rusty and smelly. I dumped it on the table. A hunk of old brown cardboard that had been covering the bottom of the box dropped out—under it was a flat package wrapped in one of those plastic bags used for covering food in a Frigidaire... and a lot of green showed through the misty plastic.

There were hundred-buck bills—150 of them. I tore open the raincoat, the shoes, busted the rods... and no more dough.

It didn't make sense—Brody and Shelton clipped Big Ed for fifteen grand... and he'd spent five times that for the diamond bullet, the punks he imported. Franklin had been known to drop fifty grand on a roll of the dice, so he'd hardly kill for fifteen thousand.

4

But Margrita said he'd been scared—and suddenly that added up: the money must be hot! I wanted to bang my head against the wall—it sure hadn't been working much these past few days I'd been on the merry-go-round. The “Cat” had killed not because he gave a damn about the fifteen grand, but to stop Brody and Shelton from spending it. It fitted in with searching their homes before the murders, with those goons making a wastebasket out of my office, the attempted burglary in Anita's house, the constant shadow on Laurie. All Franklin wanted was to get the dough back... because it must lead to something a hell of a lot bigger than fifteen thousand of the green. And there was an oh-so-easy way of locating the pot waiting at the end of this green rainbow.

Pocketing the money, I straightened up the place as best I could and left. As I climbed over the fence I saw a kid of about fifteen, standing in the road, watching me. He was one of those overgrown kids, with a lard-ass, rosy cheeks, and wire-rimmed glasses that were too small for his serious puss.

“What's the matter, mister, lose your key?” he asked, staring down at me.

I waved my car keys in his face. “Nope, always go in and out of the club this way.”

His fat face was full of suspicion, and a kid's hesitation. If that brat ran for the cops, I'd be in a hell of a spot, with the hot dough on me. He said, “I'd better tell Mr. Matthews about this.”

“Reminds me,” I said, casually, glad there weren't any houses near. Matthews couldn't be within yelling distance. “Tell old Matt that Jack won't get the new glass rod for him till tomorrow. That's me, Jack.”

“Well... I won't be able to see him till after school, after supper.”

“No rush. I was supposed to leave the rod for him, but you tell him, save me the trouble of making the trip. Tell him the factory said they'd have it tomorrow or the next day. Got that straight?”

He repeated the nonsense and I waved and walked up the road, praying the kid was satisfied. I thumbed a ride to the bridge, got a bus across to New York, and a cab down to Saltz's office. I called to find out if he was in. He was. It was a few minutes before two. I found a jewelry store a block from the police station. I went in and asked to see a watch in the window that sold for $79. There was a woman behind the counter, her husband was probably out to lunch, and she gave me a fast sales talk. I told her, “I like the watch fine, but all I have is this hundred-dollar bill, and... eh...” I hesitated, gave her one of the bills I'd found in the locker.

She looked it over carefully. “Looks good.”

“Frankly, I'm not sure, lady. Won it in a crap game from a suspicious character. Don't want you to get stuck, so let me give you the bill and you give me a receipt for it. You've time to make the bank, see if it's good. I'll call tonight and pick up the watch and my change. That fair?”

“That's most decent of you,” she said. “The bill looks good, but then... I'm no expert and if you have any doubts...” She wrote out a receipt and I gave her a phony name and we parted in a fine atmosphere of brotherly love and trust in mankind. I had a sandwich and a glass of iced tea, then went in to see Saltz. I wasn't feeling so gay as I entered police headquarters—it could be that Saltz was looking for me, even though no word of Louise's murder was in the papers.

5

However, Saltz greeted me with his usual sarcasm. “Hello, how's the junior G-man?”

“Not too bad. How's old super-badge?” I said, sitting down at his desk. Saltz was a character I couldn't like. No special reason, I simply didn't like him. It wasn't so much his socking me, he had the kind of efficient, pushing personality I couldn't take. Also, a Franklin couldn't operate for a day without cooperation from the police. Maybe not Saltz himself, although it wasn't impossible he was on the “Cat's” slush list.

He monkeyed with that brushlike hair of his, said, “We got a tip. Not much. A bum hanging around the docks says he heard a girl cry out, saw a man drive away in a large car.”

“See the man?”

Saltz looked at his hand, as though he expected it had picked up something in his hair, said in his ragged voice, “Naw, but we're digging. Now we know it was only one guy. You dig and dig and wait till the break comes. It always does. You find anything?”

“I've about given up. Like you said, I can't compete with a high-powered police organization.”

Saltz leaned back in his chair, studied me through half-closed eyes—something he probably practiced—took a cigar out of his pocket. As he lit it, I said, “That's a famous brand you're smoking—the Last-One-I-Got brand.”

“Darling, you're a cocky little bastard, but don't get no ideas you're off the hook yet. We're keeping an eye on you. What you here for?”

“Chit-chat, find out what's doing on the case. Told you I'll do anything to bag Anita's murderer, I mean that.”

Stinking up the room with his cigar, Saltz went into his favorite sales talk about the cops being understaffed and overworked, which was probably true... and what government department isn't? I listened and got him wound up all over again by asking why our police didn't have the respect and confidence of the people the way Scotland Yard had. Saltz was beating his gums about the difference in American and English temperament, when his phone rang. He said, “Yah, Lieut. Saltz speaking.... What? Jesus! Be right over.”

He slammed the phone down and made for the door. “What's up?” I asked.

“Fade, runt,” he called out. “One of the hundred-buck bills from that Frisco armed-car robbery just showed... and in a bank four goddamn blocks from here!”

“Well, whatya know,” I said, to myself, for Saltz was lumbering toward the street.

I took a cab to East 60th Street. The jigsaw was complete, all the pieces in—in tight. “Cat” Franklin had either engineered the Frisco job or, more likely, bought the two million bucks of hot money, stashed it away in several safe deposit boxes, waiting till he could unload it—maybe overseas. Offhand I couldn't recall whether the dough was hot because the armed car company had the numbers of this shipment of hundred-dollar bills, or whether some of it was “bait money.”

Bait money means a bank has certain bills, the numbers known, lying around but never used. In the event of a robbery, if the bait money is picked up with the other dough, they have a lead on the robbers by immediately circulating the serial numbers of the bait dough.

Anyway, the “Cat” had run into a tough break—Shelton and Brody with their duplicate keys had opened his box, took the modest sum of fifteen grand—probably were going to play the market. And I'd guess it was their first time at “borrowing” a vault-box owner's cash. The “Cat" found out his box had been tapped, figured the two vault men for the touch, and had to act fast—before they spent a single bill.

For the moment they tried spending it, they'd be picked up for the Frisco deal. Of course, they would finally tell where they got the dough and the roof would fall on Franklin—a two-million-dollar roof... plus a lot of time in the can. Maybe even bullet trouble from the hoods who pulled the job. Not paying much attention to such things, I couldn't recall if there had been any killing at the time of the hold-up. But Franklin sure wanted those 150 bills back, wanted them enough to kill.

And a dizzy, reward-circular happy kid like Anita, with her phony correspondence course diploma, had been smarter than all of us. She must have got the diamond-bullet angle at once, remembered it was in Will's neighborhood the vault men were killed, that the “Cat” was involved. Then she either tried to shake the “Cat,” or braced him for a shakedown... and he'd beaten my name out of her, thought I was in on it. That night on the boat, Anita hadn't been gassing about the reward—she expected to have the two hundred grand reward by morning. And I thought it was all kid talk. The only bird brain that night had been mine!

I sat back in the cab, full of guilt for letting Anita go to her death. The fact she expected a reward meant she wasn't shaking Franklin down, but going to take him in. And if she hadn't seen too many movies, she wouldn't have tried to take him alone, told me and I would have...

Hell, with what should have happened, the only thing that counted now was that the “Cat” die. My diamond bullet was still only a theory, I had no proof to hang it on. Actually, there wasn't a single shred of hard proof I could bring into court that would hook the “Cat” to the killings of Brody, Shelton, Anita, Louise... hook him fast, without any reasonable doubt. I was absolutely sure, but that wasn't evidence. Franklin could afford the smartest lawyers, was dripping with influence—the worst he'd get would be ten years for acting as a fence, which meant he'd be out in a few years.

That was no good. There was another way of playing it —cat and mouse. Only in this case the “Cat” was going to be the mouse.

7

Paying the cabbie, I walked down a block to the ginmill I'd traced Anita to. The barkeep remembered me, said “Back again, Shorty?”

“My middle name is bad penny. I got a message for your boss—write it down and write it straight.” I laid one of the hundred-buck bills on the counter.

He said, “Big bill for a little guy to be carting around.”

“Tell 'Cat' Franklin I think he's a magician, can change this into a hundred grand. He'll understand after he sees the late papers. Get this straight: there's a dock at 135th Street and the Hudson River. I'll be there at eight-thirty sharp tonight, waiting for the magic act to pay off.”

“You got a sense of humor, or you must be drinking better stuff than we serve here,” the barkeep said, trying to grin. “Only time I ever seen Mr. Franklin was in the papers. I don't...”

“Can that crap for the winter. Don't forget, 135th Street and the Hudson, eight-thirty sharp.” I walked toward the door.

“Joke be on you if I kept this yard and...”

“Some joke—it would simply slay you!” I said, walking out.

I changed cabs at 124th Street, to be on the safe side, and when I got to be boatyard it was nearly five and all the people in the world seemed to be pouring out of the Polo Grounds. I finally pushed my way through the crowd, reached the boat. Bobo was sitting on the deck and one look at his sad face and I knew everything was screwed up. “Hal, the girl... Laurie... she gave me the slip!”

“When?”

“Couple hours ago. Said she was hungry and wanted a hot dog. Didn't see no harm in letting her go—hot-dog stand is right by the parking place and... didn't think she was trying to get away.”

“Oh, Christ!”

“Been trying to get you at the office. Didn't know what to do, thought it best I waited here. Sorry I messed up but...”

There wasn't any point in bawling out Bobo—I had to find Laurie and fast. Now that I'd tipped my hand to Franklin, it was death for either of us if he could find us. Although why Laurie wanted to take a powder...?

I jammed some money into Bobo's mitt, told him, “Take a cab up to her house. Try Mrs. Brody's, the tennis courts, and bring Laurie back, even if you have to slug her to do it The 'Cat's' out of the bag—and I mean 'Cat' Franklin.”

We ran out of the boatyard, into the stream of baseball fans. Getting a cab was as easy as finding uranium. At 155th Street we saw an empty one. Another guy beat us to it; we pushed in as the guy said, “Hey, I saw this first, what's...”

“Emergency, Mac!” Bobo growled. The guy took a fast look at the battered puss, backed out, saying, “If it's an emergency...”

At 145th Street I dropped off and was about to hail another cab, when I decided to call Margrita. For all I know, Franklin already had Laurie.

I called from a drugstore and when Margrita answered, I said, “Marion—this is Hal Darling. Listen, I'm in a big rush —have you seen Franklin in the last couple hours?”

“No. May see him at the club tonight. He usually drops in and...”

“There's a girl missing—a Laurie Shelton. Can't go into details now, but finding her can mean her life or death. Do me a favor, try to see Franklin at once, nosy around, see if he has the girl. If he acts like he has, call me quick.” I gave her the phone number of the boatyard.

“If it's that important, I'll skip supper and...”

“Honey, if things work out, you'll be off the hook for good after tonight. Got that number? Call me as soon as you learn anything. And thanks.”

I got a cab, told the driver to take me across the George Washington Bridge. There was only one place Laurie would have gone—to beat me to the dough.

“Hey, that's New Jersey, mister,” the cabbie said.

“Get going and here's a bonus, if you make it fast.” I tossed one of the hundred-buck bills at him. If he didn't cash it till morning he might be able to keep it.

He eyed the bill and gave his car the gas at the same time. He got me to the fishing shack in less than twenty minutes. I told him to wait.

The fence door was open and Laurie was sitting at the table, staring at the empty metal gadget box. When she saw me, she rushed into my arms, crying, “Hal, Hal, I've lost it.” She started to weep.

“It's okay, everything's okay,” I said, feeling good all over at having her in my arms once more.

“Hal, I... I... lied about the money. I wanted to turn it over to the police before we both got into trouble, or send it in a plain envelope back to the bank... but somebody...”

“I have it.”

She broke away from me, her face turning pink with embarrassment. “You? Then—you knew I was lying all the time?”

“Sure,” I said, pulling her into my arms again, tasting the salt of her tears on my lips.

“How can I ever explain it to you, Hal? I didn't mean to lie, but... I couldn't tell you about...”

“It's all right, Laurie. Forget it.”

“I feel so... so cheap and dirty, so...”

“Honey, don't talk about it.”

“Last night, even then I lied, in your arms I cheated, held back... and all the time you knew...”

I shook her. “Laurie, I've found you again, that's all that matters. You'd been penny-pinching all your life and here was fifteen grand you stumbled upon. Hell, anybody would think twice about giving it up. I sure would.”

“Hal, it was so rotten not to tell you....”

“Nuts. We rushed things so, you didn't have much chance to think it out. Don't be ashamed—everyone has a bit of larceny in them.”

“Hal, you're so good!” she said, kissing me wildly.

I kissed her back, wondering if she really was going to return the dough... and not caring too much one way or the other. Pressing her face into my shirt to dry the tears, I told her, “Laurie, forget the tears. You thought your pop had merely dipped into the till...”

“And he must have done it because I nagged him. I feel so...”

“Honey, he didn't know it either, but this dough is the hottest green in the U.S.A.! In a few hours I'm going to deliver the killer to the cops, get everything squared away. We got work to do, so stop the tears and come on.”

“Hal, if you only knew how miserable and ashamed I feel about this, starting off our life together with a lie... and what a relief it is to have it off my mind now.”

“If it will make you feel better, be miserable—but later. Got a cab waiting outside. Don't talk about it in the cab.”

I told the cabbie to stop at the first decent restaurant we passed, and we left him there and had supper. I was careful not to eat much as I told Laurie about Franklin, how her pop and Brody had robbed the safe deposit box, and how I was going to trap the “Cat”... but I didn't say what I had in mind for Franklin.”

8

AT SIX-THIRTY I called Saltz, was told he'd gone home. I got his home phone and when I heard his harsh voice, I said, “Saltz, this is Darling. Be at the dock at 135th Street and the Hudson River tonight at nine sharp. Don't screw up, be there at...”

“What for, we going on a moonlight cruise, Darling?”

“Cut the corn, you big ox. Be there exactly at nine and I'll bring you Anita's killer. Also the guy who killed those two bank men, Shelton and Brody. And if you go to a house at...” I had to stop and think for a second, before I could remember Louise's exact address—that seemed a year ago, although it was less than forty-eight hours.

When I gave Saltz the address and apartment number, he said, “What's the end of this pipe dream?”

“A package deal—another body. Girl named Louise. Same guy slit her throat yesterday morning and...”

“Darling, you drunk?”

“Be at the dock at nine, with a couple men. Not before or later, or you'll spoil everything. Dumping four unsolved murders in your lap—ought to make you a captain for sure. I...”

“Where you calling from?”

“Be there at nine, big shot,” I said, hanging up. It was one of the most satisfying conversations I ever had. For a moment I considered calling my professor, if he could be there I'd be a holder of the Black Belt, Second Degree. But having him there could also mean a murder rap for me.

9

We took a bus back to New York and I sent a registered letter from the General Post Office at 34th Street to the insurance company in the bag for the Frisco dough, informing them I was about to hand over to the police information that would lead to the conviction of the thieves and possible return of the money, and was hereby claiming the reward. That done, we took a cab to the boatyard. It was about seven, giving me plenty of time to get the boat around to the Hudson and the dock.

It was beginning to get dark, but there were a couple of guys puttering around their boats. You have as many Sunday boatmen as Sunday drivers—jokers who spend all week, maybe all summer, working on their boats, getting in a few hours actual sailing on Sunday or Labor Day.

I asked the fat guy who managed the yard if he'd seen Bobo and he said, “Yeah, think the guy with the punchy face went aboard. Saw him as I was going out for supper.”

Laurie and I jumped on the deck and I called Bobo and be answered from the cabin. As I stepped down into the cabin, I felt the sound of a fist coming through the air and my head seemed to take off from my neck. A black fog came storming down on me and I was swimming in it. I swam for a long time; stopping once to tread water, I saw a light in the distance.

Calling for Laurie, I swam toward the light.

10

Opening my eyes I found myself looking at a match, and in the light of the match I saw “Cat” Franklin's smooth face, Lefty Wilson's hard, beaten features.

I was sitting on my bunk. Vaguely I could make out Laurie on the other bunk, her lips bloody, hands tied, my sock stuck in her mouth as a gag. Opening my mouth to speak caused me terrible pain and all I could do was groan. I knew my jaw was broken—Lefty had clipped me with his Sunday wallop.

The match burned down to hot charcoal and Lefty lit another. Franklin shoved the red hot match in my eye and I watched a million sparks as a new pain sailed through my head. I kicked wildly with both feet and Lefty slapped me on the jaw and the pain was a nightmare. I struggled to climb back to consciousness. It was tough climbing.

When I made it, I saw they had one of my flashlights working. Lefty was sitting beside me. Franklin had the dough from my inside pocket, said, “So you had to spend two of the bills? How stupid can you get—I'd have been glad to cut you in on the gravy, now I have to kill you. And your trim over there. Stupidity never pays off.”

“Cops... are... waiting... you can't.... get away with... it... it,” I said, my voice sounding like a bum phone connection, as though my kisser was stuffed—stuffed with hot irons judging by the pain. The only thing that came through clearly was the thought that Margrita had crossed me.

“Chance that,” Franklin said. “Still only your word to connect me with all this, and what's the word of a cheap dick? And I don't think you even talked to the cops— you're one of these cocky jerks who tries to whip the world alone. You played your hand wrong, so you force me to get rough—with you, the broad, that spick pug of yours....”

“He's for me, boss,” Lefty cut in. “Margrita's for you.”

“Cat” grinned. “You're dumb, Darling, so dumb you're comical. I've had that whore's phone tapped for over a year. I'll take care of her, do things I always wanted to that.... Be quite a kick, for me.”

I don't know why, but merely knowing she hadn't crossed me, gave me a lift, a feeling of hope. My brain began to break through the fog of pain, started to work.

“You... you murdering pimp,” I said, sounding like a drunk as I stumbled over my tongue. “What... you... kill Anita and... Louise... for?”

Franklin laughed, said to Lefty, “Listen to this punk, thinks this is a movie where the bad guy confesses all in the last reel! Told you, I'm a quiet fellow, know when I have to give the other guy a break, a taste of money—even a big-money taste if he has me against the wall hard enough. And you had. I had to hock all my businesses to raise a million bucks. Ever try to raise a million? It's rough, and I had to put everything I had on the line. Then you come sticking your damn nose in. You wouldn't buy, so I had to get tough—real tough, because every cent I have—everything—was at stake. That's over now, you're out of the way. Simple set-up... boat wreck... your bodies found a day or so later. Give the crabs something to eat. They go for the eyes, the nose, and other soft parts, first.”

I kept thinking that Bobo was our only chance. If he'd only come back, start a roughhouse. I could still handle one of them. “Lot... people... around yard.” I seemed to be chewing on the broken bone of my jaw, and every time the sharp bone ends moved it was like hot wires stuck in them.

“Didn't I tell you? You're going to take the boat out of here. Reason why I haven't tied you up yet,” Franklin said.

I tried to grin—and almost fainted.

Franklin said grimly, “Keep on being the movie hero, see what it gets you. That little broad of yours, that Anita, dumb as hell too. Thought life was like the detective books. Surprising, skinny dame taking such a beating.

One part of my plan had worked—I'd gotten the Cat to confess before witnesses—only at the moment it didn't seem too important.

Looking at Laurie's eyes shining in the dim light—probably full of tears—I managed to say, “You ought... to... see... what I... can... take.”

Franklin looked at me sadly. “Won't you ever wise up? Your lumps will come—later. And don't encourage me to think up new ways of killing you... sometimes I like to think of... those things. Right now I need you to get this tub out of here, to a quiet spot on the river where we can wrap chains around you, sink you two, and the ship. And you'll do it, sail the boat out all nice and proper, stand at the wheel like a damn movie hero. Won't he, Lefty?”

Wilson pulled a switch blade out of his pocket, had it out and open, all in one expert motion. He moved over to Laurie's bunk, his hand and the knife disappeared under her skirt. Her eyes got brighter, but that was all.

11

Franklin shrugged. “See how simple things can be? And if you want to play it tough, that can be simple too. Knife would be some lover—think she'd like it? Scream and wiggle with...”

“O-okay,” I stuttered.

“Make your last hours easy on yourself. Makes the...”

We all heard Bobo call out, “My friend back yet?”

Then the yard owner's voice, “Yeah, with a girl. Hey, thought you were on the boat?”

“This morning,” Bobo said. “Girl back, too, that's fine!”

Wilson stood up, no knife in his hand. His head brushed the ceiling. “Boss, get over there. This will be a pleasure.”

Franklin nodded and switched off the light. Then he made his first mistake—he picked me up and stood with his back to the “Blowfish Madonna,” holding me in front of him, his big arms around me like two snakes. He wasn't any fat slob, I could feel the muscles of his gut against my back. He spread his feet far apart, so I couldn't kick back. Lefty pressed himself against the galley, at the foot of the steps. One of the “Cat's” big hands slapped across my face, closing my mouth.

The four of us followed the sound of Bobo's footsteps as he came nearer, jumped on the deck, calling, “Hal?”

Franklin mumbled, “Here.”

The moon was coming up and as Bobo entered the cabin I had a good look at his face—before Lefty's fist shot out, landed with the thud of thunder in his guts. It was a blow like that had made Bobo run out on Lefty.

Bobo doubled up, vomited some coffee he must have just had, fell down the steps. Lefty caught him, backed him against the closet wall, pounded him in the stomach. Lefty must have kicked the flashlight, for it went on and I saw Bobo's face, his mouth struggling for air... the fright in his eyes when he saw it was Lefty.

There was just about room to swing and Lefty was raining short, solid, blows into Bobo's middle, and Bobo wasn't even raising his hands in defense—taking it, blood and puke rushing from his mouth. I saw our last chance going to hell... when suddenly Bobo let out a grunt of rage, crossed a left hook to Lefty's face that shook him.

I gave a silent cheer and went to work. My hands were hanging between my legs and I spread my legs and fell as far forward as Franklin's arms would let me—as though I'd passed out. Then I reached under and back, felt for his groin, jerked with all the power I had.

12

His scream nearly busted my ears—a shrill, sharp roar of pain that was the sweetest music I ever heard! His hands left me and I stepped forward as Franklin sunk to his knees, both hands pressing against his fly.

On the dock I heard people running toward the boat as I picked up the hefty flashlight, stepped in to help Bobo. There wasn't room enough for anything but infighting, slugging each other with short, jolting punches.

Bobo had his head resting on Wilson's shoulder, slugging Lefty's gut, and as I tried to get a clear shot at Wilson's head with the metal flash, Bobo suddenly sent me sprawling with the back of one of his big fists. For a moment I didn't get it... and then I understood: this was his private battle and he didn't want any help.

Keeping the light on them, I got the Luger out of my coat and then untied Laurie, asked her if she was all right, only all I could do was mumble something that didn't sound like anything.

“Hal, stop them—they're killing each other!” Laurie said.

I merely shook my head.

Through the portholes a cloud of frightened, curious faces were watching as Bobo and Wilson pounded each other, grunting like animals. They'd slowed up, but each punch was a vicious blow, with every ounce of strength behind it. As Bobo's fists kept up a steady pounding of his stomach, Wilson shuddered, his hands fell to his sides, and he slowly sank to the floor. A slashing uppercut sent his head bouncing back and he lay against the closet door—out cold—blood streaming from his nose, mouth, and ears. Bobo's face was a bloody, panting, smear as he stared down at Wilson, gasped, “Beat you, you sonofabitch... I beat you... Nine years too late!”

I knew what was running through Bobo's mind, if he'd taken that return match with Wilson and beat him, he would have had all the fame and money the championship brings... instead of hustling for a buck as a guard all these years. At a porthole somebody said, “Better call a cop!” I grabbed Laurie, mumbled, “Tell... them... no!”

“But Hal...?”

I had to claw my jaw open with my fingers to yell, “No!” Motioning for Bobo to tie up Franklin and Lefty, I went up on deck. Maybe it was my face, or the gun in my hand—everybody on the dock scattered. My jaw felt a million painful miles away... but otherwise I felt like singing!

13

Starting the motor, I got the lines off, and with the little crowd of boat-owners peering out from the boathouse at us like we were a crew of loons, I backed the boat out into the East River, headed upstream.

Laurie and Bobo came on deck. She tried to touch my swollen jaw but I backed away. “Hal, where are we going? Why don't we call the police?”

Holding the wheel with one hand, I pointed to my mouth —that I couldn't talk—as I stroked her cheek and winked —trying to tell her everything was okay. I suppose it was lucky I couldn't speak, didn't have to explain the last act of the show I had in mind.

The tide was against us but we got a break—the railroad span at Spuyten was open—one of the round-Manhattan boats was coming through—and the tide was racing down the Hudson. Once I got the boat out in the middle of the river, I gave Laurie the wheel.

I motioned for Bobo to drag Lefty up on the deck. Franklin and I were alone in the cabin. His hands were tied but he wasn't gagged. The knife Lefty had run under Laurie's skirt was still on her bunk and I pretended not to notice it was within reach of Franklin's hands. He still looked a little sickly, watching me as I pulled off my shirt, stripped to the waist. My jaw was so big I couldn't get my T-shirt over my head, had to rip it off. Franklin said, “Darling, you've played this like a fool, but you got one more chance. Let me go, and I'll cut you in for 250 grand—more than the reward—give you all kinds of business and...”

I shook my head.

“Don't be dumb, what you got to lose? I've put in a lot of time and money with this Frisco dough, and the deal is about to pay off. Lot of countries are dollar hungry, willing to pay a bonus for a large bundle of U.S. green. Big people in England, France, Greece—they're anxious to close a deal with me. I'm giving you the chance of a lifetime.”

I slapped my left palm across my right forearm—showing him what he could do with his chance of a lifetime.

“How stupid can you get, Darling? What you worrying about? Afraid you'll get hooked for the murder of that piece whose throat I slit? I can fix that. Get some junkie to take the rap. Why I'll...”

I couldn't take any more of his yapping. Jacking my mouth open with my thumb—the pain making me dizzy—I said, “You'll do this... You'll do that! You... miserable... stinking... punk... who you think you are... God? People don't... don't mean... a damn to you. Kill....”

“People are crap. Human life is one of the cheapest things in the world. Why I...”

“Kill Anita... because she's in your way... stamp out Brody and... and Shelton... hell with their... families. Murder Louise to... to scare... me. Kill... ruin... Hell with a .. a... a person's love... hell with peace.... and decent... living. You think everything in the world... revolves around... a... a... fast buck! You... power-drunk... crazy... just crazy...!”

It was too much talking, I almost blacked out... and I'd need all the strength I had for the next half hour. Besides, why should I bother arguing with Franklin now?

He laughed in my face. “You're comical. Grow up, little man. If people get in my way... Christ, thousands of people die every day. What's the big deal about a life, about living? You're damn right, the fast buck controls everything! How many millionaires go to jail, ever get the hot seat? But poor slobs get the works every minute. I never ran for office but the boys who are elected will run errands for me, shine my shoes if I ask them, do anything I want —because I got the bucks and... money is power. Read the papers—Washington tells the rest of the world do what we say or we cut off the dough. Try to buck me, play it alone, turn me over to the cops... see which one of us goes to the can! You'll never get out of the pen alive, I have guys inside who'll cut your heart out if I...”

I had to fight the desire to shout at him, “You'll never reach the cops or jail!”—give my plan away. Instead I went on deck.

14

It was a little after eight-thirty and we were under the bridge, few minutes from the dock. Calling Bobo over, I found a hunk of paper and a pencil, wrote: “You know how to use a Luger?”

“Yeah. What you stripped for—a cold?”

I gave him the gun, wrote: “Forget what I'm writing, but when we dock and Franklin is off the ship, don't plug him if he makes a run for it. No matter what he does, if you shoot, aim high, miss him. If Lefty gets loose, let him have it but try not to kill him. If the 'Cat' gets loose before we dock, throw a gun on him. But after we dock—let him alone. And remember, forget this. Okay?”

He nodded, his bruised, puffy face puzzled. Tearing the paper up, I threw the pieces in the water. I glanced down in the cabin—the moonlight had been making the knife blade shine like silver... now the bunk was all dark-Franklin had the knife in his lap, was hacking away at the ropes on his hands.

Taking the wheel from Laurie, I headed for the New York shore. Lefty still seemed to be out, and Bobo was standing by the cabin, the Luger in his right hand. It occurred to me we hadn't frisked Franklin—but there wasn't time for that now.

Going past the dock I saw several cars parked at the entrance. Saltz was there ahead of time, but it wouldn't make any difference. Turning the boat around, I slowly came back to the dock, against the current. I was so nervous I banged the hull hard against the dock, damn near knocking us all down. Throwing the clutch out, I grabbed the pier, got a line around a rusty dock stanchion.

I motioned for Bobo to get Franklin out of the cabin, for Laurie to jump on the dock. She said, “Hal, you look so pale, and your face, your poor jaw is...”

I yanked her up on the dock, motioned for her to start walking. The cops had turned on the headlights of a car, lighting up the dock. Some men were walking toward us. I made out a couple of uniform bulls among them. I mumbled “Cops—hurry.”

Laurie ran toward them as Franklin came out of the cabin. He held his hands in front of him, as though still tied... but I knew damn well they weren't. When he stepped on the dock, I nodded at Bobo to stay with Lefty.

Franklin walked ahead of me, the car headlights blinding him for a second. When he saw Saltz and the cops coming toward us, he suddenly whirled around, the rope falling from his hands, the switch blade flashing in the light. Saltz began to sprint toward us.

For a second Franklin stared at me, then started for the side of the dock—he was going to dive into the Hudson, swim for it.

I jumped for his knife hand. It wasn't the right thing to do, but I had other ideas working. “Cat” was even stronger than I suspected, for he shook me like I was a puppy, then clubbed me on the jaw with his free left hand.

The black fog started to settle over me as I fought to keep conscious, all the time working his thumb back. I would have passed out except he was jerking me about so, he shook the black veil from my brain. Time was running out, Saltz was only a few hundred feet away.

I had Franklin's thumb almost out of its socket as he kept punching at me wildly, then the thumb suddenly went loose and he screamed and dropped the knife.

I saw Laurie running to help me—and almost laughed with relief as Saltz grabbed her, pushed her aside. She certainly would have ruined things!

Letting go of Franklin's hand, I grabbed his coat lapels, prayed for a split second he'd put his arms around me. He did—and brought his knee up to my groin as I dug my feet into his stomach—and fell back.

We landed on the dock with a crash, the wooden splinters tearing into my bare back—as I kicked up with both feet. Franklin's big body started to arc over my hand. I slid my hands up to his thick neck and held on with every ounce of strength I had.

His head and neck were still held vertically in my arms... when the rest of his heavy body landed... the weight of his body breaking his neck. There wasn't any sharp sound, but between my hands I felt something in his bull neck give... like a banana breaking... I let go of him, rolled over next to his head. His mouth was open in an agonized gasp and his eyes were half out of his head.

Placing my lips next to his ear, I tried to pry my jaw open as I said—or tried to say—“That's for Anita... and Louise! And... for me. They say curiosity... killed the... cat. Yeah... 'Cat'... it was my curiosity... to see could... snap your... lousy... neck...”

The dock shook under me as Saltz and the cops lumbered up. Turning to look up at him, all I saw was the black sky overhead... black without stars or moon, and it seemed to come down and gently blanket me.

The blackness was lush and soft and felt wonderful. I let it cover me and relaxed, rested. Then I wanted Laurie to share this dark softness with me. I started running through the velvet black, softly calling her name. At times I'd simply lay on the darkness, float along as though it was a lukewarm river.

I floated for great distances, calling for Laurie. Then I started to swim, with strong clean strokes. And the black slowly changed to gray, then to a bright day, and I opened my eyes.

I was in a bed.

Opening my eyes wider, a nurse came into focus, then Laurie's worried face, and even Saltz's ugly puss. We were in a hospital room. Bobo was standing by the window, grinning at me. I tried to smile at Laurie, but could hardly move my lips. My entire face felt numb. I raised my hands and the nurse pushed them back under the covers.

Laurie said, “Oh Hal... Hal!” and began to cry.

I tried to speak. “Where's Franklin?” The words came out pretty good.

“Dead. You broke his neck, you goddamn, strong little shrimp,” Saltz said. “We got there a second...”

“It was self-defense, he went for me with a knife,” I said, talking fast, happy to be able to talk again. “You can't...”

“Relax, you're not charged with anything. I saw him with the knife. But why didn't you tell me this was hooked up with the Frisco job, let me in on it? Playing it alone only...”

“Didn't know till...”

“Stop it, you sent the insurance company a letter two days ago. They been here every hour, waiting to ask...”

“Two

days ago?”

Laurie bent down over me, looking so pretty and smelling all cool and clean. “Darling, this Saturday. You've been out since Thursday night. Your jaw is all wired like an old radio set. Had to pull one of your teeth so they can feed you through a straw. But the doctors say you'll be fine in a few weeks.”

I tried grinning at her but my lips didn't move. Nor could I turn my head—it was in a cast. “Saltz,” I called out, hearing my voice grow weak.

Laurie pulled back and he stuck his hairbrush noggin into view. “Get the killings squared away?” I asked.

“All tied up with a neat ribbon. Miss Shelton gave us an affidavit that Franklin admitted killing Anita Rogers. And Lefty is talking all over himself. And I thought he was tough. Why...”

“Tough. Tough,” I said, feeling angry. “All you hear these days. People worship toughness. Only frightened people are tough, they act tough to forget how scared they are. How about the Frisco deal, did you...?”

“That's in the bag. Franklin acted as a sort of fence and big brain. They've pinched most of the hoods who did the job out on the Coast yesterday, and we're digging through the 'Cat's' bank vaults now for the rest of the dough. Wish you'd told me about that angle—made me look like a sap.”

“You mean a big man like you, a big-league copper can look like a sap?” I asked faintly.

Saltz shook his head, or maybe I was losing focus. “Can't figure you, Darling. But you and the girl and Bobo will get that two hundred grand reward, so I guess you played your cards right You were lucky as hell, but you got the big payoff.”

“The payoff is going to be a lot of sleep and rest, normal, peaceful living. Saltz, only a moron goes for this rough stuff... this slugging and violence. All I want now is to get a good agency going again—me and Bobo. But only guard stuff... the hell with being a bully-boy and crime. Only want a lot of peace... and rest... enjoy... living.”

I felt myself floating off into that gentle darkness again. The light seemed a long ways off and fading.

I heard the nurse say, “No more talking, he's tired.”

Laurie said, “And we'll get a bigger boat... can't raise a family in one room.”

Saltz said, “So it's that way with you and him? Well, with his luck, maybe you'll raise a family of midgets and make a fortune.”

I started to swim back toward the light, get that bastard Saltz, but I heard Laurie bawling him out, saying, “You big, stupid ox, I've a good mind to bang your empty head against the wall—only I don't want to disturb Hal!”

And then Bobo growled something and Saltz said, “Miss Shelton, I swear I didn't mean nothing, merely a corny joke that...”

I thought I heard her laughter as I stopped swimming. And now there was music too; distant, loud, brassy music. Laurie's laughter sounded as soft and inviting as the darkness I was floating on. I sighed. It would be great to have her there when I woke up... all the mornings of my life... and the music... it was growing a little louder, but not too loud.

Then I knew what that was... the merry-go-round had stopped... I was just hearing the old tinny carrousel music.

It sounded lively and peaceful.