One Lonely Night (19 page)

“Yeah, I thought maybe you could explain some of it.”

“Don’t be silly.”

“Been shooting your gun lately?”

“Yesterday, as a matter of fact. I fired one into some waste right in my own apartment to check the ejector action. Why?”

“A paraffin test is out of order then. Mind if I see your gun?”

I said no and handed it over. Pat pressed a button on his desk and one of the technicians came in. Pat handed him the gun. “Get me a photograph of one of the slugs, Art.”

“You’re assuming a lot, aren’t you, Pat?”

“I think so. Want to talk about it?”

“No, wait until you get your photograph.”

He sat back and smiled and I read the papers. The two men were identified as Martin Romberg and Harold Valleck. They were good and dead. Both had prison records for various crimes and were suspected of being killed in a gang brawl. The police were expecting early developments in the crime. The reporters didn’t have much to go on.

Art came back before I finished the funnies and handed Pat an enlarged sheet that was covered with angle shots of the slug. He laid the gun on the desk. Pat smiled again and pulled another sheet from his desk drawer. There wasn’t anything funny about the way he smiled. I looked at him with a frown covering up the grin that was trying to break through, lit a butt and went back to the paper and finished the funnies.

Pat said, “You’re too smart to be dumb, Mike. That or you’re clean and I’m stupid as hell.” His face looked empty.

I had a nice speech all ready to take him down a peg or two when I realized that he was on the spot. “You mean they were supposed to match, is that it?”

He nodded. “Something like that. A .45 killed one of them. There were only three of us who knew about Oscar’s being there.”

“Were they after Oscar or just there?”

“Hell, I don’t know, Mike. Murder isn’t uncommon in that neighborhood. Ordinarily I wouldn’t give a hoot about it, but this isn’t an ordinary thing. I feel about as effective as a clam right now.”

“What for? Cripes, you can’t help yourself if somebody gets shot. The place was empty. It was a good place for a hideout. Maybe those two eggs were holed up in there when they got caught up with.”

Pat leaned back and rubbed his hands across his eyes. “Look, Mike, I’m not too dumb. Anybody can change barrels in a gun. I’ll bet you the shell cases won’t match your pin either.”

“How’d you guess?”

“You’re treating me like a kid now, feller. You’re the one who’s forgetting that we’re friends. I know you like a book and I don’t want to tear any pages out of that book because if I do I’m afraid of what the ending will be like. I know it was you, I don’t know who handled the .32, I’m scared to ask questions and I hate to have you lie to me. Little lies I don’t like.”

I folded the paper and put it back on his desk. Pat wouldn’t look at me. “Why the finger pointing at me, Pat?”

“Nuts. Just plain nuts. You should know why.”

“I don’t.”

“One of those boys had a green Commie card on him. Now do you know why?”

“Yeah,” I said. I had forgotten all about that. I lifted the cigarette and dragged the smoke down into my chest. “Now what?”

“I want to know what you’re after. I want to know everything, Mike. Whenever I think about things I get cold all over and want to smash things. You’ve been playing cute and there’s no way I can touch you. I have to absorb myself in police work and routine detail when I know I’m on the outside hoping for a look in.”

“That’s the trouble with the police. They have to wait until something happens. A crime has to be committed before they can make a move.”

Pat watched me thoughtfully, his hands locked behind his head. “Things have happened.”

“Roger, but, as you stated, they have been played very cute.”

“I’m still on the outside looking in.”

I snubbed the butt out and stared at the shreds of tobacco hanging out the end. “Pat ... more things are going to happen. I know you like a book, too, but there’s something else I have to know.”

“Go on.”

“How far can I trust you?”

“It depends on a lot of things. Never forget that I’m still a cop.”

“You’re still a plain citizen who likes his country and likes to see it stay the way it is, aren’t you?”

“Naturally.”

“All right. You’re all snagged up in the ritual of written law and order. You have to follow the rules and play it square. There’s a weight around your neck and you know it. If I told you what I knew you’d bust a gut trying to get something done that couldn’t be done and the rats would get out of the trap.

“I’m only one guy, Pat, but I’m quite a guy and you know it. I make my own rules as I go along and I don’t have to account to anybody. There’s something big being kicked around and it’s exactly as you said ... it’s bigger than you or me or anybody and I’m the only one who can handle it. Don’t go handing me the stuff about the agencies that are equipped to handle every conceivable detail of this and that. I’m not messing with detail ... I’m messing with people and letting them see that I’m nobody to mess with and there are a lot more like me if you want to look for them.

“What’s going on isn’t a case for the crime laboratory and it isn’t a case for the police. The whole thing is in the hands of the people, only they don’t know it yet. I’m going to show it to them because I’m the only one who has the whole works wrapped up tight trying to bring it together so we can see what it is. You can stop worrying about your law and your order and about Lee Deamer, because when I’m finished Lee can win his election and go ahead and wipe out the corruption without ever knowing that he had a greater enemy than crime plain and simple.”

I picked up my gun and stuck it in the sling. Pat hadn’t moved. His head bobbed slightly when I said so long, but that was all.

I was still seeing the tired smile on Pat’s face, telling me that he understood and to go ahead, when I called Lee Deamer’s office. His secretary told me that he was speaking at a luncheon of U.N. delegates in a midtown hotel and had already left. I got the name of the hotel, thanked her and hung up.

He must be getting anxious and I didn’t blame him a bit. It was a little before noon, so I hopped in the heap and tooled it up Broadway and angled over to the hotel where it cost me a buck to park in an unloading zone with a guy to cover for me.

The clerk at the desk directed me to the hall where the luncheon was to be held and had hardly finished before I saw Lee come in the door. He swung a brief case at his side and one of the girls from his office trailed behind him carrying another. Before I could reach him a swarm of reporters came out of nowhere and took down his remarks while the photogs snapped his picture.

A covey of important-looking joes stood on the outside of the circle impatient to speak to Deamer, yet unwilling to offend the press by breaking up the party. It was Lee himself who told the boys to see him after the luncheon and walked through their midst. He had spotted me leaning against the desk and went directly into the manager’s office. That little man went in after him, came out in a minute and scanned the desk. I didn’t have to be told that he was looking for me.

I nodded and strode in as casually as I could. The manager smiled at me, then took up a position near the door to give us a few minutes in private. Lee Deamer was sitting in a leather-covered chair next to the desk and his face was a study in anxiety.

“Hello, Lee.”

“Mike, how are you? I’ve been worried sick ever since I saw the papers this morning.”

I offered him a butt and he shook his head. “There’s nothing to worry about, Lee. Everything is fine.”

“But last night. I ... you mean you weren’t connected with the doings in Oscar’s place?” I grinned and lit the smoke.

“I don’t know what to think. I called Captain Chambers and he led me to believe that he thought the same thing.”

“He did. I talked him out of it.” I raked another chair up with my foot and sat down. Murder is murder. It can be legal and it can’t. No matter what it is it’s still murder and the less people know about it the better. I said, “I went through Oscar’s place right after the accident. Pat went through it himself. Later I took another check and I’m satisfied that if Oscar did leave any incriminating junk lying around, he didn’t leave it in his room.”

Lee sighed, relieved. “I’m glad to hear that, Mike, but I’m more than glad to hear that you didn’t have anything to do with those ... deaths. It’s ugly.”

“Murder is always ugly.”

“Then there’s nothing further to be said, I imagine. That takes a great load off my mind. Truly, Mike, I was terribly worried.”

“I should think so. Well, keep your mind at rest. I’m going to backtrack on Oscar a little bit and see what comes up. It’s still my opinion that he was bluffing. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to frame somebody who can’t be framed. If anything comes up I’ll let you know, meanwhile, no news is good news, so they say.”

“Fine, Mike, I’ll leave everything to you. Captain Chambers will co-operate as he sees possible. I want nothing hanging over my head. If it becomes necessary I would rather the public knew about my relationship with Oscar and the facts of the case before the election.”

“Forget that stuff,” I told him brusquely, “there’s plenty the public shouldn’t know. If you went into George Washington’s background you’d probably kick up a lot of dirt too. You’re the one that counts, not Oscar. Remember that.”

I put the chair back in place and doused the butt in a flower pot. I told Lee to give me a few minutes before he left, said so-long and took off. Lee looked ten years younger than he had when he came in. I liked that guy.

There was a public phone in the lobby and I called Velda to ask her if she had switched parts in her gun. She said she had, then told me Pat had just been on the wire. I said, “But I just saw him a little while ago.”

“I know, but he told me to have you contact him right away if I could reach you.”

“Okay, I’ll call him back. Look, I’ll probably be out most of the day, so I’ll pick you up sometime tonight at your place.”

“Charlie Moffit?”

“Yeah, we’ll take in his joint.”

“I’ll be ready, Mike.”

I hung up, threw in another nickel and spun Pat’s number when I got the dial tone. The last time I had seen him he looked tired. This time his voice was dancing.

Like on hot coals.

“Pat, feller, why the sudden rush?”

“I’ll tell you later. Get your tail down here chop-chop. I have things to talk over with you. Privately.”

“Am I in trouble?”

“There’s a damn good chance that you’ll be in jail if you don’t hurry.”

“Get off my back, Pat. Get a table in Louie’s and I’ll be down for lunch. The check is yours this time.”

“I’ll give you fifteen minutes.”

I made it just in time. Louie was behind the bar and thumbed me toward the booths in the rear. Pat was in the last one on the aisle sucking on a cigarette as hard as he could.

Did you ever see a guy who was burned up at his wife? He was like a bomb trying hard to go off and couldn’t because the powder was wet. That’s what Pat reminded me of. Police efficiency was leaking out his ears and his usual suavity hung on him like a bag. If he could call those narrow slits eyes then you could say he was looking at me with intent to kill.

I walked back to the bar and had Louie make me up a drink before the session started.

He waited until I was comfortable against the back of the booth and started on my drink before he yanked an envelope out of his pocket and flipped it across the table at me. I slid the contents out and looked at him.

They were photographs of fingerprints. Most were mine.

Four weren’t.

Attached to the four that weren’t was a typewritten sheet, single spaced and carefully paragraphed. “They came off that cigarette pack,” Pat said.

I nodded and read through the report.

Her name was Paula Riis. She was thirty-four years old, a college grad, a trained nurse and a former employee in a large Western insane asylum. Since it was a state job her prints were on file there and in Washington.

Pat let me stuff the sheets back in the envelope before he spoke. I hardly heard him say unnecessarily, “She worked in the same place that Oscar had been assigned to.” A cloud of smoke circled his head again.

The music started in my head. It was different this time. It wasn’t loud and it had a definite tune and rhythm. It was soft, melodious music that tried to lullaby me into drowsiness with subtle tones. It tried to keep me from thinking and I fought it back into the obscurity from which it came.

I looked at his eyes and I looked deep into twin fires that had a maddening desire to make me talk and talk fast. “What, Pat?”

“Where is she?” His voice sounded queer.

I said, “She’s dead. She committed suicide by jumping off a bridge into the river. She’s dead as hell.”

“I don’t believe you, Mike.”

“That’s tough. That’s just too damn bad because you have to believe me. You can scour the city or the country from now to doomsday and you won’t find her unless you dredge the river and by now maybe even that’s too late. She’s out at sea somewhere. So what?”

“I’m asking the same thing. So what, Mike? She isn’t an accident, a freak coincidence that you can explain off. I want to know why and how. This thing is too big for you to have alone. You’d better start talking or I’m going to have to think one thing. You aren’t the Mike Hammer I knew once. You used to have sense enough to realize that the police are set up to handle these things. You used to know that we weren’t a bunch of saps. If you still want to keep still then I’m going to think those things and the friendship I had for a certain guy is ended because that guy isn’t the same guy any more.”

That was it. He had me and he was right. I took another sip of the drink and made circles with the wet bottom on the table.