The Mike Hammer Collection (80 page)

When I reached my destination I backed in between two cars and even went to the trouble of locking the door like any good citizen would who expects to go home and to bed for the rest of the night. There were a few lights on in the apartment building, but whether they came from the one I wanted or not, I couldn't tell.

I took one last drag on the butt and flipped it into the gutter. It lay there a moment fizzling before it went out. I walked in the lobby and held my finger on the buzzer until the door clicked, then I walked in.

Why hurry? Time had lost its value. My feet took each step carefully, one after the other, bringing me to the top. I walked straight down the hall to the door that stood open and said, “Hello, Juno.”

I didn't wait for her answer. I brushed right past her and walked inside. I walked through the room and pulled chairs from their corners. I walked into the bedroom and opened the closet doors. I walked into the bathroom and ripped the shower curtain down. I walked into the kitchen and poked around the pantry.

My hands were ready to grab and my feet were ready to kick and my gun was ready to shoot. But nobody was there. The fires began in my feet and licked up my body until they were eating into my brain. Every pain that had been ignored up to this moment gave birth to greater pains that were like teeth gripping my flesh apart. I held the edge of the door and spun around to face her with all that pain and hatred laid bare on my face.

My voice was a deadly hiss. “Where is he, Juno?”

The hurt that spoke to me from her eyes was eloquent. She stood there in a long-sleeved gown, her hands clutching her throat as my madness reached her. “Mike ...” that was all she could say. Her breasts rose under the gown as her breath caught.

“Where is he, Juno?” I had the Luger in my hand now. My thumb found the hammer and dragged it back.

Her lips, her beautiful lips, quivered and she took a step away from me. One step then another until she was standing in the living room. “You're hiding him, Juno. He came here. It was the only place the crazy bastard could come. Where is he?”

Ever so slowly she closed her eyes, shaking her head. “Oh, please, please, Mike. What have they done to you! Mike ...”

“I found Connie, Juno. She was in the storeroom. She was dead. I found the files gone. Clyde might have had just enough time to get in and tear those files out after he killed Connie. I found something else, the same thing she found. It was part of a shipping ticket for a television set. That was the set you were supposed to deliver to Jean Trotter, but you knew she wasn't going to need that so you had it stacked in the storeroom until you could get rid of it. You were the only one who knew it was there ... until tonight. Did Clyde find it and take it away so you wouldn't get tied into this?”

Her eyes opened wide, eyes that said it wasn't true, not any part of it. I didn't believe them. “Where is he, Juno?” I grabbed the gun up until it pointed at a spot midway between those laughing, youthful breasts under the gown.

“Nobody is here, Mike. You saw that. Please ...”

“Seven people are dead, Juno. Seven people. In this whole crazy scheme of things you have a part. It's a beautiful scheme though, hand-tailored to come apart whenever you try to get a look at it. Don't play games with me, Juno. I know why they were killed and how they were killed. It was trying to guess
who
killed them that had me going in circles. Your little blackmail cycle would have remained intact. Just one of those seven would have died if I hadn't been in the room with Wheeler that night. Who knew that I'd do my damndest to break it open?”

She watched me, her hands still at her throat. She shook her head and said, “No, Mike, no!” and her knees trembled so she fought to keep her balance. It was too much. Juno reached out her hand to steady herself, holding the back of a chair. Slowly, gracefully even now, she sat down on the edge of it, her lower lip between her teeth.

I nodded yes, Juno, yes. The gun in my hand was steady. The hatred I had inside me bubbled over into my mouth and spilled out. “I thought it was Anton at first. Then I found a mail receipt to Clyde. Anton had sent him some pictures. The Bowery Inn was a great place to draw the girls. It was designed specifically for that. It got the girls and with them the suckers.

“Who led the girls there in the first place, Juno? Who made it a fad to hang out down there where Clyde could win at his gambling tables and insure his business with photos that gave him the best coverage in the world? Did you do that, Juno? Did Clyde have a crush on you at one time and figure a good way of being able to stay in business? Was it Clyde who saw the possibilities of getting blackmail evidence on the big shots? Or was it you? It wasn't Anton, for sure. That goon had rocks in his head. But he co-operated, though, didn't he? He co-operated because he saw a way to purchase all those expensive paintings he had in his place.”

Her eyes were dull things, all the life gone from them. She sat with her head down and sobbed, one hand covering her face.

I spit the words out. “That's the way it was, all right. It worked fine for a while. Clyde had his protection and he was using it for all he was worth. But you, Juno ... you wanted to go on with it. It wasn't so hard to do because money is easy to like. You were the brains of the outfit ... the thinking brains. Clyde was the strong-arm boy and he had his little army to help him out.”

I stopped and let it sink in. I waited a full minute.

“Juno ...”

She raised her head slowly. Her eyes were red, the mascara streaking her cheeks. “Mike ... can't you ...”

“Who killed them all, Juno? Where is he?”

Her hands dropped to her lap, folded across her stomach in despair. I raised the gun. “Juno.” Only her eyes looked at me. “I'm going to shoot you, Juno, then I'm going to go out and get him all by myself. I'm going to shoot you where it will hurt like hell and you won't die quickly ... if you don't tell me. All you have to do is tell me where I can find him and I'll give him the chance to use his hands on me like he tried to do before and like he did to some of the others. Where is he, Juno?”

She didn't speak.

I was going to kill her, so help me God. If I didn't she could fake her way out because I was the only one who knew what had happened. There wasn't a single shred of evidence against her that could be used in court and I knew it. But I could kill her. She had a part in this! The whole thing was her doing and she was as guilty as the killer!

The gun in my hand wavered and I clamped down on the butt to keep it lined up. It was in my face, I could feel it. She could see it. The poison that is hate was dripping out of me and scoring my face. My eyes burned holes in my head and my whole body reeled under the sickening force that pulled me toward her.

I pointed the gun at her head and sighted along the barrel and said, “My God, I can't!” because the light was in her hair turning it into a halo of white that brought the dead back to life and I was seeing Charlotte's face instead of hers.

I went crazy for a second. Stark, raving mad. My head was a throbbing thing that laughed and screamed for me to go on, bringing the sounds out of my mouth before I could stop it. When the madness went away I was panting like a dog, my breath coming in short, hot gasps.

“I thought I could do it. I thought I could kill you, Juno. I can't. Once there was another woman. You remind me of her. You've seen me when I was hating something ... I was hating her. I loved her and I killed her. I shot her in the stomach. Yeah, Juno ... I didn't think it would be this much trouble to kill another woman but it is.

“So you don't die tonight. I'll take you down to the police and do what I said. Go on, sit there and smile. You'll get out of it, but I'm going to do everything I can to see that you don't.”

I stuck the gun back under my arm and reached for her hand. “Come on, Juno. I have a friend on the force who will be happy to book you on my word, even if it means his job.”

She came up out of the chair.

Then all hell broke loose. She grabbed my arm and a fist smashed into my nose and I staggered back. There wasn't time to get my hands up before I crashed into the wall, stunned. A devil had me by the throat and a knee came up into my groin. I screamed and doubled over, breaking the grip on my neck. Something gave me the sense to lash out with my feet and the next second she was on top of me clawing for my eyes.

I jerked my head away feeling the skin go with it and brought my fist up and saw it split her nose apart. The blood ran into her mouth and choked off a yell. She tried to get away, fought, kicked and squirmed to get away, but I held on and hammered until she rolled off me.

She didn't stay off. The room echoed with a torrent of animal noises and my arm was wrenched back in a hammerlock that pulled me completely off my feet. A knee went into my spine and pushed, trying to split me in half. My madness saved me. It flowed into my veins giving me the strength for a tremendous, final effort that hurled me out of her arms and tumbled her in front of me. She came back for another try and I leaped in to meet her and got my hands on her clothes to jam her in close.

But she twisted away and there was a loud whispering tear of cloth and the gown came away in my hands. Juno went staggering across the room stark naked except for the high-heel shoes and sheer stockings. She rammed an end table, her hands reaching for the drawer, and she got it open far enough for me to see the gun she was trying to get at.

I had mine out first and I said harshly, “Stand still, Juno.”

She froze there, not a muscle in that beautiful body moving. I looked at all that white bare skin, seeing it in contrast with the shoes and the stockings. Her hands were still on the drawer and inches away from the gun. She didn't have to be told that it couldn't be done.

I let her stand in that position, that ridiculous, obscene position while I lifted the phone off its hook. I had to be sure of just one thing. I went through Information and gave her an address, and I heard Clyde's phone ring. It took a little persuasion to get the cop off the line and Velda on it. I asked her one question and she answered it. She said Clyde was down in the basement out cold. The janitor had gotten him with a poker for some reason or other when he tried to get out. Clyde had never been near the office! She was still asking questions when I hung up.

It was all over now. I had found out
why,
I had found out
how,
now I knew
who.
The dead could go back to being dead forever.

I said, “Turn around, Juno.”

No dancer of ballet could have been more poised. Juno balanced delicately on tiptoe and stared at me, the devils of the pit alive in her eyes. The evil of murder was a force so powerful that I could feel it across the room. Juno, queen of the goddesses, standing naked before me, her skin glistening in the light.

Tomorrow I'd get my license back from the D.A. with a note of apology attached. Tomorrow Ed Cooper would have his scoop. Tomorrow would be tomorrow and tonight was tonight. I looked across Olympus and stared at Juno.

“I should have known, Juno. It occurred to me every time you rolled those big beautiful eyes at me. I knew it every time you suggested one of your little love games, then got scared because you knew you didn't dare go through with it. Damn it, I knew it all along and it was too incredible to believe. Me, a guy what likes women, a guy who knows every one of their stunts ... and I fall for this. Yeah, you and Clyde had a business arrangement all right. You had a lot more than that too. Who kept who, Juno? Are you the reason why Velda went over so big with Clyde? God, what an ass I was! I should have caught it the day you hauled me into that Village joint for dinner. There was a Lesbian who followed you into the ladies' room. I bet she could have kicked herself when she found out you were no better than she was. It was a part that fitted you to perfection. You played it so well that only the ones who didn't dare talk knew about it. Well, Juno, I know about it. Me. Mike Hammer, I know all about it and I'll talk. I'll tell them you killed Chester Wheeler because he got mad enough to try to expose the girl who framed him, and you killed Rainey because he tried to clip you out of some dirty dough, and Jean Trotter died for knowing the truth, and Marion Lester for the same reason. You couldn't have anybody knowing a truth that could be held over your head. Then Connie died because she discovered the truth when she found that television set in the storeroom and knew you never delivered it because Jean Trotter was no more married than you were. Yeah, I'm going to talk my fool head off, you slimy bastard, but first I'm going to do something else.”

I dropped the Luger to the floor.

It was too impossible for her to comprehend and she missed her chance. I had the Luger back in my hand before she could snatch the gun out of the drawer. I forgot all my reservations about shooting a woman then. I laughed through the blood on my lips and brought the Luger up as Juno swung around with eyes blazing a hatred I'll never see again. The rod was jumping in my hand, spitting nasty little slugs that flattened the killer against the wall with periods that turned into commas as the blood welled out of the holes. Juno lived until the last shot had ripped through flesh and intestines and kicked the plaster from the wall, then died with those rich, red lips split in a snarl of pain and fearful knowledge.

She lived just long enough to hear me tell her that she was the only one it could have been, the only one who had the time. The only one who had the ability to make her identity a bewildering impossibility. She was the only one who could have taken that first shot at me on Broadway because she tailed me from the minute I left her house. She was the one all the way around because the reasons fit her perfectly as well as Clyde and Clyde didn't kill anybody. And tomorrow that was tomorrow would prove it when certain people had their minds jarred by a picture of what she really looked like, with her short hair combed back and parted on the side.