She dug fingers into my arm and asked sharply:
'You've already gone to Noonan?'
'Yeah.'
She let go my arm, frowned, shrugged, and said gloomily:
'Well, how can I help it?'
I stood up and a voice said:
'Sit down.'
It was a hoarse whispering voice--Thaler's.
I turned to see him standing in the dining room doorway, a big gun in one of his little hands. A red-faced man with a scarred cheek stood behind him.
The other doorway--opening to the hall--filled as I sat down. The loose-mouthed chinless man I had heard Whisper call Jerry came a step through it. He had a couple of guns. The more angular one of the blond kids who had been in the King Street joint looked over his shoulder.
Dinah Brand got up from the Chesterfield, put her back to Thaler, and addressed me. Her voice was husky with rage.
'This is none of my doing. He came here by himself, said he was sorry for what he had said, and showed me how we could make a lot of coin by turning Noonan up for you. The whole thing was a plant, but I fell for it. Honest to Christ! He was to wait upstairs while I put it to you. I didn't know anything about the others. I didn't--'
Jerry's casual voice drawled:
'If I shoot a pin from under her, she'll sure sit down, and maybe shut up. 0. K.?'
I couldn't see Whisper. The girl was between us. He said:
'Not now. Where's Dan?'
The angular blond youngster said:
'Up on the bathroom floor. I had to sap him.'
Dinah Brand turned around to face Thaler. Stocking seams made s's up the ample backs of her legs. She said:
'Max Thaler, you're a lousy little--'
He whispered, very deliberately:
'Shut up and get out of the way.'
She surprised me by doing both, and she kept quiet while he spoke to me:
'So you and Noonan are trying to paste his brother's death on me?'
'It doesn't need pasting. It's a natural.'
He curved his thin lips at me and said:
'You're as crooked as he is.'
I said:
'You know better. I played your side when he tried to frame you. This time he's got you copped to rights.'
Dinah Brand flared up again, waving her arms in the center of the room, storming:
'Get out of here, the whole lot of you. Why should I give a Goddamn about your troubles? Get out.'
The blond kid who had sapped Rolff squeezed past Jerry and came grinning into the room. He caught one of the girl's flourished arms and bent it behind her.
She twisted toward him, socked him in the belly with her other fist. It was a very respectable wallop--man-size. It broke his grip on her arm, sent him back a couple of steps.
The kid gulped a wide mouthful of air, whisked a blackjack from his hip, and stepped in again. His grin was gone.
Jerry laughed what little chin he had out of sight.
Thaler whispered harshly: 'Lay off!'
The kid didn't hear him. He was snarling at the girl.
She watched him with a face hard as a silver dollar. She was standing with most of her weight on her left foot. I guessed blondy was going to stop a kick when he closed in.
The kid feinted a grab with his empty left hand, started the blackjack at her face.
Thaler whispered, 'Lay off,' again, and fired.
The bullet smacked blondy under the right eye, spun him around, and dropped him backwards into Dinah Brand's arms.
This looked like the time, if there was to be any.
In the excitement I had got my hand to my hip. Now I yanked the gun out and snapped a cap at Thaler, trying for his shoulder.
