Bad Boy Brawley Brown

'Where is she?'

'She took off.'

'Where is she?' His voice sounded as if it came from out of a well. It sounded dangerous and wild.

'I don't know! When we found the body she split in his car!'

'What body?'

'Dude was dead when we got there.'

'What was this guy's name?'

'Richard.'

'Richard what?'

'She just called him Richard, that's all.' I saw no reason to tell him that Richard had been nosing around John's place.

'You sure he was dead?'

'Had a knife right through his chest. There was a fly marchin' right across his eye.' I felt bile in my throat remembering it. 'Blood everywhere.'

'And you just let her go?' The threat in his voice was back so I got up and moved toward the kitchen for more coffee. I was so worried about one of them coming behind me that I bumped into the doorjamb trying to get through the door.

'Bide your time,' the voice whispered again.

'You din't hire me fo' no kidnappin'. The girl grabbed his keys and split. What you want me to do?'

'You call the cops?'

'I tried my best to keep in the speed limit. That's all I did.'

'Now I'm going to ask you something, Easy.' His gaze held my eye. 'And I don't want you to make any mistakes. Not right now.'

'Go on.'

'Did she take anything with her? A bag or a suitcase?'

'She had a ole brown suitcase. She put it in his trunk.'

DeWitt's eyes brightened and all the tension went out of his shoulders. 'What kind of car was that?'

'Forty-eight Studebaker. Pink job.'

'Where'd she go? Remember, now, you're still telling me everything.'

'All she said was she was gonna park it somewheres, but she didn't say where.'

'What's that address she was at?'

'Twenty-six—'

He waved at me impatiently and, to my shame, I flinched.

'Write it down,' he said.

I got paper from the drawer of my end table.

He sat across from me on the couch scrutinizing that little slip of paper. He had his knees wide apart.

'Get me some whiskey, Easy,' he said.

'Get it yourself,' the voice said.

'Get it yourself,' I said. 'Bottle's in the cabinet.'

DeWitt Albright looked up at me, and a big grin slowly spread across his face. He laughed and slapped his knee and said, 'Well, I'll be damned.'

I just looked at him. I was ready to die but I was going to go down fighting.

'Get us a drink, will you, Manny?' The little man moved quickly to the cabinet. 'You know, Easy, you're a brave man. And I need a brave man working for me.' His drawl got thicker as he talked. 'I've already paid you, right?'

I nodded.

'Well, the way I figure it, Frank Green is the key. She will be around him or he will know where she's gone to. So I want you to find this gangster for me. I want you to set me up to meet him. That's all. Once I meet him then I'll know what to say. You find Frank Green for me and we're quits.'

'Quits?'

'All our business, Easy. You keep your money and I leave you alone.'

It wasn't an offer at all. Somehow I knew that Mr. Albright planned to kill me. Either he'd kill me right then or he'd wait until I found Frank.

'I'll find him for ya, but I need another hundred if you want my neck out there.'

'You my kinda people, Easy, you sure are,' he said. 'I'll give you three days to find him. Make sure you count them right.'