“Sure,” he said. “Suppose we go up?”
With Ackie, I felt I could do it. We went upstairs quickly. I turned on the light in the bedroom and walked over to the bed.
I heard Ackie say:. “Good God!”
I pulled the sheet down with a steady hand. The floor seemed to rise up under me and I felt Ackie grab at my arm. We both stood staring.
Even in death Blondie looked hard and suspicious. Her glazed eyes were fixed in a terrified stare and the rivid paint on her mouth glistened in the electric light. She was naked, and a small blood-encrusted bullet-hole just above her left breast told me how she had died.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
ACKIE SAID: “No... don't say anythin'. Let me think.”
I walked away from the bed. My brain was stiff.
Ackie put his hand on Blondie's arm, then he took her wrist and raised it. I just stood there and watched him. “She ain't been dead long,” he said. He covered her with the sheet and came away from the bed.
He said: “We'll look in the other rooms.”
I stayed right there and let him do it. He came back after a while and shook his head. “There's no one anywhere.”
I sat down.
“You see, they didn't kill her... they've only taken her away,” Ackie said.
He went out of the room again.
I repeated after him: “They've only taken her away.” I guess I felt as bad as when I thought she was dead.
Ackie came back again with the Scotch and two glasses. He put the glasses down on the table and poured the whisky out carefully. Then he came over and put one of the glasses in my hand.
“If you want to get Mardi back you gotta snap out of it,” he said.
He was right.
“This is a frame-up, Nick,” he went on, “the old gag again. The same stunt as they pulled on Vessi. Blondie knew too much so they knocked her off and planted her on you. The next thing you'll know is that the cops will roll up and make a pinch. They'll get away with it just like they got away with it the first time.”
He was right again.
I finished up my Scotch and got to my feet. My own danger didn't worry me, but if I were behind bars there was no one to find Mardi. I had to get this angle right first.
“You better keep out of this, Mo,” I said. “I can't drag you into it.”
Ackie filled up his glass again. “Forget it.”
“No... I mean that.”
“I'm in with you from now on. We're going to bust this thing wide open. We're going to get Mardi back and we're going to get Spencer on trial. We're going to find out what's at the bottom of the Mackenzie Fabrics, and when we've done all that we're going to write the grandest news-story, and we're going to get someone to print it.”
I said: “Do you mean that?”
“Yeah, I'm in on it, and you can't keep me out.”
I was glad to have Ackie with me. He was an all-right guy and a tough egg to have around when trouble starts.
“We gotta get this dame outta here first. We gotta do that quick. That'll spoil any frame-up they're hoping to slap on you.”
“How the hell are we going to do that?”
Ackie scratched his head. “We'll take her out in my car and drop her somewhere.”
“It would be better to take her round to her own apartment and leave her there. In her profession she might've been knocked off by anyone.”
Ackie nodded. “We'll do that.”
“We can't take her out like that. We'll have to get her dressed.”
“Why the hell have they undressed her... anyway?”
“Just a touch of realism, I suppose. Her clothes must be around somewhere, otherwise that would be a point for the defence.”
I opened a cupboard and glanced inside. There was Blondie's large black hat hanging up with Mardi's hats. I took it out. I didn't want to think about Mardi just then, but seeing those hats did things to me.
We found Blondie's clothes in a neat pile under the curtains on the window-seat.
