started.”
I grinned at him. “I hear this Dekkert is a pretty tough apple himself.”
“Maybe not no more,” he said, pulling on his mustache, thoughtful and still grinning. “Word around town is, some big guy whopped the devil out of him.”
“You don’t say,” I said.
Velda had a pixie grin going. She caught the Pollack’s eyes and pointed her fork at me.
“Hey!” he blurted. “Are you the guy? Tony said it was some big ugly guy from out of town! Are you him?”
I laughed. “I fit the description.”
“I don’t mean no disrespect.” He stuck out a big hand. “Lemme shake with you.”
We did. His grip didn’t break my fingers, but stopped just short.
“By damn, it’s good to see somebody in this town what ain’t scared of them stinking cops! The meal’s on the house. You and your girl both. Wait’ll I tell little Steve about you! What’s your name, mister?”
“Mike Hammer. I’m a private dick from New York.”
“Good one, too,” Velda said, pointing the fork again. “Pretty famous.”
“Hammer.” His eyes popped. “ Mike Hammer! Well, I’ll be a dirty name. I got it now. I read the Daily News! Ain’t you the one that-”
Velda stopped him again. “Shot down those two hoods in Times Square? That’s him. Showed a couple hundred people in a nightclub what a crook had for dinner, using a steak knife? One and the same. Got in Dutch with the police for making a perfectly good suspect unrecognizable? That’s him.”
“Cut it out, chick.” I nudged her in the ribs. “I’m not so bad.”
“Oh, no,” she said, very sarcastically. “He’s good with the ‘chicks,’ too.”
She just had to tack that on. She always does.
The big man slapped his chest. “Well, me, I’m Steve Kowalski. Just call me Big Steve. Is the pretty lady your wife?”
“Not yet. This is Velda, my secretary and good right arm.”
“She is very beautiful,” he said, “your right arm.”
Velda gave him a warm smile, and then me one-she liked the sound of that “not yet.” I better watch my step or she’d be pinning me down with a proposal and I wasn’t near ready.
Over a piece of pie and a second cup of coffee, Big Steve told us what he knew about the town. The winter population was about fifteen hundred, but it increased to ten thousand during the summer months, most of the crowd attracted from New York. The beach was nice, and there were few limitations on parties, drinking bouts in saloons, or what have you. From his description, Sidon was the Reno of Long Island.
I asked, “There’s illegal gambling here, Steve?”
“There is.” He held up his hands as if in surrender. “But I don’t know where and don’t want to. I keep apart from that.”
But he knew in general what was going on. He knew Sidon was situated far enough away from everything for visitors to enjoy loosely enforced laws, and yet not far enough away to hamper travel. Dotted along the shore line were the mansions of the wealthy. Some lived here all year round, but most boarded up their fancy pads for use during the summertime only.
These people had nothing to do with the town. Even the bulk of their provisions came in from the outside, and their recreation was on their own private beaches.
Velda said, “Anything for a young couple like us to do after dark, before the season starts around here?”
I could think of something.
Big Steve said, “There’s a nice beer parlor just down the street-jukebox and everything. But you don’t wanna eat there.”
“Okay,” she said. “What else?”
“There’s a place on the highway where you kids can do some serious drinkin’ and dancin’. Only opened up a few days ago-gettin’ the jump on the season. They got a little band. Not bad.”
“Sounds good,” Velda said. Then to me she said, “Let’s try it, after work.”
Big Steve, who was down from us now using the rag on the counter, said, “Work? You two are working?”
“It’s not my idea,” Velda smirked.
“Zip it,” I told her.
A screaming siren grabbed our attention and we spun on our stools to see a Sidon police car shoot by. Simultaneously a little barefooted kid ran into the diner, his hair flying in excitement.
“ Uncle Steve! They found a dead lady in the park! She’s sitting on the stone horse… and she ain’t got no clothes on!”
That was all I needed to hear.
With Velda inches behind me, I ran out and toward the hotel to get the heap out of the lot. Soon I was behind the wheel and swinging around in the middle of the street and racing through town, following the banshee wail.
The park was a mile and a half outside town, a fifty-acre grove of trees and lawn built on reclaimed land to provide the town’s only public bathing beach. On the shore were the dressing houses, with closed buildings that became soda and hot dog concessions during the summer. In the midst of the tree-rimmed park itself, twin paths curved in from one end of the beach to the other, circling around the granite figure of a horse set directly on the ground, supposedly drinking from an artificial spring, now dry.
I ran the car into the parking lot behind a dozen others. Evidently news traveled fast in this little town and, considering Sidon’s size, there were a lot of curiosity seekers.
Velda and I wasted no time. We took the right-hand path and half-ran toward the horse. Clouds were protecting the sun from the unpleasantness and keeping the park cool and blue. Ahead of us a loud voice through a hand-speaker was ordering people to keep back and keep moving. Seemed the Sidon PD had at least six officers, because they were spread out keeping people away from the grim discovery. The crowd was a mix of ages and were clearly not tourists. Some kids were mixed in, too, getting some Saturday afternoon education.
With Velda tagging after, I broke through the crowd and the skinny cop I’d elbowed in the nuts the night before blocked me, putting out his hand in “stop” fashion. I gave him one look and he dropped his hand reluctantly, and stepped aside.
There on the well-trimmed grass a dozen feet from the base of the statue was Dekkert, crisply uniformed, his face criss-crossed with a fresh set of bandages. With him was Chief Beales. Both were speaking to a nondescript, pot-bellied little guy in a short-sleeve white shirt with a too-short necktie. I caught the name Holden once, and realized I was looking at the town boss. He certainly didn’t look like anything more than the manager of a grocery store.
All three men stopped talking at one point, and shot sideways glances our way as we neared, but that was all. I could see them later.
Right now I wanted a closer look at that horse and the naked rider it bore.
She was there all right. Not sitting as the kid had described, but draped over the back of the statue. She was face down, her bright yellow hair hanging limply between her dangling arms. She was in a curious position, almost as if she had been thrown there. Stuck in the strands of hair was seaweed, not yet dry. The body was bloated, with little holes in the skin, her nice shape distorted in gruesome self-parody. She had been in the water a while before taking this ride.
“Lady Godiva herself,” I said.
“More like lady go die,” Velda said, in hushed horror.
The chief came over. This time he was remarkably civil. “What do you make of it, Mr. Hammer?”
I shrugged. “Mind if I have a better look?”
Chiefie made a gracious “after you” gesture. “We’re fortunate to have a big city investigator like you here to give an opinion.”
There was no sarcasm apparent in that, and you would think our earlier meeting had been filled with back slapping and laughter.
