something.”
“What did the Christians win by?” Shayne said. “Six points, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Harry said bitterly, “six points. One more touchdown and we’d have been in. I watched the last half. It’s one of those stymie situations where both lines are so strong that nobody gains on the ground and it’s up to the quarterback to break it open with passes. And it seemed to me he was a tick slow about getting off his shots. They red-dogged him, sure. But a couple of times he had a receiver wide open and he let himself get blitzed with the ball still in his mitt. Other times he just missed the receiver.”
“That happens, Harry.”
“Yeah, but I’ve got a suspicious mind. If the betting had been normal, but it wasn’t. Well, we get taken once in a while, you know that, and what can you do? But I like to know what’s happening to me so it won’t happen again. That’s what I wanted you to look into, this quarterback. What kind of car does he drive? Does he have a safe-deposit box, and what’s in it?”
Shayne scraped his thumb along his stubbled jaw. “Harry, you’re talking about Johnny Black. He’s All- American. These days the pros are handing out bonuses of a hundred thousand and up, and he’s going to get offers. How much would you have to pay him to take that kind of chance in his last college game? Too damn much.”
“I could be wrong,” Harry admitted. “What time is it?”
Shayne looked at his watch. “Five of eight.”
“There’s a sports program at eight, highlights of the games. See what you think.”
Doc Waters came in from the hall. “Well, I had a hell of a time locating Goldstein, but he says he’ll be with you in fifteen minutes. Look, I know you’re feeling lousy, Harry, but before he gets here. I told you what I’m up against. There’s a time element.”
Harry’s head made a small rotating motion and his eyes closed for an instant. He blinked hard.
“I said I’d cover you. I consider that a contract. But don’t irritate me.”
Theo came in with bottles and glasses on a large tray. Shayne took the tray from her and put it on a low table.
“I couldn’t find the brandy he was talking about,” she said. “I hope this will do. Will you make your own?”
She poured a little whiskey in a tall glass, adding ice and considerable soda. “And I’m taking no responsibility for this, Harry.”
“Give that to Doc,” Harry said. “I’ll have mine straight.”
She looked at Shayne for support. When he didn’t give her any, she grudgingly covered the bottom of an old- fashioned glass with bourbon and handed it to her employer.
Doc Waters was fidgeting around without sitting down. “One thing I didn’t tell you, Harry, and it makes a difference. My big winner’s Al Naples. Anybody else I could maybe stall.”
“Don’t worry about Al. He’s retired.”
Doc drank some of the weak highball. “Maybe, but I don’t think I’ll take a chance on it.”
“Is this the Al Naples from Chicago?” Shayne asked.
Waters nodded. “And I wish he’d stayed there.”
“Harry, if you don’t need me right now,” Theo said, “why don’t I finish my typing?” She bit her lip and burst out, “I can’t just sit down, and have a drink, and pretend everything’s normal! The doctor said fifteen minutes, but when did a doctor ever come when he said he would? You ought to be in the hospital. You’ll need X rays, and why not have them now instead of later?”
“Let’s see what Goldstein says about X rays,” Harry said. “Get the typing out of the way, and if I have to go to the hospital you can come along. I won’t blast off at Doc any more. I’ll try to remember he’s human.”
Doc’s mustache jerked in annoyance. “I’m human. But who else?”
“Turn on the TV for Mike,” Harry said.
Theo touched Harry’s shoulder lightly, crossed the room and switched on the big set. Again Harry watched her leave, his eyes soft and vulnerable.
Shayne adjusted the volume. The announcer was delivering a razor-blade commercial, in a tone of great conviction. After that he went directly into a fast review of the Florida Christian-Southern Georgia contest, which the favorite had won but with little to spare. Shayne watched Johnny Black hit with two scoring passes in the first quarter, then suddenly lose his touch.
“I’d say there were four plays,” Harry said when the announcer shifted to a game in the Middle West. “He could have scored with any one of them. Heads or tails, and they all came up tails.”
“You think he threw it?” Waters said.
“That’s what I want Shayne to find out. Now tell him about the third race at Tropical.”
“Harry, where’s the percentage? There’s not a damn thing we can do but pay up.”
“Doc, give me some more whiskey.”
When Waters hesitated he said sharply, “So it’s bad for me. Do you care?”
Waters took his glass and poured him a strong drink. Harry was squinting, trying to keep things from overlapping.
“A couple of mugs stuck me up when I was eighteen,” he said. “They got a wristwatch and three bucks. That was the last time till tonight. I don’t like it. I also don’t like being clubbed with a pistol barrel. I think Mike will work on it for me if I pay him enough dough, but he has to know the facts. All the facts. What’s the name of the horse?”
“Ladybug,” Waters said reluctantly. “There’s no mystery. She’s a Naples horse, in his wife’s name, for tax reasons. In two years she never did a thing. Fifth, sixth. What do you want Shayne to do, Harry, walk in on Al Naples and ask him if he fixed the race? Sure he fixed it. He fixed it by hiding the mare’s speed. Why worry about how? There are ways. He fooled everybody, and she paid off at sixty-five to one. His wife couldn’t get to the track this afternoon. She had to have her hair done, and anyway she didn’t want to bet at the track, she said, because she didn’t want Al to know she was betting seven C’s on the mare, she liked her so much. That was her story, and what was wrong with it? They got four thousand down all told, here and there. I tried to call you, Harry, and where were you? We could have come back to the track with some of that, fed it into the machines. But you weren’t answering the phone.”
Shayne finished his cognac and poured himself some more. “If it was just the football game or just the horse race, would you still need Harry’s help to make the payoff?”
“He’s like my banker,” Waters said defensively. “I don’t keep that amount in a bureau drawer. Maybe I could have pieced it out, the football payoff, with a little squeezing. It’s the two hits at the same time that hurts. And what I’m trying to get a statement out of you on, Harry, is what the hell am I supposed to do now? Naples expects it, and what do I tell him? It’s me he’s collecting from, not you.”
His voice was rising. Harry cut him short.
“I said I’d take care of it,” he said, his eyes hard. “Mike, are you in?”
Shayne nodded. “With pleasure. I took a couple of cracks on the head myself, and I’d like to find the man and get an apology. I’ll start with Johnny Black, but don’t count on anything there, Harry. If he buttons up and stays buttoned up, there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“Use psychology, Mike. Do you want a retainer?”
“Can you afford it?”
Harry snorted and Shayne stood up. “If I find the dough, I’ll take ten percent.”
“Ten percent!” Waters exclaimed. “That’s high.”
“OK, Mike,” Harry said briefly, closing his eyes. “Call me. Maybe you’ll get lucky and I won’t have to knock myself out raising it.”
“Do what the doctor tells you,” the redhead said, looking down at him. “You’re not a kid any more.”
“Prime of life,” Harry said without opening his eyes.
The doorbell chimed and Theo went to answer it. It was a Beach patrolman, wanting to know if by any chance Mr. Bass was missing a Cadillac. The doctor arrived as Shayne was leaving. Theo accompanied Shayne to his car.
“I take it you’re going to be working for him. I’m glad.”
“He’s making pretty good sense,” Shayne said. “I was hoping those drinks would knock him out. If you can get rid of Doc Waters, so much the better.” He hesitated. “You might pass this on to the doctor. I was with Harry
