mine. It was coming. Any minute now.
Then it was here. “I could read murder into this,” he grated.
Price turned sharply. “Yes?”
“Hammer, I think I’m going to put you on the spot.”
“Swell. You’d like that. Okay, go ahead.”
“Pull up your ears and get a load of this, Price. This punk and the Nichols dame could make a nice team. Damn nice. You didn’t think I’d find out about those pictures, did you, Hammer? Well, I did. You know what it looks like to me? It looks like the Nichols babe blackmailed Grange into making York change his will. Let York see those shots and Grange’s reputation would be shot to hell, she’d be fired and lose out on the will to boot. At least if she came through on the deal, all she’d lose was the will.”
I nodded. “Pretty, but where do I come in?”
“Right now. Grange got hold of those pictures somehow. Only Nichols pulls a fast one and tells York that Grange was the one who was blackmailing her. York takes off for Grange’s apartment in a rage because he had a yen for his pretty little niece, only Grange bumps him. Then Nichols corners you and you bump Grange and get the stuff off her, and the will. Now you turn it up, Nichols comes into a wad of cash and you split it.”
It wasn’t as bad as I thought. Dilwick had squeezed a lot of straight facts out of somebody, only he was putting it together wrong. Yeah, he had gotten around, all right. He had reached a lot of people to get that much and he’d like to make it stick.
Price said, “What about it, Mike?”
I grinned. “He’s got a real sweet case there.” I looked at the cop. “How’re you going to prove it?”
“Never mind,” he snarled, “I will, I will. Maybe I ought to book you right now on what I have. It’ll hold up and Price knows it, too.”
“Uh-uh. It’ll hold up . . . for about five minutes. Did you find Grange yet?”
He said nothing.
“Nuts,” I laughed, “no corpus delicti, no Mike Hammer.”
“Wrong, Hammer. After a reasonable length of time and sufficient evidence to substantiate death, a corpse can be assumed.”
“He’s right, Mike.”
“Then he’s got to shoot holes in my alibi, Price. I have a pretty tight one.”
“Where did you go after you left Alice’s apartment the other night?” Brother, I should have guessed it. Dilwick had put the bee on the Graham kid and the bastard copped a sneak. It was ten to one he told Dilwick he hadn’t seen me.
That’s what I get for making enemies. If the Graham kid thought he could put me on the spot he’d do it. So would Alice for that matter.
But there were still angles. “Go ahead and work on my alibi, Dilwick. You know what it is. Only I’ll give you odds that I can make your witness see the light sooner than you can.”
“Not if you’re in the can.”
“First get me there. I don’t think you can. Even if you did a good lawyer could rip those phonies apart on the stand and you know it. You’re stalling, Dilwick. What’re you scared of? Me? Afraid I’ll put a crimp in your doings?”
“You’re asking for it, punk.”
Price came back into the argument. “Skip it, Dilwick. If you have the goods on him then present it through the regular channels, only don’t slip up. Let you and your gang go too far and there’ll be trouble. I’m satisfied to let Mr. Hammer operate unhampered because I’m familiar with him . . . and you, too.”
“Thanks, pal.”
Dilwick jammed his hat on and stamped out of the room. If I wanted to get anywhere I was going to have to act fast, because my fat friend wasn’t going to let any grass grow under his feet finding enough dope to toss me in the clink. When the door slammed I let Price have my biggest smile. He smiled right back.
“Where’ve you been?”
“New York. I tried to get you before I left but you weren’t around.”
“I know. We’ve had a dozen reports of Grange being seen and I’ve been running them down.”
“Any luck?”
“Nothing. A lot of mistaken identities and a few cranks who wanted to see the police in action. What did you get?”
“Plenty. We’re back to the kidnapping again. This whole pot of stew started there and is going to end there. Ruston wasn’t York’s kid at all. His died in childbirth and another was switched to take its place. The father of the baby was a small-time hoodlum and tried to make a complaint but was dissuaded along the line. All very nicely covered up, but I think it’s a case of murder that’s been brewing for fourteen years.”
During the next half hour I gave him everything I knew, starting with my trip to the local library. Price was a lot like Pat. He sat there saying nothing, taking it all in and letting it digest in his mind. Occasionally he would nod, but never interrupted until I had finished.
He said: “That throws the ball to this Mallory character.”
“Roger, and the guy is completely unknown. The last time he showed up was a few days after the switch took place.”
“A man can change a lot in fourteen years.”
“That’s what I’m thinking,” I agreed. “The first thing we have to do is concentrate on locating Grange. Alive or dead she can bring us further up to date. She didn’t disappear for nothing.”
“All right, Mike, I’ll do my share. I still have men dragging the channel and on the dragnet. What are you going to do?”
“There are a few members of the loyal York clan that I’d like to see. In the meantime do you think you can keep Dilwick off my neck?”
“I’ll try, but I can’t promise much. Unfortunately, the law is made up of words which have to be abided more by the letter than the spirit therein, so to speak. If I can sidetrack him I will, but you had better keep him under observation if you can. I don’t have to tell you what he’s up to. He’s a stinker.”
“Twice over. Okay, I’ll keep in touch with you. Thanks for the boost. The way things are I’m going to have to be sharp on my end to beat Dilwick out of putting me up at the expense of the city.”
Dusk had settled around the countryside like a gray blanket when I left headquarters. I stepped into the car and rolled out the drive to the highway. I turned toward the full glow that marked the lights of Sidon and pulled into the town at suppertime. I would have gone straight to the estate if I hadn’t passed the library, which was still lit up.
It was just an idea, but I’ve had them before and they’d paid off. I slammed the brakes on, backed up and parked in front of the building. Inside the door I noticed the girl at the desk, but she wasn’t the same one I had spoken to before. This one had legs like a bridge lamp. Thinking that perhaps Legs was in one of the reading rooms, I toured the place, but aside from an elderly gentleman, two school-teacher types and some kids, the place was empty.
Just to be sure I checked the cellar, too, but the light was off and I didn’t think she’d be down there in the dark even if Grange was with her. Not with that musty-tomb odor anyway.
The girl at the desk said, “Can I help you find something, sir?”
“Maybe you can.”
“What book was it?”
I tried to look puzzled. “That is what I forgot. The girl that was here this morning had it all picked out for me. Now I can’t find her.”
“Oh, you mean Miss Cook?”
“Yeah,” I faked, “that’s the one. Is she around now?”
This time the girl was the one to be puzzled. “No, she isn’t. She went home for lunch this afternoon and never returned. I came on duty early to replace her. We’ve tried to locate her all over town, but she seems to have dropped from sight. It’s so very strange.”
It was getting hot now, hotter than ever. The little bells were going off inside my skull. Little bells that tinkled and rang and chimed and beat themselves into shattered pieces of nothing. It was getting hotter, this broth, and I
