The usual bar was a little place downtown where I had met him several times in the past and I went there now. I double-parked and slid out in front of the place to look in the windows, then I heard, ?Mike . . . Mike!?
I turned around and Pat was waving me into my car and I ran back and got in under the wheel. ?What the hell?s going on with you, Pat??
?Keep quiet and get away from here. I think there?s been an ear on my phone and I may have been followed.?
?The D.A.?s boys??
?Yeah, and they?re within their rights. I stopped being a cop when I lied for you. I deserve any kind of an investigation they want to give me.?
?But why all the secrecy??
Pat looked at me quickly, then away. ?You?re wanted for murder. There?s a warrant out for your arrest. The D.A. has found himself another witness to replace the couple he lost.?
?Who??
?A local character from Glenwood. He picked you out of the picture file and definitely established that you were there that night. He sells tickets at the arena as a sideline.?
?Which puts you in a rosy red light,? I said. Pat muttered, ?Yeah. I must look great.?
We drove on around the block and on to Broadway. ?Where to?? I asked.
?Over to the Brooklyn Bridge. A girl pulled the Dutch act and I have to check it myself. Orders from the D.A. through higher headquarters. He?s trying to make my life miserable by pulling me out on everything that has a morgue tag attached to it. The crumb hopes I slip up somewhere and when I do I?ve had it. Maybe I?ve had it already. He?s checked my movements the night I was supposed to have been with you and is getting ready to pull out the stops.?
?Maybe we?ll be cellmates,? I said.
?Ah, pipe down.?
?Or you can work in my grocery store . . . while I?m serving time, that is.?
?I said, shut up. What?ve you got to be cheerful about??
My teeth were clamped together, but I could still grin. ?Plenty, kid. I got plenty to be cheerful about. Soon a killer will be killed. I can feel it coming.?
Pat sat there staring straight ahead. He sat that way until we reached the cutoff under the bridge and pulled over to the curb. There was a squad car and an ambulance at the wharf side and another squad car pulling up when Pat got out. He told me to sit in the car and stay there until he got out. I promised him I?d be a good boy and watched him cross the street.
He took too long. I began to fidget with the wheel and chain-smoked through my pack of butts. When I was on the last one I got out myself and headed toward the saloon on the corner. It was a hell of a dive, typically waterfront and reeking with all the assorted odors you could think of. I put a quarter in the cigarette machine, grabbed my fresh deck and ordered a beer at the bar. Two guys came in and started talking about the suicide across the street.
One was on the subject of her legs and the other took it up. Then they started on the other parts of her anatomy until the bartender said, ?Jeez, cut it out, will ya! Like a couple ghouls ya sound. Can the crap.?
The guy who liked the legs fought for his rights supported by the other one and the bartender threw them both out and put their change in his pockets. He turned to me and said, ?Ever see anythin? like that? Jeez, the dame?s dead, what do they want of her now? What ghouls!?
I nodded agreement and finished my beer. Every two minutes I?d check my watch and find it two minutes later and start cursing a slimy little bastard named Clyde.
Then the beer would taste flat.
I took it as long as I could and got the hell out of the saloon and crossed the street to see what was taking Pat so long. There was a handful of people grouped around the body and the ambulance was gone. The car from the morgue had taken its place. Pat was bending over the body looking for identification without any success and had the light flashed on her face.
He handed one of the cops a note he fished out of her pocket and the cop scowled. He read, ?He left me.? He scowled some more and Pat looked up at him. ?That?s all, Captain. No signature, no name. That?s all it says.?
Pat scowled too and I looked at her face again.
The boys from the morgue wagon moved in and hoisted the body into a basket. Pat told them to put it in the unidentified file until they found out who she was.
I had a last look at her face.
When the wagon pulled away the crowd started to break up and I wandered off into the shadows that lined the street. The face, the face. Pale white to the point of transparency, eyes closed and lips slightly parted. I stood there leaning up against a plank wall staring at the night, hearing the cars and the trolley rattle across the bridge, hearing the cacophony of noises that go to make up the voice of the city.
I kept thinking of that face.
A taxi screamed past and slid to a stop at the comer. I backed up and a short fat figure speaking a guttural English shoved some bills in the driver?s hand and ran to the squad cars. He spoke to the cop, his arms gesticulating wildly; the cop took him to Pat and he went through the same thing again.
The crowd that had turned away turned back again and I went with them, hanging on the outside, yet close enough so I could hear the little fat man. Pat stopped him, made him start over, telling him to calm himself down first.
The fat man nodded and took the cigarette that was offered him but didn?t put it in his mouth. ?The boat captain I am, you see?? He said. ?The barges I am captain of. We go by two hours ago under the bridge and it is so quiet and peaceful then I sit on the deckhouse and watch the sky. Always I look up at the bridge when I go by. With my night glasses I look up to see the automobiles and marvel at such things as we have in this country.
?I see her then, you understand? She is standing there fighting and I hear her scream even. She fights this man who holds his hand over her mouth and she can?t scream. I see all this, you understand, yet I am not able to move or do a thing. On the barge we have nothing but the megaphone to call with. It happens so fast. He lifts her up and over and she goes into the river. First I thought she hit the last barge on the string and I run and shout quickly but it is not so. I must wait so long until I can get somebody to take me off the barge, then I call the police.
?The policeman, he told me here to come. You were here. The girl has already been found. That is what I have come to tell you. You understand??
Pat said, ?I understand all right. You saw this man she fought?? The guy bobbed his head vigorously.
?Could you identify him??
Everyone?s eyes were on the little guy. He lifted his hands out and shrugged. ?I could tell him from someone else . . . no. He had on a hat, a coat. He lifted this girl up and over she goes. No, I do not see his face for I am too excited. Even through the night glasses I could not see all that so well.?
Pat turned to the cop next to him. ?Take his name and address. We?ll need a statement on it.?
The cop whipped out a pad and began taking it down. Pat prompted him with questions until the whole thing was straight then dismissed the batch of them and started asking around for other witnesses. The motley group hanging around watching didn?t feel like having any personal dealings with the police department for any reason at all and broke up in a hurry. Pat got that grim look, muttered something nasty and started across the street to where I was supposed to be.
I angled over and met him. ?Nice corpse,? I said.
?I thought I told you to stay in the car. Those cops have you on their list.?
?So what. I?m on a lot of lists these days. What about the girl??
?Unidentified. Probably a lovers? quarrel. She had a couple of broken ribs and a broken neck. She was dead before she hit the water.?
?And the note . . . did the lover stuff that in her pocket before he threw her overboard??
?You have big ears. Yes, that?s what it looks like. They probably argued previously, he invited her for a walk, then gave it to her.?
?Strong guy to mess her up like that, no??
Pat nodded. I opened the door and he got in, sliding over so I could get behind the wheel. ?He had to be to
