When I pulled away I looked up and down the one-way street just to be sure. It happened twice. I said it wouldn't but it happened again anyway. They must have had a tail on me when I came out of the office and saw a beautiful chance to nail me cold. That truck would have made hash of me if it had connected right.
They were going to all kinds of trouble, weren't they? That made me important. You have to be important if you were better off dead. The judge should like that.
Pat was sitting with his back to the door looking out the window at the city when I came in. He swung around in his chair and nodded hello. I pulled a chair up and sat down with my feet propped up on his desk. 'I'm all set, Captain. Where are the bright lights?'
'Cut it out, Mike. Start talking.'
'Pat, so help me, you know almost everything right now.'
'Almost. Give me the rest.'
'They tried again a little while ago. This time it was a truck and not bullets.'
The pencil in Pat's hand tapped the desk. 'Mike, I'm not a complete fool. I play along with you because we're friends, but I'm a cop, I've been a cop a long time, and I know my business. You're not telling me people are shooting you up in the streets without a reason.'
'Hell, they gotta have a reason.'
'Do you know what it is?' He was drawing to the end of his patience.
I took my feet off the desk and leaned toward him. 'We've been through this before, Pat. I'm not a complete fool either. In your mind every crime belongs to the police, but there are times when an apparent crime is a personal affront and it isn't very satisfying not to take care of it yourself. That's how I feel about it.'
'So you know then.'
I think I know. There's nothing you can do about it so quit being a cop and let's get back to being friends.'
Pat tried to grin, but didn't put it over too well. 'Are you straightened out with Lee?'
My feet went up on the desk again. 'He gave me a tidy sum to poke around. I'm busy at it.'
'Good, Mike. Be sure you make a clean sweep.' He dropped his head and passed his hand over his hair. 'Been reading the papers lately?'
'Not too much. I noticed one thing . . . they're pulling for Deamer in nearly every editorial column. One sheet reprints all his speeches.'
'He's giving another tonight. You should go hear him.'
'I'll leave that stuff up to you, chum. There's too much dribble and not enough pep talk at those meetings.'
'The devil there isn't! Take the last one I was at. We had supper with the customary speeches afterward, but it was the small talk later that counted. Lee Deamer made the rounds speaking to small groups and he gave them the real stuff. It was easier for him to talk that way. Most of us had never met him until that time, but when he spoke we were sold completely. We have to have that guy in, Mike. No two ways about it. He's strong. He can't be pushed or bullied. You wouldn't know it to look at him, but he's the strength that this nation will be relying on some day.'
'That was the same night Oscar pulled the stops out, wasn't it?'
'That's right. That's why we didn't want any of it to reach the public. Even a lie can be told to give the people the wrong impression.'
'You've sure gotten a big interest in politics, Pat.'
'Hell, why not? I'll be glad to go back to being a cop again instead of a tool in some politician's workshop. Lee gave a talk over the radio last night. You know what he did?'
I said no. I had been too busy to listen.
'He's brought some of his business sense into politics. He sat down with an adding machine and figured things up. He wanted to know why it cost the state ten million for it to have a job done when any private contractor could do it for six. He quoted names and places and figures and told the public that if he was elected his first order would be to sign warrants of arrest for certain political joes who are draining the state dry.'
'And?'
Pat looked at the desk and glared. 'And today I heard that the big push comes soon. Lee has to be smeared any way at all.'
'It won't happen, Pat.'
I shouldn't have used that tone. His head jerked up and his eyes were tiny bright spots watching me from tight folds of skin. His hand closed into a fist slowly and tightened until the cords bulged out. 'You know something, Mike, by God, you know something!'
'I do?' I couldn't make it sound funny.
Pat was ready to split wide open. 'Mike, you're in on it. Damn it, you went and found something. Oh, I know you . . . no talking until you're ready, but this isn't a murder that involved only a handful of people . . . this is something that takes in a whole population and you better not tip the apples over.'
He stood up, his hands on the edge of the desk for support. He spat the words out between his teeth and meant every one. 'We've been friends, Mike. You and I have been in and out of a lot of things together and I've always valued your friendship. And your judgment. Just remember this, if I'm guessing right and you're in on something that might hurt Lee and won't talk about it, and if that something
'That's clear, Pat. Would it make you feel better if I told you that your line of reasoning is a little off? You're getting teed off at me when you ought to be teeing off on some of the goddamn Commies we got loose in this city.'
His face had a shrewd set to it. 'So they're part of it too.' Muscles stuck out in lumps along his jaws. Let him think how he liked.
'Nothing will happen to Lee,' I said. 'At least nothing that I'm concerned with.' This time I got some conviction in my voice. Pat stopped glaring and sat down.
He didn't forget the subject. 'You still have those green cards on your mind?'
'Yeah, I have. I don't like what they mean, and you shouldn't either.'
'I hate everything they stand for. I'm sorry we have to tolerate it. We ought to do what they would have done a hundred years ago.'
'Stop talking nonsense. You're in America now.'
'Sure I am, and I want to stay here. If you want a democracy you have to fight for it. Why not now before it's too late? That's the trouble, we're getting soft. They push us all around the block and we let them get away with it!'
'Calm down, will you.' I hadn't realized that I was banging on his desk until he rapped my knuckles. I sat down. 'What did you do about Oscar?' I asked.
'What could we do? Nothing. It's over, finished.'
'And his personal effects?'
'We went through them and there was nothing to be found. I posted a man to check his place in case any mail came in. I had the idea that Oscar might have mailed something to himself. I took the man off today when nothing showed.'
I had to struggle to hold my face straight. Pat had the place watched! Neat, very neat. If we weren't the only ones who wanted to go through that apartment then we wouldn't be going in on a cold deal. Nobody else could have gotten there either!
I reached for a butt and lit it. 'Let's go out to eat, Pat.'
He grabbed his coat off the rack and locked the door to the office. On the way out I thought of something I should have thought of before and had him open it up again. I picked up the phone and called the office. Velda answered with a silky hello.
I said 'Mike, honey. Look, have you emptied the wastebasket by my desk yet?'
'No, there wasn't anything to empty.'
'Go look if there's a cigarette pack there. Don't touch it.'
She dropped the phone and I heard her heels clicking along the floor. In a moment she was back. 'It's there, Mike.'
