The Big Kill

I said, ''lo, Pal,' but he didn't answer.

He walked up to the desk and leaned on it until his face wasn't an inch away from the D.A.'s boy and he did a good job of keeping his hands off the guy's neck. 'Since when do you take over the duties of the Police Department? I'm still Captain of Homicide around here and when there's murder I'll handle it myself, personally, understand? I ought to knock your ears off for pulling a stunt like that!'

The boy got a blustery red and started to get up. 'See here, the District Attorney gave me full permission...'

'To butt into my business because a friend of mine is suspected of murder!'

'Exactly!'

Pat's voice got dangerously low. 'Get your ass out of this office before I kick hell out of you. Go on, get out. And you tell the D.A. that I'll see him in a few minutes.'

He practically ran to the door. I could see the D.A. getting a sweet version of the story, all right. I said, 'What'd he do to you, kid?'

'Crazy little bastard. He thinks because I'm a friend of yours I'll do a little whitewashing. He got me out of the building on a phony call right after I spoke to you.'

'You're not going to be very popular with the D.A. for that.'

'I'm sick of that guy walking all over this office. They pulled a raid on a wire room last night and all they got was an empty apartment with a lot of holes in the walls and a blackboard that still showed track results and a snotty little character who said he was thinking of opening a school for handicappers. The guy was clean and there wasn't a thing the D.A. could do.'

'Sounds like a good business. Whose wire room was it?'

'Hell, who else has wire rooms in this town? The place was run by one of Ed Teen's outfit.'

'Or so your information said.'

'Yeah. So now the D.A. gets in a rile and raises hell with everyone from the mayor down. He's pulled his last rough sketch on, me with this deal though. Let him try getting rough just once and the news boys are going to get a lot of fancy stuff that won't do a thing for him when election time comes.'

'Where is he now?'

'Inside waiting for you.'

'Let's see the guy then.'

'Just a minute. Tell me something straight. Did you kill a guy named Mel Hooker?' he asked.

'Oh, God!'

Pat's eyes got that squinty look. 'What's the matter?'

'Your corpse was the friend of William Decker... That beautiful local-type kill the police seem to be ignoring so well.'

'The police aren't ignoring anything.'

'Then they're not looking very hard. Mel and Decker were playing the ponies and Mel introduced him to a loan shark that financed his little escapades. There was a catch in it. Mel said Decker lost his shirt, but the loan shark, that Dixie Cooper guy, said Decker paid him off in full and was able to prove it.'

Pat muttered something under his breath. He nodded for me to follow him and started for the door. This time the tight smiles loosened up and nobody seemed to want to get in our way. From the way Pat was glowering it looked like he was ready to take me and anybody else apart and had already started.

Pat knocked on the door and I heard the D.A. call out for somebody to see who it was. The door opened, a pair of thick-lensed glasses did a quick focus on the two of us and the D.A. said, 'Show them in, Mr. Mertig.'

It was quite a gathering. The D.A. straddled his throne with two assistant D.A.'s flanking him, a pair of plain- clothesmen in the background and two more over by the window huddled together for mutual protection apparently.

'Sit down, Hammer,' the D.A. said.

Everybody watched me with the annoyed look you see when the king isn't obeyed pronto. I walked up to his desk, planted my hands on the top and leaned right down in his face. I didn't like the guy and he didn't like me, but he wasn't getting snooty now or any other time. I said, 'You call me Mister when you use my name. I don't want any crap from you or your boys and if you think you can make it tough for me just go ahead and try it. I came in here myself to save you the trouble of getting a false arrest charge slapped against your office and right now I'm not above walking out just to see what you'd do. It's about time you learned to be polite to your public when you're not sure of your facts.'

The D.A. started to get purple. In fact, a lot of people started to get purple. When they all got a nice livid tinge I sat down. He made a good job of keeping his voice under control. 'We are sure of the facts... Mister Hammer.'

'Go on.'

'A certain Mel Hooker has been found dead. He was shot to death with a .45.'

'I suppose the bullet came from my gun?' I tried to make it sound as sarcastic as possible.

The purple started to fade into an unhealthy red. Unhealthy for me, I mean. 'Unfortunately, no. The bullet passed through the man and out the window. So far we haven't been able to locate It.'

I started to interrupt, but he held up, his hand. 'However, you were very generous with your fingerprints. They're all over the place. The landlady identified your picture and vouched that she heard threats before you left, so it is quite a simple matter to see what followed.'