The Big Kill

'Yeah, I went back later and shot him. I'm really that stupid.'

'Yes, you really are.' His eyes were narrow slits in his face.

'And you got rocks in your head, I said. He started to get up but I beat him to it. I stood there looking down at him so he could see what I thought of him. 'You're a real bright boy, you are. Brother, the voters sure must be proud of you! Christ, you're ready to kick anything around because your vice racket business is getting the works. It's got you so far down you're all set to slap me in the clink without having the foresight to ask me if I got an alibi or not for the time of the shooting. So it happened last night and I don't know what time and without bothering to find out I'll hand you my alibi on a platter and you can choke on it.'

I pointed to the intercom on his desk. 'Get Ellen Scobie in here.'

The D.A.'s face was wet with an angry sweat. His finger triggered the gadget and when Ellen answered he told her to come in.

Before the door opened I had a chance to look at Pat and he was shaking his head slowly trying to tell me not to go overboard so far I couldn't get back. Ellen came in, smiled at me through a puzzled frown and stood there waiting to see what was going on. From the look that passed between us, the D.A. caught on fast, but he wasn't letting me get in any prompting first. He said, 'Miss Scobie, were you with this... with Mister Hammer last night at, say eleven-thirty?'

She didn't have to think to answer that one. 'Yes, I did happen to be with him.'

'Where were you?'

'I should say that we were sitting in a bar about then. A place on Fifty-second Street.'

'That's all, Miss Scobie.'

Everybody ushered her out of the room with their eyes. When the door clicked shut the D.A.'s voice twanged like a flat banjo string. 'You may go too, Mister Hammer. I'm getting a little tired of your impertinence.' His face had turned a deadly white and he was speaking through his teeth. 'I wouldn't be a bit surprised if your license was revoked very shortly.'

My voice came out a hiss more than anything else. 'I'd be,' I said. 'You tried that once before and remember what happened?'

That's all I had to say and for a few seconds I was the only one who didn't stop breathing in the room. Nobody bothered to open the door for me this time. I went out myself and started down the corridor, then Pat caught up with me.

We must have been thinking the same things, because neither one of us bothered to speak until we were two blocks away in Louie's place where a quick beer cooled things down to a boil.

Pat grinned at me in the mirror behind the bar. 'You're a lucky bastard, Mike. If the press wasn't so hot on the D.A.'s heels you'd be out of business if he lost the election over it.'

'Aw, he gives me a pain. Okay, he's got it in for me, but does he have to be so goddamn stupid about it? Why didn't he do some checking first. Christ, him and his investigators are making the police look ridiculous. I'm no chump. I got as much on the ball as any of his stooges and in my own way maybe I got as many scruples too.'

'Ease off, Mike. I'm on your side.'

'I know, but you're tied down too. Who has to get murdered before the boob will put some time in on the case? Right now you got three corpses locked together as nicely as you please and what's being done?'

'More than you think.'

I sipped the top of my beer and watched his eyes in the mirror. 'It wasn't any news that Decker and Hooker were tied up. The lab boys lifted a few prints out of his apartment. Some of them were Hooker's.'

'He have a record?'

Pat shook his head. 'During the war he had a job that required security and he was printed. We picked up the blind newspaper dealer's prints too. He had a record.'

'I know. They graduated from the same Alma Mater up the river.'

Pat grinned again. 'You know too damn much.'

'Yeah, but you do it the easy way. What else do you know?'

'You tell me, Mike.'

'What?'

'The things you have in that mind of yours, chum. I want your angle first.'

I ordered another round and lit a cigarette to go with it. 'Decker needed dough. His wife was undergoing an operation that cost heavy sugar and he had to get it from someplace. He and Hooker got some hot tips on the nags and they pooled their dough to make some fast money. When they found out the tips were solid ones they went in deeper. Hooker pulled out while he was ahead, but Decker wanted to make the big kill so he borrowed a grand from Dixie Cooper. According to Hooker, he lost everything and was in hock to Cooper for plenty, but when I braced the guy he proved that Decker had paid him back.

'Okay, he had to get the dough from somebody. He sure as hell didn't work for it because the docks have been too slow the past month. He had to do one of two things... either steal it or borrow it. It could be that when he went back to his old trade he found it so profitable he couldn't or didn't want to give it up. If that was the case then he made a mistake and broke into the wrong apartment. He and his partners were expecting a juicy haul and if Decker spent a lot of time casing the joint a gimmick like breaking into the wrong apartment would have looked like a sorry excuse to the other two who were expecting part of the proceeds. In that case he would have tried to take a flyer and they caught up with him.'

Pat looked down into his glass. 'Then where does Hooker come in?'

'They were friends, weren't they? First Decker gets bumped for pulling a funny stunt, the driver of the car gives the second guy the works so he won't be captured and squeal, then he goes and gets Hooker because he's afraid Decker might have spilled the works to his friend.'