and I eased on the brakes. Big boy looked pleased with himself and the pressure of the gun on my neck relaxed. The guy behind me got out and stood by the door while the other one tucked the keys in his pocket and came up stepping on my shadow.
'You got the idea good,' he told me. 'Let's keep it that way. Inside and take it slow.'
I practically crawled. The boys stayed behind me and to the right and left, beautiful spots in case I tried to run for it. Either one of them could have cut me down before I got two feet. I picked the last smoke out of my pack and dropped the empty wrapper. Shortie was even smart enough to pick that up. I didn't have a match and nobody offered me one, so I let it droop there between my lips. It was a little too soon to start worrying. This wasn't the time nor the place. A body doesn't hide so easy and neither does a car. When we went we'd go together. I could almost draw a picture of the way it would happen.
The door opened and the guy was a thin dark shadow against the light. I said, 'Hello, scrimey.'
I should have kept my mouth shut. Lou Grindle backhanded me across the mouth so that my teeth went right through my lips. Two guns hit me in the spine at the same time ramming me right into him and I couldn't have gotten away with it in a million years but I tried anyway. I hooked him down as low as I could then felt my knuckles rip open when I got him in the mouth.
Neither of the guys behind me dared risk a shot, but they did just as well. One of them brought a gun barrel around as hard as he could. There wasn't even any pain to it, just a loud click that grew into a thunderous wave of sound that threw me flat on the floor and rolled over me.
The pain didn't come until later. It wasn't there in my head where I thought it would be. It was all over, a hundred agonizing points of torture where the toe of a shoe had ripped through my clothes and torn into the skin. Something dripped slowly and steadily like a leaky faucet. Every movement sent the pain shooting up from my feet and if screaming wouldn't have only made it worse I would have screamed. I got one eye open. The other was covered by a puffy mass of flesh on my cheekbone that kept it shut.
Somebody said, 'He's awake.'
'He'll get it worse this time.'
'I'll tell you when.' The voice was so decisive that nobody gave it to me worse.
I managed to focus the one good eye then. It was pointed at the floor looking at my feet. They were together at attention strapped to the rungs of a chair. My arms weren't there at all so I guess that they were tied someplace behind the same chair. And the drip wasn't from the faucet at all.
It was from something on my face that used to be a nose.
Somehow, I dragged myself straight up. It didn't hurt so bad then. When the fuzziness went away I squinted my one good eye against the light and saw them sitting around like vultures waiting for the victim to die. The two boys with the rods over by the door and Lou Grindle holding a bloody towel to his mouth.
And Ed Teen perched on the edge of the leather armchair with his chin propped on a cane. He still looked like a banker, even to the gray Homburg.
He stared at me very thoughtfully for a minute. 'Feel pretty bad?'
'Guess.' The one word almost choked me.
'It wasn't necessary, you know. We just wanted to talk to you. Everything would have been quite friendly.' He smiled. 'Now we have to tie you down until we're finished talking.'
Lou threw the towel at me. 'Christ, quit stalling around with him. I'll make him talk in a hurry.'
'Shut up.' Ed didn't even stop smiling. 'You're lucky I'm here. Lou is rather impulsive.'
I didn't answer him.
He said, 'It was too bad you had to kill Toady, Mr. Hammer. He was very valuable to me.'
I got the words out. 'You're nuts.'
He pushed himself up off the cane and leaned back in the chair. 'Don't bother with explanations. I'm not the police. If you killed him that's your business. What I want is what's my business. Where is it?'
My lips felt too thick to put any conviction in my voice. 'I don't know what the hell you're talking about.'
'Remind him, Lou.'
Then he sat back chewing on a cigar and watched it. Lou didn't use his foot this time. The wet towel around his fist was enough. He was good at the job, but I had taken so much the first time that even the half-consciousness I had left went fast.
I tried to stay that way and couldn't. My head twitched and Teen said metallically, 'Now do you remember?'
I only had to shake my head once and that fist clubbed it again. It went on and on and on until there was no pain at all and I could laugh when he talked to me and try to smile when the delivery boy in the corner got sick and turned his head away to puke.
Ed rapped the cane on the floor. 'Enough. That's enough. He can't feel it any more. Let him sit and think about it a few minutes.'
Lou was glad to do that. He was breathing hard through his mouth and his chin was covered with blood. He went over and sat down at the table to massage his hand. Lou was very happy.
The cane kept up a rhythm on the floor. 'This is only the beginning you know. There's absolutely no necessity for it.'
I managed to say, 'I didn't... kill Link.'
'It doesn't matter whether you did or not. I want what you took from his apartment.'
Lou started to cough and spat blood on the floor. He gagged, put his hand to his mouth and pushed a couple of teeth into his palm with his tongue. When he brought his head up his eyes bored into mine like deadly little black
