The Big Kill

'I got took, pal. Took good, too.'

He didn't ask me any more questions. He looked down at his shoes a second then put it to me hard and fast. 'You're under arrest, Mike.'

'What?'

'Come on upstairs.'

The elevator was waiting. We got on and went up. We got off at the right floor and I started to walk toward his office automatically, but he put out his hand and stopped me.

'This way, Mike.'

'Say, what's going on?'

He wouldn't look at me. 'We've had men covering your apartment, your office and all your known places of entertainment since six this morning. The D.A. has a warrant out for your arrest and there's not a damn thing you can do about it.'

'Sorry. I should have stayed home. What's the charge?'

We paused outside a stained-oak door. 'Guess.'

'I give up.'

'The D.A. looked for Link's personal file last night and found it missing. He was here when Ellen Scobie tried to put it back this morning. You have two girls on the carpet right this minute who are going to lose their jobs and probably have charges preferred against them too. You're going in there yourself and take one hell of a rap and this time there's no way out. You finished yourself, Mike. You'll never learn, but you're finished.'

I dropped my hands in my pockets and made like I was grinning at him.

'You're getting old, son. You're getting set in your ways. For the last two years all you've done is warn me about this, that, and the next thing. We used to play a pretty good game, you and me, now you're starting to play it cautious and for a cop who handles homicide that's no damn good at all.'

Then just for the hell of it that little finger that was probing my brain deliberately knocked a couple of pieces together that made lovely, beautiful sense, and I remembered something Ellen had told me not so long ago. I twisted it around, revamped it a little and I was holding something the D.A. was going to pay for in a lot of pride. Yep, a whole lot of pride.

I reached for the knob myself. 'Let's go, chum. Me and the D.A. have some business to transact.'

'Wait a minute. What are you pulling?'

'I'm not pulling a thing, Pat. Not a thing. I'm just going to trade him a little bit.'

Everything was just like it was the last time. Almost.

There was the D.A. behind his desk with his boys on either side. There were the detectives in the background, the cop at the door, the little guy taking notes and me walking across the room.

Ellen and her roommate were the exceptions this time. They sat side by side in straight-back chairs at the side of the big desk and they were crying their eyes out.

If my face hadn't been what it was there would have been a formal announcement made. As it was, everybody gave me a kind of horrified stare and Ellen turned around in her seat. She stopped crying abruptly and put heir hand to her mouth to stifle a scream.

I said, 'Take it easy, kid.'

Her teeth went into her lip and she buried her face in her hands.

The District Attorney was very sarcastic this time. 'Good morning, Mister Hammer.'

'I'm glad you remembered,' I told him.

Any other time his face would have changed color. Not now. He liked this cat-and-mouse stuff. He had waited a long time for it and now he was going to enjoy every minute of it while he had an audience to appreciate it. 'I suppose you know why you're here?' He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. The two assistants did the same thing.

'I've heard about it.'

'Shall I read the charges?'

'Don't bother.' My legs were starting to go again. I pulled a chair across the floor and sat down. 'Start reading me off any time you feel like it,' I said. 'Get it all off your chest at once so you'll be able to listen to somebody else except your yes men for a change.'

The two assistants came to indignant attention in their seats.

It was so funny I actually got a grin through.

The D.A. didn't think it was so funny. 'I don't intend to take any of your nonsense, Mister Hammer. I've had about all I can stand of it.'

'Okay, you know what you can do. Charge me with conspiracy and theft, toss me in the pokey and I catch hell at the trial. So I'll go up.'

'You won't be alone.' He glanced meaningly at the two women.

There were no tears left in Ellen any more, but her friend was sobbing bitterly.

I said, 'Did you stop to think why the three of us bothered to take a worthless file out of here?'