to the side and the guy was telling the other one to give it to me.
Before he could a siren moaned and wheels screamed on the pavement. There was only that one way out. They ran for it and I saw them stop completely when the beams of three torches drenched them. Georgia was still a shrill voice buried under the shadows and Pat was calling to me. His light picked me out of the rubble and he jerked me to my feet.
I said, 'She's back there. Go find her.'
'Who?'
'Fallon's old girl friend.'
He said something I couldn't catch and went back for her, letting me lean up against the wall until my breath came back. I heard him in there behind the garbage can, then he came back with her in his arms. She hung there limply, completely relaxed.
I didn't want to ask it. 'Is she... dead?'
'She's all right. Passed out, I think.'
'That's good, Pat. You don't want anything to happen to her. Right now she's the most precious thing you have. The D.A. is going to love her.'
'Mike, what the hell is this about?'
'She'll tell you, Pat. Treat her nice and she'll tell you all about it. When you hear her story you're going to have Ed Teen just a step away from the chair. He was an accomplice before the fact of Fallon's murder and she's the girl who's going to prove it.'
I followed him back to the street, my feet dragging. The two boys were trying to explain things to a cop who didn't want to listen. Pat passed Georgia into a car and told the driver to get her down to headquarters. He looked at the big boys and they started to sweat. The rain was beating in their faces, but you could still tell they were sweating.
I said, 'They're Teen's men, Pat. Ed was here to supervise things himself. He was real smart about it too. I had a man trying to run down the woman while Ed was doing the same thing. He guessed who was doing it. He came to make sure I didn't get away with it. He's gone now, but you won't have any trouble picking him up. An hour ought to do it.
The crowd had gathered. They fought for a look, standing on their toes to peer over shoulders and ask each other what had happened. Cookie was on the edge and I waved him over. He had my coat in his hand and I put it on. 'Here's the guy I was telling you about, Pat. I'd appreciate it if you'd let him in on the story before it gets out to the papers. Think you can?'
'Who's going to tell the story... you?'
'No... I'm finished, kid. It's all over now. Let Georgia tell it. She had to live with it long enough; she ought to be glad to get it off her chest. I'm going home. When you get done come on up and we'll talk about it.'
Pat made a study of my face. 'All this... it had something to do with Decker?'
'It had a lot to do with Decker. We just couldn't see it at first.'
'And it's finished now?'
'It's finished.'
I turned around and walked through the crowd back to my car. The rain didn't matter now. It could spend its fury on me if it wanted to. The city was a little bit cleaner than it was before, but there was still some dirt under the carpet.
Back uptown I found a drugstore that was open all night and went into the phone booth. I dialed the operator and got a number out on the Island. It rang for a few minutes and the voice that answered was that of a tired man too rudely awakened. 'Mr. Roberts?'
'Speaking.'
'This is Mike Hammer. I was going to call you earlier but something came up. If you don't mind, there's something I'd like to ask you. It's pretty important.'
His voice was alert now. 'I don't mind a bit. What is it?'
'During your term in office you conducted a campaign to get rid of Fallon and his gang. Is that right?'
'Yes, quite right. I wasn't very successful.'
'Tell me, did you ever have any communication from Fallon about that?'
'Communication?'
'A letter.'
He thought a moment, then: 'No... no, I didn't.' Then he thought again. 'Now that you mention it... yes, there was a peculiar incident at one time. An envelope was in my wastebasket. It was addressed to me and had Fallon's home address on it. I recognized the address, of course, but since he lived in an apartment hotel that was fairly prominent I didn't give it another thought. Besides, Fallon was dead at that time.'
'I see. Well, thanks for your trouble, Mr. Roberts. Sorry I had to bother you.' It was a lie. I wasn't a bit sorry at all.
'Perfectly all right,' he said, and hung up.
And I had the answer.
I mean I had all of it and not just part of it like I had a minute before and my brain screamed a warning for me to hurry before it was too late even though I knew that it was already too late.
I cursed the widow-makers and the orphan-makers and every goddamn one of the scum that found it so
