Carmen Trivago couldn't stand up any more. His knees went as watery as his eyes and he slumped crookedly on the edge of a chair.
'No... don't... '
'His right name was Nicholas Raymondo. With an `O.' You were the only one who knew that. I thought it was your accent, but you knew his name, didn't you?'
His mouth opened to speak but the words wouldn't come out. He nodded dumbly.
'Where'd he get his dough?'
The spread of his hands said he didn't know and before he could shake his head to go with it I rocked him with another open-handed slap that left the prints of my fingers across his jaw.
He couldn't take anything at all and tried to burrow into the chair while he moaned, 'Please. No... I tell you... anything. Please.'
'When, then?'
'He had... the business. From abroad he . . '
'I know about that. Business didn't give him the kind of money he spent.'
'Yes, yes. It is true. But he never said. He spoke of big things but he never said . '
'He liked dames.'
Carmen's eyes told me he didn't get what I was driving at.
I said slowly, 'So do you. Two of a kind, you guys. Lady killers. You knew his right name. Those things only come when you know a person. You know that much and you know a lot more. Think about it. I'll give you a minute. Just one.'
His neck seemed to stretch out of shape as he held his head up. The longer he looked at me the more he curled up inside and his mouth started to move. 'It is true... he had the money. It was enough. He was... satisfied to spend it all on much foolishness. There would be more soon, he told me, much more. At first... I thought he was making a boast. But no. He was serious. Never would he tell me more than that.'
I took a slow step a little closer to him.
His hands went up to hold me off. 'It is true, I swear it! This other money... several times when he was feeling, how you say it, high? he would ask me how I would like to have two million dollars. It was always the same. Two million dollars. I would ask how to get it and would smile. Raymondo... he had it, I know he had it. I tell you, this money was no good. I knew it would happen someday. I knew . . '
'How?'
This time his eyes made passes around me, looking for something that wasn't there yet. 'Before he... died... there were men. I knew of these men.'
'Say the word.'
It almost stuck in his throat, but he managed it. 'Mafia,' he said hoarsely.
'Did Raymondo know he was being followed?' 'I do not think so.'
'You didn't tell him?'
He looked at me as if I was crazy.
'You never thought he was killed accidentally either, did you?' The fear showed in his face so plain it was a voice by itself. 'You knew the score right along,' I said.
'Please...'
'You're a crummy little bastard, Trivago. There's a lot of dead people lying around because you made them that way.'
'No I...'
'Shut up. You could have sounded off.'
'No!' He stood up, his hands claws that dangled at his sides. 'I know them! From Europe I know them and who am I to speak against them. You do not understand what they do to people. You...'
My knuckles cracked across his jaw so hard he went back over the arm of the chair and spilled in a heap on the floor. He lay there with his eyes wide open and the spit dribbling out of his open mouth started to turn pink. He was the bug caught in the web trying to hide from the spider and he backed into the hornet's next.
Carmen Trivago would never be the same again.
I used the phone in the lobby again. I buzzed my apartment and the super's wife answered it. I hadn't told her not to do so, she was doing me a favor. I told her it was me, asked if everything was okay and she said it was. Lily was asleep with the door locked but she could hear her breathing and talking in there. Her husband was making doubly sure things stayed quiet by pretending to do some work in the hall outside.
There were three other phone calls. A Captain Chambers had called and wanted to see me right away. I thanked her and hung up.
I turned up the collar of my trench coat and stepped out into the rain. The wind was lashing it up the street in waves now, pounding it against the buildings, and as the cars went by you had a quick look at the drivers as the wipers ripped it aside before the faces muddled into a liquid haze.
The cab didn't wait to be called. He pulled into the curb and I hopped in, gave him the address and stuck a smoke in my mouth.
Someplace Velda was looking at the rain. It wouldn't be a pleasant sound, not this time. She'd be crazy with fear, scared so hard she wouldn't be able to think. They weren't the kind you could stall. She could only wait. And hope.
And someplace the people who had her were thinking too. They were thinking of a long string of kills and two fresh ones propped up against a dead-end sign. They were thinking of the word that went out and before they'd do anything at all they'd think harder still and it wouldn't be until I was dead that they'd feel right to do what they wanted to her.
I wasn't the cops and I wasn't the feds. I was one guy by himself but I was one who could add to the score without giving a damn at all. I was the one guy they were afraid of because the trail of dead men hadn't stopped yet. It was a trail that had to be walked and they were afraid of stepping on it.
Pat was in his office. You had to look twice to make sure he wasn't asleep, then you saw the light glinting off his almost-closed eyes and saw the movement of his mouth as he sucked on the dry pipe.
I threw my hat on the desk and sat down. He didn't say anything. I got out my next-to-last Lucky, held a light to it and let the smoke go. He still didn't say anything. I didn't have the time to trade thoughts. 'Okay, chum, what is it?'
The pipe came out of his mouth slowly. 'You conned me, Mike.'
I started to get warm all over, an angry flush that burned into my chest. 'Great. Just like that I gave you the business! You don't say anything... you sit there like a dummy then pull the cork. Say what's eating you or I'll get the hell out of here.'
What distrust was in his face turned uncertain. 'Mike, this thing is a bombshell. The biggest staff that ever operated on one case is out there working. They're going night and day looking for the answer, then you come up with it ready to trade off for something.'
I sat back in the chair. I took a deep, relieved pull on the smoke and grinned. 'Thanks for the compliment. I didn't know it would get back so fast. Where'd you pick it up?'
'Every stoolie we know has his ears open. What are you trading for?'
My grin pulled tight at the edges, flattened across my teeth and stayed that way. 'Velda. The bastards have Velda. She suckered Al Affia into a trap that didn't work and got caught in one herself. She played it too smart and now they have her.'
It was quiet in the room. The clock on the wall hummed over the drone of the rain outside, but that was all.
'You don't look too worked up about it,' Pat said. Then he saw my eyes and took it back without saying so out loud.
'They'll want to be sure. They'll want to know if I have it or
not before they cut loose on her. They'll have to be sure. Right in the beginning they thought Berga Torn passed it on to me, went through my apartment. If, it was anybody else they could have taken it easy, but not with me. They knew what was going to happen.'
'Let's have it, Mike.'
