'Now the stuff is still missing.'
'I know where it is.'
Pat's head came around faster this-time.
'The two million turned into four by just sitting there,' I said.
'Inflation.'
'Damn it, Mike, where?' His voice was all tight.
'On the good ship Cedric. Our friend Al Affia was working on the deal. He had given all the plans to her in his dive back there and whoever killed him walked off with them.'
'Now you tell me,' he said hoarsely. 'Now you spill it when somebody has had time to dig it loose.'
I took a deep breath, grunted when the sting of pain stabbed across my chest and shook my head. 'It's not that easy, Pat. Al had those plans a long time. I'm even beginning to think I know why he was bumped.'
Pat waited me out.
'He tried to sucker Velda into his dump for a fast play at her. She slipped him a dose of chloral and while he was out started turning the place upside down. Al didn't stay out very long. He got sick, his stomach dumped the stuff overboard and he saw what she was doing. Velda used the bottle on him then.'
His eyes snapped wide open. 'Velda.'
'She didn't kill him. She bopped him one and it cut his head open. He staggered out after her and got word to somebody. That somebody caught the deal in a hurry and someplace she's still sweating.' All at once every bit of pain in my body flooded back and trapped me in its agony before fading away. I finished with, 'I hope.'
'Okay, Mike, let it looose! Damn it, what else have you got? So the kid's sweating, you hope... and I hope too. You know them well enough to realize what's liable to happen to her now.'
'She was on her way to see Billy Mist.' My grin turned sour and my teeth came out from under my lips again. 'The cops didn't find her.'
'Supposing she never reached there?'
'It's a possibility I've been considering, friend. I saw her pass in a cab and she wasn't alone.'
I was going warm again. The coffee didn't sit so well in my gut any more. I thought about it as long as I could, then shut out the picture when I buried my face in my hands.
Pat kept saying. 'The bastards, the bastards!' His nails made a tattoo of sound on the counter and his breathing was almost as hard as mine was. 'It's breaking fast, but it's not wide open yet, Mike. We'll get to Billy. One way or another.'
I felt a little better. I took my hands away and reached for the last butt in the pack. 'It won't break until you get the stuff. You and the whole staff up in Washington can work from now until ten years later and you won't make a hole in the organization big enough to stop it. You'll knock it kicking but you won't kill it. Slowing it down a little is all we can hope for. They're going to hang on to Velda until somebody has that four million bucks lined up.
'I'm the target, chum. Me personally. I've scared the crap out of those guys as individuals... not as an organization. They know I don't give a damn what happens to the outfit, the dough or anything that goes with it. All I want is a raft of hides nailed to the barn door. That's where I come in. I'm the little guy with a grudge. I'm the guy so damn burned up he's after a man, not an organization. I'm the guy who wants to stand there and see him die and he knows it. He wants that consignment of narcotics in the worst way but before it does him any good I have to die first.
'So they're holding Velda. She's the bait and she's something else besides. I've been getting closer to this than anybody else and they've known something I never got wise to. Berga passed the clue to me before she died and I've been sitting on it all this time. For a little while they had it, but they couldn't make it out. They expect me to. When I do I'll have to use it to ransom Velda with it.'
'They're not that dumb, Mike,' Pat told me.
'Neither am I. Someplace the answer slapped me in the teeth and I was in such a hurry I missed it. I can feel the damn thing crawling around in my head and can't lay my finger on it. The damn arrogant bastards... '
Pat said, 'The head is pretty far from the body.' 'What?'
He looked out the window and watched the rain. 'They can afford to be arrogant. The entire structure of the Mafia is built on arrogance. They flaunt the laws of every country in the world, they violate the integrity of the individual, they're a power in themselves backed by ruthlessness, violence and some of the shrewdest brains in existence.'
'About the head and the body, I mean.
'We can smash the body of this thing, Mike, but in this country the head and the body aren't connected except by the very thin thread of a neck. The top man, men, or group is a separate caste. The organization is built so that the head can function without the body if it comes to it. The body parts can be assembled any time, but it's an assembly for the benefit of the head, never forget that. It's a government. The little people in it don't count. It's the rulers who are important and the government is run solely for their benefit and to satisfy their appetites. They're never known and they're not going to be known.'
'Unless they make one stinking little mistake,' I said.
Pat stopped looking at the rain.
I rubbed the ache out of my side. 'The stuff is on the Cedric. All you have to do is find the ship. The records will carry the stateroom Raymond used. When you find it call Ray Diker at the Globe and give him first crack at the details of the yarn. Tell him to hold the story until I call you. By then I'll have Velda.'
'Where are you going?'
'The last time you asked that I said I was going out to kill somebody.' I held out my hand. 'Gimme a fin.'
He looked puzzled, scowled, then pulled five ones out of his pocket. I laid two of them on the counter and nodded to the counterman to come get it. He was all smiles.
'Where's Michael Friday?'
'She said she was going to your place to see you.'
'I wasn't home.'
'Well, she's not reporting to me on the hour.'
'No police guard?'
His frown got bigger this time. 'I tried to but she said no. One of the feds pulled out after her anyway. He lost her when she got in a cab.'
'Sloppy.'
'Lay off. Everybody's up to their ears in this thing.'
'Yeah. You going to trace the Cedric?'
'What do you think. Where are you going?'
I let a laugh out that sounded hollow as hell. 'I'm going out in the rain and think some more. Then maybe I'll go kill somebody else.'
I could see Pat remembering the other years. Younger years when the dirt seemed to be only on the surface. When being a cop looked good and the law was for protection and guidance.
When there weren't so many strings and sticky red tape and corruption in high places.
His hand went into his pocket and brought out the blued .38. He handed it to me under the shelf of the hanger. 'Here, use this for a change.'
And I remembered what Velda had said and I shook my head. 'Some other time. I like it better this way.'
I went out and walked down the street and let the rain hit me in the face. Someplace there was a gimmick and that was what I had to find. I reached the subway kiosk, bought a pack of Luckies and dropped them in my pocket. I waited for the uptown local and got aboard when it came in.
With every jolt the train took I could feel the shock wear off a little bit more. It got worse and when it was too bad I stood up and leaned against the door, watching the walls of the tunnel go by in a dirty blur.
A gimmick. One lousy little gimmick and I could have it. It was there trying to come out and whenever I thought I had it my stomach would retch and I'd lose it.
The train pulled into the station, opened its multitude of mouths but I was the only one who stepped out. I had the platform all to myself then, so I let go and the coffee came up.
There weren't any cabs outside. I didn't waste time waiting for one. I walked toward my apartment not
