dame know your business, and you knew she wouldn't put her name on a switch. You knew there might be an investigation and didn't want any suspicious erasures on the card so you simply dug up a name that you could type over Mist to make the letters fit. Wieton comes out pretty well. Unless you looked hard you'd never pick it up.'
He had gone a deathly pale. His hand was up to his mouth trying to stop the blood. It was sickening him and he retched. All that came up was more blood. The hand with the broken fingers looked unreal on the end of his arm. Unreal and painful.
'You took a lot of trouble to get the information Berga had under her hat. A lot of clever thinking went into that deal at the sanitarium. You had it rigged pretty nicely, even to a spot where she could be worked over without anybody getting wise. Sorry I spoiled your plans. You shouldn't have wrecked my heap.'
Something childish crept into his face. 'You... got... another one.'
'I'll keep it too. I didn't go for the booby trap, doc. That was kid stuff. '
If his face screwed up any tighter he was going to cry. He sat there moaning softly, the complete uncertainty of it all making him rock in his chair.
I said, 'This time I do it your way. I was the only one you were ever afraid of because I was like the men you give orders to. I'm not going to talk to you. Later I'll go over the details. Later I'll give my explanations and excuses to the police. Later I'll get raked over the coals for what I'm going to do now, but what the hell, doc. Like I said, I'm getting old in the game. I don't care any more.'
He was quiet in his chair. The quiet that terror brings and for once he was knowing the hand of terror himself.
I said, 'Doc...' and he looked at me. No, not me, the gun. The big hole in the end of the gun.
And while he was looking I let him see what came out of the gun.
Doctor Soberin only had one eye left.
I stepped across the body and picked up the phone. I called headquarters and tried to get Pat. He was still out. I had the call transferred to another department and the man I wanted said hello. I asked him for the identification on a dead blonde and he told me to wait.
A minute later he picked up the phone. 'Think I got it. Death by drowning. Age, about...'
'Skip the details. Just the name.'
'Sure, Lily Carver. Prints just came in from Washington. She had ?em taken while she worked at a war plant.'
I said thanks, held the button down on the phone, let it go and when I heard the dial tone started working on my home number.
She said, 'Don't bother, Mike. I'm right here.' And she was.
Beautiful Lily with hair as white as snow. Her mouth a scarlet curve that smiled. Differently, now, but still smiling. Her body a tight bundle of lush curves that swelled and moved under a light white terrycloth robe. Lovely Lily who brought the sharpness of an alcohol bath in with her so that it wet her robe until there was nothing there, no hill or valley, no shadow that didn't come out.
Gorgeous Lily with my .45 in her hand from where she had found it on the dresser.
'You forgot about me, Mike.'
'I almost did, didn't I.'
There was cold hate coming into her eyes now. Hate that grew as she looked again at the one eye in the body beside the table. 'You shouldn't have done that, Mike.'
'No?'
'He was the only one who knew about me.' The smile left her mouth. 'I loved him. He knew about me and didn't care. I loved him, you crumb you!' The words hissed out of her teeth.
I looked at her the way I did when she first held a gun on me. 'Sure. You loved him so much you killed Lily Carver and took her place. You loved him so much you made sure there were no slips in his plan. You loved him so much you set Berga Torn up for the kill and damn near made sure Velda died. You loved him so much you never saw that all he loved was power and money and you were only something he could use.
'You fitted right into the racket. You were lucky once and smart the rest of the time. You reached Al after Velda left but you had time to catch up with her. By the way, did you ever find out why Al died? He was giving friend Billy Mist the needle. Billy knew what had happened when you called him down to tell him his girlfriend wasn't what she was cracked up to be. With Billy that didn't go and he carved up his playmate. Nice people to have around.'
'Shut up.'
'Shut up hell.. You stuck with me all the way. You ducked out because you thought the boys had me once, then came back when you found out I propped them up against a dead-end sign. You passed the word right under my nose and had Billy packing to blow town. What a deal that was. I even showed you how to get out of my apartment without a tail picking you up. That's why you're here now. So what was supposed to happen? You go back to your real identity? Nuts. You're part of it and you'll die with it. You played me for a sucker up and down Broadway but it's over. This isn't the first time you've pointed a rod at me, sugar. The last time was a game, but I didn't know it. I'm still going to take it away from you. What kind of a guy do you think I am anyway?'
Her face changed as if I had slapped her. For an instant the strangeness was back again. 'You're a deadly man, Mike.'
Then I saw it in her face and she was faster than I was. The rod belched flame and the slug tore into my side and spun me around. There was a crazy spinning sensation, a feeling of tumbling end over end through space, an urge to vomit, but no strength left to vomit with.
My eyes cleared and I pushed myself up on an elbow. There was a loose, empty feeling in my joints. The end was right there ahead of me and nothing I could do about it.
Lily smiled again, the end of the .45 drifting down to my stomach. She laughed at me, knowing I could raise myself to reach for it. My mouth was dry. I wanted a cigarette. It was all I could think about. It was something a guy about to die always got. My fingers found the deck of Luckies, fumbled one loose and got it into my mouth. I could barely feel it lying there on my lips.
'You shouldn't have killed him,' Lily said again.
I reached for the lighter. It wasn't going to be long now. I could feel things start to loosen up. My mind was having trouble hearing her. One more shot. It would be quick.
'Mike...'
I got my eyes open. She was a strong, pungent smell. Very strong. Still lovely though.
'I thought I almost loved you once. More than... him. But I didn't, Mike. He would take me like I was. He was the one who gave me life, at least, after... it happened. He was the doctor. I was the patient. I loved him. You would have been disgusted with me. I can see your eyes now, Mike. They would have been revolted.
'He was deadly too, Mike... but not like you. You're even worse. You're the deadly one, but you would have been revolted. Look at me, Mike. How would you like to kiss me now? You wanted to before. Would you like to now? I wanted you to .. . you know that, don't you? I was afraid to even let you touch me. You wanted to kiss me... so kiss me.'
Her fingers slipped through the belt of the robe, opened it. Her hands parted it slowly... until I could see what she was really like. I wanted to vomit worse than before. I wanted to let my guts come up and felt my belly retching.
She was a horrible caricature of a human! There was no skin, just a disgusting mass of twisted, puckered flesh from her knees to her neck making a picture of gruesome freakishness that made you want to shut your eyes against it.
The cigarette almost fell out of my mouth. The lighter shook in my hand, but I got it open.
'Fire did it, Mike. Do you think I'm pretty now?'
She laughed and I heard the insanity in it. The gun pressed into my belt as she kneeled forward, bringing the revulsion with her. 'You're going to die now... but first you can do it. Deadly... deadly... kiss me.'
The smile never left her mouth and before it was on me I thumbed the lighter and in the moment of time before the scream blossoms into the wild cry of terror she was a mass of flame tumbling on the floor with the blue flames of alcohol turning the white of her hair into black char and her body convulsing under the agony of it. The flames were teeth that ate, ripping and tearing into scars of other flames and her voice the shrill sound of death on the loose.
