professional technique he ever had.
And it was the laugh that did it. The laugh that broke the last thing inside. The laugh that burst the lifeline. He felt it go and his eyes went so wide the whites of them showed the horror he felt because he was still a loser and before he could put that final fraction of pressure on the trigger the gun dropped from his hand and he pitched face down on the floor with a sickening squashing sound as some ghastly, putrescent fluid burst from his belly.
I picked Velda up, carried her into the bedroom, and washed the blood from her temple. Then I loosened her clothes and pulled the blanket over her before flopping down on the bed beside her.
Outside I had another dead man at my feet, but he was going to have to wait until morning.
Chapter Eight
Pat was there at nine in the morning. So was Inspector Grebb and Charles Force. Pat's face told me he had, no choice so I threw him a brief nod so he knew I got the picture.
The police photographers got all the shots they wanted, the body was carried out, Velda had a doctor in with her, and Grebb pointed at a chair for me and sat down himself.
'You've been a thorn in our side, Hammer,' he said pleasantly.
'Tough.'
'But I think we have you nailed now.'
'For failing to report a body?'
'It's enough. You don't step that far outside and still get a gun-carrying privilege. It will break you with that fancy agency because they like closed mouths about their operations. They lift your ticket and you're back in the ranks again.'
Charlie Force was standing there with that same old courtroom smile, like his bait had caught the fish. I said, 'I warned you, Charlie.'
'Mr. Force, if you don't mind?'
This time I let him see the kind of grin I had, the one with teeth in it. I said, 'Okay, buddy, I'll come to your party, only. I'm bringing my friends. I'm bringing in pressures you never heard of. Get something in your goddamn heads... you're two public servants and all you're looking for is another step up. If you got the idea you'll get it over me you're wrong. Don't think that agency is going to back down a bit. I gave them too much and they're still paying off for it. I'll keep giving them more and more until they can't afford to lose me. The agency is bigger than both you guys and now you're, going to find it out the hard way.
'As for you, Force, before you were playing in courtrooms I was pushing a legal gun around this town and there are guys I know and friends I made who'd like nothing better than to wipe your nose in a mess. Believe me, buddy, if you ever did one lousy thing in your life... and you can bet your ass you did because everybody does, I'll nail it down and you'll go with it. It won't even be a hard job. But I'll do even better than that to you, kid. I'll pull the stool right out from under you. This little bugger I'm on now is a hot little bugger and it's mine. You get no slice of it at all, I'll make the action and get the yaks.'
I spun around and looked at Pat. 'Tell them, friend.'
'You did a pretty good job. I'm still a Captain.'
'Well, maybe we'll get you raised one after this, okay, Inspector?'
He didn't say anything. He sat there glowering at me, not knowing what to think. But he was an old hand and knew when the wind was blowing bad. It showed in his eyes, only he didn't want me to see it. Finally he looked at his watch, then up to me. 'We'll wait some more,' he said. 'It's bound to happen sometime.'
'Don't hold your breath waiting,' I said.
'You take care of things here, Captain,' he said to Pat. 'I'll want to see the report later.'
'I'll have it on your desk, Inspector.'
They left then, two quiet men with one idea in their minds nobody was ever going to shake loose. When they were out I said to Pat, 'Why the heat?'
'Because the city is on edge, Mike. They haven't got the answers and neither have I. Somehow you always get thrown in the middle of things so that you're the one to pull the switch.'
'You got everything I know.'
Pat nodded sagely. 'Great. Facts are one thing, but there's still that crazy mind of yours. You make the same facts come out different answers somehow.' He held up his hand to shut me up. 'Oh, I agree, you're cooperative and all that jazz. You lay it on the line like you're requested to do and still make it look like your own idea. But all the time you're following a strange line of reasoning nobody who looks at the facts would take. I always said you should have been a straight cop in the first place.'
'I tried it a long time ago and it didn't work.'
'You would have made a perfect crook. Sometimes I wonder just what the hell you really are inside. You live in a half , world of your own, never in, never out, always on the edge.'
'Nuts to you, Pat. It works.'
'The hard way.'
Pat walked to the window, stared down into the courtyard a moment, then came back. 'Kania say anything to you before he died?'
'Only how he was going to enjoy killing me.'
'You didn't ask him any questions?'
'With a gun on me and him ready to shoot? There wasn't anything to ask.'
'There wasn't any chance you could have taken him?'
'Not a one.'
'So I'll buy it. Now, how'd he find you?'
'I'm not that hard to find. He did it twice before. He probably picked up Velda at my office and followed her here.'
'She talk yet?'
'No,' I told him, 'but maybe she will now. Let's ask her.'
The doctor had finished with Velda, assuring us both that it was only a minor concussion that should leave no after-effects, gave me a prescription for a sedative, and left us alone with her.
She smiled up at me crookedly, her face hurting with the effort.
'Think you can talk, kitten?'
'I'm all right.'
'How'd that punk get in here?'
She shook her head and winced. 'I don't know. I left the door unlocked thinking you'd be in shortly, then I went to the bathroom. When I went back into the living room he stepped out of the bedroom. He held the gun on me... then made me lie on the couch. I knew he was afraid I'd scream or something so he just swung the gun at me. I remember... coming awake once, then he hit me again. That's all I remember until you spoke to me.'
I glanced at Pat. 'That's how he did it then. He waited at the office.'
'Did you know Grebb kept a man staked out there?'
'Didn't everybody? I told you to stay off my neck.'
'It wasn't my idea.'
'Kania must have spotted him, the same as I did. He simply waited outside or across the street until Velda came out. When she came alone he figured she could lead him to me and stayed with her. She made the job easy by leaving the door open.'
'I'm sorry, Mike.'
'No sweat, baby,' I said. 'It won't happen again.'
'Mike...'
'What?'
'Mrs. Lee. She'd like to see you again.'
She was bypassing Pat, but he caught it and grinned. 'I haven't heard about her.'
'An old lady. Sally Devon's old wardrobe mistress. She was with her when she died. She'll talk to anybody for company's sake but she might come up with something.'
'Still going back thirty years?'
