Maxison thanked them, and I released the clutch. We continued up the road.
“They’re certainly taking no chances,” I said.
Maxison gave me a surly look, grunted. “What did you expect?” he said.
On the other side of the sand-hills, I spotted four cops sitting round a machine-gun on a threelegged stand, covering the road. One of the cops was equipped with a portable radio, and he was tuning-in as I crawled by. They eyed the yellow sticker and then waved us on. It began to dawn on me that Mitchell had been right about it being impossible to get into the jail in the ordinary way.
Four hundred yards from the side- road that led through the sand-dunes to the jail was a barricade made out of a big tree-trunk on wheels.
I stopped.
Three cops in their shirt sleeves appeared from behind the barricade, and swarmed round us.
One of them, a big, red-faced guy with sandy hair, nodded to Maxison.
“Hey, Max,” he said, grinning. “Howja like the war conditions? Ain’t it hell? That punk Flaggerty sure has the breeze up. We’ve been camped out here all night, and now we’re being skinned by the sun. You going to the jail?”
“Yes,” Maxison said.
The cop looked me over.
“Ain’t seen him before,” he said to Maxison. “Who’s he?”
“George Mason,” Maxison said calmly enough. “My new assistant. O’Neil’s on vacation.”
“He would be, the lazy rat,” the cop said, spitting in the sand. “He’s always on vacation.” He looked at me. “Glad to know you, Mason. I’m Clancy. Howja like the new job?”
“Pretty good,” I said, shaking his sweaty paw. “The beauty of this job is our customers can’t answer back.”
He bellowed with laughter.
“Say! That’s a funny one,” he exploded, slapping his thigh. “Did you hear what the guy said, fellas?” he went on to the other two cops who stood around, grinning.
“We heard,” they said.
“Pretty funny,” Clancy declared. “I didn’t think guys in your trade had a sense of humour.”
“That’s all we have got,” I said. “What goes on? I’ve never seen a jail guarded as tight as this one.”
Clancy wiped sweat from his fat face with his forearm. “Aw, the hell with it,” he said in disgust. “We got that Wonderly dame locked up, and our Chief thinks Cain’s going to get her out. He’s nuts, but there’s no one with enough guts to tell him. I bet Cain’s out of the State by now. Why the hell should he bother with a dame he picked up for the night?”
“She’s a nice looker,” one of the other cops said. “I’d trade her for my wife.”
“I’d trade her for mine too,” Clancy said, “but I wouldn’t risk my neck for her.”
“This guy Cain must be a tough egg if Flaggerty thinks all you boys are necessary to keep
him out,” I said, grinning.
“I tell you Flaggerty’s nuts,” Clancy snorted. “Mind you, if that dame did escape, he’d lose his job. I heard Ed. Killeano tell him.”
“Pretty soft for him,” I returned. “I bet he’s sitting some place cool, while you boys sweat it out in the sun.”
“You bet he is, the monkey-faced punk,” Clancy said, scowling. “He’s got a swell office with air-conditioning on the top floor so he can keep an eye on hard-working stooges like me.” He kicked sand, shaking his head. “I don’t know what’s come over this jail. A dame died yesterday, and damn me if another ain’t gone cuckoo this morning. Dived off the deep end as I came on duty. Brother, she gave me a turn. You’ll hear her screaming and laughing when you get inside. It gives me the heebies to listen to her.”
“They’ll take her away, won’t they?” I said curiously.
“Yeah, in a day or so, but she’s in the cell next to the Wonderly dame, and Flaggerty reckons it’ll soften the poor little judy to have someone like that peering through the bars at her.”
I gripped the wheel tightly, and I felt my face turn white, but Clancy didn’t notice.
“They didn’t oughta keep a dame like that in the jail,” he went on. “She’s making the other prisoners restless. She’s dangerous too. She was in for sticking a knife into her old man. I’m keeping clear of A floor.”
“Let us through, Clancy,” Maxison said, glancing at me. “We have a job to do at ten.”
“Sure,” he said. “These boys are okay,” he said to the other cops. “Let ’em through.”
As I drove the hearse slowly past the barricade, Clancy bawled after me, “If you see that punk Cain, tell him we’re expecting him, and not to disappoint us.”
“I’ll tell him to pick his box first,” I called back, “and pick it from us.”
They laughed like a bunch of hyenas.
“How are you making out?” I asked Maxison.
He was wiping his face with a handkerchief, and he looked hot and uncomfortable.
“I’m all right,” he said shortly.
“Did you hear what that cop said?” I asked, through tight lips. “About that crazy dame being next to my girl? Did you hear it? Did you think what it means?”
“Yes,” he said sullenly.
“Oh no, you didn’t,” I snarled at him. “But put Laura in my girl’s shoes and then ask yourself how you’d like it.”
I saw his face stiffen; he didn’t say anything.
The drab stone building of the jail reared above us. Sunlight baked the granite walls. It was a lost, forlorn place, and it chilled me to look at it.
I stopped before the two large oak and iron gates. On the right of the gates was a small lodge. Two cops came out carrying automatic rifles.
“Hello, Maxison,” one of them said. “We’ve been expecting you.”
“Can we go in, Franklin?” Maxison said. “These new regulations are confusing me.”
“It’s all hooey,” Franklin said, scowling. “Sure, you can go in I’ll open the gate for you.”
As he moved to the gates he caught sight of me. He turned back.
“Who’s this guy?” he demanded. He had a flat squashed face, and eyes like a Chinaman.
Maxison explained I was his new assistant, and where O’Neil, the other assistant, had got to.
Franklin scratched his head. “Well, I dunno,” he said. “I got instructions to let in only those people I know by sight. I’ve never seen this guy before. I guess I’d better call the sergeant.”
“Skip it,” one of the other cops said. “The sergeant’s at breakfast. You don’t want to make him mad for the rest of the day.”
“Will you hurry?” Maxison asked, trying to stop his teeth from chattering. “I have a job to do. I’m late already.”
Franklin stared at me with a worried frown. I leaned out of the car window, jerked my head at him. He came closer.
“Can’t you rustle up a crap game?” I asked, keeping my
voice low. “The old man can do the work. I got money to lose.”
He grinned suddenly, the frown went away. “To hell with that for an idea,” he said. “Here, get out of the buggy.”
I pulled the .38 from my waist-band as I pretended to fumble at the door. I shoved the gun to Maxison, who sat on it, his face turning a faint green.
I dropped on to the hot sandy road.
“Better make sure you’re not heeled,” Franklin said, but he was grinning all the time. “Then you can go in.”
He ran his hands over my body. If he had told me to undo my overcoat I’d have been sunk, because he’d have seen the guard’s uniform. But he didn’t.
“Okay, hop in, and beat it,” he said, stepping back.
I got into the hearse and slammed the door. My left hand reached under Maxison and retrieved the .38. I slipped it into my pocket. I felt a lot better with that gun within reach.
