opened the door and went out. He closed the door gently behind him.
8
“Get that punk dressed,” Flaggerty said, “and watch him.” The two cops and the two plain-clothes dicks convoyed me into the bedroom. “Are we going to have a swell time with you when we get you to headquarters?” one of the plain-clothes dicks said. He was a massive guy with a red, rubbery face and hard green eyes.
His name was Hyams. The other dick was thin and dyspeptic. He had a long red nose and his ears were so big they made him look a taxi-cab with its doors wide open. They called him Solly.
“I hope I have a good time too,” I said, smiling at them.
The copper who’d slapped me dug me in the ribs with his night-stick. “Get dressed, wise guy,” he said. “I’m one of the boys who’ll work over you.”
I climbed into my clothes. They went over each garment before handing it to me. They weren’t taking any chances.
Solly said, “I hope Flaggerty lets me handle that diz.”
“He’ll handle her himself,” Hyams said. “But, I’d like to be a fly on the wall.”
“What a break!” Solly exclaimed, licking his lips. “Fancy taking a tutz with her build to pieces.”
“Yeah, and legally at that,” Hyams said.
They grinned at each other.
I fixed my tie and put on my coat. If I didn’t start something soon, it’d be too late. Once they got us down to headquarters, it was going to be just too bad for us. From the look of these thugs, Belsen would be a picnic to what they’d do to us.
“Come on, punk,” Hyams said, “and listen, if you start anything, we’ll shoot first and apologize after. We don’t want to kill you before we’ve had a chance of working on you, but we will, if you try anything smart.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” I said. “I’ve only read about the third degree. I’d like to experience it.”
“You will,” Solly said, looking at me out of the corners of his eyes.
We went into the sitting-room.
Flaggerty was pacing up and down. Miss Wonderly sat in a chair, and the stout woman stood behind her.
Flaggerty grinned at me. He looked nasty. There was a gap in his teeth and his lips were swollen.
“Five men in four months,” he said, standing in front of me. “A killer, huh? Well, we’ll show you what we do to killers. You’ve got two weeks before you come before a judge. That means two weeks of hell for you, Mr. Killer Cain.”
“Don’t be dramatic, you big-mouthed pixie,” I said.
The big Irish cop, who’d slapped me before, clouted me from behind with his club. I staggered forward and ran into a bang in the jaw from Flaggerty. They were two juicy wallops, and I went down on my hands and knees.
Flaggerty gave me the boots. I got my head out of the way, but his heavy toe-cap sank into the side of my neck.
“We don’t want to carry the creep.” Hyams said, worried.
Flaggerty drew back. “Get up,” he snarled.
I was lying near the blanket-covered body of Herrick, and I pretended to be dazed. I put my hand over my eyes so they couldn’t see what I was looking at: peeping out from under the blanket was my Luger. They’d forgotten to pick it up, and when they’d covered Herrick, they’d covered the gun.
Flaggerty was bawling at me. “Get up, you louse, or I’ll boot you again!”
“I’m getting up,” I said, crawling slowly to one knee. I acted like I was half dead.
The blood-smeared gun butt was six feet from me. I tried to remember if any of the dicks carried guns in their hands. I didn’t think they did. They were all too cocky, now they were sure I was unarmed.
Flaggerty booted me.
I flopped over on top of Herrick. It gave me a funny feeling to lie on the body, stiff in death. My hand closed around the gun butt. It was slippery with blood, but I didn’t care.
I stood up.
Flaggerty’s face turned green when he saw the Luger. The other guys turned into waxworks.
“Hello,” I said. “Remember me?”
I didn’t point the gun at them. I held it loosely, and I stepped to the wall so I could see everyone in the room.
“Well, come on,” I said, smiling at them. “We were going to headquarters for fun and games.”
They didn’t move or say anything.
I looked over at Miss Wonderly. She was sitting on the edge of her chair, her eyes round with wonder.
“Just a bunch of weak sisters playing at tough guys,” I said to her. “You coming with me, baby?”
She got up and came over. Her knees were knocking, and I put my arm around her waist.
“Can you be useful?” I asked, pulling her against me.
“Yes,” she said.
“Go into the bedroom and pack some of my stuff in one of the bags. Take the best stuff, and leave the rest, and hurry.”
She went past the waxworks without looking at them, and disappeared into the bedroom.
“Any of you guys know how fast I can pull this rod ?” I asked cheerfully. “If you’re curious, just give me the chance to show you,” and I stuck the gun down the waist-band of my trousers.
None of them moved. There were eight of them, and the stout woman. They were too scared even to bat an eyelid.
I lit a cigarette and blew smoke at Flaggerty.
“You boys have had your fun,” I said, “and now I’m going to have mine. I came here for a vacation. All I wanted to do was to have a good time and spend my roll. But you thought you’d be smart. You wanted to murder Herrick because he was in your way. You picked me for the fall guy, and you nearly got away with it. If you hadn’t been so dumb, you would have got away with it. You killed Herrick, but you haven’t killed me, and you’ll find I’m a lot harder to kill than Herrick. I’m going to find out why you wanted Herrick out of the way, and then I’m going to complete his job. I’m here until I’ve taken this town to pieces and found out what makes it tick. I’m here until I’ve bust your Administration wide open: try to stop me if you can. I don’t like being crowded by a bunch of small-town yeggs. It hurts my pride.”
Still they didn’t say anything.
I beckoned to the Irish cop.
“I want you, brother,” I said.
He came towards me like he was treading on egg-shells; his hands above his head.
I let him get to within six feet of me, then I hauled off and busted him in the nose. He staggered back, banged into Flaggerty, and they both sat on the floor.
They remained like that. The cop’s nose began to bleed.
Miss Wonderly came out of the bedroom, carrying one of my grips.
“Wait by the door, honey,” I said.
I walked over to the window, pulled back the curtain, and collected the cigar box I’d hidden behind the pelmet. The box contained eighteen grand: my vacation money.
Although I didn’t even bother to watch them, they still didn’t flutter a muscle. I guess my reputation stood pretty high in Paradise Palms or else they were plain yellow through to their jaegers.
“We’ll go,” I said to Miss Wonderly.
She opened the door.
“So long,” I said to Flaggerty. “Come after me if you feel like it. I’m itching to be forced into a fight, but I don’t shoot first. I don’t have to.” I winked at him. “I’ll be seeing you.”
He sat on the floor hating me with his eyes, but he didn’t say anything.
