mighty glad to see her helpless. The waiter at the Hotcha Club had said she was tough, but he had underestimated. Tough? That’s a laugh. She’d scare the pants off Strangler Lewis.
I wasn’t going to take the room to pieces until I’d been able to talk to her first. Tied up, she might be made reasonable.. Anyway, that’s the way I liked to talk to dames like her.
After I had got through half the cigarette, she began to rise to the surface. I watched her with interest. Her eyes opened, blinked in the light, then shut. Her head moved uneasily on the pillow. The bed looked as if an earthquake had hit it, but I wasn’t going to waste my time tucking a baby like this in.
She suddenly snapped out of it, and tried to sit up. The look she gave me would have burnt a hole in a sheet of asbestos. I grinned at her. “Sorry to be so rough, sister,” I said, “but you certainly asked for it.”
She began to call me names again. Well, names don’t break bones, but after a minute of it I got mad. That dame had about the dirtiest mouth I’d ever run into. I got out of the chair and grabbed a pillow. I slapped the pillow down hard on her face and held it there. I gave her a few seconds, then took if away.
“Cut that stuff out,” I said grimly, “or you’ll get smothered.”
She lay there, her eyes stormy, and I could see by her wriggling she was doing her best to bust loose. I wasn’t worrying about that. I knew how to tie a knot, and if she did get her hands free I could always put her out again. I wasn’t having any more gentle stuff with this dame… she was poison.
I sat on the bed beside her.
“Now you an’ I are goin’ to have a little chat,” I said. “If you don’t cough up what I want to know, it’s goin’ to be too bad for you. I’ve played ball up to now, but a floozie like you deserves to get the dirty end of any deal, an’ I’m goin’ to see you get it.”
“Don’t start anything, Mason,” a voice said by the door.
I looked quickly over my shoulder.
Earl Katz was standing in the doorway. He was holding a blue-nose automatic in his hand, and the barrel was pointing right at me.
CHAPTER SIX
SURPRISED? I’LL SAY I was surprised! You could have knocked me down with a mangle. What the hell was Katz doing here? What connection had he with Vessi’s moll?
I wasn’t going to show him that he had pulled a quick one on me. I gave him a smile. “Still pushin’ them into pockets, Bud?” I said.
“An’ talkin’ about pool, did you hear the one about the guy who was laying the red—?”
“Skip it, Mason,” Katz said out of the side of his mouth. That’s another thing I love. These guys who’ve been to so many tough movies that they just have to talk out of the side of their mouths, because they think it’s the thing to do. “Get her untied.”
I shook my head. “You’re crazy,” I said. “You don’t know what you’re saying. If I took the rope off this dame she’d kill us both.”
The automatic jerked up. “Listen, wise guy,” Katz said, “you ain’t goin’ to get anywhere with this line. Untie that dame, an’ make it snappy.”
Ackie had said this guy was as dangerous as a rattlesnake. To look at him now, I thought Ackie might be right. He didn’t look the dope any more. There was a cold, vicious gleam in his eye, and I thought he’d love to have a crack at me. When a guy’s got a gun I don’t argue too long. Guns always did make me nervous, anyway.
“Turn over, Tootz,” I said.
I wasn’t looking forward to the time when she got her hands free. The look she gave me didn’t exactly reassure me that a love feast was on its way.
I got her hands free and stepped away from her. I reckoned that I’d sooner argue with Katz’s gun than take anything from her.
She sat up, rubbing her wrists. “Give me a wrap,” she snarled at Katz.
Without taking his eyes from me, he pulled another wrap off the hook on the door and tossed it to her. She struggled into it and got off the bed. She looked a hell of a wreck. Blood from my nose was all over her shoulders and she’d got a big bruise on her jaw. I had left my fingerprints all over her arms, and the punch I had got in on her shoulder was already turning red and green.
She walked into the bathroom and shut the door. I could hear the water running.
“Sit down,” Katz said, jerking the automatic again.
I sat on the bed. I said: “Suppose you put the gun away and take it easy. This is a private matter between Blondie and me… it don’t call for any outside interference.”
Katz said: “You talk too much. Keep your trap shut. I’ll do the talking an’ you just answer… get it?”
I shrugged.
“What are you doin’ here?” he asked.
I grinned. “That’s an easy one,” I said. “What the hell would any man be doin’ here?”
Katz pushed his hat at the back of his head and leant against the wall. He put a finger and thumb in his vest-pocket and took out a toothpick. He put the toothpick in his mouth and chewed it thoughtfully.
“If you don’t like to talk straight,’ he said, “it’s goin’ to be tough for you.”
I said: “Be your age, Katz. You can’t get that way with me. I could make this town so hot for you that you’d have to take a powder quick.”
Katz shifted the toothpick. “You’re all washed up,” he said. “You ain’t nothin’. Suppose you get wise an’ talk? What are you doin’ here?”
The bathroom door opened and Blondie came in. She’d done some good work and she was looking more herself. Her eyes still glinted dangerously and she stood in the doorway, watching us.
I shrugged. “I guess I’ll be on my way,” I said, getting to my feet.
Katz said: “Sit down.” There was a threat in his voice.
“We won’t get anywhere,” I said. “I’m goin’.”
Katz shifted a little, so that his back was against the door. “Don’t start anythin’,” he said. “I ain’t ready to plug you yet, but don’t rush me.”
I said: “You better get out of the way.” I was getting mad with this gunman. I guessed he’d think twice about letting the gun off. After all, we were on a main street, and guns can make a noise.
Maybe Katz gave Blondie a signal, or maybe she acted on her own initiative. I had been keeping my eyes on the gun, making up my mind whether I could jump Katz or not, and for a moment she was out of the picture. Well, I deserved what came to me, because I had had a taste of her before. I said already this dame was poison, and poison she was.
Something hard and heavy hit me on the side of my head, and I went down on my knees. The room tilted and the lights began to spin.
Dimly I heard Katz say: “Don’t hit him again…. I wantta talk to this bird.”
Someone grabbed my arms and twisted them behind me and a hard, cold strap bit into my wrists. I felt myself tossed on the bed. My head cleared and I struggled to sit up, but a hand, out of the mists, closed over my face and slammed me back on the pillow. I lay still until I could focus the lights properly, then I raised my head cautiously and looked at them. They stood at the end of the bed, watching me.
Blondie had her arms crossed over her breasts. Her face was indifferent, but her eyes smouldered. Katz chewed the toothpick and held the automatic loosely.
Without taking his eyes off me, he said to Blondie: “What’s it all about?”
“He’s crazy. He came up here an’ said I’d taken five grand off him.”
Katz shrugged. “Well, didn’t you?” he said. He moved round the bed and sat down close to me. “Listen, punk,” he went on, I m goin’ to tell you somethin’… then you’re goin’ to tell me somethin’. We’ve got your jack all right. Blondie lifted it, like you thought she did….”
Blondie made a move forward. “What the hell….” she began.
Katz turned his head. “Shut up,” he said. “I’m handlin’ this. I want this guy to know where he gets off.”
He turned his head back to me. “We’ve been watchin’ you for some time. You went to Vessi’s bump-off, didn’t
