Mardi sat quite still. Her face was a little pale and she looked tired. It was getting on towards three o’clock, but I’d got to get this thing sorted out.
“Then Richmond gets bumped. Very unfortunate this, because Spencer did the bumping. I guess he was getting tired of doing all the work and seeing Richmond doin’ all the spending. If Spencer took the rap the lid would come off Mackenzie Fabrics all right. That wouldn’t please the shareholders. I don’t know, but I can guess what happened. They all got around and wagged their heads about this and came to the only conclusion. Someone had to be the fall-guy.
“Now Richmond played around with the dames. As long as the dame was a looker, she was okay by him. He was fooling around with a floozie of the streets just before he was knocked off, and this bird usually ran around with a guy named Vessi, a real twelve-minute egg. What could be simpler? Vessi is the Fall-guy. They frame that bohunk so fast he’s dizzy in the head. The cops frame him, Spencer frames him, the lawyers frame him, and the judge frames him. So he’s framed. Just like that. To make matters safe an’ sound, they get his moll to frame him.
“This is where I come in. The case to me was just a sordid bit of shooting with no news angle for my particular stuff. One night a dame rings up and tells me she’s sending round a ticket that’ll let me in to see Vessi’s execution. She tells me that Vessi will give me an angle on this business, and she will pay me ten grand to explode the frame. This dame is plenty steamed up. Before I can turn it down she rings off.
“Okay, I’m the mug. I go along and see Vessi have a nose-full. Before he hands in his pail, he tells me that Spencer pulled the shootin’. I pass the news on to the mystery woman, who sends me five grand as an act of good faith. Before I can lay my hands on the dough, Blondie, that’s Vessi’s late moll, nips into my room and grabs it. I do a bit of Philo Vance stuff and track this moll to her lair. We have a few words and then in blows Katz. Now Katz is Spencer’s bodyguard. A guy that walks around loaded up with shooting-irons and itching to use ’em. All he seems keen about is to find out who’s been staking me to start trouble. This guy gets plenty tough so I tell him a story that’s not quite true but which he falls for.
“I then do some thinking and decide that I’m not interested. I’m a peace-lovin’ guy an’ this seems too exciting. Anyway, why the hell should I worry about Vessi? He was just a small-time crook. So when the dame comes on the ’phone again I tell her I’m through.
“This dame interests me. I want to know who she is. I had a bad break the other day. I nearly ran into her but just missed it. I won’t go into that now, but maybe I’ll tell you about it later. The next excitement is you. I wanted to see a little more of you, and when I heard you were missing I got worried. I got still more worried when this dame rings up and hints that I’ll find you in trouble at an old east-side wharf.
“I go along there and have an argument with three guys, and instead of finding you I run into Blondie again. She also is on her way out of town. Then I run into you, and I guess that’s where I stop.” I sat back with a sigh of relief.
Mardi said: “I believe I can help you. There are a lot of things I couldn’t understand which now I think I could fit into the puzzle.”
“Suppose we look at it from this angle ” I began.
She smiled at me. “Could it wait until to-morrow?” she asked. “I’m so tired. Look at the time. I feel as if I shall go to sleep right here in this chair.”
I got up quickly. “Sure,” I said. “I guess I’m over-anxious. You get some sleep.. We can talk over what you’re goin’ to do and all about this business to-morrow.”
She got out of the chair slowly and stretched. Standing there in front of the electric stove, the strong reflection of the elements outlining her legs through her dress, her grand little head back, and her arms raised a little, she looked good. I wanted to put my arms round her. It was tough going not to start anything.
I said: “Through there is the bedroom. You go ahead. You get some sleep.”
She said sleepily: “Can I borrow things from you?”
I went ahead of her and fished out a pair of my pyjamas and my dressing-gown. I tossed them on the bed.
She came in and stood watching me. “It’s nice of you,” she said, “giving up your bed. Do you mind an awful lot?”
I didn’t move. I just didn’t trust myself. “No, I don’t mind,” I said.
The sudden unevenness in my voice made her look at me quickly. “I’m sorry I can’t do what some girls would do,” she said steadily. “Not because I think it’s wrong, but because I think it’s too soon.”
I went over to her and stood very close. “You’re swell,” I said, “I don’t want that. I just want you to know I’m crazy about you. I want to help you and do things for you.”
She put her hand on my arm. “Thank you.”
I gave a grin and walked out, shutting the door behind me.
The fat guy and Gus were sitting under the lamp waiting for me. The fat guy held an automatic directed at my belly. He said: “Reach up, lug, grab a handful of heaven.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
THOSE TWO GUYS got me rattled for the moment. I leant against the door and put my hands up. There was a vicious look in the fat guy’s eyes that I didn’t like. I guessed he was feeling mighty sore with me.
Did he know Mardi was right behind me? Was he after her or was he just going to settle things up with me?
I said softly: “How’s your noggin, Gus? You birds want a lot of shakin’, don’t you?”
The fat guy waved the gun at me. “Come away from the door, lug, we want the dame. Come on… I ain’t goin’ to ask twice.”
I yelled: “Mardi, lock the door quick… trouble’s arrived.”
Gus sprang towards me with a curse. He came at me from the side so that his body didn’t get in the line of the fat guy’s gun. I wedged myself against the door and let him come.
The fat guy said: “Get him away… if he starts anything, I’ll drill him.”
Gus gripped my arm and tried to swing me from the door. I was too heavy for him and just for a second he came off balance. I jerked my arm a little, and he fell forward, right in the line of fire. I clutched him to me like he was my long-lost brother and lammed a couple of short ones to his belly. My heel thudded against the door and I yelled again: “Lock up, quick.”
The two punches I had shot into Gus held him for a second and then he caught me with a swinger on the jaw. It was a nice punch and it sent me over. I took him with me and we went down in a heap on the floor.
The fat guy came forward and rammed the barrel of his rod into my neck. “Take it easy,” he said softly, “this gun don’t make much noise.”
The cold barrel digging into me cooled me off quick. I let go of Gus, who scrambled to his feet. The fat guy said: “I don’t want to rub you out, but I’ll do it all right if you ask for it.”
I met his eyes. This guy meant everything he said.
“I’ll be good,” I said.
The barrel of the gun looked like a cannon to me.
Gus said: “Watch him… he’s slippery.”
The fat guy shook his head. “He’ll be all right now, you see.”
I sat on the floor hoping that Mardi would start yelling out of the window. I didn’t hear a sound, and my heart sank.
“Come on, get up,” the fat guy said, digging the gun into me again.
I got to my feet.
“If you think you’re goin’ to start anything, I should forget it. This rod’s got a light trigger.”
I guess that guy would think nothing of touching his gun off, so I just stood.
Gus came round the back of me and jerked my arms behind me. For a moment I stiffened my muscles, but the gun kept digging into me. I thought maybe I’d be more useful to Mardi alive than dead, so I let him rope me.
I tried the dodge of expanding my arm muscles, so that I could have a little slack when the time came, but
