The Great Slay

by P C Hatter

  “Kaiser—”

  “Let me talk before I pass out from exhaustion. Taylor and Marsh had me picked up at my apartment by two bulls doing a cop imitation. Kidnapping plain and simple. How do you think my face ended up this way? I was in my right to shoot them.” My mind wasn’t working in a straight time line and I said, “The big bull is somewhere in Islip. Someone should have found him by now. The other two are in a house on the beach. You got a map?”

  Duke dug out a map and unfolded it on his desk. “If you’d told me earlier, we could have picked up Taylor. Now he’s got a chance to set up an alibi.

  “He probably already has one set up, just in case. You won’t break it. That lizard is too cautious.”

  I penciled in the roads and gave Duke an approximation of where the house was. He put the information out on the wire and had someone check with the dogs in Islip. While he was on the phone, I got his attention, and he covered the mouthpiece. “What?”

  “Don’t tell the D.A. yet. I got an idea of how we can get Taylor.”

  “Kaiser—”

  “Hear me out. That bird will be on my tail again if you tell him now. Taylor has the entire department chasing shadows, but those shadows are chasing me. Ask yourself why Taylor and Marsh came after me and did this to my face. They came in person to the party. Somehow, I managed to get ahold of something they want. Something big. Only, I don’t know what that something is. My case should have ended with Greenly’s death, but it didn’t.”

  Duke finished up on the phone and hung up. “Greenly was the driver. The one who ran over the racoon.”

  The news let what little wind I still had in me out. I wanted the driver. Sal Greenly should have died knowing why and died slowly. “How did you find out?”

  “Toby Hues and Allen Scragg were apprehended in Philadelphia. Only they didn’t want to be taken in and had a shootout with the locals. Scragg lived long enough to tell us a few things.”

  “What things.”

  “Griggs, you were right on the money. Greenly wasn’t about to let the cheetah go without his personal supervision.”

  “Were they supposed to bump Griggs?”

  “No, just go with him and pull the job.”

  “Okay.” I nodded and got up. “Go ahead and get Taylor your own way. Just do me a favor and give me a break with the D.A. I need some sleep and bad.”

  “Sure.”

  CHAPTER 10

  When I reached the door to my apartment, I had company, again. The super, his wife, Leslie Haze, and a few others.

  “There he is.” The super’s wife was a nice armadillo. She ran up to me ready to give me a hug but stopped short when she saw my face. “Oh my.”

  Leslie was right behind her. “Kaiser?” Before I could say hello, she took my arm and guided me toward the door. She had tears in her eyes. “I just knew something happened to you.”

  “What’s all the excitement about?”

  The cougar choked back a sob. “I kept calling, and well, I thought something happened to you like the last time. So, I came over to check, and when you didn’t answer the door I got the super.”

  “You gave us a right scare, Mr. Wrench,” said the super.

  “If you don’t mind, I’d like to be left alone to sleep.” I pulled out my keys, and Leslie took them to open the door.

  “Of course,” said the super and ushered his wife away. The others in the hall drifted back to their apartments, though some were curious about what happened to my face.

  Not to steady on my feet, Leslie guided me to an upholstered chair. I let my head rest on the back. If not for the slight tug on my feet I wouldn’t have realized Leslie had taken off my shoes and socks and was working on my tie.

  When someone knocked, she went to the door to answer it.

  “Kaiser, it’s the Nurse.”

  The hedgehog set the cub down, but he climbed right into my lap. “The superintendent called me to check up on you.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “I can see that.” Sarcasm filled her voice. “Let’s get you cleaned up and into bed.” I didn’t argue. They got me stripped and in bed before I knew it. The cold compress on my face woke me up long enough to hear the sound of a pair of electric clippers along with the smell of iodine.

  After that, everything was a mixture of crazy dreams. Thugs and beautiful actresses. Taylor and Marsh. Even Griggs holding his son walked through my head while I slept.

  “Kaiser, sweetie, wake up.” The sound of Leslie’s voice and her gentle shaking drew me out of a deep sleep, and I opened an eye.

  “Leslie?”

  “You were talking in your sleep.”

  Both her and the nurse looked tired, but the cub smiled at me as he climbed over the bed.

  “Same day?” I asked.

  “Next day. You slept around the clock, and it’s almost four-thirty.” Leslie’s face grew concerned. “There’s a Captain Barrow on the phone. Do you feel up to talking to him?”

  “Yeah, where’s my pants?”

  The nurse helped me up and to the edge of the bed before either of them left the room. I pulled on my pants and an undershirt, swearing every time I hit a raw spot. Patches of fur were shaved off, and I was covered in iodine and adhesive tape. I must have looked like I had mange on top of everything else. The agony of moving had turned to soreness, and I hoped a good hot soak in the tub would take care of that.

  I padded out to the living room and picked up the handset lying beside the phone’s cradle. “Hello—”

  “Where’ve you been? I told you to call me.”

  “Sleeping, why?”

  “The D.A. found Marsh, and now he wants to talk to you.”

  I couldn’t help rolling my eyes. “What’s the charge now?”

  “There isn’t any. I managed to explain everything away, but he still thinks you’re holding out on him about Taylor.”

  “What does he want, blood? Didn’t I give him enough?”

  “The D.A. doesn’t want Taylor dead. He wants to see him in court. The bird’s trying to keep his job.”

  I had to laugh at that one. “If he spent more time doing his job, he wouldn’t have to come up with schemes to keep it. What happened with the fox with the tin ear?”

  “Dead end. The fox would call a number for a telephone booth at Grand Central Station every hour. If he didn’t call, it meant trouble. He was paid in cash that came through the mail every month.”

  “And Taylor’s alibi?”

  “Phony as a three-dollar bill, but we can’t break it. Him and his buddies swear they were playing cards all night. Cliché, but it works for him. If you don’t get a move on, you’re going to be tied up with Guy Marsh’s body until that bird decides otherwise.”

  “Fine.”

  “Kaiser, you are on the level with me, aren’t you?”

  “You know what I know.”

  “Okay. By the way, call Elenore when you get the chance.”

  “Is she there?”

  “No, she’s left already. And another thing. That playboy moose, Anthony Albane, is back in the country. He gave us the slip and is now lying low with some foreign elk.”

  I let the news sink in. “He’s still scared of something.”

  “Looks it. We’ll pick him up soon. Listen, I have to get back to work, it’s a madhouse around here.”

  “Okay.” I heard the click of his receiver cutting off the connection. Good old Duke. We were still on the same team, and he was letting me pick my own time to talk to the D.A.

  I set the handset back in its cradle and turned to Leslie. “We need to scram. I need to go someplace where people aren’t going to bother me.”

  Leslie yawned, and said, “What about my place. I wouldn’t mind curling up in my own bed and sleeping for a week.”

  “You sure?”

  “Why not? I promise I won’t take advantage of you.”

  I nodded and got dressed. When I heard the knock on the bedroom door I yelled, “Come in.”

&
nbsp; The nurse opened the door. “Mrs. Haze tells me you have to leave.”

  “Yeah, this case is not going to let me sleep. Not here anyway.”

  “Could I ask a favor? They’re painting my apartment today. Would you mind terribly if little Danny and I stayed up here for the night?”

  “Sure, go ahead. If anyone calls, say I’m out, and you don’t know when I’ll be back, or where I am.”

  The hedgehog looked at me with a frown. “Do you expect anyone?”

  “Don’t worry. If anyone shows up, they’ll be respectable.” She didn’t seem too happy with my comment but accepted it. I grabbed a new suit and put it on. My old suit was destroyed, so I emptied the pockets out onto the dresser. After that, I balled it up, took it out to the kitchen, and dropped it into the trash atop the tattered kids clothes I’d dumped there. Sticking the lid on tight, I shoved the can back in the corner.

  Leslie and I said goodbye to the nurse and took my car to her place. When we got there, I had to kiss her awake. “We’re here, sleepyhead.”

  “You did this to me,” she said.

  “That warthog you have for a nurse will tan my hide for it.”

  “Did you think you’d have a chaperon? Sorry, Kaiser, but she’s gone.”

  I helped Leslie out of the car, and we walked into her building. On the way up in the elevator, the otter who manned the controls gaped at me the entire ride.

  When we got to her apartment, she settled me into a comfortable chair. I watched in fascination as the slanting rays of the evening sun came through the blinds and formed a crosshatch pattern on the floor. Noise from the kitchen and the smell of food kept me from opening the blinds and curling up on the floor. My stomach growled in hunger, reminding me how long it’d been since I’d eaten, and I followed my nose.

  Leslie already had the coffee made, the bacon fried, and was working on the eggs. I spotted the bread and the toaster and joined in.

  “Hungry?” she asked. “The only thing you had in your apartment was a box of stale crackers.”

  “Starving, and I usually eat at the corner greasy spoon.”

  That’s all we said until we’d finished eating. Both of us were too starved to bother putting words between bites. When we were done, I pulled out my cigarettes and Leslie turned on the radio. A supper opera was playing. Everything was perfect until the music stopped on the hour and a news commentator came on excitedly talking about the death of Guy Marsh and his two cohorts. I turned the radio to a different station as he explained how Marsh started in the early 1920s with racketeering and was suspected of being a key figure after the repeal of Prohibition.

  The sound of a rumba band filled the room, but Leslie wasn’t listening. She was studying me intently. “That was you wasn’t it. That’s why you’re so beat up.”

  I shrugged. “They worked me over and were going to kill me.”

  “Good heavens. Why?”

  “That I can’t tell you because I don’t know.”

  “All this started from that one night?”

  “Yup. One lousy robbery gone wrong. You and I got beat up. A cub’s an orphan. A big-shot racketeer and two of his flunkies are dead. A small-time crook of a raccoon is road kill. Sal Greenly is dead along with his phony bodyguards who tried shooting it out with police, and Carl Lachlan is dead. There’s not going to be anybody left alive when this is over.”

  There was fear in Leslie’s eyes as she asked, “Will they come back after you?”

  “No, I’m not going to give them the chance.” I crushed the butt of my cigarette out in the ashtray and asked, “Mind if I use your phone?”

  “Go right ahead.”

  Using the directory, I found Anthony Albane’s number and called his place. Just as someone came on the line another person was pounding on the apartment door. Leslie looked so terrified that I handed her my .45 and motioned her to answer the door so that I could concentrate on the phone.

  She opened the door with the gun pointed straight ahead, and I heard hysterical laughter as I asked, “Is Mr. Albane there?”

  “If this is the police again, Mr. Albane has not returned and is not scheduled to return in the near future. If I hear from him, I will give him the message.”

  I slammed down the phone and turned to see what was going on at the apartment door.

  Leslie was still laughing and the young leopard with his arm in a sling was trying to comfort her and shake the gun loose. I pulled it out of her hand and put it back where it belonged.

  “Hey, snap out of it.”

  She hiccupped and leaned into my shoulder. “I’m sorry, I thought… I’m not sure what I was thinking.”

  “Leslie?” asked the leopard.

  “I’m sorry Harry. Please, let me introduce you to Kaiser Wrench. Kaiser, this is Harry O’Brian. He works at the theater.

  Harry didn’t like me much, and it wasn’t a stretch to figure out why.

  “Kaiser, I think I need a drink. Do you mind?”

  “No problem. How about you Harry?”

  “No thanks, I’ve got a date.”

  The leopard must have hoped Leslie would be jealous and was quickly disappointed. “That’s nice Harry. Was there something you wished to see me about?”

  “Well,” he hesitated and glanced at me. “We were all worried when you didn’t show up at the theater today. We called, but no one answered. I even stopped by, but no one was here.”

  “I’m sorry Harry. I’ve been with Mr. Wrench and didn’t think of calling. Please tell everyone not to worry.”

  “Sure.”

  “Goodbye Harry.”

  “By, Leslie.” Dejected, the leopard shuffled out the door.

  Once Leslie and I moved back into the living room, I made the drinks and we sat down. “Thank you,” she said.

  “You shouldn’t have done that. The poor guy is in love with you.”

  “That’s why I had to. Too bad you don’t feel that way about me.” She didn’t let me explain, just downed her drink and walked away into her bedroom. Both her smile and body reflected the fatigue of the past day.

  I thought of the leopard and what must have been going through his mind, when I heard Leslie say, “Good night, Kaiser.” I looked up to see the cougar standing in the doorway in a cream satin gown that clung to her body showing every curve. The sun set at the same time as she turned and closed the door to her bedroom. I listened for the sound of a lock clicking, but there wasn’t any.

  CHAPTER 11

  I thought I could sit there and think. Was it this dark when Griggs came in and opened the safe? I tried to picture that night, and him climbing up and coming in through the window. But nothing made sense. Somewhere in the image of this affair hid an error. An assumption everyone took for granted but was as false as a wooden nickel. If I could find that one flaw, the whole picture would fall into place.

  The frustration was overwhelming. If it hadn’t been for Leslie asleep in the other room, I would have thrown my glass across the room and possibly take my anger out on a chair and rip it to shreds.

  There was no way I could sit still and wait for something to happen. I felt caged and had to move. Slipping out of the apartment, I used the stairs to get to the ground floor. Once outside in my car, I rolled down the window and let the breeze blow on my face and felt better. I watched people stroll by and remembered what Duke said about calling Elenore.

  I started the car and drove over to her place.

  Only when I reached her apartment door, did I wonder if she would even be in and tried the bell. I heard movement from inside, and she answered the door.

  “Hello,” I said.

  She was dressed in a terrycloth robe. The contrast against her dark hair and mane only accentuated her looks. “Kaiser, I didn’t expect you.”

  “Aren’t you glad to see me?” I meant it as a joke, but the quip fell flat as her eyes teared.

  Elenore stepped back. “Please come in.” She led me into the living room, and we sat down. Unlike every othe
r time, she didn’t flirt or even sit close. Nor would she look straight at me.

  “What’s the matter, Elenore?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Wait, you did tell Duke that you wanted me to call, right?”

  “Yes, but I meant… Oh never mind.”

  That made me feel like a louse. “Okay, let’s hear it.”

  She got up and turned on the radio, then grabbed a manila folder off the top and handed it to me. The thing had seen a lot of years, the paper crisp with age and the string holding it together frayed and falling apart. “It’s the file on Sal Greenly. I found it buried in the archives.”

  “Does the D.A. know about this?”

  “No.” Before I could say a word she said, “See if it’s what you want.”

  I turned up the flap only to have it come off in my hand. Reaching in, I carefully pulled out the papers and read the reports. Sal had been a good photographer at one time. So much so that professional actresses came to him to have their publicity pictures made. Fallon, the old D.A. had written notes in the margins. Nelson Saldonia had contacted Sal Greenly because of his work and Saldonia’s obsession with female celebrities. If the pictures were accompanied by an introduction, the frog would hand over more cash. After Saldonia died, Greenly stopped making photographs and got into bookmaking.

  “This could have put Greenly away a long time ago, but the old bird was on the way out, and the peacock came in and swept all that hard work away.”

  “Does it solve anything?”

  I dropped the file on the coffee table. “It solves both Saldonia and Greenly, but they’re both dead.”

  “Sorry. I thought it would help.”

  “You tried. As for these papers you can either put them back in the archives or burn them. Though I’m half tempted to shove them under the D.A.s nose and yell at him for wasting everyone’s time, he’ll never change.” I looked over at Elenore and figured she looked tired. “I guess I should get going.”

  I stood up but couldn’t leave without asking, “What is it Elenore? I know I put you on the spot by asking you a favor, and I’m sorry. But this seems more than that.”