“Boss?” I was staring now. “You the boss?”
“Certainly. Somebody has to boss those people. I decided it might as well be me. For a while, until this heat over George’s death cools, we’ll operate from some pleasant Carribean isle.”
“Dope. Narcotics.” I whispered the words, feeling the waves of heat move along my body. I looked at Liza. “And all this time I thought there was a good reason for George’s dying. He had cheated you and driven you wild with desire. Hell, that wasn’t it at all. It was greed. You and Jerry. And I thought it was a need for love that made you kill George.”
Marlowe shrugged. “We live and we learn, copper. Something new every day.”
I snarled at him. “Sure. You clerked in your uncle’s office. So you could take over. So you could burrow into the rackets.”
“Why not?” Marlowe said. “Uncle George had been county solicitor. He had quite a file. With all that information it was easy for me to muscle in. I was all set to take over narcotics in Tampa. And I would have — ”
I growled from deep in my loins. “Except for George Flynn himself. Except for the one decent guy I ever knew. He wouldn’t let you! He was going to expose you, let you go to prison even if you were his nephew.’”
“You can see how I couldn’t let that happen.”
I looked at them, seeing what they really were. Romance. They never heard the word. Thrill. The only thrill they understood was the thrill of dirty money. Tons of it.
“And you killed Greek Alonzo in that alley to keep me from getting to him,” I growled at Marlowe. “You were afraid he would betray you.”
Marlowe shrugged again. “Some of these weak characters we just can’t trust, can we?”
I wanted to retch. “Well, I got news for you,” I said. “You ain’t gettin’ away with it.”
Marlowe laughed. He really enjoyed that. “I’d like to know how you’ll stop us, my naked Sir Gallahad. I have the gun. The safety is off. My finger is quite steady. How will you stop me?”
“You’d better just make up your mind,” Liza said. “This is the end of the line. You’re not stopping anybody.”
I looked at her. Our eyes met. She looked through me. I was nobody she’d ever seen before. That baby had what she wanted. The dirty riches that Marlowe’s narcotics would bring her. What was love and romance on a scale like that?
Jerry spoke. His voice was cold. “Get his gun from his clothes, Liza. Hurry. I know the poor boy is freezing, standing there in nothing but a towel.” Marlowe laughed. “Don’t worry, Marty. It won’t be much longer.”
Liza brushed past me. She went along the corridor. I stood there hearing her footsteps going away from me. Going away. The owl wept out there in a cypress tree. It was funny, Liza came back in the room, walking toward me again. But I didn’t even hear her.
• • •
She handed the shoulder holster with the police positive to Marlowe. He hefted it. Handed his small automatic to Liza. The way she handled it made me colder than ever. She knew guns. Knew how to handle them. She knew everything evil, that was for sure.
“I’m going to use your gun,” Marlowe said to me. “You don’t mind, do you? It’ll be so much simpler that way. Your gun. Your bullet. Your blood. We’ll leave your body here. You can see how it will work, can’t you, Carter? It will look like suicide. The police are busy looking for you. Your career is over. You can’t escape. It’ll look like you took the quick, easy way out. After taking a cold shower first, of course.”
I cursed him. It didn’t help any. It didn’t even make me feel any better.
“You know they freed Vinson, didn’t you, Marty?” Marlowe’s voice taunted me. “What a perfect frame! But it fell flat. More people came forward than you could count. You’re in a hell of a mess, kid. I’m doing you a favor. You know.”
“Get it over with.”
He shrugged. “Anything to oblige a friend. A man who has helped us the way you have.”
He telegraphed his move. His mouth tightened and a nerve twitched under his eye. Someday when he was old, Jerry was going to have one hell of a tic.
His fingers tightened. I watched the trigger. It clicked. There was no explosion.
I laughed. I had unloaded my gun before I left Liza to take the shower. I had been made a sucker once. Once was all.
“Jerry!” Liza screamed. “It didn’t fire!” She was stunned. All keyed up — and nothing. I prayed she wouldn’t remember the other gun, Marlowe’s gun, she was holding loosely in her hand.
I turned, jumped for the table. I picked up the phone. Marlowe screamed at me, pulled the trigger again and again in a futile rage.
“Put that down! Put it down or I’ll shoot you myself!” Liza screamed suddenly. She had remembered the gun.
The senator had paid for a private line. An open line. I got quick service. I told the operator to get me the Tampa police. Hilligan. And hurry. For God’s sake, hurry.
“Shoot him!” Marlowe screeched.
I turned my back on her. “You can’t shoot me in the back,” I said. “Not if you want it to look like a suicide. That’s one thing no suicide can do, Liza, shoot himself in the back.”
They stood for a moment, paralyzed, indecisive. My back was cold. It felt like the center of a pistol range target. I could feel their eyes, feel her brain trying to reach a new scheme.
“Hilligan speaking.”
“Hilligan, don’t talk. Listen. Marty. I’m at Flynn’s Sky Lake place. Liza Flynn and Jerry Marlowe killed George Flynn. He was going to expose Marlowe’s dope racket. Don’t let ’em get away, Hilligan. You gotta get ’em for me — ”
Liza screamed like a crazy woman. She didn’t wait any longer. There was a clap of thunder. Something slammed into me, hard. It was high. High in my back. It knocked the telephone out of my hand. It knocked me against the wall. I slid down it to my knees.
As I hung there, I heard them yelling at each other. Two animals who knew they are lost, snarling at each other. I wondered which of them would live to surrender to Hilligan. I wanted to laugh. But I couldn’t make it. I was blacking out.
I knew I had won. I had got what I wanted. I’d got the thrill, the big thrill, and I’d got the killer too.
• • •
They tell me I’ll be able to testify at the trial, when it comes up. I’ll be out of the hospital, by then, Hilligan says. I’m going to take a long vacation after that. A nice quiet one. Yeah, a nice quiet one, for I’ve had enough kicks and excitement to last a lifetime. And, besides, I want to have my strength back when I face Carl Dill again.
Serving as inspiration for contemporary literature, Prologue Books, a division of F+W Media, offers readers a vibrant, living record of crime, science fiction, fantasy, western, and romance genres.
If you enjoyed this Crime title from Prologue Books, check out other books by Harry Whittington at:
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Slay Ride for a Lady
The Brass Monkey
Call Me Killer
The Naked Jungle
A Woman On the Place
One Deadly Dawn
Heat of Night
Don’t Speak to Strange Girls
Mourn the Hangman
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Copyright Registration Renewed © 1980 by Harry Whittington
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This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, corporations, institutions, organizations, events, or locales in this novel are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously. The resemblance of any character to actual persons (living or dead) is entirely coincidental.
ISBN 10: 1-4405-4663-0
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