The Jugger

by Richard Stark

  “All right. You got to clear out of town for a while. I’ll give you some money.”

  “You will?” The kid lit up with hope.

  “Write a note, so your mother doesn’t get the law looking for you.”

  “Oh. Sure. That’s easy.”

  “We’ll do that first.”

  Parker took him to the kitchen and found pencil and paper, and the kid wrote the note. Parker read it. It would do. He said, “Move fast. Go next door, pack a few things, not much. Then come back here.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The ten minutes the kid was gone were bad. Parker paced back and forth, back and forth. Too many things could go wrong.

  But the kid came back, carrying a small satchel. “I’m packed,” he said. “I left the note on the dining-room table.”

  “Good,” Parker said, and hit him twice.

  He buried him in the cellar in the hole the kid had dug himself.

  2

  Parker went out the back way. He knew Younger had men on stakeout, to see he didn’t try to clear out of town, but he didn’t figure Younger’s troops to be any brighter than their leader. He’d long since marked the grey Plymouth parked down the block that was used by the man watching the front of the house, and the green Dodge parked beside the road across the fields would be the guy watching the back. If there’d been a third station he’d have found it by now, so all he had to do was go between the Plymouth and the Dodge.

  He went the back-yard route, keeping close to the houses, and went a block and a half before coming out onto the street. Then he walked directly downtown.

  He got into the hotel the same way he’d come out the first time; the fire escape around back. He remembered Tiftus’ room number and knew the woman Rhonda would be in the room next door.

  She opened the door right away when he knocked. “It’s you,” she said. “It’s about time.”

  He stepped in and shut the door. She was wearing black stretch pants and a pink sweater and she was completely made up. He said, “Where were you going?”

  “Nowhere. You told me to come here and stay put, I come here and stay put. I was beginning to think you forgot me.”

  She was being cute. She must figure he was here for sex. He said, “We both want out of this town, right?”

  She nodded, and then shrugged her shoulders. “It ain’t the sort of place I’m used to, let’s put it that way.”

  “We can’t go until the law gets whoever did for Tiftus, right?”

  “That’s me, baby,” she said. “Not you. You’re in the clear, remember? Your buddy cop give you an alibi.”

  “It’s straight,” he said. “I wouldn’t kill Tiftus, I got no reason. Killing him just loused things.”

  “Boy, I’ll say. And let me tell you something, I liked that guy. He was little, and he had a kind of a funny name, but I liked him. He appreciated me, that’s why.”

  “Sure.”

  “He told me some things about you,” she said. “What he told me, it didn’t seem like you’d be the guy killed him. I mean, even if you were going to, you know? You’d have more sense than do it right in your own room like that.”

  “Fine.” He had to let her ramble a minute; if he tried to hurry her, she’d just get her back up.

  She said, “So I don’t see why you got to stick around. I got to, because that cop, that Regan, he told me to. But you’re in the clear.”

  “Not all the way,” he said. “Not till Regan’s satisfied.”

  “Listen,” she said, “who’s in charge around here, anyway? Is it Regan, or is it your buddy, the fat one?”

  “Younger’s in charge, but Regan’s the cop.”

  “Well, that’s just dandy. Are they ever gonna get the guy that did it?”

  “No.”

  She hadn’t expected that answer. She shook her head and said, “What? Why the hell not?”

  “Because I got him,” Parker told her. “It’s a long story, you don’t want to hear it.”

  “Are you kidding? Sure I want to hear it.”

  “You don’t.”

  She looked at his face, and for a second or two she was going to argue, and then she changed her mind. “Okay, I don’t,” she said. “So what’s the point?”

  “The point is, we’ve got to give Regan somebody else.”

  “Like who, for instance?”

  “Anybody. Somebody not here anymore.”

  “And he’s supposed to swallow it?”

  “Younger is, and he will. It’s got to be just a good enough story so Younger can get away with accepting it and closing the case. Once Younger calls the case solved, there’s nothing Regan can do anymore. He’s only in like on an advisory capacity, till they find out who did it.”

  Doubtfully she said, “All right, if you say so. How do we tell this story?”

  “It depends. What did you tell Regan so far?”

  “Hah. Which time? He wouldn’t trust me across the street, that Regan. First I tell him one thing, then I tell him something else.”

  Impatience was getting to Parker. Younger might take it into his head to drop by Joe’s house any time, and Parker didn’t want Younger upset. He wanted Younger thinking he had everything under control.

  He said, “Just tell me what you told him.”

  She shrugged and waved her arms and said, “The first time, I told him the truth. The second time, I told him I made a mistake.” She walked across the room and got herself a cigarette from the dresser.

  “Get me one, too,” he said. This was going to take a while.

  She smoked a filter brand. She gave him one and he ripped the filter off it before he took a light from the match she held up for him. She looked at him with brown eyes, steadily, while he lit his cigarette. She still thought he was there for sex.

  He wasn’t. Maybe later, when this was all cleared up. He still had one woman waiting for him in Miami, but he’d been getting tired of her anyway. Later on he’d make up his mind, not now.

  He sat down in the leatherette chair and said, “Tell me what you told him the first time. Detail by detail. Tell me like I’m him and you’re doing it just like you did.”

  “I don’t see the point, but why not?” She sat down in the other chair, crossed her legs, and looked up at the ceiling. “Dear Inspector Regan,” she said, “it all began when I was five years . . .”

  “I don’t have time for that, Rhonda.”

  Something in his voice drained the cuteness out of her. “All right,” she said, flat. “This is what I told him. Adolph and I come here on vacation, just passing through. Adolph saw you in the lobby when we came in, and said he knew you and he was going to go say hello. I don’t know what went on between you, but you beat him up and threatened to kill him. That’s it.”

  “What about bringing him back to his room? What about running into you there?”

  She shook her head. “No. I didn’t say anything about that, I just did it straight and simple. You beat him up and he came back to the room afterwards and told me you were the one did it.”

  “You told Regan that? That Tiftus came back to the room afterwards and told you I beat him up?”

  “Yes.”

  “How did you say Tiftus said it? Did you say he used my name, or said it was the guy he’d seen in the lobby that beat him up, or what?”

  Details seemed to bother her. She was getting irritated, and now she shrugged her shoulders, blew cigarette smoke, and said, “How do I know? I didn’t give the cop a play by play.”

  “All right, listen. This is what you told Regan: You and Tiftus came here, saw a guy in the lobby that Tiftus said he knew, Tiftus went away to see the guy and came back and said the guy beat him up. Right?”

  She nodded. “Just what I said.”

  “All right. So what did you tell him the second time?”

  “That you weren’t the guy. When I first saw you in that office there, I figured you’d done it, and I did like that guy whether you believe it or not, so that’s
why I fingered you like I did. But then I got to thinking, and you come up with the alibi and the buddy-buddy with the cop, so when I saw Regan again I told him I made a mistake, you weren’t the guy after all.”

  “You told him I wasn’t the guy Tiftus saw in the lobby.”

  “Right.”

  Parker thought it over. He’d already told Regan that Tiftus had gone to see him that morning, and that he’d seen Tiftus on the street a while later. He had to include that, plus what the woman had already told Regan, and make it all work out to a story that pointed off in some brand new direction.

  While he thought, she just sat there in the other chair, smoked her cigarette, and watched him. She seemed a little puzzled, and hesitated.

  After a while he said, “All right, we got a new story to tell Regan. We don’t change the old story, we just add to it. You and Tiftus got here, saw a guy in the lobby, Tiftus said he knew him, went away, came back, and said the guy beat him up and threatened to kill him. When you saw me you thought I was the guy, but you were wrong. The guy was tall and built like me, but younger, and he had blond hair. And what you remember is, Tiftus told you his name. When he saw the guy in the lobby he said, ‘Why, there’s Jimmy Chambers.’ You got that? He said, ‘Why, there’s Jimmy Chambers.’ ”

  She nodded. “Why, there’s Jimmy Chambers,” she said. “But I don’t get the point.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ll get something else going on Jimmy Chambers from the other side, through Younger.”

  “But who is this Jimmy Chambers? Is that just a name you made up?”

  “No. It’s a guy with a record, Regan won’t have any trouble finding out there’s a real Jimmy Chambers, and Jimmy Chambers did know Tiftus, so everything’s going to check.”

  She said, “He wasn’t really in town, was he?”

  “No. Now, after . . .”

  She said, “I can’t do that.”

  “You can’t do what?”

  “I can’t get this fella Chambers in trouble. Why don’t we just make up some name, it’d be the same.”

  “No, it wouldn’t. Chambers is a name Regan can check. And Chambers got killed in an explosion a few months ago and nobody official knows about it, so don’t worry about getting him in trouble.”

  “Is that the truth?”

  “Happened on a job we were both on. I don’t sic the law on my own kind.”

  “All right,” she said. “When do you want me to do this?”

  “Tomorrow morning.”

  “They’re burying him tomorrow morning.”

  He had to think for a second, and then he realized she meant Tiftus. He said, “Then Regan will be with you at the funeral. Tell him then.”

  “It just occurs to me, like that?”

  “No. You remembered it tonight, and you weren’t going to say anything because you didn’t think Regan trusted you. But you want to see your man avenged, so you’re going to tell him anyway.”

  “I hope he’ll believe me,” she said.

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  “Sure.” But then she brightened and said, “I can do a real scene, a whole graveside bit. Cry and carry on and throw myself on the coffin, the whole thing. I never done anything like that before.”

  He said, “Don’t overdo it, that’s all.”

  “Don’t you worry about me,” she told him. “You may not have realized it, but I am by profession an actress.”

  “Good.” He got to his feet in a hurry to be gone.

  She said, “You got to go already? Stick around awhile.”

  “Some other time.”

  She gave him an actress smile. “You want a rain check?”

  “Yeah.”

  3

  It was nearly midnight before Younger called back. Parker had been sitting in the dark in the living room of Joe’s house, waiting. He’d come back from seeing Rhonda a little before ten, and called police headquarters to leave a message for Younger to call him. Then two hours went by, and Parker just sat and waited, not thinking about anything in particular, not planning, not being impatient or irritable. It worked that way with him sometimes, when he knew where he stood and how the play should go from there on; he could sit alone in the dark and wait, as silent and patient as a stone.

  Until finally the phone rang and it was Younger. The first thing he said was, “You found it?”

  “No. I want to talk to you.”

  “What about?”

  “The money, and something else. Come on over here.”

  “It’s late, Willis.”

  “We’ve got to get this done tonight. You’re going to Tiftus’ funeral tomorrow?”

  “Regan wants me to go. Him, too, he’s coming along.”

  “Good. Come over here now, it won’t take long.”

  Younger grumbled, but after a while he said he’d be right there. Parker hung up and got to his feet and went around the house turning on lights. He knew other people thought it strange when he sat in the dark, and he didn’t want Younger geechy about anything. He made himself a cup of coffee and went back to the living room to wait, and ten minutes later the doorbell rang.

  When Parker opened the door, Younger came in complaining. “You know it’s after midnight? This better be worth it.”

  “Sit down, Younger, this won’t take long.”

  They both sat down in the living room, and Parker said, “I want you to think about something. You’re looking for the guy killed Tiftus. But Regan’s looking for him, too. What if Regan comes up with him first?”

  “I take him right away from him. I’m still in charge, Willis, I already told you that.”

  Parker shook his head. “No. You take him away after Regan tells you he’s got him. Is Regan going to tell you right away?”

  “He sure as hell better.” Younger was insulted at the idea.

  “Why?” Parker asked him. “What if he holds the guy an hour, six hours, questions him a little, and doesn’t say anything to you till he’s done with the guy. What do you do about it?”

  “I could put in a complaint against him, God damn it!”

  “What would that mean to Regan? What would it mean to his bosses? Some hick little town police chief teed off because Regan didn’t hold his hand and keep calling him on the phone.”

  It was true, and Younger had to know it. He tried to bluster, but it didn’t work. He said, finally, “What’s the point? What difference does it make?”

  “If Regan gets him first,” Parker told him, “Regan will make him spill. You know he will. He thinks there’s something going between you and me anyway. He’s suspicious. He won’t turn the guy over to you until he finds out what’s going on, and then it’s too late, the whole thing’s out in the open, and we don’t stand a chance to get the money.”

  Younger took out a cigar and fooled with it in his hands but didn’t unwrap or open it. He said, “So what can we do?”

  “Get the case closed. Turn up a killer, so it gets Regan out of the picture.”

  “How do we do that? You mean frame somebody? We couldn’t get away with it, not even me, I couldn’t get away with it.”

  “We don’t have to have a body,” Parker told him, “just a name. What you got to do, you got to go straight down to headquarters and send off a teletype request to Washington, you want any information on a man named Jimmy Chambers, known to be an associate of a man named Adolph Tiftus.”

  “Jimmy Chambers? What the hell for?”

  “Shut up and listen to me.” Younger looked insulted again, but he didn’t say any more, and Parker went right on, not noticing any looks Younger gave him. “Today, this afternoon, I told you something I’d been holding back. I told you something Tiftus said to me when I saw him in the street before he got killed. Remember my story with Regan? I saw Tiftus twice, the first time when he came to my hotel room and a little while later on the street.”

  Younger nodded. “I remember.”

  “All right. What he said to me when I met him on the str
eet, I saw he’d been in a fight and he said to me, ‘Jimmy Chambers roughed me up.’ I said to him, I didn’t know he was in town,’ and he said, I guess he came here for the funeral.’ That’s all. You got it?”

  Younger repeated the dialogue, and said, “What’s the point? Who the hell is this Chambers?”

  “You’ll get the answer tomorrow from Washington.”

  “Then what happens?”

  “Then you decide Chambers killed Tiftus, and you thank Regan for helping, and you send him home.”

  “Just on your say-so?”

  “No. There’ll be more evidence, don’t worry about it.”

  “What evidence?”

  “Wait for it. You want to be able to act surprised when you get it. The important thing is, you send that request out tonight, as quick as you can get downtown, and you tell Regan about it first thing tomorrow morning. You got that? The first thing you see Regan tomorrow morning, you tell him about Chambers. It’s important you do it right away.”

  “All right, all right. Is that all?”

  “Yeah. Then, with Regan out of the way, we can look for the money and the killer ourselves.”

  “Yeah,” said Younger, “what about the money? I’m getting closer to the killer all the time, I found the shovel and everything, but what about you? You’re just sitting here.”

  “I’ve gone through this place,” Parker told him. “Tomorrow afternoon, after Regan’s out of the case, I think we better go down to Omaha, take a look at Joe’s apartment there.”

  “I’ve already been through that apartment, Willis. If the money was there, I would have found it.”

  Parker shook his head. “I want to look at the place myself. You want me to go alone?”

  “Not on your life,” Younger told him.

  Parker shrugged. “Then we’ll go together. We’ll go in your car, that’ll be best. Pick me up here around three o’clock.”

  “You think Regan will be out of the case by then?”

  “Why not? You put a rush on the request to Washington, you get an answer tomorrow morning, Regan is out by noon.”

  “If he’s out,” Younger said, “I’ll come by. If he isn’t I won’t. That’s the best I can say.”