Shake a Crooked Town jk-5

by Dan Marlowe

  The cab turned into an impressively deep horseshoe driveway in front of the largest apartment and stopped at a canopied entrance. Johnny got out and paid the driver, looking around at the evidences of comfortable living. If no bank presidents lived here it was probably because they couldn't satisfy the rental agent as to their financial standing.

  He had double-barreled evidence immediately that no one walked up and knocked on the door of Jim Daddario's apartment. A doorman gave Johnny's leather jacket a fishy eye of his way in. Right in the center of the miniature lobby with its deep-pile carpeting a slender blonde girl sat at a modernistic switchboard. She looked at Johnny inquiringly. “Daddario,” he said.

  Her eyes took him in impersonally. “The name, please?”

  “Killain.” An alias wouldn't advance him any. And the woman at the real-estate office must have called.

  The girl spoke into her mouthpiece in a low tone. She looked up at Johnny at once. “If you will wait just one moment, please, sir? The penthouse elevator will be right down.”

  “Yeah, sure. Thanks.” It would be down with someone on it, Johnny thought. He wondered if Jigger Kratz performed as an in-residence bodyguard. And a penthouse, yet. With a private elevator. Dick Lowell didn't live this well.

  On a small raised terrace the gilded doors of two self-service elevators sat side by side. The one on the right opened noiselessly and Jigger Kratz stepped out. He walked out to the edge of the terrace and looked down at Johnny. His blunt features and flat-appearing eyes with the yellowish cast betrayed no special interest. “What's your business with the boss?” he asked Johnny. He made no effort to hold his voice down.

  “I'll talk to him about it, Kratz.”

  “Not today. You talk to me or you dry up an' blow away.”

  “You talk a good game, man,” Johnny goaded him. He wanted Kratz in motion.

  The big man smiled his gap-toothed smile. “My name's not Savino,” he rumbled. “Take off, Killain. While you can.”

  Johnny took three fast steps toward the little flight of stairs. Jigger Kratz started down toward him. The instant the big man took his first step Johnny launched himself horizontally. His two hundred forty pounds viciously shoulder-blocked the ankle supporting Kratz's weight. The big man's forward momentum sent him up and over Johnny's head. His startled grunt was still audible when he smashed down upon the lobby floor, barely missing the switchboard booth.

  Johnny scrambled up from his hands and knees and headed for the penthouse elevator. His right shoulder tingled. After scything down Kratz it had plowed into the top step. Only Mickey Tallant's leather jacket had saved him from a bad bruise or worse. He stepped aboard the elevator and punched the single button. As the doors closed he had a quick glimpse of the blonde girl leaning out over her booth staring down incredulously at Jigger Kratz on his knees shaking his head dazedly. His massive pinwheel had slowed the big man down only temporarily.

  The elevator stopped so smoothly and the doors opened so soundlessly it was like watching a camera pan on a Hollywood luxury apartment. Johnny stepped out into more soft-carpeted self-indulgence. The furniture was new, angled, and blond. The pictures on the walls were bright daubs. Music came from somewhere to the right. Johnny followed the sound of it and came upon Jim Daddario at a desk, hunched over some papers. Beside him a hi-fi set played softly. At the sound of Johnny's muffled footfall the politician spoke without looking around. “What did he want, Jigger?”

  “He wanted to talk to you,” Johnny said.

  His chair was not a swivel chair but Daddario whirled about as though it were. He looked at Johnny, looked behind him for Kratz, then back at Johnny again. “How the hell did you get up here?” he asked harshly.

  “What's so hard about it?” Johnny asked innocently. “I got on the elevator an' pushed the button.” He removed the leather jacket. Very shortly he would need the unhampered use of arms and shoulders.

  Daddario rose to his feet, slapping at the switch of the hi-fi. He settled his horn-rimmed glasses more firmly on the bridge of his nose. “Goddammit, if you're not the biggest pest-!” he examined in exasperation. “What-”

  He broke off to listen. They both heard Kratz the second he got off the elevator. No carpet could completely deaden that furious charge. Snorting through his nose, the big man plunged into the room. A sleeve was torn out of his jacket and his left ear was bleeding. He rushed Johnny without a word as Johnny set himself. Both launched right hand swings. Neither made any effort to duck or block the other's punch. Both connected. Each was knocked back a pace, but only a pace. Both gathered themselves to swing again.

  Daddario stepped hurriedly in between. “Here! You think I want my place busted up by you two elephants? Cut it-”

  Jigger Kratz disposed of his employer with a contemptuous backhanded slap. Jim Daddario staggered backward on his heels until his head hit the wall with a solid tunking sound. His glasses popped off his nose and dropped floorward as his body followed. There was a distinct crunching sound as the glasses were demolished under his dead weight, then he sprawled on his face, out cold.

  Kratz never even looked in his direction. Lips drawn back from his teeth, he circled Johnny slowly. “When I get finished with you, man, you're gonna look like Thompson.” He tried to maneuver Johnny into a corner. “Every day of your life you look in a mirror you're gonna remember Jigger Kratz. I'll fix-”

  Johnny rushed him, on the theory the big man was a lot more used to seeing them going away from him. Kratz stumbled backward as Johnny's weight rebounded from him. He flung up his arms as he started to fall. Johnny nailed him with three solid shots on his way down to the floor, right-left-right. He thought the bones in his hands had splintered on the rough-hewn features. Kratz bounced to his feet like a rubber ball, blood pouring from a cut beneath one eye. Eyes aflame he charged again.

  A long right-hand punch landed right on top of Johnny's head and he felt his knees loosen. A sweeping left knocked him down. Kratz kicked him heavily twice before Johnny grabbed a leg and upset him. They rolled over and traded punches on their knees. They came up together and Kratz lowered his head and roared in like a billygoat. Johnny barely shouldered-blocked him to one side. Kratz missed the desk but went into and through the hi-fi. Johnny dived for him and they thrashed around in the fragments of expensive cabinet-wood, neither able to secure a handhold.

  They rammed under the desk, Johnny momentarily on top. Wood screeched in protest and two legs collapsed. A flailing elbow hit Johnny in the eye as the desk sagged onto them. They kicked it out into the center of the room. It smashed down and dissolved like a house of cards. Jigger Kratz snatched up a broken-off desk leg and hit Johnny alongside the ear, knocking him over sideways. Johnny felt the ear puff up like a toadstool.

  Adrenalin-charged anger powered him upright again. He took the next swing of the club on his shoulder, got his hands on it and wrenched it away, and with one savage smash fused Kratz's mouth and teeth into a bloody smear. He dropped the desk leg and went for Kratz's throat with both hands.

  The big man bellowed hoarsely and rained blows on Johnny's face. They rolled over and over, crushing the lightweight furniture in their path. Johnny held on grimly, his lungs on fire with the effort. He could feel Kratz's blows weaken as the man heaved convulsively. Johnny redoubled his straining exertion, channeling every ounce of strength in his body into his hands. It was some time before he realized dimly that all movement beneath him had ceased.

  He was so exhausted it took a distinct struggle to remove his hands from Kratz's throat. His thumbs were imbedded a quarter inch. He pulled himself to his knees and the room swam in circles around him. Doggedly, he jerked himself upright and fought to remain there. The sound he had been hearing for some time was his own breath whistling raggedly in his throat. Blood ran from somewhere down into his left eye. He slapped at it, impatient to remove it.

  He looked around at the wreckage in the room. The heavy bodies had made matchsticks of the furniture. Daddario lay on hi
s face, still unconscious. Kratz lay on his back. Johnny looked more closely. He was still breathing.

  Johnny forced himself into motion. His legs felt heavy as iron posts yet trembled violently. He couldn't remember the last time he felt so completely drained. He hauled himself through the apartment, opening doors, supporting himself with handholds on every solid-looking object. He stumbled into a bathroom and in the medicine cabinet mirror stared into a face he didn't recognize. He pulled a towel from the rack and blotted off the face. He stared at the crimson imprint on the towel. The touch of the towel on his ear hurt so badly he looked in the mirror again. The ear was a blue-black puff-ball, and even as he looked it exploded and blood drained down his neck onto his collar. He wiped it off mechanically.

  He took two cautious sips of water after rinsing his mouth and turned resolutely away. He knew his stomach would rebel at anything more. He felt a little better. Some of the iron-banded tightness had left his chest.

  He resumed his search of the apartment, losing count of the rooms. Daddario hadn't stinted himself in his living. And then Johnny opened one more door and stared at a small, pajama-clad, bright-haired pixie sitting up on the bed returning his stare with interest. She looked about twelve.

  “You've been fighting,” she said in a clear, cool little voice. “Your mother's going to be mad.”

  “Yeah,” Johnny agreed. He cleared his throat. It seemed to have a pound of cotton in it. “Where's your mother?”

  “Oh, she comes to see me afternoons.”

  “Afternoons?” Johnny could taste his disappointment. Had all this been for nothing? “She's not here?”

  The bright head shook itself negatively. “I'm getting awful tired of seeing her only afternoons,” she confided.

  He could see that she had Micheline's features and he supposed that Micheline's dark hair and Carl Thompson's red thatch could combine to produce the taffy-colored halo on the bed. He remained in the doorway, afraid to move closer for fear his battered appearance would frighten the child, but aware he had to do something and do it quickly. “I knew your mother when she wasn't much bigger than you are,” he said tentatively.

  “Betcha you didn't,” she said immediately, bright-eyed.

  “Betcha I did, too.”

  “You don't even know my name!” she scoffed.

  “Sure I do. You're Genevieve Thompson. And your mother was Micheline Laurent when I knew her.” The taffy head bobbed in wondering agreement. “I think we'd better go and find your mother, Genevieve.”

  She was immediately cool to the idea. “Mother said I should wait for her here.”

  “But this is an emergency!” Johnny said desperately.

  She shook her head, but not so decisively. “You do look like an emergency,” she decided. “Can I go back to school when we find my mother?”

  “You bet your life you can,” he said fervently.

  “And you won't let her be mad at me for not doing what she says?” Johnny crossed his heart silently. “Okay, I'll get dressed.”

  “We don't have time,” Johnny said swiftly. “Would it be all right if I carried you?”

  “In my pajamas?” she inquired doubtfully.

  “We'll do you up in a blanket like an Indian maiden.” He advanced to the bed and bundled her up elaborately, picked her up and sat her on his arm. “There. Okay?”

  “Okay,” she agreed. “I don't like these people, anyway, but mother said I should pretend.”

  Johnny was already walking out through the apartment. He pulled the girl's blanket up like a hood before they reached the room in which the fight had taken place. The first glance showed Daddario and Kratz still on the floor and the uniformed doorman picking his way through the debris like a horror-stricken, long-legged crane. He whirled at the sound of Johnny's approach. “Don't make a move, Jack,” Johnny advised him. At sight of Johnny's face the doorman backed off hastily.

  “Who was that?” Genevieve inquired with interest, riding Johnny's arm onto the elevator. “I couldn't see. Was that one of the bad men?”

  “I figure him for just mediocre bad,” Johnny said, and she giggled. He carried her through the deserted lobby and out through the front door under the canopy. A taxi was at the right and a man in a tan topcoat was just about to enter it. Johnny crossed the walk in three long strides and tapped him on the arm. “Emergency, Jack,” he said.

  When the man turned his eyes were at the level of the girl's blanketed figure. “What kind of-” He started to say, and his eyes came up to Johnny's face. “Jesus!” he said involuntarily. “Take it.”

  Johnny was already depositing Genevieve inside. “Thanks, Jack,” he said, and climbed in himself. “546 Circle Drive,” he said to the driver.

  He leaned back and slowly released breath he seemed to have unconsciously been holding for a long time.

  CHAPTER X

  In the lobby of Jessamyn Burger's apartment building Johnny lowered his blanket-wrapped burden to an overstuffed armchair and turned the chair so that its small occupant was hidden from casual view. “Now you wait here for me while I scout out the ground,” Johnny said to Genevieve.

  “You won't be gone long?” she queried with her first hint of timidity.

  “I'll be right back,” he promised. “Scout's honor.”

  Clear gray eyes looked up at him trustingly. “You should do something about your face. I have a hankie in my 'jamas. Would you like to borrow it?”

  “I've got one, thanks,” Johnny said hastily, and groped for it. “Quiet like a mouse for you now-right?”

  “Comme la souris,” she echoed sturdily. Johnny grinned, patted the taffy-colored halo, dabbed at the deeper of his welling facial cuts with the handkerchief, and left the lobby for the corridor and the door of 2-A.

  “Who is it?” he heard in answer to his knock.

  “Killain.”

  The door opened three inches on a chain latch. Johnny looked in over it at Jessie Burger in a housecoat and dark glasses. “Dear God!” she exclaimed at the sight of him. The chain rattled loosely and the door opened wide. “Come in. Quickly.”

  “You afraid of snow blindness?” Johnny asked as he stepped inside and she closed the door behind him. The chain latch was immediately restored. On a hunch he turned her around and removed the dark glasses. She ducked her head but not before he saw two savage-looking black eyes. The left side of her face was swollen. “Kratz?” he asked her.

  “S-Savino.” Her face crumpled and she started to cry. “Everything you s-said about them is true. He t-talked his way in here last night and beat me up because I hadn't s-stopped seeing you. They're th-thugs, all of them. Jim, too. I h-hate them. Ask me anything. I'll tell you the whole awful s-story.”

  “Micheline?” he asked quietly.

  “Tim has her little girl at his apartment so that he can control her. After the first telephone call from New York Jim knew he was in trouble. He forced the maid with whom Micheline had left the little girl to bring her to his place. He flew to New York and found Micheline at the Taft and made her call the maid and dismiss her. He threatened to keep her separated from her daughter if she didn't do what he said. He was desperate. He'd built up-”

  Johnny held up a hand. “I get most of the picture, but where's Micheline?”

  “I don't know where she's been staying. Jim wouldn't let her stay at her own apartment. She comes to see her daughter every day.”

  “I've got the kid outside,” Johnny said casually, watching her face.

  It was seconds before she reacted. “The daughter? You have her with you? Outside where? Here?” The words tumbled out over each other. “Is that why you look like this? I thought they'd jumped you-for God's sake, bring her in before Kratz or Savino happen along!” She flushed at his steady regard. “Listen, I may be no damn good, but on this you can trust me, I hope!”

  “Be right back,” he said, and let himself out the door. He approached the silent chair in the lobby and watched apprehensive gray eyes brighten as he bent down
and picked her up in her blanket cocoon. “Everything's copacetic, sugar-foot,” he told her, hoisting her aloft.

  “Is my mother here?” she asked eagerly.

  “I'm goin' to get her just as soon as we get you tucked in the sack.” Johnny ducked so the girl wouldn't bump her head as he carried her into the apartment. Jessamyn, her dark glasses restored, slapped the chain latch back on the door. “Genevieve, this is a friend of ours, Miss Jessie.” He handed the blanketed small figure to Jessamyn.

  “Let's go in my room, dear,” the librarian said. Genevieve nodded shy acquiescence. On the way, Jessamyn looked over her shoulder at Johnny. “I've called a doctor in the next building about your face. He'll be right over. You can let him in.”

  “First I got to-” Johnny began, and paused at a rap at the door.

  “There he is now.” Jessamyn disappeared into the bedroom. Johnny admitted the doctor and reluctantly submitted to his ministrations. He gave the accompanying questions short shrift. Jessamyn reappeared during the application of the last of five stitches distributed two, two, and one in three different locations. The doctor took his disapproving departure and Johnny sat up on the couch that had served as an operating table.

  “I'm goin' back to Daddario's,” he said, reaching for his undershirt. He worked it on gently over his head.

  “Your ear looks horrible,” Jessamyn said with. a little shudder. The import of his words reached her. “Jim's? You can't go back there! Kratz-”

  “I saw Kratz. We split a hair or two. To make sure of gettin' the kid out of there I had to leave without talkin' to Daddario. He's the only one can tell me where Micheline is.” Johnny stood up. His face felt as if it were on fire and his body ached. He looked at Jessamyn. “Tell me somethin'. Why would Riley offer me a thousand to find Micheline?”