the Hills Of Homicide (Ss) (1987)

by L'amour, Louis

  "I'll bet you did! Now back against the wall. I am going to use the telephone, and if you have any doubts whether I'll use this gun, just start something."

  I had no doubts.

  She took the receiver from the cradle and dialed a number. I watched the spots she dialed and filed it away for future reference. From where I stood, I heard a voice speak but could distinguish no words.

  "Yes, Harry, I'm at Sam's . . . no sign of him, but there's somebody else here." She listened, and I could hear someone talking rapidly. She looked me over coolly. "Big fellow, over six feet, I'd say, and broad-shouldered. Gray suit, gray shirt, blue tie. Good-looking but stupid. And," she added, "he got in without a key."

  She listened a moment. "Hold him? Of course. I'll not miss, either. I always shoot for the stomach; they don't like it there."

  "I don't like it anywhere," I said.

  She replaced the telephone. "You might as well sit down. They won't be here for ten minutes." She studied me as if I were some kind of insect. "A friend of Sam's, is it? I know how friendly you guys are. What are you trying to do? Cut in?"

  "Cut in on what?" I asked.

  She smiled, not a nice smile. "Subtle as a truck. As if you didn't know!"

  "And who," I asked, "is Harry?"

  "He's a friend of mine, and from what he said over the phone, I think he knows you. And he doesn't like you."

  "I'm worried. That really troubles me. Now give. What's this all about? Where's Sam? Where's Ellen? What's happened to them?"

  "Don't play games, mister."

  Her tone was hitter, and it puzzled me. Not to say that I wasn't puzzled about the whole action. Sam Bradley was in plenty of trouble, without a doubt, but what sort of trouble?

  Although something in her attitude made me wonder if she was not friendly to Sam and Ellen, she had come in with a key, and she had not called the police. Moreover, she was handling the situation with vastly more assurance than the average woman, or man, for that matter.

  It was an assurance that spoke of familiarity with guns and the handlers of guns. Another thing I knew: The number she called had not been that of the police department. "Look," I said, "if you're a friend of Sam's, we'd better compare notes. When he left here, he took a gun. If Sam has a gun, you can bet he's desperate, because it isn't like him."

  At the mention of the gun, her face tightened. "A gun? How do you know?"

  I explained. "Now tell me," I finished by asking, "what is this all about?"

  Before she could reply, hurried footsteps sounded on the walk, and she stepped hack to the door. She opened it, but in the moment before she did, her eyes showed uncertainty, even fear.

  Three men stepped into the room, and when I saw them, every fiber turned cold. There wasn't a cop in the country who wouldn't love to get his hands on George Homan. He was the first man through the door, and when I saw him, I lost the last bit of hope that this girl might be friendly. No girl who knew Homan could be a friend to any decent man. Homan was a brutal killer, utterly cold-blooded, utterly vicious.

  The second man was tall, with a wiry body and broad shoulders, his features sharp, his eyebrows a straight black bar above his eyes. Then I saw the last man through the door, and he was my friend from the bar, the one who tried to knife me. Now I knew why he wanted my scalp. It was because he had heard me say I was going to find out what Sam's trouble was.

  "This is the man, Harry," the girl was saying. "He claims he's a friend of Sam's."

  Harry walked over to me, his bright, rodentlike eyes on mine, the hatred in them sharpened by triumph. "Nice company you keep." I looked past him at the girl. "Did he ever show you the frogsticker he carries? Now I know where you stand, honey. No friend of Sam's would know this kind of rat!"

  "Shut your face!" Harry yelled, his mouth twisting. As he spoke, he swung.

  It was the wrong thing to do, for gun or no gun, I was in no mood to get hit. For a second, Harry had stepped between me and the gun, but as he stepped in, throwing his right, I dropped my left palm to his shoulder, stopping the punch; then I threw an uppercut from the hip into his belly that had the works on it.

  His mouth fell open, and his face turned green as he gasped for air.

  Before he could fall, I closed with him, shoving him hard at Homan. The third man I did not know, but George was no bargain, and I wanted him out of the play. I went for my gun fast. Hatchet face yanked his, too, but neither of us fired. We stood there, staring at each other. It was a Mexican standoff. If either fired at that range, both would die.

  The girl's gun had dropped to her side. She seemed petrified, staring at me as if a light had flashed in her eyes.

  Homan had backed away from Harry, who was groaning on the floor. Hate was in Homan's eyes. "Kill him, Pete! Kill him!"

  "Sure" I was cool now "if he kills me, we ride the same slide to hell. Shoot and I'll take you all with me. I'm a big guy, and if you don't place them right, it's going to take a lot of lead, and until I fold, I'm going to be shooting."

  Harry was on the floor, living up to expectations. He was being disgustingly sick. Homan stepped distastefully away from him. "I'm surprised, George." I was keeping an eye on Pete. "Playing games with a weed head. You know they're unreliable, and you're a big boy now."

  "Who is this guy, George?" Pete's eyes were on me. "He's not fuzz."

  "Harry had a run-in with him this morning. I saw it, but the guy didn't see me. Harry popped off, and this lug didn't like it. He's Kip Morgan."

  That brought a sudden intake of breath from the girl, but my eyes were on Pete, as I was realizing Pete was top man here. Pete was my life insurance.

  "That's right. I am Kip Morgan. If the name means anything to you, you'll know I am just the kind of damned fool who will shoot if you push me. Take that buzzard off the floor and back out of here. Back out fast."

  Pete was a careful man, and Pete was not ready to die. Not yet.

  "What if I say nothing doing? What if I tell you to beat it?"

  "Then don't waste time just start shooting. I'll get George and Harry, Pete, but I'll get you first. I don't know how good you are with that thing, but I've shot expert on every course I've run. No matter what happens after, you're cold turkey, and I'll bet a thousand bucks I can blow a kidney right out of your back from here." "All right." I had guessed Pete would be smart. I'd gambled on it. "We'll go, but we'll do a retake on this one, Morgan. But there's one thing I want to know. What's your angle?"

  "Sam Bradley was in my outfit overseas. He was a good guy and a good friend. Anything else?"

  "All right. You've proved you're a great big lovable guy. Now get smart and bow out. There s no percentage for you.

  "I didn't come into this for laughs," I said. "When Sam Bradley and his wife are back home and in the clear, then I'll bow out. Until then, I'm in."

  "What if I told you he was dead?" Pete said. "And his wife, too?"

  That brought another little sound from the girl. I was beginning to wonder about her and just where she belonged. "I wouldn't believe you unless I saw the bodies, and then I'd never rest until you three were dead or in the gas chamber."

  "George?" Pete said. "Pick up Harry, put his arm over your shoulder, and walk him to the car. I'll follow. This is no place to settle this." He smiled at me. "There's more of us, and Morgan here has to move around. He can run, and he can hide, but we'll find him."

  Homan picked up Harry and started for the door. Harry looked back at me, and his look gave me a chill. I would rather he'd said something.

  Pete backed toward the door, keeping his gun on me. "You, too," ttold the girl.

  She started to protest, but I cut her short. "Get going? Do you think I want you around to shoot me in the back?

  "And Pete? Play it smart. If Sam and his wife aren't back in their apartment by midnight, I'm coming for you. I will give you until then.

  They went out, and the girl didn't look back. I felt sorry for her, but that might have been because she was pretty. She did
not look like a crook, but then, who does?

  When they had gone I started after them. I was no closer to knowing what it was all about. Whatever it was, Bradley and Ellen, if not already dead, were in danger. If Pete whoever-he-was was playing with men like George Homan and Harry, he was playing for keeps, and for money, big money.

  Before I could move, I had to know what was going on, and I had to find out who the girl was and her connection. Actually, I'd little reason to care. She was a gun moll, as they used to call them, or tied in with it all somehow.

  Come to think of it, there was a clue. It was her attitude toward Sam's army friends. What had she meant by her remarks?

  Turning around, I began to give that apartment a going-over. In the writing desk, I got my first lead.

  It was a circular, or rather, a stack of them. Beside them was a bunch of envelopes and a list of names, several of which I recognized as veterans.

  Opening the circular, I glanced over it.

  BOOM DAYS BOOM AGAIN

  Faro . . . CHUCICALUCK ... Poker CRAPS

  Come one! Come all!

  Proceeds to Wounded Veterans Dropping into a chair, I read it through; an idea began to germinate.

  Where there is gambling, there are sure-thing operators. They flock to money like bees to sugar, and unless I was mistaken in my man, Pete was a cinch player. Moreover, I had picked up some talk lately of various gamblers moving in on the vets and taking them for considerable loot. No doubt they had spotted their own players in the crowds and might even have been running the games themselves. Sam Bradley was on several veterans' committees.

  Pete! . . . Pete Merrano! Owner of the Merrano Club! A bookie and small-time racketeer wanting to reach for the big time! Already he had a hand in the numbers and was reported to be financing the importation of cocaine, although keeping free of it himself.

  Suppose somebody had brought Merrano in to operate their games? Known as an expert and occasionally donating money, they might have been gullible enough to invite him in. Suppose he had been skimming the games and Sam Bradley discovered it? No sooner did the idea come to mind than I was sure it was the answer.

  Now I needed evidence. Leaving the apartment by the service entrance, I went down the back stairs. Once I reached my car, I checked over the list of names I had brought with me. One, Eugene Shidler, lived not far away. Starting my car, I swung around the corner and headed along the street.

  Shidler came to the door in his shirt-sleeves with a newspaper in his hand. He was a short, stocky man, partly bald. Showing him the circular, I asked what he knew about it. "Only what we all know. We need to raise money to give some of the boys a hand, and Earl Ramsey suggested a real, old-time gambling setup. It would last a week, sponsored by us. He said he knew just the man to handle it, a man who had a lot of gambling equipment he had taken in on a loan. He was pretty sure this man could also provide the dealers, equipment, and refreshments for a small cut of the proceeds.

  "Naturally, it looked good to us. We had to do nothing at all when the games started but to come and bring our friends. As we were busy men, that was a big item. Time was the one thing none of us could spare."

  "Pete Merrano?"

  "He's the one." Shidler looked at me thoughtfully. "What's the matter? Is something wrong?"

  There seemed to be something underlying his question, so I said, "Yes, I believe so, but first tell me how it all came out? Did the vets make money?"

  "We cleared about a thousand dollars, although some of the boys figured it should have been more. In fact, there was a lot of talk about something crooked, but shucks, you know Sam as well as I dol There isn't a crooked bone in his body!"

  "You're right," I said, and then I laid it out for him, all I knew and what I suspected. "Sam and his wife have vanished completely. Merrano hinted that Sam was dead, but I don't believe that. Anyway, something has Merrano worried, and what it is I have no idea."

  Shidler got to his feet. Angrily, he jerked the cigar from his mouth, staring at it with distaste. Glancing toward an inner door, he dropped to the sofa beside me. "If my wife hears of this, I'll never hear the last of it, but I got rooked in that game, but plenty! They took me for five hundred bucks. I owe that to Merrano."

  "Then it makes sense. Merrano probably took the lot of you for plenty, and he's counting on you being good sports and keeping your mouths shut. I'd bet he took every one of you for at least as much as you lost."

  He nodded. "I lost about a hundred, then drifted into a little side game that Pete was running. I dropped about forty more, then gambled on credit. Merrano holds my IOU for the five hundred."

  "Get a few of the boys on the phone and do some checking. Tell them what the story is. Maybe we can get that money back. In the meantime, I am going to find out what became of Sam Bradley."

  It was after nine when I returned to my car. The best thing was to talk to Mooney in homicide. He knew me and could start the wheels turning even though it lay outside his department. Although, I reflected, by this time it might not.

  First, I would do some checking. There was Earl Ramsey, who had suggested Merrano to run the games and could be in it up to his neck. If Ramsey could be persuaded to tell what he knew, we might be on the track. Before anything else, I must think of Sam and Ellen.

  It seemed strange to be riding down a brightly lit street, with all about me people driving to or from home, the theater, dinner, and to realize that somewhere among these thousands of buildings a man and his wife might be facing death. Yet without evidence I could do nothing, and all I had was a hunch that they were still alive.

  Checking the list, I found Ramsey's name. The address was some distance away, but worth a visit. If Ramsey were not tied in with the crooks, he might talk.

  It was a large, old-fashioned frame dwelling on a corner near a laundry. Parking the car, I got out and went up the steps. As there was a light in one of the rear rooms, I pressed the bell. Three times I rang with no response; then I saw the door was not quite closed. It was open by no more than a crack.

  Had it been closed when I arrived? My impression was that it had. That meant someone had opened the door while I stood there! An eerie feeling crept over me, and suddenly I was wishing the street were not so dark. I rang again. For the second time that day, I pushed open a door I had no right to touch. It swung open, and I peered into a dark living room. "Hello? Mr. Ramsey?"

  Silence, then a subdued whispering, not voices but a surreptitious movement.

  A clock ticked solemnly, and somewhere I could hear water running in a basin. Uncomfortably, I looked around me. The street was dark and empty except for my own car and another that was parked in darkness farther along the street. Momentarily distracted from the house, I stared at that car. I had not noticed it when I first drove up.

  Suddenly, a hand from the darkness grasped my arm. I started to pull away, but the grip tightened. A voice from the shadows,. a voice so old you could almost hear the wrinkles in it said, "Come in, won't you? Did you wish to see Earl?"

  It was an old woman's voice, but there was something else in it that set my nerves on edge, and I am not easily bothered.

  "Yes, I want to see him. Is he in?"

  "He's in the kitchen. He came home to eat, and I put out a lunch for him. Maybe you would like something? A cup of coffee?"

  The house was too warm, the air close and stuffy. She walked ahead of me toward a dim rectangle of doorway.

  "Just follow me. I never use the lights, but Earl likes them."

  She led me along a bar hall and pushed a door open. As the door opened, I saw Earl Ramsey.

  He was seated at a kitchen table, his chin propped on his hand, the other hand against the side of his face. There was a cup before him and an untasted sandwich on his plate. He was staring at me as I came through the door.

  "Are you Mr. Ramsey?"

  He neither spoke nor blinked, and I stepped past the old woman and stopped abruptly. I was staring into the eyes of a dead man.

>   Turning, overcome with horror, I looked at the old woman who was puttering among some dirty dishes. "Don't mind him," she said. "Earl was never one for talking. Only when he takes the notion."

  My skin crawled. She turned her head and stared at me with expressionless eyes. Gray hair straggled about a face that looked old enough to have worn out two bodies, and her clothing was drab, misshapen, and soiled. She fumbled at her pocket, staring at me.

  It gave me the creeps. The hot, stuffy room and this ,aged and obviously imbecilic woman and her dead son.

  Stepping past the table, I saw the knife. It had been driven into the left side of his back, driven up from below as he sat at the table, and driven to the hilt. I touched the hand of Earl Ramsey. It was cold.

  The old woman was puttering among the dishes, unaware and unconcerned.

  "Have you a telephone?"

  She neither stopped nor seemed to hear me, so I stepped past her to the hallway and found a switch. The telephone was on a stand in the corner. I needed but a minute to get Mooney.

  "Morgan here. Can you come right over? Dead? Sure he's dead! Yes, I'll wait."

  Walking back to the kitchen, I looked around, but there was nothing that might be a clue. Nothing I could see, but then I wasn't a cop. Only, I was willing to bet the killer hid come in the door behind Ramsey, dropped a hand on his shoulder, then slammed the knife home. The knife was a dead ringer for the one I'd taken from Harry only that morning.

  Several steps led down from that open door behind Ramsey to a small landing. It was dark down there, and a door that would probably let a man out into the narrow space between the house and the laundry next door. I went down the steep steps and grasped the knob to see for myself.

  There was a whisper of movement in the darkness, and I started to turn. Something smashed against my skull, and my knees folded under me. As I fell, my arm swept out and grabbed a man around the knees. There was an oath and then a second blow that drove the last vestige of consciousness from me. I seemed to be sliding down a steep slide into unbelievable blackness.