Light shone hot against the closed lids of Gregory’s eyes. He didn’t move. He made no attempt to open his eyes until he had conquered the first chaotic thoughts of returning consciousness. In a few seconds he knew that his brain would take control again, and he would remember just what had happened.
There was an ache spreading slowly from a spot over his right temple. He considered the ache, diagnosing it, and that brought memory back.
He remembered going into the garage of the Harlem Club, remembered the voice that had spoken out of the darkness. He remembered striking at that voice, and he remembered the crushing blow that had smashed him down.
It must not have been as hard a blow as it seemed. Or perhaps the brim of his hat had lessened its force. Gregory knew that he had only suffered a slight concussion. Now, recalling all that, and with his mind steady and clear, he moved a little and opened his eyes.
The light was an unshaded bulb, dangling down from a streaked, dirty ceiling on a length of tangled wire. Gregory was lying on his back on something soft and lumpy under him. He moved one hand slightly, felt a crumpled blanket. He was lying on a cot.
“Good evening,” said a soft, slyly amused voice.
Gregory turned his head further and saw a man. He was sitting on a stool tilted back against the wall. He was a tall, ungainly man with stick-like arms and legs. The skirt on his face was a pallid, pasty white, stretched paper-thin over the protruding jut of his nose. His hair was a dead black, glittering with oil, plastered flat against his bony head. His eyes were blue, a smooth, glossy blue that had no life behind them. He had a smooth and suavely sinister smile.
“Steve Karl,” Gregory said.
“Why, yes,” the man said. “I’m very pleased and flattered to be recognized so promptly.”
Gregory moved again on the bed, starting to sit up.
“No,” said Karl. “No, my dear doctor. Just lie there for a few moments, and you will feel much better. Of course, I wouldn’t venture to give an expert like you medical advice — mine is just practical counsel.” He raised his right hand casually. Gregory’s police revolver rested lightly in his knobby, yellowish fingers. “A nice gun, Doctor. And I needed a spare.”
Gregory relaxed and looked slowly around the room. The floor was littered with crumpled papers and snuffed-out cigarette butts. There was no furniture except the cot on which Gregory lay and the stool Karl was sitting on.
“This,” said Karl, “is what serves me for an office at the moment. I apologize for it. You see, my creditors moved in on me recently and moved right out again, taking everything along with them that wasn’t nailed down. In case you are interested, we are upstairs over the club.”
“Thank you,” said Gregory evenly.
“Yes,” said Karl. “I’d heard that you were a pretty hard proposition, Doctor, but watching you come out from under the way you did just now makes me believe I underestimated you, at that. You’re certainly hard to get excited, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” said Gregory.
“Does your head feel better now?”
“Yes,” said Gregory. “May I sit up?”
Karl nodded. “But don’t do anything else. I’m not quite such easy game as the men I hire. You’ve done pretty well with them, haven’t you, Doctor? What happened to Carter, by the way?”
“He fell into the bay.”
“Ah,” said Karl. “I like the way you put it. Fell into the bay, eh? Well, that’s one gone. And you just fixed another up very nicely down in the garage. I had to send him into town to get repaired — in the custody of the one that put you down. That leaves us all alone to have our little talk. Just how did you get on to me, Doctor?”
“Through Carter.”
Karl’s thin lips tightened. “That yellow little rat! Did he talk before he — fell into the bay?”
“No,” said Gregory. “But he took me for a ride in a car. There was a little doll in the car, the kind you gave out on your opening night. I traced that. There was no registration or ownership certificate in the car and the license plates were forgeries. I thought the doll must have some relation to Carter, or else he would have removed it when he stole the car.”
“That fool,” said Karl. “That damned fool. He was drunk the night we got that doll, and he got the notion that the thing was good luck for him. Damn him and it, too. But it was clever, Doctor. Very clever of you.”
Gregory watched him silently.
“You’ve been damned clever all the way through,” Karl said. “Yes. I’ll admit it. You had a better plan than I did, and you went about it in a slicker way.”
“Plan?” said Gregory.
“Oh, yes. I figured it out very quickly; give me credit for that. You had a hold on that girl. You could make her do what you said. And she could manage old man Van Tellen. He was crazy about her. So you had the girl murder Mrs. Van Tellen. And there you had the whole business right in the palm of your hand. The old man controlled the money, the girl controlled him, and you controlled the girl. And how about Danborn? Isn’t he in it somewhere?”
“Not now,” said Gregory.
“What do you mean by that?” Karl asked.
“He’s dead.”
Karl moved tensely on his stool. “When did that happen?”
“Tonight,” said Gregory evenly. “I found him lying on the floor of my office, where your men had left him.”
“Yes,” said Karl. “But Jerry only sapped him. Jerry’s the guy that smeared you down in the garage. Jerry didn’t crack him hard enough to kill him. Jerry don’t make mistakes like that.”
“I noticed the bump on his head,” Gregory said. “But now he’s got a scalpel in his heart.”
Karl swallowed, and his smile grew a little strained as he watched Gregory. “You mean you stuck him in the back when you found him lying there?” He swallowed. “You know, Doc, I’m beginning to think I’m damn lucky to come out at the top of this pile. I don’t like the way you do business.”
“What was your plan?” Gregory asked.
Karl moved his thin shoulders. “Easy. I’m paying a few guys around the Van Tellen place. I spotted her for a softy, and I needed some capital. I knew she had the reputation for being a little on the screwy side, and I was just taking advantage of that. Pretty soon I was going to move in and protect her in a big way under the threat that the servants and the other boys around there would testify that she was insane. I would have put it over, all right. She’s a soft touch for something like that. But I was playing for small change compared with you.”
“Yes,” said Gregory. “Very small change.”
“Not any more,” said Karl in an ugly tone. “Oh, no. You fixed up the setup for me now. I’ll take it over.”
“Will you?” said Gregory.
“Yes, but not the way you were going to work it. I don’t want any part of that girl. I don’t want her mixing in it. I’ll work on the old man direct.”
“Mr. Van Tellen?” Gregory questioned.
“Sure. Who else? He’s getting all the old girl’s money, but he won’t have it very long. I’m having him brought over here for a little session as soon as I get rid of you. He’ll listen to reason after the boys work him over for a while. Then, after this, he’ll be my silent partner — or else.”
“And the girl?” Gregory asked calmly. “Anne Bentley?”
“She goes with you,” said Karl. “Deep down under. You and she and Carter are all going to be drinking a lot of water together.”
“She’s here?” said Gregory.
“Sure. In the other room — tied up. The boys had to rough her a little when they grabbed her in your office, but they didn’t hurt her much.”