I opened and shut my mouth, but no sound came. I just stood looking at him.
He put his hand on my arm. His face had gone very grim. “Mardi? Somethin’ happened to Mardi?”
I took a deep breath. It was worse than I thought. It made it much more real to have to say it. I had to put out a big effort to get control of myself. I could feel the muscles in my stomach fluttering. “They’ve killed her, Mo.” Well, it was out now.
Ackie didn’t believe it. He pushed me into the sitting-room. “They wouldn’t do that,” he said. “Get a grip on yourself, Nick. Come on an’ have a drink. They wouldn’t kill a kid like that.”
I grabbed him by the arm and swung him round. “I tell you they’ve killed her, the swine. She’s up there on the bed. Look… they killed her here. Look at the blood. Do you see that? That’s hers. That’s from her body. They killed her down here.—They came on her when she was alone and the yellow curs killed her against the wall.”
Ackie took a look at the bloodstains. Then he shook his head. “Take it easy,” he said, “take it easy.”
I seized his coat-front in my fist and shook him. “Don’t say that to me!” I shouted at him. “I tell you she’s up there….”
He hit me across the face with the flat of his hand very hard. I guess I wanted that. It shook me up and it hurt a lot, but it fixed me. I blinked at him and took my hand away. “I’m sorry, Mo,” I said, stepping away from him. “I guess I was excited.”
“Sure,” he said. “Suppose we go up?”
With Ackie, I felt I could do it. We went upstairs quickly. I turned on the light in the bedroom and walked over to the bed.
I heard Ackie say:. “Good God!”
I pulled the sheet down with a steady hand. The floor seemed to rise up under me and I felt Ackie grab at my arm. We both stood staring.
Even in death Blondie looked hard and suspicious. Her glazed eyes were fixed in a terrified stare and the rivid paint on her mouth glistened in the electric light. She was naked, and a small blood-encrusted bullet-hole just above her left breast told me how she had died.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
ACKIE SAID: “No… don’t say anythin’. Let me think.”
I walked away from the bed. My brain was stiff.
Ackie put his hand on Blondie’s arm, then he took her wrist and raised it. I just stood there and watched him. “She ain’t been dead long,” he said. He covered her with the sheet and came away from the bed.
He said: “We’ll look in the other rooms.”
I stayed right there and let him do it. He came back after a while and shook his head. “There’s no one anywhere.”
I sat down.
“You see, they didn’t kill her… they’ve only taken her away,” Ackie said.
He went out of the room again.
I repeated after him: “They’ve only taken her away.” I guess I felt as bad as when I thought she was dead.
Ackie came back again with the Scotch and two glasses. He put the glasses down on the table and poured the whisky out carefully. Then he came over and put one of the glasses in my hand.
“If you want to get Mardi back you gotta snap out of it,” he said.
He was right.
“This is a frame-up, Nick,” he went on, “the old gag again. The same stunt as they pulled on Vessi. Blondie knew too much so they knocked her off and planted her on you. The next thing you’ll know is that the cops will roll up and make a pinch. They’ll get away with it just like they got away with it the first time.”
He was right again.
I finished up my Scotch and got to my feet. My own danger didn’t worry me, but if I were behind bars there was no one to find Mardi. I had to get this angle right first.
“You better keep out of this, Mo,” I said. “I can’t drag you into it.”
Ackie filled up his glass again. “Forget it.”
“No… I mean that.”
“I’m in with you from now on. We’re going to bust this thing wide open. We’re going to get Mardi back and we’re going to get Spencer on trial. We’re going to find out what’s at the bottom of the Mackenzie Fabrics, and when we’ve done all that we’re going to write the grandest news-story, and we’re going to get someone to print it.”
I said: “Do you mean that?”
“Yeah, I’m in on it, and you can’t keep me out.”
I was glad to have Ackie with me. He was an all-right guy and a tough egg to have around when trouble starts.
“We gotta get this dame outta here first. We gotta do that quick. That’ll spoil any frame-up they’re hoping to slap on you.”
“How the hell are we going to do that?”
Ackie scratched his head. “We’ll take her out in my car and drop her somewhere.”
“It would be better to take her round to her own apartment and leave her there. In her profession she might’ve been knocked off by anyone.”
Ackie nodded. “We’ll do that.”
“We can’t take her out like that. We’ll have to get her dressed.”
“Why the hell have they undressed her… anyway?”
“Just a touch of realism, I suppose. Her clothes must be around somewhere, otherwise that would be a point for the defence.”
I opened a cupboard and glanced inside. There was Blondie’s large black hat hanging up with Mardi’s hats. I took it out. I didn’t want to think about Mardi just then, but seeing those hats did things to me.
We found Blondie’s clothes in a neat pile under the curtains on the window-seat.
Ackie turned them over. “These dames don’t wear much, do they?” he said.
I took the dress from him and examined it. The front of it was stiff with blood and I could see the hole in the cloth from the bullet.
“They undressed her after she’d been shot. Now why the hell did they do that?”
“Maybe they were going to take these clothes away and forgot about it.”
I stripped off the sheet. “In a little while she’s goin’ to get stiff.”
Ackie rubbed his nose. “I ain’t lookin’ forward to dressin’ this doll. Suppose we have a drink?”
We had two.
I got her stockings on. It wasn’t a nice job. I could feel her body getting very cold. “She’s dying on us fast,” I said.
Ackie was wrestling with her shoes. “These dames just kill their dogs with small shoes,” he said.
He got them on at last and we both sat back.
“I guess we’ll skip the underwear,” I said, wiping my face with my sleeve.
Ackie looked quite shocked. “She’s got to be decent. She just can’t go anyhow.”.
I tossed the step-ins and slip in his lap. “You go ahead. This turns my guts.”
Ackie threaded her feet through the step-ins. “If you’ll stand up, madam,” he said to Blondie, “it’ll help a lot.”
I belted the whisky again. I was getting pretty high.
“For Pete’s sake,” I said.
Ackie turned round. “Listen, you bum, suppose you give me a hand and cut this sissy stuff out. I gotta get her pants on, haven’t I?”
I came over and leant my arms on the bottom of the bed-rail. “I’ve done some lousy jobs in my time, but this wrecks me.”
Ackie let go of Blondie and went over to have a drink. “You’re right, Bud,” he said after a long pull. “But you gotta look at it like this. It’s an act of decency.” Ackie was pretty high.
“Come on then. Let’s get her dressed.”
I got hold of Blondie and stood her up against the wall. I put one foot against the toes of her shoes to prevent her feet sliding and I held her under the arms. Her eyes kept meeting mine, and it gave me the heebies.
Ackie fastened the step-ins round her waist. He was sweating, but stuck to it. We sat her on the bed and put the slip over her head, then we stood her up to adjust it and she slipped out of my hands. She went down on the floor with a crash.