I didn’t bother to answer. I knew that things would start to hum pretty soon, and as long as I was making them hum I didn’t care. I ran through Katz’s pockets. The first thing I turned up was a roll of money. I didn’t have to count it. I knew that it was the five grand that Blondie had lifted off me. I showed the roll to Ackie. “That’s why he was up here,” I said. “Just lining his pocket, the yellow punk.”
“You keepin’ it?”
I shook my head. “I’m not takin’ any chances. I’ll leave it where I found it. If the cops are looking for me, that would be a fine one to pin on me.”
“You think of everything, don’t you?” Ackie looked at me admiringly. He was nearly sober by now, and I guess the drink was dying on him hard.
“Go into the bathroom and get some towels. I want to fix this bird.”
Ackie came back after a moment with a couple of towels. “Nice joint this, ain’t it?” he said.
I grunted and took the towels from him. I tore them in two and trussed Katz. I made a good job of it. Ackie leant over the bed-rail and watched. I knew Ackie was scared, but he wasn’t saying anything. He just stood and watched. I knew he was thinking that if we didn’t get away with this, we were going to get into a pretty tight jam. I thought it mighty white of him to come in with me.
I hauled off and slapped Katz across the face twice. He moved his head, muttered and then opened his eyes. As soon as he saw me he sat up. I put my hand over his face and slammed him back on the bed. Even though he was just coming to the surface he’d got enough savvy to try and bite me.
“Get a grip on yourself,” I told him, “I want you to do a little talking. If you’re smart, you’ll start right away, but if you think you can get away with anything you’re going to get the works.”
Katz drew his breath in with a sharp little hiss. His eyes half closed and his mouth became a slit in his white face. “You’re crazy to start this, Mason,” he said. “Why, you punk, you sure must be crazy to think you can get away with this.”
I was in no mood to talk turkey to this guy. I gave him a punch right in the middle of his face to show him I wasn’t playing.
A thin trickle of blood came from his nose and ran down to the side of his mouth. He put his tongue out and carefully licked his lips. I guess that guy hated me as much as he could hate anyone.
I sat down on the edge of the bed, close to him. “I don’t care if I have to rip you to bits,” I said, speaking softly, “but you’re going to talk. Where’s my wife? Where’s Mardi Jackson?”
He didn’t know. I felt a cold chill of disappointment grip me when I saw the expression in his eyes. He didn’t say anything, but I knew he wasn’t bluffing. The question had come as a surprise, I could tell that.
“All right,” I said, “I’ll try again. What’s behind the Mackenzie racket?”
This time he shifted his eyes. “You go to hell,” he said. “You ain’t makin’ me talk.”
I said to Ackie, “Sit on his legs.”
Ackie came round the bed like I’d asked him to sit on a rattlesnake. He didn’t look at Katz, but he pinned him just the same. I jerked off Katz’s sock and looked at him. “When you’re ready to talk, just let me know,” I said, “I ain’t in no hurry.”
I took a cigarette from my case and lit it. When the end was glowing, I took it out of my mouth and mashed it on his foot. If Ackie hadn’t been sitting on him, I guess that guy would have bounced off the ceiling. I guess these tough guys are all the same. He just curled up, the sweat jumping out of his face.
“Okay… okay….” he said hoarsely, “I’ll talk.”
“There’s your rattlesnake,” I said to Ackie. “Just yellow right through.”
Ackie stood up and sneered. “Why, you punk,” he said, “we ain’t even started on you yet.”
“Leave him alone, Mo. You talk rough to this guy an’ he’ll take his hair down and weep.”
Katz just lay on the bed glaring at us.
I threw the cigarette into the fireplace. “Come on,” I said, “What’s behind the Mackenzie racket?”
It took some time to drag it out of him, but I got it out of him at last. The set-up was simple once you got the key.
The Mackenzie Fabric Inc. was an enormous clearing-house for stolen goods. It worked like this: with the big imports from China and England of clothes and silks, all kinds of stolen articles were smuggled in the bales. In the same way articles stolen in America could be shipped out to the various continental agencies representing Mackenzie Fabrics abroad.
Spencer was the big shot. It was his job to buy or to sell whatever came into his hands from the various gangs operating throughout the States. With most of the high officials getting a rake-off in the form of dividends, the racket was watertight.
I knew that once Katz got free he’d stop at nothing to finish us both. We knew too much now ever to be safe. There was only one way and that was to see that Katz was under cover long enough to give me the time to bust the racket.
I didn’t fancy knocking him off in cold blood, but at the moment I couldn’t see what else I could do. Ackie was watching me and he understood what I was thinking about.
“Leave it to me,” he said, “I guess it’d be easy to frame him for twenty-four hours.”
I looked at him hard. “Twenty-four hours ain’t so long,” I said. “It’s going to take most of that to get into action.”
Ackie shrugged. “That’s as long as we can hold him, I guess,” he said. “We just gotta make things move.”
The longer we argued about it the more time we wasted, so I let Ackie go ahead with his idea.
“We get this bird down to the station house and book him under assault. I can tip the sergeant to keep him under cover for a bit. He’s a pal of mine an’ he’d lose a rat like that for a little while.”
I stood up. “Okay… let’s go.”
Katz wasn’t putting up a beef. He went with us down the stairs, his hands still tied behind him. Ackie went first, then Katz and then I followed. Before leaving the room I made certain that we’d left no tell-tale clues that might hook us up with Blondie’s death, then with one last look at the still figure in the chair I snapped off the light and followed Katz down.
When we got to the Street door I rammed his gun into his back. “Don’t start anything, brother,” I said. “We’ve got nothing to lose and I’d like the chance of putting a slug into you.”
He hobbled across the pavement and got into the car. I got in beside him and Ackie got under the wheel.
“If there’s any liquor left,” I said, “I guess a slug apiece wouldn’t come hard.”
Ackie groped around and shook his head. “There ain’t none,” he said dispiritedly. “Ain’t that hell?”
“Well, go on… the sooner we get this bird put away the better.”
During the run to the station house I was busy thinking. The first thing I’d got to do was to find Mardi. Nothing else mattered as long as I found her. Then I’d got to find enough evidence to bust up Spencer. If I wanted a clear field, I’d gotta do that within twenty-four hours. Not an easy programme, but I guess I had to do it.
If Spencer hadn’t kidnapped Mardi, who had? I might be wrong thinking that Spencer hadn’t done it, but Katz hadn’t known anything about it, and Katz was Spencer’s right-hand man. Maybe the fat guy and Gus had pulled it, but even then Katz would have known about it. And that was one thing I was sure about. Katz knew nothing about it at all.
I suddenly remembered. I could see Mardi’s frightened face and I remembered what she had said. “You don’t know Sarah Spencer. I’m scared. She’s dangerous. She won’t stop at anything.”
Sarah Spencer! I sat up. Was she at the bottom of all this? Was it she who had taken Mardi away from me? The more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed to be. By the time we got to the station I was itching to get after that dame.