I drew in a quick gasp of relief.
“You’re not going to walk at all. I’m going to carry you,” I said, and took her in my arms.
She put her arm round my neck.
“I’ve been so frightened, Johnny. I’ve missed you so.”
“It’s all going to be all right,” I said. “In a week, darling, you’ll have forgotten this ever
happened.”
I went to the front door and opened it.
Captain of Police Hame stood just outside. He had a .45 in his hand and he rode me back
into the room, his blue eyes like chips of ice.
199
III
I set Ginny down in the armchair and raised my hands as Hame moved into the room,
closing the door with his foot.
“Looks as if I’ve caught up with you at last,” he said. The .45 centred on my chest. Ricca
lived long enough to tell me you killed him. You’re getting as dangerous as a mad dog,
Farrar.”
I heard Ginny catch her breath in a horrified gasp.
“Now look …” I began, but Hame stopped me.
“I got proof you killed Reisner and the Wertham woman, and now Ricca,” he went on.
“That’s one murder too many. Back up against that wall!”
I knew what he was going to do. I could read it in his eyes. He couldn’t afford to let me
stand trial. I knew too much about him. The easiest out for him was to put a slug into me
while resisting arrest.
My eyes went to Ginny. She was staring at me: her face was white and horrified.
Hame followed my glance.
“And you too,” he said to her. “You’re in this. Back up against the wall with him!”
She would have to go, too. He wouldn’t want a witness to my killing.
“Wait, Hame!” I said. “We can do a deal.”
“Back up against that wall!” he snarled at me. “I’m not making any deals with you. I don’t
have to!”
“You don’t have to, but you will,” I said, speaking fast, knowing any second he might
shoot. “I’ve got half the casino’s reserve: a quarter of a million dollars!”
That held him, as I knew it would hold him. His eyes flickered.
“You don’t bluff me, Farrar,” he said in a grating voice, “and you don’t talk yourself out of
this,” but there wasn’t any conviction in his voice.
“Turn us both loose and I’ll split it with you. A hundred and twenty-five grand in cash!”
“Where is it?”
200
“Where you won’t get your hooks into it without my say so,” I said. “This is cash, Hame.
Money that can’t be traced. All I want is three hours to get clear, Is it a deal?”
“I wouldn’t make a deal with you unless I saw the money,” he said.
“You can see it, but I want your word you’ll turn us loose with a three-hour start when you
get the money.”
A thin, sneering smile came to his sun-burned face.
“I take the lot, Farrar. You haven’t a thing to bargain with. I’ll take the lot and you can
have an hour’s start.”
“No! I’ll give you two hundred grand. I’ve got to have something. I’ve got to have a
getaway stake, and I want three hours.”
“The lot or I’ll put a slug into both of you and take a chance of finding the money.” He was
grinning now. “Please yourself. I told you you have nothing to bargain with, and you
haven’t.”
I had intended to play with him. I was ready and willing to buy Ginny’s and my freedom
for half the money, but he wasn’t taking the lot. I’d worked too hard for that money to part
with all of it. There was only one way out of this. I had to catch him off his guard and kill
him.
“Give me five grand,” I said, making out I was frantic. “I’ve got to have a getaway stake.”
“Maybe,” he said, still grinning. “Where is it?”
I realized he’d shoot me the moment he got the money. Once again I was being jostled into
murder.
“I’d be a fool to tell you, wouldn’t I? As soon as you know what’s to stop you shooting
me?”
He tried to keep a straight face.
“My word.”
“What’s the use of that to me?”
He grinned then.
201
“Well, suggest something.”
I nodded to Ginny.
“She can get it and bring it here.”
“Suppose she doesn’t come back?”
“She will. She loves me. Do you think she wants me to get shot?”
All the time I was talking, Ginny had sat motionless, staring at me. Now when I turned to
her, she flinched away.
“Go on,” I said to her. “Get the money and hurry.” I reached forward and offered her the
key of my car. “The car’s around the back. It won’t take you long.”
She crouched in the chair, and the look she gave me sent a chill up my spine.
“Ginny! Please do what I say. This is the only way out for you. Get the money, and it’ll be
all right.” I tried to make her understand I was offering her escape.
“No,” she said. “I’m not having anything to do with it. You did steal that money, didn’t
you?”
“It belonged to me, Ginny,” I said desperately. “I can’t explain now…”
“Of course he stole it,” Hame cut in. “It’s money belonging to the casino.”
“Oh, Johnny, how could you?” she said, wringing her hands. “How could you get me into a
thing like this? You’ve bed to me all along. When you didn’t come to Miami as you
promised, I phoned the insurance people you talked about and they said you’d never worked
for them. Ever since we first met you’ve lied to me.” She pounded on the arm of the chair
with her fist. “I’m not going to be dragged into this! And don’t talk to me of love!”
I was sweating now.
“You’ve got to get that money! Don’t you understand he’ll shoot both of us if you don’t
go? Take this key and get out!”
“Oh no,” Hame said. “Not if that’s the way she feels about you. She stays here. We’ll start
from the beginning again.”
Around the half-open kitchen door I saw the white cat come in.
202
“Then let me go,” I said my muscles tightening. “She means everything to me. I’ll come
back. You can trust me to come back.”
“No woman’s worth a quarter of a million. We’ll all go.”
The cat brushed against his trouser leg. He hadn’t seen it come in, and feeling something
against his leg startled him. He looked down with an oath.
I was waiting for that moment. I sprang at him, my right hand grabbing at his gun arm, my
left at his throat.
The gun went off with a crash that rattled the windows. Hame staggered back, then went
down with me on top of him. I fastened on to his wrist and smashed his gun hand down on
the floor. The gun went off again, but it fell from his hand.
For a minute or so we fought like a couple of animals. He was as strong as a bull, and knew
every dirty trick in the box. We rolled to and fro, upsetting the furniture, while we punched,
kneed and butted each other. It was like getting tangled up with a buzz-saw, trying to hold
him.
He got his hands on my throat and began to squeeze. He had a grip like a monkey-wrench,
and the air was cut off from my lungs. I clubbed him on the bridge of his nose and flattened
it, crashing the back of his head on the floor. For a second or so he was dazed and the
strength went out of his hands. I tore his fingers from my throat, twisted clear, crawled up on
hands and knees. He was up on his feet a shade after I had straightened up. His face was a
snarling mask of blood which poured from his broken nose.
At long range I knew I could take him, but hugged in those iron muscles he could lick me. I
had to keep clear of him.
Maybe he had forgotten I was a boxer. He didn’t act as if he thought I knew how to fight.
He rushed at me, his arms reaching out for my waist, to bring me down into another