Lew Rossi had taken a step backward so that he was standing to Valante's side and behind Joe. He suddenly slammed his fist into Joe's back. The young hood opened his mouth and gasped. He took a step toward my chair and reached out the hand that bore the cast. Then he pitched forward on his face and I saw the knife between his shoulder blades.
Marco Valante spun around. I yelled at him. "No, Valante. The other guy!"
He realized that he had made a mistake, but it was too late. The man at the door, Rossi's boy, shot him and his body jerked as the bullet hit. Valante stubbornly refused to fall. He made a complete turn, bringing his gun around, and faced the man who had put a slug in his back.
The man at the door jerked the trigger again. His gun, equipped with a silencer, made a spitting sound. The bullet hit Valante like a fist pounding into flesh. Valante finally started to fall, but he got his own shot off. Then he collapsed on the floor near my chair.
Rossi's gunman was propped against the door, his legs spraddled as though he hoped to brace himself and avoid toppling over. He had done his job. He had saved his boss. But he was dying. Valante's shot had caught him in the belly. Slowly he slid down the door, like a drunk who had decided to sit on the floor. His knees hinged. His feet suddenly slipped forward and he sank into a curled heap.
Lew Rossi slid the knife smoothly out of Joe's back and wiped it on the young hood's coat. He rolled Joe's eyelids back to make certain he was dead. Then he stepped over Joe and nudged Marco Valante with his foot. He nudged him again, then glanced at me. "Disappointed, Carter?"
"Yeah," I said.
Finally Rossi checked on his own man. He didn't look broken-hearted when he confirmed that the gunman was dead. There were plenty of replacements around. "How'd you find out?" he asked me.
"A lot of bits and pieces fell together. Somebody in the Mafia sent Coogan to kill me and the girl in Bonham. It wasn't Valante — he wanted to get the girl to talk and me to lead him to Abruze's killers. When I discovered that Moose had a friend in the Mob I put two and two together. Abruze had screwed up a drug deal with the Chinese Communists. I figure that was your deal. But you wanted Abruze dead for a more important reason than just that grudge." I was guessing now. "He had found out about your secret dealings with the Communists and was about to talk. You were afraid we'd find out just what those dealings were about and so you got rid of Abruze and Kirby. And after them Meredith and I had to be dealt with before we discovered anything. You must have killed Meredith yourself — his murderer used a knife."
"They don't call me the Doctor because I studied medicine. In the old days I did a lot of instant surgery." He snapped the knife shut and put it in his pocket "I almost got you at the motel. You're a lucky bastard, Carter."
"It's because I'm pure at heart."
"You're mighty curious, too. Since you're not going to leave this apartment alive, I might as well fill you in on the rest of it." He seated himself in the chair again and relit his cheroot. "I have a good deal going with those Chinks. The drug deal was just a cover-up — an excuse for me to be meeting with them. I've been using my men to infiltrate AXE and feed info to the Communists. One of my men in your Carolina base found out the whereabouts of Sheila Brant from your files. The Communists pay for my help with high quality drugs. I've got the best supply in the country. Naturally, the Mob wouldn't be to happy to learn of my private dealings. Abruze had gotten suspicious, so he had to go."
"How do you plan to explain this scene to the Organization? The job you did on Joe practically carries your initials."
"You did it, Carter. You're good with a knife. You also killed Valante and my boy over there. That's my story, and Barbara Valante is going to back it up."
He called Barbara at the hospital and told her that her father had been hurt and she'd better get back to the apartment in a hurry. He hung up and sat looking at me with a flinty smile on his thin lips.
"You've given me a hell of a time, AXE man. But I've got you now."
I was sweating, yanking at my ropes desperately. Somehow I had to let Hawk know what I had just found out. But I didn't want to be within a hundred miles of the old man when he learned that AXE had been infiltrated by Mafia men who were working for the Red Chinese.
Rossi got up. He pulled his handkerchief out of his pocket and stuffed it into my mouth. "Barbara ought to be here in about ten minutes. I don't want you yelling or joining in the conversation."
It was twelve minutes exactly before she came running down the hallway and plunged into the apartment. She turned white when she saw the terrible scene: three bodies, one of them her father's. Many women would have fainted. She only let out a choked sound of agony.
Rossi kicked the door shut and clamped his hand over her mouth. They struggled until he put the knife to her throat.
"I know it's hard for you, Barbara," he said in his smooth voice, "but you've got to keep quiet and behave. Your life and Carter s depend on it."
She nodded and Rossi let her go. She made sobbing noises in her throat, her eyes asking me for explanations I couldn't give her.
"I want you to go to the telephone," Rossi told her.
"Who am I supposed to call?" she asked in a hoarse voice.
"Anybody you want to, as long as it's a member of the board of directors. I suggest Sal Terlizzi or Don Corvone. Let's make it Terlizzi. He always thought a lot of you. He'll believe anything you say."
Barbara sniffed and drew a sharp breath. Her eyes darted to me and I tried to speak despite the gag, but found I was only choking myself.
"What is it I'm going to say, Rossi?" she asked in a voice grown suddenly harder.
"That Nick Carter killed your father and Joe and that I'm out trying to run him down. It'll be all right if you have trouble talking. That'll make it convincing. Then you hang up without giving any more details."
Rossi had gathered up all the weapons in the room and laid them out on a table. He picked up the Browning Valante had been carrying. "Now, Barbara, if you don't deliver the message exactly as I give it to you, I'm going to shoot Carter in the face."
His plan was taking shape. The Mafia boss Barbara was supposed to call would swallow her story. After she hung up, Rossi would murder us both. Then he'd tell the Mob I'd killed the girl before he could get me. He must have thought out a few other details to make the latter part convincing, but the gist of it was obvious.
I caught Barbara's eye and shook my head. I hoped she understood. Once she completed that call, we were both dead.
She walked to the telephone. Rossi moved along behind her. I tilted over my chair and hit the floor, trying desperately to break it so that I could free my hands. I didn't succeed, but the crash as I struck the floor caused Rossi's head to jerk around. When his eyes left Barbara, she snatched up the hypodermic needle she'd used the night before and drove it into his shoulder as hard as she could.
The sudden pain brought a scream to Rossi's lips. Even I winced as I saw the device standing up in his arm like a porcupine's quill. Rossi cursed and yanked it out. While he was doing that, the girl hit him with the telephone. He fell against the wall and she ran into the kitchen and slammed the door. Despite her grief, the girl had thought fast. Flight was better for her than trying to stay and fight Rossi.
Rossi shook his head groggily. He was so angry I thought he was going to shoot me just to vent his spleen. Then we both heard the door to the back stairway slam. He realized that he had to stop Barbara or his entire scheme would fall apart. He lunged for the door she had closed, battered it open with his shoulder and ran through the kitchen. I heard him going down the stairs.