Vengeance Is Mine

“That doesn’t bring Clyde into it.”

“Get smart, Pat. If Rainey was taking orders from Clyde then maybe Clyde followed him around too, just to be sure he didn’t miss.”

“So Clyde took the second shot at you himself. You sure made a nice package of it. All you need is a photograph of the crime.”

“I didn’t see enough of his face to be sure it was him, fit it was a man in that car, and if he shot at me once he’ll shoot at me again. That’ll be the last time he’ll shoot anyone.”

I finished my drink and pushed it across the bar for more. We both ordered sandwiches and ate our way through them without benefit of conversation. There was another highball to wash them down. I offered Pat a Lucky and we lit up, blowing the smoke at the mirror behind the bar.

I looked at him through the silvered glass. “Who put the pressure on the D.A., Pat?”

“I’ve been wondering when you were going to ask that,” he said.

“Well . . .”

“It came from some odd quarters. People complaining about killers running loose and demanding something be done about it. Some pretty influential people live out in Glenwood. Some were there when the questioning was done.”

“Who.”

“One’s on the Board of Transportation, another is head of a political club in Flatfish. One ran for state senator a while back and lost by a hair. Two are big businessmen and I do mean big. They both are active in civic affairs.”

“Clyde has some fancy friends.”

“He can go higher than that if he wants to, Mike. He can go lower where the tougher ones are too if it’s necessary. I’ve been poking around since I last saw you. I got interested in old Dinky Williams and began asking questions. There weren’t too many answers. He goes high and he goes low. I can’t figure it, fit he’s not a small-timer anymore.”

I studied the ice in the glass a minute. “I think, pal, that I can make him go so low he’ll shake hands with the devil. Yeah, I think it’s about time I had a talk with Clyde.”

Chapter Nine

I didn’t get to do what I wanted to do that night because when I went back for my car I checked into the office long enough to find Velda gone and a note on my desk to call Connie. The note was signed with a dagger dripping blood. Velda was being too damn prophetic.

Dagger or no dagger, I lifted the phone and dialed her number. Her voice didn’t have a lilt in it today. “Oh, Mike,” she said, “I’ve been so worried.”

“About me?”

“Who else? Mike . . . what happened last night? I was at the club and I heard talk . . . about Rainey . . . and you.”

“Wait a minute, kitten, who did all this talking?”

“Some men came in from the fights on the island and they mentioned what happened. They were sitting right behind me talking about it.”

“What time was that?”

“It must have been pretty late. Oh, I don’t know, Mike. I was so worried I had Ralph take me home. I . . . I couldn’t stand it. Oh, Mike . . .” Her voice broke and she sobbed into the phone.

I said, “Stay there. I’ll be up in a little while and you can tell me about it.”

“All right . . . but please hurry.”

I hurried. I passed red lights and full-stop intersections and heard whistles blowing behind me twice, fit I got up there in fifteen minutes. The work-it-yourself elevator still wasn’t working so I ran up the stairs and rapped on the door.

Connie’s eyes were red from crying and she threw herself into my arms and let me squeeze the breath out of her. A lingering perfume in her hair took the cold out of my lungs and replaced it with a more pleasant sensation. “Lovely, lovely,” I said. I laughed at her for crying and held her at arm’s length so I could look at her. She threw her head back and smiled.

“I feel so much better now,” she said. “I had to see you, Mike. I don’t know why I was so worried fit I was and couldn’t help it.”

“Maybe that’s because I remind you of your brothers.”

“Maybe fit that’s not it.” Her lips were soft and red. I kissed them gently and her mouth asked for more.

“Not in the doorway, girl. People will talk.” She reached around behind me and slammed it shut. Then I gave her more. Her body writhed under my hands and I had to push her away to walk into the living room.

She came in behind me and sat down at my feet. She looked more like a kid who hated to grow up than a woman. She was happy and she rubbed her cheek against my knees. “I had a lousy time last night, Mike. I wish I could have gone with you.”

“Tell me about it.”

“We drank and danced and gambled. Ralph won over a thousand dollars then he lost it all back. Anton was there and if we had gone with him he wouldn’t have lost it.”

“Was Anton alone again?”

“He was while he stayed sober. When he got a load on he began pinching all the girls and one slapped his face. I didn’t blame her a bit. She didn’t have anything on under the dress. Later he singled out Lilies Corbett-she works through the agency-and began making a pass at her in French. Oh, the things he was saying!”

“Did she slap him too?”

“She would have if she understood French. As it was the dawn began to break and she gave him the heave-ho. Anton thought it was all very funny so he switched back to English and started playing more games with Marion Lester. She didn’t have any objections, the old bag.”

I reached down and ran my fingers through her hair. “So Marion was there too?”

“You should have seen her switching her hips on the dance floor. She got Anton pretty well worked up and he isn’t a man to work up easily. A guy about a half a head shorter than she was moved in on Anton and outplayed him by getting him soused even worse. Then he took Marion over and Anton invited everyone up to his place. What a time they must have had.”

“I bet. What did you do then?”

“Oh, some more gambling. I wasn’t having much fun. Ralph would rather gamble than dance or drink any day. I sat and talked to the bartender until Ralph lost the money had had won, then we went back to a table and had a couple of champagne cocktails.”

Her head jerked up and that look came back on her face. “That was when those men came in. They talked about the shooting and about Rainey and you. One said he read about you in the papers not so long ago and how you were just the type to do something like that and then they started betting that the cops would have you before morning.”

“Who lost the bet?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t turn around to look. It was bad enough sitting there hearing them talk about it. I . . . I started to get sick and I guess I cried a little. Ralph thought it was something he did to me and began pawing. me to make up for it. I made him take me home. Mike . . . Why didn’t you call me?”

“I was busy, Sugar. I had to explain all that to the cops.”

“You didn’t shoot him, did you?”

“Only a little bit. Not enough to kill him. Somebody else did that.”

“Mike!”

I rocked her head and laughed at her. “You got there early, didn’t you?” Connie nodded yes. “Did you see Clyde at all during that time?”

“No . . . come to think of it, he didn’t show up until after midnight.”

“How’d he look?”

Connie frowned and bit her thumb. Her eyes looked up into mine after a while and she grimaced. “He seemed . . . strange. Nervous, sort of.”

Yes, he would seem nervous. Killing people leaves you like that sometimes. “Did anyone else seem interested in the conversation? Like Clyde?”