“You know what you can do?”
“Sure,” Gill smiled. He looked at Helen in the big leather chair. “But why do it myself when I have somebody else to help?”
“Out,” Long snapped. “We’re straining our friendship.”
“How about that?” Gill told him.
In the cab, Helen reached over and took his hand. “I can’t stay there any longer, Gill. I guess you know that.”
“I wasn’t going to let you anyway.” He yanked the cigarette pack from his pocket, found it empty and tossed it out the window with an angry gesture. “That slob was just a little too cute.”
“Gill ... he
didn’t
tell me to use those tickets.”
“No?” He turned and studied her face a moment. “Figure it this way. He probably knew his office staff pretty well and you were the only one uncommitted. Women don’t generally change their plans at the last second even for good seats at a prime show. You were a natural, baby.”
“But why would he want to have you
killed?”
she asked him.
“I’m in their way.”
“So are all the rest of the policemen.”
“Not like I am. They got trouble enough without me.”
“That’s an awfully big chance they were taking then.”
“And that’s how they live. With the odds. They got rid of me once before and I didn’t stay down so they had to rig the game again.”
“Captain Long still thinks I had something to do with it.”
“Not really. He’s grabbing at straws. He knows the whole story.”
Her hand tightened around his and her teeth nibbled at her lip. “I don’t know, Gill. I think I’m beginning to get scared.”
“Forget it.”
“Gill ...” She looked at him anxiously again. “It’ll happen again, like last night, won’t it?”
He shrugged, his face unmoving. “Maybe. But it can end the same way too.”
“Oh, Gill, isn’t there any way out ... just for a little while?” There was a strange note of pathos in her voice. “Everything is going too fast. I ... I have to get away from this!”
He ran his hand up her arm and cradled it around her shoulders. “Sorry as hell you were caught in the middle, Helen. I know that session with Bill was rough, but he had to have your statement. Look, you’re finished with that damn job and all the rest of the crap. Get it out of your mind.”
“Fine, but what will I do now?”
“You’re going to sit back and let me take care of you.”
For a second she didn’t move, then she turned and looked up at him, her eyes soft. “Gill ... ?”
He fought with himself a full minute, telling himself all the things that were barriers, reminding himself of what could go wrong. He wasn’t a kid any more and she had had enough of a cop’s life years before. He still had something big to do that could get him killed and the whole business could expose her to something worse than she had ever known.
But that other feeling he had, the one he didn’t think would ever come to him, was even stronger and he looked at her and grinned. “It’s a hell of a way to put it, sugar, but that’s the way it is.”
She laid her head on his shoulder very gently and said, “I love you.”
Gill kissed her hair, saying the same thing without words.
“Gill?.”
“What?”
“It’s Saturday night.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Can we go somewhere for the weekend?”
He looked at his watch and frowned. “It’s nine-thirty now.”
“There’s an awfully nice place in Jersey where it’s quiet and the food is good. All the rooms have patios that look out at the hills.”
“Honey ...”
“Please?”
His arm squeezed her gently. “Okay, pest.” He glanced at his watch again. “I’ll drop you off, go pack some of my own things and pick you up in half an hour.”
She came off his shoulder and shook her head pathetically at his ignorance. “Lover,” she said, “... and if that’s what you want to be, you had better understand women just a little better. It
has
been a rather harrowing experience and I
would
like to look my best for this particular assignation, so please, please give me an hour and a half at least.”
Burke laughed because she was so damn right and he was so damn stupid. They were almost at her apartment and he leaned over to kiss her softly on her mouth. “I’ll learn, kid.”
She patted his cheek. “I hope so.”
“But you’d better learn something too.”
“Oh?”
“I wasn’t thinking of this as an assignation. My suggestion of keeping you was motivated by a more permanent and basic reason.”
She felt her face flush and wondered when she had ever been more happy. Never, she concluded, and went upstairs to her apartment feeling tingly all over.
Papa Menes didn’t know whether to feel good or bad. All he knew was that the Big Board knew he was in the area where the trouble was and now they had to speculate about him turning the pot over. Miami was where the trouble was, he was only an hour’s drive away, and if he weren’t the instigator, then he could be the stopper in the drain. He was on the Big Board, but not present when the decisions were made because he had a nose for blood and he didn’t want his to be part of the smell. It was much nicer to screw a tender broad up the ass and enjoy himself than to have to go through all the mayhem that had been part of his formative period and on into the chairman’s seat of power where torture and murder were only spoken words you never saw executed at all.
He was there through accidental choice and now he had to take care of a jerk German who thought he could buck the power of the organization and since he knew the odds and the way, they were asking him to complete a totally menial task. The dames were on the way down and he could take care of Herman the German any time he wanted to. His soldiers had arrived, were ready to operate, and even though the Miami police were covering the whole area, his people were the only ones capable of going inside to make the hits. They were completely equipped, excellently skilled and totally dedicated.
Why the Big Board wanted Herman the German rubbed, he didn’t know. That was an operation for any local capo, not the boss. But, if they wanted him to handle the deal, it was fine, fine. Very fine.
Up in New York that bastard cop Burke was giving the Frenchman all kinds of hell and he liked that too. Every time the Board brought in a sex creep like the Frenchman they always had trouble. Shit, just let him have his own button men and he could do it alone, but no. They brought in Frank Verdun and ever since, the trouble got worse.
Well, they couldn’t blame him. Two days, a week from now, that bum the German, would be dead and the trouble would be over. A whole fucking month of trouble over a stupid German and that dead Moe Piel. Assholes.
The word brought him back to the present because Artie Meeker was driving up with the two broads from Miami and now that he knew she really liked it, he was really going to lay it to her. No more baby oil to lubricate the thrust. This time he’d use spit and if it hurt, so much the better.
Frank Verdun had an animal instinct. He knew when he was being stalked. He could feel it in his bones and even as he walked his hand was on the gun in his pocket. The feel of it used to quiet him, but this time it didn’t. It felt cold and inadequate, and no matter where his eyes went or his mind turned, there was never anybody there. He remembered Vic Petrocinni and the others, suddenly knowing how they had felt, and his stomach turned sour.
When he reached the safety of his apartment he vomited again, kneeling on the shag rug in front of the toilet bowl so as not to get any of the slop on his person. Not much came up because he hadn’t eaten anything, but the terrible retching was there in his bowels and he had to let the spasms take their course. When they were over he took his clothes off and stepped into the shower.
The Frenchman came out with a hard-on like he always did after playing with himself with the soap, and feeling better, never saw the knife slash through his enlarged genital member at all. All he could do was stare before he sucked in his breath to scream. He saw the face without being able to pronounce the name behind it and the next slash of the knife took his throat completely out from beneath his chin.
He even had the terrifying experience of living through the excruciation of dying, looking up at a complete improbability and knowing no majestic reason for it at all, wondering why the hell one little worm could eat through stone walls and make them crumble like sand. He was still alive when the knife went through his certain parts with the wildest impact any mind could conjure, and all the fear blended with the pure knowledge of what he had done to those other people and he tried to scream.
But it wasn’t any good at all.
What came out of that gaping slash in his throat was a big sigh and he started to die knowing, but not being able to tell.
For a long time Shatzi stared at the pool of blood that bathed the naked body, his face warped with some deep inner thoughts. In life, Frank Verdun had been a terrifying person to be obeyed or avoided, and after what the Frenchman had had done to him all those years ago, Shatzi had remained truly loyal to every whim and demand of the top enforcer. Not because of respect or devotion, but plain, unmitigated, unreasoning fear.
Now he was enjoying what he saw and a dry cackle that passed for a laugh rasped from his mouth. “You didn’t have to set the soldiers on me, Frank,” he said. “Verdun, you dirty bastard, Verdun, you shithead, you’re finally gonna get it.”
He thought he detected a slight movement of the eyelids, but he couldn’t be sure. Too bad, he thought. He’d never done it when anybody had been alive before. He took his knife and carefully scooped out Frank Verdun’s navel from his stomach, holding it up on the point to study it. When he looked down at the Frenchman’s face his shoulders gave an involuntary twitch. Verdun’s eyes were open, all the way open for one horrified second as he saw his tie to life being raised on the blade of death and his eyes filmed over as the feeble heartbeat stopped altogether.
Shatzi grinned when he saw it, pulled a dirty handkerchief from his pocket and wrapped the grisly souvenir in it. “This one I’ll keep, Frankie boy,” he said. “This one is special.”
Gill picked up the phone on the fourth ring and barked a short hello. Bill Long said, “Thought you might like to know, we got a line on Shatzi Heinkle and it looks like it’s going to pan out.”
“Where is he?”
“Running, buddy. He’s in one hell of a big hurry too. He cleared out of the place he was staying and right afterwards some guys came looking for him. The description we got on them matches a couple of hard cases from Brooklyn.”
“Uh-huh. They got him marked. If he was the guy in the cab with Bingo they’ll want him out of the way. Right now they can’t afford any kinky characters going loose.”
“Would Verdun let out a contract on him?”
“It sure as hell sounds reasonable.”
“That’s the way I figured. They should be getting there just about now to see what the Frenchman says about it.”
Burke felt himself frowning. “That guy can move in a hurry too.”
“Hell, we’ve had his place staked out all night by one of the detectives. You want in on it?”
“Not tonight, old buddy.”
“What’s wrong with you?”
“If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.”
“I’ll believe.”
Gill nodded to himself. “I’m spending the weekend with Helen Scanlon. If you want me I’ll be at the Clipper Inn over in Jersey.”
“Oh, brother,” Long said quietly as he hung up.
Burke picked up his overnight bag and went downstairs to grab a cab to pick up Helen.
Papa Menes woke up thinking of how he had penetrated the blonde from Miami. A nice willing victim, that one, fleshy and limber and hard to hold onto it that position. He knew she had loved it and he figured she was putting on an act with all that yelling and twisting, but she really didn’t try too hard to get away and the few times he had given her a belt across the tanned flesh of her buttocks she had whimpered properly and had held fast while he accommodated himself.
The girl was a real pro and knew how to adjust to the customer’s demands. When she realized his preference she adapted to them and performed in a proper manner, but the old fart was a real bat with a half-limp cock that couldn’t go in all the way and she wasn’t getting half the pleasure out of it she thought she would. Too bad, if she was like her friend who was in there with Artie Meeker getting laid in the missionary position or doing her simple oral bit, it would be much simpler. One shot and Artie was finished for a few hours, but this old fart kept plowing and plowing and he’d never get that row hoed if he didn’t get his rocks off and right now she was beginning to get sore. At least he could have used the baby oil.