Hymie leaned back in his chair smiling. Our argument, apparently, had amused him. His right hand rested on his knee and his gun dangled carelessly from it. I glared over at Sackler again. He winked with his left eye and jerked his head in my direction. Then I looked around and realized what he was driving at.
My automatic still lay on the mantelpiece where Hymie had tossed it. From where I sat it was a reach of about eight feet. Hymie, still smiling, was not, at the moment, paying a great deal of attention to either of us. I knew, however, that any sudden move on my part would bring the thug immediately back to the alert.
But here was a case where I had absolutely nothing to lose. If I grabbed the gun and shot it out the chances were, say, two to one against me. If I didn’t, they were infinity to nothing. I took a deep breath and moved like a pursuit plane.
I grabbed the automatic at precisely the same moment that Sackler threw his ancient hat full in Hymie’s face. Hymie sprang from his chair and his thirty-eight fired a single shot into the floor. By that time I was pressing the automatic into his side.
“All right,” I said, “you’re licked, Hymie. Pipe down.”
Sackler took the thirty-eight from his hand.
From the upper story came Mike’s voice. “What the hell’s wrong down there? What the—”
Footsteps sounded on the stairs. “Take him, Joey,” said Sackler. “But here, use this.”
He pressed Hymie’s thirty-eight into my hand and relieved me of the automatic. He slugged Hymie, quite unnecessarily, over the head with the butt of my weapon, hut I had no time to protest then. I raced to the edge of the stairs and ducked down behind the bottom newel. Mike was a cinch to handle.
I had the gun in his back before he had even reached the last step. I relieved him of his gun and the pair of them stood there disconsolately while I covered them. Sackler was beaming from ear to ear.
“Hold them there, Joey. I’m going upstairs to make a phone call,” he said cheerfully.
I nodded. I said: “Why did you switch guns on me? I’m used to that automatic.”
“Oh,” said Sackler, as calmly as if he were telling me what he’d had for lunch, “that automatic wasn’t loaded. Mike knew it.”
“It wasn’t loaded! Do you mean to tell me you had me jump Hymie with an unloaded gun?”
“Mike unloaded it when Hymie took you to the kitchen for that water. Hymie didn’t know about it. You were in no danger.”
“I am speechless,” I told him. “Is there any way in which you wouldn’t gamble for my life?”
“Joey,” he said, “you hurt me. After all it was the only chance of saving your life. I took it.”
“Saving what?”
“Your life, Joey.”
“Saving your bail, you mean. For God’s sake, go upstairs before I slug you.”
He went upstairs registering the misunderstood beautiful soul, far too good for this mundane world.
The situation was reversed in the hack going back to town. I enjoyed it infinitely more than the ride out. Hymie and Mike sat huddled together, glumly facing the gun I held in my hand. Sackler hummed a lilting tune far off-key.
I said: “I don’t know why we’re bringing these monkeys into headquarters. Why didn’t you have them send out a wagon?”
“We’re not going to headquarters, Joey.”
“Where are we going then? Roseland?”
Sackler shook his head. “We’re going to Alice Grattan’s apartment. I just phoned Wooley. He’s meeting us there along with Bellows and that lawyer guy, Justis.”
“Why? If it’s a cocktail party I’d sooner go to O’Shaughnessy’s Bar and Grill.”
“It isn’t social, Joey. It’s professional. You may have forgotten that I’ve been paid a fee to find out who killed old man Grattan. Well, now I’m going to tell them.”
I raised my eyebrows. “You’re going to tell them? You haven’t worked a minute on the case. We’ve been held up. We’ve been kidnapped. We’ve been held in ten thousand dollar bail. When did you find time to discover who knocked off old man Grattan?”
“I’ve been thinking,” said Sackler. “A process you wouldn’t understand, anyway, Joey. Besides, I made a couple of phone calls earlier today. I spoke to Alice Grattan and the Second Federated Bank. Also to a number of wholesale diamond dealers.”
“And I suppose they told you who murdered old man Grattan,” I jeered at him.
Sackler sighed happily. “In a manner of speaking, Joey, they did,” he said smoothly.
Chapter Four
Sackler Shares the Wealth
Eight of us congregated in the huge hook-lined study at the Grattan apartment. Hymie and Mike, subdued and — apprehensive, sat together on a sofa looking very much like the Katzenjammer kids awaiting a sound spanking. Alice Grattan, an ash blonde with wide blue eyes, relaxed in an armchair and turned an adoring gaze on young William Bellows who stood over her chair. Elmer Justis, well-dressed and pompous as when I had first seen him, smoked a cigar and looked thoughtful.
Wooley leaned upon the mantelpiece and regarded Sackler with disfavor. Sackler himself strutted up and down the floor exceedingly pleased with himself. I still wasn’t sure why. If he had found the time to turn up the answer to Grattan’s murder between our adventures of the past few days, I was prepared to admit that he had half the brain he claimed he had.
Sackler cast a swift glance around the room. His eye lighted on a japanned box of cigarettes. He took one and lit it.
He bowed in Wooley’s direction and said: “First, I want to know about Big Joe Angers. Have you broken-down Monte Carlo coppers got a line on him?”
“They’re on the way to pick him up now,” said Wooley. “We got a tipoff to his whereabouts right after you called me. He’ll be in the can within the hour. But what’s that got to do with the Grattan killing?”
“That,” said Sackler, “is something I wouldn’t expect a police inspector to understand.”
“Do you really know who killed father?” said Alice Grattan. “You know the Association of Diamond Dealers has offered a twenty-five hundred dollar reward for the arrest and conviction of the killer?”
Sackler’s eyes glittered like green neon lights. He sighed contently. He sat down and inhaled on the cigarette, savoring its flavor, primarily, I supposed, because it was free.
“Look here,” said Elmer Justis petulantly. “I’m a busy man. The inspector asked me to come here as a favor and I’ve come. Will someone come to the point?”
“Frankly,” said Wooley, “I doubt if there’s a point to come to. As I see it we can hold Bellows for murder. With Barker dead the defense can’t produce a reputable witness to support his alibi. The motive’s perfect.”
Alice Grattan’s eyes flashed. Bellows opened his mouth to say something. But, as usual, Sackler was in there first with the dialogue.
“Bellows didn’t kill Grattan,” he said. “Not that it matters a great deal to the D. A. However, I know who did and I can prove it. Moreover, I can get a conviction.”
“For twenty-five hundred dollars reward,” said Wooley bitterly, “you can do anything. Have you brought those two thugs, Hymie and Mike, here to confess the killing?”
Hymie and Mike looked very uncomfortable. Sackler stood up and faced his audience.
“All right,” he said, “let’s get started. Let’s begin with the day I met my client, Mr. Bellows. He gave me a check for fifteen hundred dollars, signed by Alice Grattan. He gave it to me on a Friday morning. At eleven o’clock.”
“Daylight saving time,” sneered Wooley.
“Daylight saving time,” said Sackler blandly. “A few moments later, Hymie over there walked into my office with a gun and stuck me up. He took six dollars in cash and that check. Now, what would a legitimate stickup man want a check made out to me for? He couldn’t cash it. If he tried he’d be walking right into the arms of the law.”