He seemed to breathe easier. “There won’t be any shooting?”
“If there is, I’ll be doing it. Now let me know when you’re about to turn off and where you’re going to stop.”
The driver turned off at one of those cross-streets that rim through undeveloped areas. When he saw the tail turn after us, he really got a bad case of jitters.
“Gee, I don’t think I want any part of this! Those guys are after you!”
“Twenty dollars.”
“Well, I don’t suppose I can turn down dough like that. It’ll be when we go under the Pennsy overhead. I’ll stop real quick just on the other side of that.”
I turned to Mary Ditson. “How about you? You want out now?”
“I... I’ll stay! Maybe something important’s going to happen!”
I didn’t know how important it was going to be, but I made up my mind it wasn’t going to be sad for me. When the cabbie pulled up and stopped, the other car pulled up beside us and stopped as I had anticipated. By that time I had the cab door open and my .380 out of its shoulder holster. The windows on the other car were down, and I stuck the .380’s muzzle to within six inches of the big guy’s brain.
The big guy was sitting in the front at the right. “Hold it, fellow,” he said, “we only wanted to talk — privately.”
“That’s right,” chimed in a middle-aged man at the wheel. “We can help you, Mr. Corbett. That’s all we want to do, just help you.”
“Then why did you tail me down a back road? Why didn’t you come to my room at the hotel?”
“We’re hiding out, Mr. Corbett. We couldn’t come to the Maramoor on account of Westfall spotting us. So we had to watch our chance to see you.”
“Then you’re the guys Westfall sent over with the thirty grand.”
“That’s right, Mr. Corbett. We delivered it all right. We delivered every cent of it at nine o’clock. Parker here’ll bear me out, and I’ll vouch for him. My name’s Souders.”
“Why shouldn’t you boys back up each other’s story? Thirty grand split two ways is still a nice deal for each of you.”
“But if we had the dough, why’d we stick around here? Why’d we talk to you?”
“Go on. Let’s have the talk.”
“Well, that’s all there is. We gave Ditson the money. He was happy as hell about it. He was so happy he started laughing like he was crazy, and he wound up crying. We beat it, it was so embarrassing.”
“Then where’d the money get to?”
Souders exchanged a glance with Parker. Parker took a deep breath and nodded.
“Hinchman. He’s the guy who was in charge of the investigation. We stuck around long enough to see that — after we’d heard what had happened. This Hinchman is a strictly no good deal. We ought to know. We’ve been handling Westfall’s payoffs long enough to know Hinchman’s got his hand out almost as far as the chief’s and the sheriff’s.”
“How about the county D. A.? He like his gravy, too?”
The boys exchanged another pair of glances.
“What have you got on your mind?”
“An out for you fellows. Westfall’ll never believe your story about delivering that thirty grand. If he catches you, you’re through. You know that. Your only out is to turn state’s evidence. You’ll put Westfall, the crooked cops, the sheriff and even the D. A. where they won’t be able to bother you again. It’s the only way.”
The boys remained silent. Finally Parker, who had done the listening, said: “We’ll have to have a little time to think that deal over. That makes us squealers.”
“Live squealers. Think it over. When you’re ready, call me at the Maramoor.”
When they’d gone and I was back in the cab, Mary Ditson said:
“Why did you let them go? Why didn’t you arrest them?”
“That’s what they wanted. They daren’t turn themselves in to the local law because the local law is one of Westfall’s subsidiaries. They figured they’d be safe in my hands. If I let them sweat., it out a little longer they’ll be ready to upset the whole applecart. Then I can hand the town over to Keever on a silver platter.”
The cab was still standing there, so I said to the driver: “It’s all over, fellow. Get going.”
He turned around. His face was bathed in perspiration. His lower lip trembled.
“My God, why didn’t you tell me them guys was going to be Stonie Parker and Punch Souders? They’re the toughest boys Spain Westfall’s got! They might have massacred us all!”
“Not a chance. They were the tamest pair of punks I ever saw in my life. That means there’s somebody working for Westfall who’s tougher than they are. Got any idea who that could be?”
The driver shook his head. “I never heard of anybody that tough!”
He got the cab going, leaving a few teeth on the gears. When we got to the Silver Dollar, I paid him his fare and his twenty. He looked as if he thought he’d earned it. He got away from us as fast as his recaps would carry him.
There’s no use in my describing the Silver Dollar, because you’ve been in as many of those places as I have, and they’re all pretty much alike. The night club proper is merely a garish come-on for the annex where the real dough is made. Westfall had rigged up a slightly more elaborate club than the average, and there were sixteen pieces in the band.
It was still the kind of corny band you expect in such places, doing a bad imitation of Wayne King doing a bad imitation of Guy Lombardo. I saw that Mary Ditson was pleasantly surprised and guessed she’d been pretty much of a home girl. I wondered if she was going to order cokes — she’d passed up the wine list at dinner.
But she drank like a little lady. Insofar as I was concerned the pipes were pretty dry, and I brought matters up to date. After my third double, Westfall came over to our table.
“Mind if I sit down?”
“Not at all. Miss Ditson, Spain Westfall.”
Westfall paled. Mary Ditson dittoed. Westfall recovered first and sat down.
“Miss Ditson, I’m very sorry for what happened. I assume complete responsibility. The money your father had lost was to have been refunded to him by two of my most trusted men. They absconded, and the consequence was a terrible tragedy. I know I can’t bring back your father, but I do want to return personally to you the money he lost. You can come with me to my office now and get it, or my lawyers can give it to you in the morning as I’d already planned.”
Mary Ditson looked at him as if she were in a trance.
I caught the look in her eyes and said: “Don’t think he’s making a generous gesture, Mary. He knows you can collect legally, and he’s beating the gun. His voluntary payment will be noised around, and everybody will say: ‘What a white guy Spain Westfall is.’ He’s taking very little chance admitting your father lost the money in the Silver Dollar, because a gambling rap is strictly small time. It’s the conspiracy and bribery charge that bothers a big shot like Westfall, and he knows he’s in the clear on that.”
Westfall eyed me coldly.
“That’s right, Corbett. You’re beginning to get a little bit on my nerves. But you’re not worrying me a nickel’s worth. I told you I’d heard about you, and I had. But what I hear is you use your gun more than your brains. Try and raise a stink in Midtown and see how fast you get heaved out of it!”
He turned back to Mary Ditson and asked: “Do you want the money now or in the morning?”
“Take it now,” I told her. She was plainly flabbergasted.
“But thirty thousand dollars! That’s such a lot of money to carry, especially at night! Isn’t there danger?”
“There’s more danger Westfall might be in no position to pay off in the morning. A bird in the hand, you know. Besides, I’ll see you don’t lose the thirty thousand.”