Kells took off his hat and rubbed his scalp violently with his fingers. “It must have taken a lot of pressure to make a yellow — like him pipe down.”
Fenner said: “Who killed Haardt?”
“Perry’ll do for a while, won’t he?” Kells put his hat on.
“Are you sure you’re in the clear?”
“Yes.” Kells stood up. “You’ve got enough to work on. Lieutenant Reilly, who was your best in on the force, is in a play with Jack Rose to take over the town and open it up over your head. Dave Perry was in on it. They want it all, and they figure that you and I and a few more of the boys are in their way.”
He walked over to the window and looked down at the swarming traffic on Spring Street. “Doc Haardt was in their way — figure it out for yourself.”
Fenner said: “You act like you know what you’re talking about.”
“I do.”
Fenner went on musingly: “One of the advantages of a reform administration is that you can blame it for everything. Maybe opening up the town for a few weeks isn’t such a bad idea.”
“But it’s nice to know about it when you’re supposed to be the boss... ” Kells smiled. “And it won’t be so hot when it gets so wide open that a few of Reilly and Rose’s imports from the East come up here and shove a machine-gun down your throat.”
Fenner said: “No.”
“Me, I’m going to scram,” Kells went on. “I came out here to play, and by the — if I can’t play here I’ll go back to Broadway. My fighting days are over.”
Fenner stared quizzically at Kell’s battered face, smiled. “You’d better stick around,” he said — “I like you.”
“That’s fine.” Kells went to a table and poured himself a glass of water from a big decanter. “No, I’m going down to the station and see if they want to ask any questions, and then I’m going home and pack. I’ve got reservations on the Chief: six o’clock.”
Fenner stood up. “That’s too bad,” he said. “I have a hunch that you and I would be a big help to one another.”
He held out his hand, Kells shook it, turned and went to the door. Then he turned again, slowly. “One other thing,” he said. “There’s a gal out here — name’s Granquist — came out with a couple of Rose’s boys — claims to have a million dollars’ worth of lowdown on the administration. I can’t use it. Maybe you can get together.”
Fenner said: “Fine. How much does she want?”
Kells hesitated a bare moment. “Fifteen grand.”
Fenner whistled. “It must be good,” he said. “Send her out to my hotel. Send her out tonight — I’ll throw a party for her.”
“She’ll go for that. She’s Scotch-screwy.” Kells grinned and went out the door and closed it behind him.
He went into the Police Station, into the reporters’ room to the right of the entrance. Shep Beery looked up over his paper and said: “My—! What happened to your face?”
They were alone in the room. Kells looked with interest at the smudged pencil drawings on the walls. He sat down. “I got it caught in a revolving-door,” he said. “Does anyone around here want to talk to me?”
“I do, for one.” Beery put the paper down and leaned across his desk. “What’s the inside on all this, Gerry?”
“All what?”
Beery spread the paper, pointed to headlines: Perry Indicted for Haardt Murder; Wife Confesses. Beery’s finger moved across the page: Gambling Barge Burns; 200 Narrowly Escape Death When Joanna D. Sinks.
Kells laughed. “Probably just newspaper stories,” he said.
“No fooling, Gerry, give me a lead.” Beery was intensely serious.
Kells said: “You or your sheet?”
“That’s up to you.”
Kells trailed a long white finger over his discolored right eye. “If you read your paper a little more carefully,” he said, “you’ll find where an unidentified man was found dead near a wharf at San Pedro.” He put his elbows on the desk, leaned close to Beery. “That’s Nemo Kastner of Kansas City. He shot Doc Haardt on Jack Rose’s order and helped frame it for me. He was shot by O’Donnell, his running-mate, when they had an argument over the cut for Haardt’s kill. He set fire to the ship... ”
“... And swam four miles with a lungful of lead.” Beery had been thumbing through the paper; pointed to the item.
“Uh huh.”
“Who shot O’Donnell?”
Kells said: “—! you’re curious. Maybe it was Rose... Is he going to live?”
“Sure.”
“That’s swell.” Kells took a deep breath.
“Now that’s for you,” he said. “Perry will have to take the fall for Doc’s murder for the time being. He was in on it plenty, anyway. Kastner’s dead and I couldn’t prove any of it without getting myself jammed up again. If anything happens to me you can use your own judgment, but until something happens this is all under your hat. Right?”
Beery nodded.
Kells stood up, said: “Now let’s go upstairs and see if the captain can think of any hard ones.”
They went out of the room into the corridor, upstairs.
The captain was a huge watery-eyed Swede with a bulbous, thread-veined nose.
Beery said: “This is Kells... He thought you might want to talk to him.”
The captain shook his head slowly. He looked out the window and took a great square of linen out of his pocket and blew his nose. “No — I don’t think so,” he said slowly. “Cullen and the cab-driver say you was at Cullen’s house yesterday afternoon when Haardt was shot.”
He looked up at Kells and his big mouth slit across his face to show yellow uneven teeth. “Was you?”
Kells smiled faintly, nodded.
“That’s good enough for me.” He blew his nose again, noisily, folded the handkerchief carefully and put it in his pocket. “Perry’s the only one to say you killed Doc. Lieutenant Reilly thinks you did, but we can’t run this department on thinks... I think Perry’s guilty as hell.”
They all nodded sagely.
Kells said: “So long, Captain.” He and Beery started out of the room.
The captain spoke again as Kells went through the door.
“Where was you last night?”
Kells turned. “I was drunk,” he said, “I don’t remember.” His eyes glittered with amusement.
The big man looked at him and his face wrinkled slowly to a grin. “Me too,” he said. He slapped his thigh, and laughed — a terrific crashing guffaw.
His laughter followed Kells and Beery down the stairs, through the corridor, echoing and reechoing.
Beery said: “See you in church, Gerry.”
Kells went out into the sunlight. He walked down First to Broadway, up Broadway to his bank.
The teller told him he had a balance of five thousand, one hundred and thirty dollars. He asked that the account be transferred to a New York bank, then changed his mind.
“I’ll take it in cash.”
The teller gave him five thousand-dollar notes, a hundred, a twenty and a ten-dollar bill. Kells took a sheaf of twenty-four new hundred-dollar bills out of his pocket and exchanged twenty of them for two more thousand-dollar notes. He folded the seven thousand-dollar notes and put them in a black pin-seal cardcase, put the case in his inside breast pocket. He put the five hundreds and the smaller bills in his trouser pocket and went out and got into a cab.
He said, “Lancaster Hotel,” and looked at his watch. It was two-forty: he had three hours and twenty-minutes to get home and pack and make the Chief.
2
“Gerry.” Granquist called to him as he crossed the lobby.