Free shook his head. “I didn’t use any.” He pressed his lips together tightly, then parted them. “What’s the game, Tim?” he asked.
Tim Hammond looked puzzled. “Game? You know as much as I do — more,” he said.
Free shook his head. “Not one way. Tony’s dead. I didn’t stick around long enough to learn just how he got it. I had Crail outside in a cop’s uniform, and Jim Lanner up the street. When I went inside this radio room, or whatever it was — someone took two shots at me. I went down and let my flashlight roll. I think whoever fired was satisfied he got me. He got out of the room without using the door I’d opened. He wore gray striped trousers with a narrow cuff. I took things easy getting out of the house — but this one left after me. Lanner picked him up and I’m waiting for a call. At least, Lanner picked up a fellow with gray trousers who came out of Bandor’s house. Then a woman came along in a cab went in. Tall and slender and dressed nice. She yelped and ran out screaming, and a cop was on the street. They went back in together, and I came on up here.”
Hammond tapped on desk wood with knuckles. “So the police know Bandor’s out of things,” he said.
Free nodded. “And someone else knew it, before I got there,” he replied.
Hammond frowned. “You didn’t see the face of the one who shot at you?”
Free shook his head. “He must have heard me coming up the stairs — he had the lights out. My flash was on the floor and he crossed in the low beam. I could only see to his knees. But I think Lanner’s got him tailed.”
Hammond nodded slowly. “Then the Reynolds girl did finish Tony,” he breathed softly.
Free said: “Think so?”
Hammond narrowed his eyes and sank low in the chair.
“You don’t, eh?” he replied.
Free shrugged. “She isn’t young. She is fresh, looking. She doesn’t look like the sort of little fool that would chase along to Bandor’s place without expecting to be kissed, Tim.”
Hammond shrugged. “You’re getting old, Free. What she expects doesn’t count with us. She went down there, and naturally she’d pull the innocent stuff on us. She’s worth a lot of money. Something went wrong, and she finished Bandor. Then she got scared. She went to Burkley — and that was wise. Burkley knows what to do in something just like this. He sent her over here. They’re both thinking the same way. She killed Bandor, and someone will guess that she did. Then they’ll close in on her. We’ve got to stop that.”
Free smiled coldly. “The agency is getting up in the world,” he said grimly. “We now protect man killers.”
Hammond swore gently, then smiled. “How about taking five minutes out — and we’ll both weep for dear, old Tony Bandor,” he said with sarcasm. “He’ll be missed at church on Sunday. I don’t imagine he spotted out more than eight or ten guys — and he only beat three stick-up indictments.”
Free smiled cheerfully. “All right, Tim. A girl comes and says she killed Tony and she’s frightened because his friends might guess that she did and come after her. I go down to check up on her story. Tony’s dead, but someone inside opens up on me. Why? There wasn’t much light on me — I’ve been away ten days. I don’t know much about Bandor’s mob. Supposing the girl who went in and found Tony’s body had gone in when I did. What would have happened?”
Hammond grunted. “What would?” he asked.
Free smiled with his eyes narrowed. “She’d have got the same dose — only more of it, because she wouldn’t have had sense enough to fall and stay down,” he said. “That gent in there was expecting someone — someone he wanted to kill. That’s my hunch. I wasn’t the one.”
Hammond looked thoughtful. “Or he was in the room, and figured he’d better play safe. Maybe he thought you were a dick. Or maybe he was nervous, or hopped up. We can’t figure what he thought. He missed you and he got outside, and Lanner is tailing him. That’s good enough. The police know Bandor’s dead. That’s all right if Miss Reynolds wasn’t seen.”
Don Free looked at the knuckles of Hammond’s right hand and he spoke slowly, softly.
“You wouldn’t fool me, would you, Tim?”
Hammond closed his eyes, and when he opened them they held a hard expression.
“Jen’s been talking to you, Free,” he said. “She’s been worried lately. I’ve had some conferences, and just my luck the ladies have been nice looking. Jen’s been getting nervous — she had her hair done over. Notice it?”
Free smiled. “I noticed it,” he replied. “You wouldn’t fool me, would you, Tim?”
Hammond said sharply: “You don’t think Miss Reynolds finished Bandor, is that it?”
There was a little silence, and then Free spoke in a quiet voice.
“The Bandor mob is a hard one, Tim. We both know that. I’m working for you, but I’m not dying for you — not if I can help it. I’m entitled to know all the truth kicking Around, and I don’t think I know all of it.”
Tim Hammond stood up and looked squarely at Free. His eyes were expressionless.
“You’re, my best man, and I’d hate to see you quit the agency, Don. You’ve got this the way I got it.”
Free said: “You were talking to Miss Reynolds before I came in, and after I went out. She didn’t say anything of importance, anything I don’t know?”
Hammond said: “She didn’t say anything of importance — anything you don’t know. It comes down to this. She’s been living a pretty quiet life around the city, without too much money. She inherited a lot of money, and her life hasn’t been so quiet. Instead of doing the usual and losing her money, she won some more. Kronnen couldn’t pay, and he turned her over to Bandor. Bandor went at it too fast — and left a gun laying around. He got the works, and the girl didn’t throw hysterics. She calmed down, got out of the house with the gun, went to Burkley. He sent her here. You know the rest.”
Free sighed. “All right, Tim,” he said. “What next?”
Hammond frowned. “You’d better find out who the fellow that shot at you is. We can learn how the police are thinking. And there’s Kronnen. Miss Reynolds has changed her apartment hotel, and is going to sit tight under another name for a while.”
The phone on Hammond’s desk made buzzing sound. He lifted it, then handed it to Free. Free said:
“Yes?”
Jim Lanner’s lazy tones came over the phone: “The stomach ache is better. My man took in a Western picture at a small house, for fifteen minutes. I think he had a shot — he picked a chair near a wall, in a dark spot. He was pretty shaky going inside — dropped his ticket twice. We’re in a speake now — he’s drinking beer in another dark corner, and he’s alone. I’ve got a hunch he’s meeting someone here. He goes for his wrist-watch every few minutes. After the picture we took a short walk, and that helped the stomach ache.”
Free said: “That’s fine — talk some more and work in the speake address. If I get down there too late and you’ve gone, I’ll go over to Crail’s flat — and you call me there. We’ll stay apart, if you’re still in the speake. He might have spotted me, inside the house, and your stomach ache might get worse, if that’s the case.”
He could hear a radio yapping over the wire. Lanner talked and worked in the address. He went on.
“I’ve got a wall phone, and I can see my man. He’s just met his pal. He’s smooth-shaven, with a long nose. He’s big and wears clothes like a plain-clothesman. His left arm is in a sling — black cloth. Neat but not gaudy. They’re sticking around — the bad arm one is sitting down.”
Free said: “All right — I’ll be right along.”
He hung up. Hammond said: “Lanner’s got your man in a corner?”