“Now see here, officer, this is all a mistake. I can explain. I'm a salesman and I usually spend the night in a...” He began crossing the room, toward me, as he talked.
He raised his hand to his bald head. It could have been an act, the act of a shiv man quick with a sleeve knife—he had the hands for it. Nothing else checked, but he had the hands!
I wanted to tell him to stand still, but the words never came out. It was almost a jittery reflex action on my part: His hand hadn't reached his ear when I yanked my gun out, fired three shots into him, all around his heart. He had stopped at the sight of the gun, but I couldn't stop my trigger finger.
His eyes blinked with horrible astonishment. His mouth opened into an ugly circle. I knew from the awkward way his legs crumpled under him as he hit the floor that he was dead. A long, thin throwing knife showed at the end of his coat sleeve.
Betty said, “Bucky!” It was a gasp, or maybe a small scream. She came to me and I shoved her away, ran over and opened one of the bags. It was full of neat bundles of money, a sea of green!
This time Betty really did scream, or maybe it was me sobbing with joy—I'd made the biggest collar in police history! Betty stood beside me, both of us staring down at the money. Then she whispered, “Oh, my God, Bucky. He... must be d-dead!”
The front door opened and I spun around to see Doc rushing in, his gun out. He said, “I thought I heard... shots.”
I was too excited to talk. I didn't have to: The dead man and the open suitcase full of money told Doc the story. All I could do was give him an idiotic smile. Doc drew in his breath, a kind of soft whistle. He slapped me on the back with his free hand, started to say something. Then his face went tight. He turned on Betty. “You dumb tramp!”
“Me? I never saw him before, honest! He came up last night, said the bartender at the Golden Elm had sent him. He paid me and I... I... knew he was a queer but... Well, what could I do? He didn't go in for rough stuff or...” She rubbed her hands together, looked away, her face suddenly flushing. Her eyes got very large as she looked down at the money, mumbled, “Oh, God! Why he... must... must... must be the...!”
Doc slapped her savagely across the face, sending her reeling toward the living room. “You stupid whore, what do you think you're pulling? This is the kidnapper, a murder rap!” Doc's voice was like a whip.
“Murder?” Betty looked around wildly; then her eyes found mine. “Bucky, you mean he's... the... man?” Her voice died and she put a little hand to the flaming red streak across her pale face.
“Honey, you're in big trouble—the worst. You have to come clean with us. Fast!” I started for her, wanting to hold her in my arms, as I slipped my gun back in its holster.
Doc stopped me by snapping in a low voice, “Clean? They'll sweat and third-degree her to pieces. With him dead, they'll pin the whole kidnapping on her!”
Betty started to shake. She looked away from me, whimpered. “I don't know what... what this is all about. How could I be mixed up in... in...?”
“Take it slow, honey,” I began. “Well work out—”
“We're in a hell of a jam ourselves, Bucky,” Doc cut in.
The words hit me like a baseball bat across the head. Instead of being a hero, I'd end up a patsy. I stared at Betty, feeling terribly tired. I don't know what to do, couldn't think.
She said, “Bucky, don't look like that. I don't know a thing about... that man. And no matter what they do, I won't tell them about you—us!”
“They'll rubber-hose your skin off until...” Doc ran across the room toward her. “Damn you, Betty, tell us what your connection is with the kidnapping! We have to know where we stand!”
“Connection?” she whispered.
“Did you set us up from the go? Talk, you dumb...!”
She glanced at me. “Bucky, you know me. You must believe I couldn't have...”
Doc drew back his hand to slap her again, and Betty and I both moved. I started for Doc, not really sure what I was going to do. Betty moaned with terror, suddenly turned and ran for the front door. Doc's gun barked once—the sound short and lean and lost in the silence of the room. Betty frantically tried to reach behind her back, as if she had a bad itch there, staggered like a drunk, then crashed to the floor. It was a hammy fall. The whole thing was so unreal, like a bad dream. Except where she'd been trying to “scratch” was slowly turning into a bloody spot.
For a long second I stood there, as if my feet were nailed to the floor, too amazed to move. Yeah, at that second I was amazed rather than sorry. Somehow I couldn't believe Betty was dead, expected her to get up. I mean, a dozen things were slowly going around in my head. The short sound Doc's gun had made—such a small sound to take a life, Betty's life. No Miami palm trees to show her now, no more arguing about perfumes, where we'd open our shop. And finally, as if I was backward, my brain got the message: no more Betty.
Doc had raced across the room, felt of her wrist. Then he opened the door, looked up and down the hall, locked the door, using both its locks.
I moved toward Betty, knelt beside her, sick to my stomach and heart at the bloody cold sight that had once been warm, simple Betty. I suppose if I knew how to pray I would have said something then. Instead I stared up at Doc: I seemed to be looking into his gun. “You getting trigger-happy? Why did you shoot her?” My voice sounded like a strange growl, very hard and tight, and miles away.
“Easy, Bucky. She was trying to escape,” Doc said softly. And I was still looking smack into his gun: I could almost see the barrel grooves and markings.
“Escape? Where could she have run to?” My voice was still a long way off.
“To some other police officer, for instance,” Doc said, staring down at me. “That would have been embarrassing, to say the least.”
“Yeah.” My voice was right beside me now.
“Bucky, didn't she tell you she'd been married?”
“Sort of.”
“Could that tall, dead number in the bedroom be her husband? Perhaps they were in this together.”
I didn't answer. I touched Betty's hair. It was still soft. A pool of bright-red blood was slowly seeping out from under her body. I touched her blood with my little finger—I don't know why. It felt icy. I whispered, “Damn it, Doc, you shouldn't have shot her!”
“Look at it this way: She's better off dead. Understand?”
The back of Betty's neck was already waxen-looking. I shut my eyes. Mixed with the anger and sorrow I felt, another thought was coming through. I understood: It was a lucky thing the brass couldn't question Betty. There was the barkeep at the Golden Elm. If he'd really sent the guy, I'd have to shut the bartender's trap. Be a snap. My story would be Betty was merely a gal friend, I had no idea what she was working at. I only dropped in to use her bathroom and... Yeah, I just might come out of this with full sails yet, a hero. I plugged the kidnapper, let Doc do his own explaining about gunning Betty. It would work out. Doc and his influence. Only it was too bad Betty was dead. A sweet kid who never said no to me or...