He smiled down at me, but the muzzle of the gun didn’t waver. “You’re a smart boy, Morse, but not smart enough. You should have figured all this before. Then you could have handed me some real trouble.”
“One thing I can’t figure. Why let me know you’re in on it? You won’t be safe now, because you can’t scare me.”
“Scare you, Bud? Who wants to scare you? I wouldn’t think of scaring you.”
He stood and grinned down at me. I’ve never seen a colder pair of eyes. I realized then that he was probably a little insane. I knew that he wouldn’t have to scare me. I wouldn’t be able to talk with one of those little lead slugs nestling in my brain. The room seemed to sway around me. I sat on the edge of the bed and let my hands hang down. I couldn’t reach the gun in my shoe without stooping over. The mouth of his gun was saying: “Don’t move, brother!”
He stopped smiling and nibbled at the edge of his finger. “I wish you’d brought a gun, Morse. You make it tough.”
I looked behind him and saw the doorknob move. I’ve never learned how to keep expressions off my pug face. He probably knew I couldn’t swing a gag, and when he saw my eyes widen and where they were looking, he backed off so that he could cover me and the door at the same time.
I watched his eyes and saw them flick over toward the door. I swooped after the gun and brought it up, pressing hard on the trigger at the same time. “Drop your gun, chump!” I hollered. I rolled off the bed as I brought the gun up. Nothing happened. I realized with sudden horror that an automatic won’t work unless you jack a cartridge up into the chamber first by yanking on the slide. I hadn’t. His gun snapped and something picked at my sleeve.
I looked up from the floor and kept pulling on the useless trigger. His cold right eye sighted down the barrel. I could look right into it. I shut my eyes, and another shot blasted in the room. I wondered if I were dead.
I opened my right eye. Winch was still looking at me, but the gun barrel had sagged a little. He was smiling. His eyes didn’t look quite so cold. He leaned toward me, further and further and then I scrambled aside as he fell over toward me. His head crashed into my left shoulder and he bounded off. He lay on the floor with a neat hole through the top of his left ear. The hole didn’t stop there. It went right on in.
I looked up. The door was open. Jake Thomason stood in the doorway, a gun in his hand. He looked down at me with an expression of infinite disgust. He shoved the gun into his pocket and stepped into the room. He kicked the door shut. He sat down on the wicker chair as I climbed up onto the bed again.
“You better have a cigarette, Morse. Your hand’s shaking.” He held out a pack and I took one.
“Hand, hell. I’m shaking all over. I’ll be shaking just like this on my next birthday. I’m going to keep right on shaking for a couple of years.”
“You ought to. So had every other amateur that fools around with stuff like this.”
“I’m beginning to think maybe I had you wrong in this, Thomason.”
“You sure did, and I knew you were digging around. I thought I’d let you. Thought it might stir up the big shot here.” He readied his foot out and nudged Winch in the ribs. Winch seemed to be flattening out against the floor. “And the name’s Burke. Jake Burke. I work for the Associated Restaurant Managers and Owners Group. I’m a trouble-shooter. Sellers sent for me and I planted myself in Browne’s place. You can figure the rest out. Winch, here, got greedy. He set up a shake-down racket. Then he decided he wanted Browne’s place. Made the payments high. Tried to talk Browne into selling. Got Browne in the dark to scare him. Shot him. That was a mistake.”
I raised my eyebrows and he said: “Don’t look puzzled. I just came from there. Brownell be O.K. Slug went right around him, under the hide, and wedged against his backbone. The doc has it out already. Give him a month and he’ll be louder than ever.”
“How did you know about me?”
“You! You looked at me like I had shot Lincoln. You followed me about thirty feet behind me. I could see the streetlights reflected on your headlights. I stayed at the top of the stairs and watched you and the gal talk to Jonesy down at the desk. Sellers thought you looked a little queer too. I told you this is no business for amateurs.”
“If you’re so smart, why didn’t you pick him up quicker?”
“He was too smart, Morse. Used the telephone. Also, I couldn’t step in on any of the payoffs. He had kids delivering the bucks in every case. Couldn’t take a chance. Had to wait until he got worried about you catching onto him and about me. I don’t think he had me figured, but I guess he was going to try to knock you off with my gun and me off with yours — if you had one.”
There was a knock at the door. A gentle knock. Burke shouted: “Come in!”
The door opened and Jerry stepped timidly into the room. She looked down at the body of Winch, and her eyes widened. She circled widely around him and ran into my arms. She was shaking. I put my arms around her. Her hair smelled good. Burke started to laugh.
“This your girl?” he asked. I nodded. He stepped over and grabbed her wrist. He snapped something onto it and yanked her away from me. I started up with the vague idea of swinging on him. He was still laughing. She fumbled in her bag. He slapped the bag down onto the floor and a small automatic bounded out of it and balanced grotesquely between Winch’s shoulderblades. She stopped struggling and hung her head.
“I told you you were an amateur. Why don’t you think things out, Morse? Winch was in this with this gal. She was the plant in Browne’s place. That’s why I tried to date her. That’s how he got onto me. She told him. And she told him about you wanting her to help follow me. That made him wonder who I could be. How did he know you were here? She waited until he came out of Browne’s place and then told him. She saw his car out there. She probably waited in it. How did she get here? She probably came down with him. I figure she probably wore a man’s hat and covered her face and helped him collect each month.”
He tilted her chin up roughly and looked into her eyes. “I’ll even bet she figured out that gag of using kids for the payoff.”
She Jerked her chin away from his fingers and said: “Suppose I did.”
There was a heavy fist banging at the door and Burke said: “That’ll be the cops that I told Jonesy to send for. We’ll all have to go down and make out statements and stuff.”
He tugged at the steel bracelet on her wrist and whispered: “Come on, honey. Let’s go answer the door.” Dawn made her face look yellowish.
And suddenly I realized that when I got back to the piano I was going to do a cornball job on Melancholy Baby. I was really going to do it up. I’d play it for the Howler.