They sent out an alarm for the husband immediately and a squad picked him up walking north on Sheridan Road near Howard Street.
He claimed he hadn’t shot the man but from the tone of the stories it was obvious the papers and the police were convinced he had. The police had questioned him last night and they had questioned his wife.
That was about all there was in the stories. I lit a cigarette and sat there a long time just thinking. I looked all right, but I had the funny feeling that I was too far away from the center of things. Here I was, sitting in a hotel room while coppers were asking him and her questions and another bunch of coppers were out in her neighborhood talking to people, snooping around, checking prints and digging into everything they could find.
It had all happened so fast that I hadn’t made any plans. I was pretty sure I hadn’t left anything that would lead to me but I couldn’t be sure.
I went back to the papers. There was a story by a feature writer on GI wives who cheated while their husbands were away. There was another about the gun. It was a German P-38 and the story made quite a point about the husband bringing it back from Nazi Germany to defend his wife’s honor.
I had enough of that. I tossed the papers in the waste basket and went into the bathroom and washed up and shaved. After that I tried to do some work but I couldn’t. The idea of calling up chumps to see if they wanted any horses seemed pretty silly right then.
About that time the blonde called. She was downstairs working and she wanted to know how I was after last night. I told her I was fine. She giggled and said she thought I’d be pretty tired. I felt nervous and irritated. What the hell, did she think a night with her was like playing quarterback against the Bears?
“How about tonight?” she said.
“Can’t make it,” I said. “I’ll give you a ring.”
She didn’t say anything for a minute. Then she said, “I’ll bet it’s one of your girls you got to see.” She laughed as if she were kidding but it didn’t sound that way.
“This is business, honey,” I said. There wasn’t any reason why I couldn’t see her. I just didn’t want to. I didn’t want to make any plans until I saw how things were going.
“Are you going to be busy all night?” she said.
“Yes. For God’s sake I told you that once.” I snapped the words at her. I was tense and nervous. Right then I realized how important she might be if anything went wrong and I knew I was acting like a damn fool.
“You know I want to see you, honey. You must know that,” I said. “But this deal for tonight has been set for a long time. How about tomorrow night?”
“That’s swell, Johnny,” she sounded a little better.
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll pick you up at your house. Around eight?”
She said okay and then said a few silly things about loving me a lot and finally she hung up and I went back to walking around the room.
I knew there was one thing that might cause trouble. If Frank came up with an alibi for the time of the shooting that would start the cops looking for someone else. Someone might have seen him down the street when the shot was fired. That would clear him completely.
Someone might have seen me go into the apartment after Frank left. Someone could have seen me running down the back way after the shot was fired.
That’s the angle you can’t figure. You never know who’s looking. There’s always some old woman sitting up with a bad stomach or some babe looking out at the moon. You don’t see them, you think you’re in the clear but they might have been watching all the time.
But I had an out if anything broke on this deal. The shot was fired at eight-thirty and I had the blonde ready to get up on the stand and swear I was with her at eight-thirty.
The phone rang again. I picked it up and said, “Johnny.” It was Alice. “Where are you?” I said. I felt the tightness coming back.
“At the drug store. You’ve seen the papers, haven’t you?”
“Yeah. What’s happening?”
“I was down at the station last night. Most of this morning, too. They’ve been asking me so many questions I’m simply groggy.”
“What about?”
“Lesser mostly. Frank says he didn’t do it, you know.”
“That’s what I read. What do the cops think?”
“I’m not sure. They seem convinced he did it, but they haven’t arraigned him yet.”
“Has he got a lawyer?”
“No”
“Okay, I’ll get him one.”
“Johnny — will that be wise?”
“Of course,” I said. “I’m afraid of him. And I want to know what’s going on, too.”
“All right.” She sounded tired. “When can I see you, Johnny?”
“Hang on now, baby. That’s out.”
She didn’t say anything for a while. Then she said, “I didn’t know it going to be like this,” and her voice was weary and discouraged.
“We’ve talked enough,” I said. “And get this, baby, from now on watch the way you use a phone. Any phone. Better let me call you from now on.”
“Couldn’t I see you tonight, Johnny? I need to talk to you. I feel I’ll go insane if I don’t see you.”
“Stop that,” I said as sharp as I could. “I’ll try and arrange to see you. But we’ve got to be careful. Got that?”
“All right, Johnny.”
She hung up and I stood there sweating. All we had to do was sit tight and we had this thing licked. But she wasn’t going to sit tight very long. She was nervous and if she didn’t see me it would make her worse.
I called a guy then by the name of Sam Marshall, one of the syndicate lawyers. When I got him I said, “Marshall, this is Johnny Ford. I want you to help out a pal of mine. Did you see the morning papers about this veteran shooting the guy his wife was playing around with?”
“I noticed the headlines,” he said. “That seems to be a veteran’s occupational disease. What about it?”
“That guy’s a friend of mine. He’s in a spot and I’d like you to do what you can for him.”
“You’re asking me to handle this case?”
“That’s it.”
He was quiet a while. Then he said, “I’m pretty busy right now, Johnny. You understand, too, that I don’t handle charity cases.”
“I don’t go around looking for handouts either,” I said. “How much do you want?”
“Don’t get sore.” He laughed. “I’ll look into it and let you know. Has he been arraigned yet?”
“According to the papers, no.”
“He’ll be at Eleventh and State then. I’ll call up the boys and see what’s doing. When I get some information I’ll call you back.”
“Okay,” I said.
There wasn’t anything more I could do. Things seemed to be going all right. I wasn’t sure I was making a smart move in hiring a lawyer for him, because some copper might wonder what my angle was. But I wanted to be close to developments. Marshall could keep me posted on what was happening from the inside.
I sat around the room the rest of the afternoon smoking one cigarette after another and drinking. About five Marshall called me back.
“I’ve got an appointment to see him tomorrow morning,” he said. “The State’s Attorney is annoyed because he won’t sign a confession. They’re going to arraign him tomorrow morning first thing on a first degree murder charge. They seem to think they’ve got a strong enough circumstantial case without a confession.”
“What do you think?” I said.
“I don’t know much about it yet,” he said. “All I know is that he claims he hit this fellow Lesser a couple of times and then slapped his wife and walked out. But at about the same time the neighbors heard a shot and when the police arrived Lesser had two holes in his head. What would you think?”