I stood up and went over in front of him again. “I won’t kill you,” I said. “But you’ll wish I did.”
He thought that over and I guess he knew I wasn’t just talking. When he nodded, I said, “Here’s what you tell him. Tell him you saw me come downstairs about twelve-thirty and that I went to the TWA ticket office and bought a one-way ticket to New York for tonight. Tell him you heard me say I wouldn’t need the limousine service out to the airport because I was driving. Got that much?”
He looked at me and nodded slowly.
“Okay. Then tell him the flight is for eleven o’clock and that I told the desk clerk to have my car ready by ten. Get that straight. The car is to be ready at ten. Also, tell him I was packing a gun and that I looked nervous.”
I shoved him over to the phone and sat down beside him on the bed and put the gun against his back. When I gave him the phone, I said, “Keep it away from your ear while you’re talking. I want to hear, too. And you only get one strike in this league. Remember that.”
He called a number and when a voice answered he said, “This is Kiley. I want to talk to Banghart.”
There was a wait and he licked his lips and shot a look down at the gun.
“It’s here,” I said.
After a moment, he spoke into the phone. “Banghart? Kiley. He’s ready to blow. He just got a ticket for the eleven o’clock flight to New York. He’s going to drive out to the airport. What? I heard him tell the desk clerk to have his car ready at ten o’clock. Nervous as a cat. He’s heeled.”
I leaned closer when Banghart talked. I heard him say, “Okay, Kiley. Ten o’clock and he’s driving. Is that it?”
“Yeah.”
“The lobby.”
“All right. Keep your eye on him and let me know if there are any changes. We’ll take care of the rest.”
I heard his soft little laugh as I took the phone away from the redhead and put it back where it belonged.
He was staring down at his hands. “He’ll kill me when he finds out.”
I felt like grinning. “Everybody’s got problems,” I said.
I called Morrison then and told him to come up and get the guy. When he showed I told him I wanted the redhead put away where he couldn’t see anybody or get to a phone for at least twenty-four hours.
Morrison took him by the shoulder and started for the door. “I’ll have him booked at Central for carrying a gun. I’ll tell the boys to keep him quiet until tomorrow night.”
He went out with the redhead and I knew he’d keep his word! I could depend on him. He was a crook and you can generally depend on crooks. They act the way you expect them to, but with an honest guy there’s no telling what he’ll do.
Morrison would keep the redhead from calling Banghart back and telling him what had happened. That meant I was set for the rub out tonight when I started for the airport. The way to the airport from the Loop is out Archer avenue, and there are lots of nice dark stretches along that road.
I was depending on that and a few other things. One of those things was that Banghart knew I was nervous and that I was carrying a gun. That would make his boys careful. They’d do a quick job and they wouldn’t get too close to my car, because they’d be afraid I might start shooting.
That was important.
I called the blonde then, and when she got on the phone, I said. “This is Johnny, honey. How’re things?”
She sounded glad to hear from me. “I wasn’t expecting you to call, Johnny. I just washed my hair and I was sitting by the window letting it dry. I look terrible.”
“I don’t believe it,” I said. “Look, honey, here’s why I called. A friend of mine is coming in tonight at the airport. I’m tied up in a deal and I was wondering if you’d take my car and drive out there and pick him up.”
“Gosh, I don’t have a driver’s license, Johnny.”
“Don’t worry about that. If any cop stops you tell ’em you’re Johnny Ford’s girl. Will you do, it honey?”
“Well, sure, Johnny. If you say it’s all right about the license.”
“That’s fine. Supposing you come down here around eight. We’ll have dinner here in my room. When you get back from the airport we’ll go out and see the sights.”
“All right, Johnny. I’ll be down at eight.”
“Swell, honey.”
I hung up and fixed myself a drink. I started figuring out the angles. I tried to keep myself from thinking about what would happen to the blonde.
But I couldn’t think about anything else. When she pulled out of the garage at ten o’clock, Banghart’s boys would follow her out Archer avenue. When she hit a dark spot in the road they’d pull up beside her and she’d be out of the way for good.
That would put plenty of heat on Banghart. He could rub me out and nobody would care much, but a young girl that wasn’t in the rackets would cause one hell of a mess. The cops would give him something to worry about besides stepping on bugs.
When he had time to look for me I’d be gone. Alice would be with me and we could laugh at him and the cops and everybody else. Nobody had anything on us, but I wouldn’t take any chances, and when I got to the Coast I’d know how to stay out of sight.
There was one chance of a hitch. That was if Banghart’s men recognized the blonde in my car. They might, because she had fuzzy blonde hair and if they spotted that through the rear window they’d know I’d pulled a switch. They’d turn around and come back to the hotel for me if that happened.
I had to figure a way around that. An idea came to me and I went over and rummaged through the drawers of the dresser. I found it all right, a checked cap I used to wear out at the track. That might be it, but it wasn’t sure-fire, and I realized then that her shining blonde hair might be the thing that could wreck this whole deal.
Chapter XIV
About five o’clock it started to rain. I went over and looked out the window. The rain would make it hard to see twenty feet, and this was Chicago rain, coming down straight and hard and bringing a misty fog that clouded up windows and put a blanket of steam over everything.
That would help.
I finished the drink I had and made another. I’d been drinking all afternoon but it wasn’t doing me much good. I was wound up tight and it was because I knew that Banghart’s men might recognize the blonde.
The cap wasn’t a very good idea. I picked it up and looked at it for a moment or so, then tossed it back on the bed. She might simply refuse to wear the damn thing.
She never wore hats, just little bows in her hair, and she liked to wear it shoulder length and fluffed out in a big yellow cloud. She was proud of her hair and she wouldn’t see any need to cover it, because she would be driving in a closed car.
I might talk her into wearing it, but there was no way I could be sure she wouldn’t take it off after she left the garage. If Banghart’s men spotted that blonde hair...
She was due at eight and I didn’t know how I’d get by until she arrived. Time was dragging by and the tight feeling inside me was getting worse every minute. I kept drinking and with the rain steaming past the windows and darkness starting to crowd into the room, nothing seemed very real.
I got through it somehow. At eight o’clock she knocked on the door. Then I let her in and saw what she was wearing I almost went weak with relief. She had on a raincoat with one of those hoods that attach to the collar and it covered up everything but her face. At twenty feet, unless you noticed her legs, you couldn’t tell whether she was a man or woman.
And once she was sitting in the car, I knew no one would notice her legs.
She was smiling. “How do you like this? I look just like an Eskimo, don’t I?”