Kitty was perfectly still, her eyes shining. After a while, she said, “The district attorney, Sol? Don’t be silly.”
“It figures.”
“The way you look at it, it figures. Look at it another way, it doesn’t figure at all. In the first place, Stark isn’t part of the old crowd at City Hall. Danny Devore’s crowd, that is. He’s a crusader, a clean-up guy. As a matter of fact, Danny was one of his principal targets. He’s the white knight of the righteous.”
“He wouldn’t be the first saint with a brass halo. Maybe he feels appointed, and anointed. Maybe he looks upon the death of Danny Devore as a kind of holy asassination. I sort of see it that way myself.”
“What about the frame of Hal Decker? Is that holy, too?”
“It could be. A holy sacrifice on the altar of pure politics. Saving the great man for the great work.”
“You’re making him a maniac, Sol. You don’t believe it, yourself.”
“You’re right as usual. I don’t really believe it. I was just talking.”
She scooted over on the desk and put her feet in my lap. “Look, Sol. You sure you aren’t off on the wrong scent? Austin Stark is an ambitious guy. He’s got a long way to go in politics. His first step up was going to be on the dead carcass of Danny Devore. Dead politically. I mean. Danny’s death was the worst thing that could have happened to him. Because of the old martyr angle, Danny’s gang is playing it for all it’s worth. Already people are forgetting what a louse Danny was beginning to look, and one of his boys is sitting in Danny’s chair. He’ll be there a long time now. Danny’s murder has set Stark’s career back five years. Can’t you see that?”
“Sure. I can see it, all right. I can also see Stark’s connection with the gorillas. I can see that he has made a blunt effort to intimidate Hal Decker’s only witness. I can see that his own key witness is one of his own key men. I can see it all, and I can smell it. It stinks!”
I sat up in my chair, removing her feet from my lap, and putting my hands flat on the desk. Slowly, with labor and sweat, I pushed myself erect and stood quietly, leaning on the desk, until the room quit revolving and everything settled in its place. Kitty put an arm around me, contributing to my equilibrium, and that part was fun.
“Go get the city directory, honey,” I said. “Look up the address of Wash Richert.”
“Stark’s witness?”
“He’s the guy.”
“You going to see him?”
“That’s the idea.”
“Why?”
“When something smells, you sniff around.”
Her arm dropped away from me, and she went out into the reception office. While she was gone, I tried on my hat for size. Except for a tender spot above one ear, my skull seemed to have escaped abuse. I took a turn around the room, checking my motor reactions and finding them adequate. Kitty came back and stood watching my test run with critical eyes.
“It’s nine twelve South Twentieth,” she said. “You want me to go along to put you together again, just in case?”
I walked past her. “Don’t be facetious, honey. Remember, I’m your boss.”
She snorted. “A hell of a boss, you are. Working the help without pay... brawling in your office... getting involved with politicians. How the hell can you ever expect to amount to a damn?”
I ignored her, opening the outer door, and putting one foot into the hall.
She said, “Sol.”
I paused and looked back over a shoulder, my eyebrows making interrogation points.
“Be careful, Sol.”
I went on out and down the single flight to the street. I leaned against a lamp post. As I stood there, the yellow light came on above me, casting my abbreviated shadow to the pavement at my feet. Getting into my car, I drove away.
Out on South Twentieth, I found nine twelve to be a three-story brick walkup, with a narrow front and a high stoop. I went up the steps and into a short hall with a weak bulb burning at the ceiling under a dirty globe. Along the wall on my right, as I entered, were six mail boxes. Examining the names on the boxes, I discovered that Wash Richert lived on the third floor. Cursing my luck and my condition, I made the long climb up the worn, dark flights.
Outside Richert’s door, I knocked and waited, hearing within the sound of approaching footsteps. A woman, I thought, and when the door opened, it was. For a woman, she was tall, almost as tall as I, dressed in a navy blue sheer that gave her arms and shoulders, where there was nothing, under a soft, smoky look. Her platinum hair was phony, but the dye job and the style were good enough to make the phoniness unimportant. Her eyes were warm and her mouth was soft, almost pouting in repose, but you got a quick impression that the eyes could freeze fast, the lips thin and harden.
“I’m looking for Wash Richert,” I said.
Her voice had a minor nasality, whining slightly in her nostrils. “He isn’t here.”
“You know where he is?”
“No.”
“You know when he’ll be back?”
“No. Probably not for a long time.”
“You his wife?”
“I could be. What is this, mister? What you after?”
“Just conversation. May I come in?”
She looked at me with her platinum top cocked a little to one side, her eyes speculative. She seemed to be trying to make something interesting out of me, something that would do to pass the time.
“Why not?”
Following me into the room, she wondered if I’d like a drink to match one she’d been drinking when I knocked, and since I needed it, I said I would. She went off into a small kitchen to mix it, and I dropped my hat onto a chair and listened to the pleasant sounds of glass and ice. Pretty soon she came back and handed me a glass that was dark enough to look promising. Her own, I noted, was just as dark.
“Must be lonely without your husband,” I said.
She looked at me over the rim of her glass with an expression in her warm eyes that left everything open. “You’re only lonely if you let yourself be,” she said.
I swallowed a piece of my drink, and it was as strong as it looked. The warmth from the pit of my stomach was potent, prompt, and welcome.
“Where’d you say Wash went?”
“I didn’t. I said I didn’t know!”
“I guess you did, at that. I’m the forgetful type.”
“I’m not. If you’d tell me your name, I’d remember that.”
I had another drink and inspected the lowered cubes. “It’s Burr.” That didn’t seem to register, so I added, “I’m a lawyer.” She was still waiting, so I finished, “Hal Decker’s lawyer.”
When she lowered her glass, I saw that I’d been right in my analysis, of her eyes and mouth. They could change very fast. The former were now cold, and the latter was a thin line.
“You can finish your drink before you go,” she said.
I laughed. “It just goes to show you. A girl ought to insist on a proper introduction.”
“No wonder you’re all beat to hell. You’re a very snotty guy. Maybe you’d better go before you finish your drink.”
I walked over to a table and deposited the glass, wishing I’d emptied it before she pinned me down.
“I just want to talk with you,” I said.
“Don’t waste your breath.”
“A guy’s life may depend on it.”
“I’m all broken up.”