"Let her alone a little bit, Mr. Hammer. She'll be all right." "Where'd you find her?"
"In the cellar. She was holed up in one of the bins. I never would've seen her if I didn't see the milk bottles. First-floor tenants were squawking about somebody stealing their milk. I seen those two bottles and looked inside the bin and there she was. She said to call you."
I took her hand and squeezed it in mine. "You all right? You hurt or anything?"
She licked her lips, sobbed again and shook her head slowly.
The super's wife said, "She's just scared. Supposing I get her cleaned up and into some fresh clothes. She had a bag with her."
White outlined the red of Lily's eyes. She pulled back, her face tight. "No... I... I'm all right. Let me alone, please let me alone!" Then there was something fierce about the way she looked at me and bit out, "Mike... take me with you. Please. Take me with you!"
"She in trouble, Mr. Hammer?"
I looked at him steadily. "Not the kind of trouble you know about."
He saw what I meant, spoke rapidly to his wife in that language of his and her wise little eyes agreed.
"Help me get her upstairs."
The super took her bag, hooked one arm under hers and she came up from the couch. We used the service elevator in the rear, made my floor without meeting anybody and got her inside the apartment.
He said, "Anything I can do to help, just let me know." "Right. Clam up about this. Tell your wife the same." "Sure, Mr. Hammer."
"One other thing. Get me a damn big barrel bolt and slap it on my door."
"First thing tomorrow." He closed the door and I locked it after him.
She sat there in the chair like a kid waiting to be slapped. Her face was drawn and the eyes in it were as big as saucers. I fixed her a drink, made her take it all and filled it up again.
"Feel better?"
"A... little."
"Want to talk?"
Her teeth were a startling contrast to her skin when she bit her lip and nodded.
"From the beginning," I said.
"They came back," she said. Her voice was so low I could barely hear it. "They tried the door and one of them did something with the lock. It... opened. I sat there and I couldn't even scream. I couldn't move. The... the chain on the door stopped them." A shudder went through her whole body.
"They were arguing in whispers outside about the chain, then they closed the door and went away. One of them said they'd need a saw. I... couldn't stay here, Mike. I was terrified. I threw my clothes in the bag and ran out but when I got to the street I was afraid they might still be watching and I went down the cellar! Mike... I'm... I'm sorry."
"That's all right, Lily. I know how it is. Did you see them?"
"No. No, Mike?"
The shudder racked her body again and she bit into her finger.
"When... that man found me... I thought he was... one of them."
"You don't have to worry any more, Lily. I'm not going to leave you here alone again. Look, go in and clean up. Take a nice hot bath and fix your hair. Then get something in your stomach."
"Mike... are you... going out?"
"For a little while. I'll have the super's wife stay with you until I get back. Would you mind that?"
"You'll hurry back?"
I nodded that I would and picked up the phone. The super's wife said she'd be more than glad to help out and would come right up.
From in back of me Lily said, "I'm so dirty. Ask her to bring some rubbing alcohol, Mike."
She said she'd do that too and hung up. Lily had finished her drink and lay with her head against the back of the chair watching me sleepily. The tautness had left her cheeks and color had come back to her mouth. She looked like a dog who had just been lost in the swamp then suddenly found his way home.
I started the water in the tub, filled it and lifted her out of the chair. She was light in my arms, completely relaxed, her breathing soft against my face. There was something too big in her eyes while she was so close to me and the strain of it showed in the corner of her mouth. She dug her fingers into my arms with a repressed hunger of a sort, sucked in her breath in a series of almost soundless staccato jerks and before I could kiss her she twisted her head and buried it against my shoulder.
The super's wife came in while she was still splashing around in the tub. She made clucking noises like a mother hen and wanted to go right to her, but the door was locked so she started scrounging some chow up in the kitchen. The bottle of alcohol was on the table and before I left I knocked on the door.
"You want a rub-down, Lily?"
The water stopped splashing.
"Glad to give you a hand if you want," I said.
She laughed from inside and I felt better. I left the bottle by the door, told the mother hen I was leaving and got.
Seven thirty-two. The gray overcast brought a premature dusk to the city, a gloomy wet shroud that came down and poured itself inside your clothes. It was the kind of night that made the city withdraw into itself, leaving the sidewalks empty and people inside the glass-fronted stores staring aimlessly into the wet.
I left my car where it was and hopped a cab down to Canal. He let me out at Pascale's and I went in the door on the right of the place. Here the hall was clean, clear and well lit. You could hear the hum of voices from the gin mill through the walls, but it diminished as I went up the stairs.
She was a short woman, her hair neatly in place with a ready smile that said hello.
"Mrs. Wallace?"
"Yes."
"My name is Hammer. I'd like to talk to your husband if he's home."
"Certainly. Won't you come in?"
She stepped aside, closed the door and called out, "Harv, there's a gentleman here to see you."
From inside a paper rustled and kids' voices piped up. He said something to them and they quieted down. He came out to the kitchen with that expression one stranger has for another stranger, nodded to his wife, then to me and stuck out his hand.
"Mr. Hammer," his wife said and smiled again. "I'11 go in with the children if you'll excuse me."
"Sit down, Mr. Hammer." He pulled a chair out by the table, waved me into it and took one himself. He was one of those big guys with beefy shoulders and thinning hair. There was Irish in his face and a trace of Scandinavian.
"This'll be quick," I told him. "I'm an investigator. I'm not digging up anything unpleasant just for the fun of it and what you say won't go any further."
His tongue rolled around his cheek and he nodded.
"Sometime ago you drove the truck that killed a man named Lee Kawolsky."
The side of his face moved. "I explained..."
"You don't get the angle yet," I said. "Wait. As far as you were concerned it was an out-and-out accident Your first. It was one of those things that couldn't be helped so you weren't touched for it."
"That's right."
"Okay. Like I said, it's been a long time since it happened. Nobody else but you saw it. Tell me, have you ever gone over the thing in your mind since?"
Harvey said very quietly, "Mr. Hammer... there are some nights when I never get to sleep at all."
"You could see the thing happen. Sometimes the details would be sharp, then they'd fade?"
He squinted his eyes at me. "Something like that." "What are you uncertain about?" "You know something, Mr. Hammer?" "Maybe."
This time he leaned forward, his face set in a puzzled grimace.
"It's not clear. I see the guy coming out from behind the L pillar and I'm yelling at him while I slam on the brakes. The load in the truck lets go and rams the wall back of the cab and I can feel the wheels... " He stopped and looked down at his hands.
"He came out too fast. He didn't come out walking."
Harvey looked at me, his eyes beseeching. "You know what I mean? I'm not making up excuses."
"I know," I said.