"Go ahead."
"You've heard of Carl Evello?"
I nodded.
"Evello is the boy behind the powers. The last senatorial investigations turned up a lot of big names in the criminal world, but they never turned up his. That's how big he is. The others are pretty big too, but not like him."
I felt my eyebrows go up. "I didn't know he was that big. Where does it come from?"
"Nobody seems to know. A lot is suspected, but until there's plenty of concrete evidence, no charges are going to be passed around even by me. Just take my word for it that the guy is big. Now... they want him. They want him bad and when they get him all the other big boys are going to fall too."
"So what."
"Berga Torn was his mistress for a while."
It started to make sense now. I said, "So she had something on the guy?"
Pat shrugged disgustedly. "Who knows? She was supposed to have had something. She can't talk. When they were giving her the business as you said they were trying to get it out of her."
"You figure they were Carl's men then."
"Evidently."
"What about the sanitarium she was in?"
"She was there under the advice of her doctor," Pat said. "She was going to testify to the committee and under the strain almost had a nervous breakdown. All the committee hearings were tied up until she was released."
I said, "That's a pretty picture, kid. Where do I come in?"
Little light lines seemed to grow around his eyes. "You don't. You stay out of it."
"Nuts."
"Okay, hero, then let's break it down. There's no reason for you to mess around. It was just an accident that got you into it anyway. There's nothing much you can do and anything you try to do is damn well going to be resented by all the agencies concerned."
I gave him my best big grin. All the teeth. Even the eyes. "You flatter me."
"Don't get smart, Mike."
"I'm not."
"All right, you're a bright boy and I know how you work. I'm just trying to stop any trouble before it starts."
"Pal, you got it wrong," I said, "it's already started, remember? I got patted between the eyes, a dame got bumped and my car is wrecked." I stood up and looked down at him, feeling things changing in my smile. "Maybe I have too much pride, but I don't let anybody get away with that kind of stuff. I'm going to knock the crap out of somebody for all that and if it gets up to Evello it's okay with me."
Pat's hand came down on the edge of the desk. "Damn it, Mike, why don't you get a little sense in your head? You..."
"Look... suppose somebody took you for a patsy. What would you do?"
"That didn't happen."
"No... but it happened to me. Those boys aren't that tough that they can get away with it. Damn it, Pat, you ought to know me better than that."
"I do, that's why I'm asking you to lay off. What do I have to do, appeal to your patriotism?"
"Patriotism, my back. I don't give a damn if Congress, the President and the Supreme Court told me to lay off. They're only men and they didn't get sapped and dumped over a cliff. You don't play games with guys who pull that kind of stuff. The feds can be as cagey as they like, but when they wrap the bunch up what happens? So they testify. Great. Costello testified and I can show you where he committed perjury in the minutes of the hearing. What happened? Yeah... you know what happened as well as I do. They're too big to do anything with. They got too much dough and too much power and if they talk too many people are going to go under. Well, the hell with em. There are a bunch of guys who drove a sedan I want to see again. I don't know what they look like, but I'll know them when I see them. If the feds beat me to em it's okay with me, but I'll wait, pal. If I don't reach them first I'll wait until they get through testifying or serving that short sentence those babies seem to draw and when I do you won't be having much trouble from them again ever." "You have it all figured?"
"Uh-huh. Right down to the self-defense plea." "You won't get far."
I grinned at him again. "You know better than that, don't you?"
For a moment the seriousness left his face. His mouth cracked in a grin. "Yeah," he said, "that's what I'm afraid of."
"That wasn't any ordinary kill." "No."
"They were a bunch of cold-blooded bastards. You should have seen what they did to that kid before they killed her." "Nothing showed on her body... or what was left of it after the fire."
"It was there. It wasn't very pretty." I stared at him hard. "It changes something in the way you were thinking."
His eyes came up speculatively.
"They didn't give her the works to see how much she knew. They were after something she knew and they didn't. She was the key to something."
Pat's face was grave. "And you're going after it?" "What did you expect?"
"I don't know, Mike." He wiped his hand across his eyes. "I guess I didn't expect you to take it lying down." He turned his head and glanced out of the window at the rain. "But since it's going to be that way you might as well know this much. Those government boys are shrewd apples. They know your record and how you work. They even know how you think. Don't expect any help from this end. If you cross those boys you're going to wind up in the can."
"You have your orders?" I asked him.
"In writing. From pretty high authority." His eyes met mine.
"I was told to pass the news on to you if you acted up."
I stood up and fiddled with my pack of butts. "Great guys. They want to do it all alone. They're too smart to need help."
"They have the equipment and manpower," Pat said defensively.
"Yeah, sure, but they don't have the attitude." A grimace pulled at my mouth. "They want to make a public example out of those big boys. They want to see them sweat it out behind bars. Nuts to that. Those lads in the sedan don't give a hoot for authority. They don't give a damn for you, me or anybody besides themselves. They only respect one thing."
"Say it."
"A gun in their bellies that's going off and splashing their guts around the room. That kind of attitude they respect." I stuck my hat on my head, keeping it back off the blue lump between my eyes. "See you around, Pat," I said.
"Maybe, maybe not," he said to my back.
I went downstairs into the rain and waited there until a cab came along.
Unless you knew they were there you'd never notice it. Just little things out of place here and there. A streak through the dust where a coat sleeve dragged, an ashtray not quite in place, the rubber seal around the refrigerator door hanging because they didn't know it was loose and had to be stuffed back by hand.
The .45 was still hanging in the closet, but this time there was a thumbprint on the side where I knew I had wiped it before I stuck it away. I picked the rig off the hook and laid it on the table. The Washington boys were pretty good at that sort of thing. I started to whistle a tuneless song as I climbed out of my jacket when I noticed the wastebasket beside the dresser. There was a cigarette butt in the bottom with the brand showing and it wasn't my brand. I picked it up, stared at it, threw it back and went on whistling. I stopped when the thought of it jelled, picked up the phone and dialed the super's number downstairs.
I said, "This is Mike Hammer, John. Did you let some men in up here?"
He hedged with, "Men? You know, Mr. Hammer, I..."
"It's okay, I had a talk with them. I just wanted to check on it."
"Well, in that case... they had a warrant. You know what they were? They were F.B.I. men."
"Yeah, I know."
"They said I shouldn't mention it."
"You're sure about it?"
"Sure as anything. They had a city cop along too." "What about anybody else?"
"Nobody else, Mr. Hammer. I wouldn't let a soul in up there, you know that."
"Okay, John. Thanks." I hung up the phone and looked around again.