«Then how do you like this?» I growled. «Peeler’s dead.»
One eyebrow twitched, and one corner of his mouth. His eyes got a little blanker than before, if possible. His voice rasped lightly, like a finger on dry leather.
«How come?»
«Competition you two didn’t know about.» I leaned back, smiled.
The gun made a soft metallic blue in the sunshine. I hardly saw where it came from. Then the muzzle was round and dark and empty looking at me.
«You’re kidding the wrong guy,» Sunset said lifelessly. «I ain’t no soft spot for chiselers to lie on.»
I folded my arms, taking care that my right hand was outside, in view.
«I would be — if I was kidding. I’m not. Peeler played with a girl and she milked him — up to a point. He didn’t tell her where to find the old fellow. So she and her top man went to see Peeler where he lived. They used a hot iron on his feet. He died of the shock.»
Sunset looked unimpressed. «I got a lot of room in my ears yet,» he said.
«So have I,» I snarled, suddenly pretending anger. «Just what the hell have you said that means anything — except that you know Peeler?»
He spun his gun on his trigger finger, watched it spin. «Old man Sype’s at Westport,» he said casually. «That mean anything to you?»
«Yeah. Has he got the marbles?»
«How the hell would I know?» He steadied the gun again, dropped it to his thigh. It wasn’t pointing at me now. «Where’s this competish you mentioned?»
«I hope I ditched them,» I said. «I’m not too sure. Can I put my hands down and take a drink?»
«Yeah, go ahead. How did you cut in?»
«Peeler roomed with the wife of a friend of mine who’s in stir. A straight girl, one you can trust. He let her in and she passed it to me — afterwards.»
«After the bump? How many cuts your side? My half is set.»
I took my drink, shoved the empty glass away. «The hell it is.»
The gun lifted an inch, dropped again. «How many altogether?» he snapped.
«Three, now Peeler’s out. If we can hold off the competition.»
«The feet-toasters? No trouble about that. What they look like?»
«Man named Rush Madder, a shyster down south, fifty, fat, thin down-curving mustache, dark hair thin on top, five-nine, a hundred and eighty, not much guts. The girl, Carol Donovan, black hair, long bob, gray eyes, pretty, small features, twentyfive to -eight, five-two, hundred-twenty, last seen wearing blue, hard as they come. The real iron in the combination.»
Sunset nodded indifferently and put his gun away. «We’ll soften her, if she pokes her snoot in,» he said. «I’ve got a heap at the house. Let’s take the air Westport way and look it over. You might be able to ease in on the goldfish angle. They say he’s nuts about them. I’ll stay under cover. He’s too stir-wise for me. I smell of the bucket.»
«Swell,» I said heartily. «I’m an old goldfish fancier myself.»
Sunset reached for the bottle, poured two fingers of Scotch and put it down. He stood up, twitched his collar straight, then shot his chinless jaw forward as far as it would go.
«But don’t make no error, bo. It’s goin’ to take pressure. It’s goin’ to mean a run out in the deep woods and some thumbtwisting. Snatch stuff, likely.»
«That’s okey,» I said. «The insurance people are behind us.»
Sunset jerked down the points of his vest and rubbed the back of this thin neck. I put my hat on, locked the Scotch in the bag by the chair I’d been sitting in, went over and shut the window.
We started towards the door. Knuckles rattled on it just as I reached for the knob. I gestured Sunset back along the wall. I stared at the door for a moment and then I opened it up.
The two guns came forward almost on the same level, one small — a.32, one a big Smith & Wesson. They couldn’t come into the room abreast, so the girl came in first.
«Okey, hot shot,» she said dryly. Ceiling zero. See if you can reach it.»
EIGHT
I backed slowly into the room. The two visitors bored in on me, either side. I tripped over my bag and fell backwards, hit the floor and rolled on my side groaning.
Sunset said casually: «H’ist ’em folks. Pretty now!»
Two heads jerked away from looking down at me and then I had my gun loose, down at my side. I kept on groaning.
There was a silence. I didn’t hear any guns fall. The door of the room was still wide open and Sunset was flattened against the wall more or less behind it.
The girl said between her teeth: «Cover the shamus, Rush — and shut the door. Skinny can’t shoot here. Nobody can.» Then, in a whisper I barely caught, she added: «Slam it!»
Rush Madder waddled backwards across the room keeping the Smith & Wesson pointed my way. His back was to Sunset and the thought of that made his eyes roll. I could have shot him easily enough, but it wasn’t the play. Sunset stood with his feet spread and his tongue showing. Something that could have been a smile wrinkled his flat eyes.
He stared at the girl and she stared at him. Their guns stared at each other.
Rush Madder reached the door, grabbed the edge of it and gave it a hard swing. I knew exactly what was going to happen. As the door slammed the.32 was going to go off. It wouldn’t be heard if it went off at the right instant. The explosion would be lost in the slamming of the door.
I reached out and took hold of Carol Donovan’s ankle and jerked it hard.
The door slammed. Her gun went off and chipped the ceiling.
She whirled on me kicking. Sunset said in his tight but somewhat penetrating drawclass="underline" «If this is it, this is it. Let’s go!» The hammer clicked back on his Colt.
Something in his voice steadied Carol Donovan. She relaxed, let her automatic fall to her side and stepped away from me with a vicious look back.
Madder turned the key in the door and leaned against the wood, breathing noisily. His hat had tipped over one ear and the ends of two strips of adhesive showed under the brim.
Nobody moved while I had these thoughts. There was no sound of feet outside in the hall, no alarm. I got up on my knees, slid my gun out of sight, rose on my feet and went over to the window. Nobody down on the sidewalk was staring up at the upper floors of the Snoqualmie Hotel.
I sat on the broad old-fashioned sill and looked faintly embarrassed, as though the minister had said a bad word.
The girl snapped at me: «Is this lug your partner?»
I didn’t answer. Her face flushed slowly and her eyes burned. Madder put a hand out and fussed: «Now listen, Carol, now listen here. This sort of act ain’t the way —»
«Shut up!»
«Yeah,» Madder said in a clogged voice. «Sure.»
Sunset looked the girl over lazily for the third or fourth time. His gun hand rested easily against his hipbone and his whole attitude was of complete relaxation. Having seen him pull his gun once I hoped the girl wasn’t fooled.
He said slowly: «We’ve heard about you two. What’s your offer? I wouldn’t listen even, only I can’t stand a shooting rap.»
The girl said: «There’s enough in it for four.» Madder nodded his big head vigorously, almost managed a smile.
Sunset glanced at me. I nodded. «Four it is,» he sighed.
«But that’s the top. We’ll go to my place and gargle. I don’t like it here.»
«We must look simple,» the girl said nastily.
«Kill-simple,» Sunset drawled. «I’ve met lots of them. That’s why we’re going to talk it over. It’s not a shooting play.»
Carol Donovan slipped a suede bag from under her left arm and tucked her.32 into it. She smiled. She was pretty when she smiled.