McDonough held up the broken knife. “He's preferring-”
“I said book him.” The chief left the doorway and headed for the stairs. Savino followed, grinning.
“I guess right about here is where I get to make my phone call,” Johnny said to Sergeant McDonough. The sergeant cut his eyes toward the stairs, Johnny saw that the chief had halted on the second step. It wasn't likely this crew would let him make an outside phone call but they should be curious as to whom he wanted to make it.
There was no sound from the stairs. With no change of expression McDonough stood up behind the desk. He lifted a phone over the top of it and handed it down to Johnny, stand and all. “Make it snappy, pal,” he said.
One look explained the generosity. It wasn't a dial phone. They could hear the name or the number he asked the operator to get for him and still have plenty of time to retrieve the phone before the connection could be made.
Johnny lifted the receiver. “Mayor Lowell's office,” he said to the switchboard operator's inquiry. Above his head Sergeant McDonough glanced quickly at the stairs.
“Break that up!” the chief barked.
McDonough yanked hard on the cord going over the top of his desk. Johnny had anticipated it. Nothing happened. The sergeant leaned down over the front of the desk. Johnny backed away as far as he could get but the cord wouldn't let him get far enough. “Tell the mayor-” Johnny said to the new feminine voice on the line and paused to lower his head as. McDonough punched down at him. Instead of hitting him in the face the sergeant hit him in the forehead. It drove Johnny back a step but he retained his grip on the phone. “-that I'm a friend of his brother Toby's an' that your cops are givin' me a hard time at headquarters. Tell him-” McDonough's roundhouse right landed on Johnny's cheekbone despite his effort to evade it. McDonough's grunt was clearly audible. “Tell him to get down here,” Johnny said rapidly. He dropped to one knee to avoid McDonough's follow-up smash. He bobbed up instantly, slapped the receiver into the cradle and threw the telephone over the desk, hard. It hit McDonough squarely in the chest. “Thanks for the use of your phone, Mac,” Johnny told him as the sergeant went backward into his chair with a crash.
Chief Riley was halfway toward the desk from the stairs. “Did he get that call through?” he demanded of no one in particular. He didn't wait for an answer. Dark blood flared in the wide, moon face as he glared at Johnny. He looked big but he looked soft, too, Johnny thought. “We'll fix your clock, mister,” the chief said to him harshly. “We know how to take care of wise guys around here. You won't be so lucky the next time.” He half-turned to look back up the stairs at the sound of rapidly descending footsteps. “You're going to find your umbrella's got a hell of a leak in it.”
He stalked back into his office, slamming the door.
Mayor Richard Lowell clattered briskly down the stairs and into the room. He looked exactly like his picture, Johnny thought, except on a larger scale. The head was large and crested with a cockatoo-like white pompadour. It commanded instant attention. The strong face gave a lion-like appearance to the average-sized physique. “You called my office?” he demanded of Johnny and without waiting for an answer swung to the desk. “What about this, McDonough?”
The gray-faced sergeant climbed laboriously to his feet. He stood half-doubled over. “Wise-bastard-” he got out between his teeth. His breath whistled on the sibilants. “Hit me-with the phone-”
“I asked you what happened here.” The mayor glanced from McDonough to Johnny, his expression curious. “Was Riley here? Where is he now?”
Johnny pointed at the closed door. He realized for the first time that Tommy Savino had disappeared. Lowell started to say something, hesitated, took Johnny by the arm and led him to a corner. “Who are you?” he asked in an undertone. “What took place here?”
“I'd like to talk to you about it. Privately,” Johnny said.
“Why should you want to talk to me?” Lowell sounded suspicious. He had a rich, beautifully polished speaking voice. Every syllable was produced with a vocal flourish. “And what's this business of your being a friend of Toby's?”
“I talked to Toby yesterday afternoon.”
“You did?” Mayor Lowell kindled. “Did Toby send you up here?” His voice had risen; he lowered it immediately. “Did they find it out?”
“What kind of a town are you runnin' here?” Johnny asked in his turn. “Or aren't you runnin' it at all? These guys like to had my ears nailed to the wall.”
Angry color invaded Richard Lowell's patrician features. “I hope I'm running this town!” he blustered.
“I hope so, too, but some people don't seem to have gotten the message. I was in town an hour an' I was jumped on the street by a man named Savino. He an' a cop with him had a wagon handy to roll me in here. I had trouble keepin' 'em off me in the wagon.” Johnny fingered a rising lump on his left cheekbone. “I had more trouble gettin' to talk to you. Is all that a part of the town you're runnin'? An' does Toby know about it?”
Without a word the mayor turned and strode to the door through which Chief Riley had exited. He went right on in without bothering to knock. He closed the door behind him. Johnny returned his attention to the desk. McDonough sat down, his blue eyes glaring down malevolently at Johnny, but he said nothing.
The silence lasted until the mayor rushed out of the chief's office, banging the door behind him. Storm signals darkened his face. “We can talk upstairs,” he said curtly to Johnny.
Behind the desk McDonough rose to his feet again. He looked torn the closed door to the mayor. “Hold up a minute,” he protested. “Nobody's told me what to do with the charge against-”
“The second thing you can do with it,” Richard Lowell interrupted him with a vicious clarity in the mellow voice, “is tear it up.” Without a backward glance he led the way to the stairs and Johnny followed him.
On the upper level they walked to the front of the building and a door marked OFFICE OF THE MAYOR. Inside, Lowell hurried past a brunette secretary who paused in her typing to look up at Johnny with interest. She was an extremely good-looking girl. Johnny wondered if it were she with whom the mayor was shacking up as charged by Mrs. Peterson. If so, Richard Lowell went up a couple of notches in Johnny's estimation. The girl was a knockout.
In his private office, the mayor closed the door. It was elaborately furnished with heavy, old-fashioned pieces. “Sit down,” he said. His tone made it a command. He softened it at once. “Now for God's sake catch me up on what's going on around here. First of all, did Toby send you?”
“No.” Johnny could see the mayor's disappointment in the blunt negative.
Disappointment was followed by renewed suspicion. “Then who are you? What are you doing here?”
“I'm tryin' to retrieve a bankroll heisted from me.”
Richard Lowell sat down behind a wide oak desk. His expression was puzzled. “Isn't that a matter for the police? I mean, why come to me?”
“You're Toby's brother. The corn hasn't stopped poppin' since I talked to Thompson. Somebody-”
“You talked to Carl Thompson?” The mayor had moved forward on the edge of his chair. “When?”
“Yesterday afternoon at my place.”
“Your-?” Richard Lowell slapped his forehead dramatically with an open palm. “Of course,” he exclaimed. “You're Killain. Toby called me about you. I didn't make the connection because he didn't say you were coming.”
“He didn't know it. After Thompson was killed-”
“How did it happen?” the mayor broke in eagerly. “I've had no details at all.”
“Knifed,” Johnny told him. “An' twice last night someone tried to add me to the score.”
“You? Why?”
“Because Thompson talked to me?” Johnny asked his own question.
“I see,” Lowell said slowly. “Yes, I do see.”
“Why'd Toby call you?” Johnny asked casually.