the elevator. In the lobby he stopped at the blond girl's little switchboard booth. “If anything pops around here, call us at Edison 7-9490.”
“Surely.” She wrote it down. “I hope you find everything all right. Your cab's outside.”
He was silent in the cab on the way over to Jessamyn's, adding and subtracting in his mind. Beside him Micheline rode with her hands in her lap and he could see the whitened knuckles. It must have been a hell of a week for her. His thoughts returned to New York. “Was Riley at the Manhattan?” he asked her abruptly.
She looked surprised. “No. When I saw him he was-”
“Did he know that you saw him?” he pressed her.
“Of course. Why?”
“Nothin', I guess,” he said vaguely. “For a minute there I just had a feelin'-ahh, I don't know. He's been hustlin' me to find you for him an' I can't figure out why.”
“For him?”
Johnny nodded. “The only thing I could figure was that he was plannin' to throw the switch on Daddario, but where would he get the nerve?” He looked out the window as the cab turned the corner. “Here we are.”
He could feel the tension in her as she waited for him to pay off the driver. She walked quickly beside him through the lobby and down to the door of 2-A. She stood with her hands knitted in the strap of her bag as Johnny identified himself to Jessamyn. When the door opened Jessamyn took one look at her face and pointed silently to the bedroom. Micheline flew to it and opened the door. “Hi, mommy,” they heard a drowsy young voice say. “Don't you think it's lots nicer here?” They had a single glimpse of Micheline's radiant face before the door closed.
“I'm sick to think I helped to do that to her,” Jessamyn said in a low tone.
Johnny looked at her. She had dressed, but she still wore the dark glasses. “No one tried to get in?”
“Dick Lowell called on the phone,” she remembered. “He's crazy to talk to you. Said he'd been calling all over town. I didn't know what to say to him so I finally said you might come by here later. In case you wanted to call him.” A hand brushed absently at her swollen cheekbone. “He insisted that you call as soon as you get here.”
“He can wait,” Johnny grunted. “I've got to get these two under cover first.” He nodded at the bedroom, looked at his watch, and went over and tapped on the door. It opened in a moment and Micheline stood in it with her daughter in her arms.
“Mommy's been crying,” Genevieve announced in her clear voice, “and she won't tell me why.”
“That's enough out of you, young lady,” her mother said with an attempt at briskness. “We don't tell family secrets, remember?”
“I think we ought to get goin',” Johnny said to her.
She nodded. “My place?”
“I'm afraid of it. I've got a better idea. We'll-” He held up a warning hand as he heard the loud knock upon the apartment door. “Don't come out,” he said hurriedly, and closed the door. Jessamyn was looking at him inquiringly. “See who it is, Jess.”
“Who is it?” she called through the door.
“Dick Lowell,” came the muffled reply.
“Let him in,” Johnny said resignedly. “I'll get rid of him.”
Jessamyn opened the door. Mayor Lowell strolled in, beaming expansively. He looked fresh and jaunty. “Things are looking up,” he announced to Johnny. “Wonderful job you did on Kratz. Wonderful. Why didn't you call me?”
“I just this minute got in here,” Johnny lied.
The mayor was talking, not listening. “Without Kratz to shore him up,” he bubbled on, “I can call a little different tune with Daddario. I'll bet you in a day or two I'll be able-”
“Toby called me last night,” Johnny inserted.
A cloud passed over the sun. “Toby?”
“Said he's comin' up. He's a little shook at not hearin' from you about-I quote-the march of events.”
“It sounds like him. He can't come now.” Alarm vibrated in the mellow voice. “I'm just on the verge of straightening everything out. In two or three days-he simply can't come now!” He said it defiantly.
“I couldn't talk him out of it,” Johnny shrugged.
Mayor Richard Lowell circled dry lips with the tip of his tongue. “I'd better get down to the office. I'd-you'll come with me?” His tone was pleading.
What a weathervane the man was, Johnny thought. Whether his affair with the Trent woman had eroded his backbone or whether there had never been a backbone to begin with was a moot point. “I'll make it a little later,” he said. “The doc says I got to lie down a couple hours an' let these stitches set.”
“Oh. Well-you'll come soon? Maybe we can think of something. If only Toby weren't such a busybody. I must think of a way to-you haven't found Micheline?” he asked sharply.
Johnny could see Jessamyn's involuntary movement. He hoped Lowell hadn't seen it. “I thought she might have been behind the door Kratz was in front of, but she wasn't,” he said.
“It's too bad,” the mayor regretted. Reminded of Kratz, he cheered up. “Incredible that you should have been able to handle him. My secretary told me the ambulance driver said he was still unconscious upon arrival at the hospital. When I think of the verbal abuse I've taken from that-that musclebound oaf I could-well, I must run. Come as soon as you can. We must think of something that will smooth it over for Toby.”
“Give him a minute an' then run out there an' make sure he really goes,” Johnny said in a low tone to Jessamyn behind the white-maned mayor's departing back. “An' bring back a cab.”
She nodded and went out. Johnny returned to the bedroom and opened the door. Micheline spoke before he could. “Johnny, why can't we go home? I must get Genevieve some clothes.”
“The lid's not on yet,” he argued. “You want to stick your neck back in the noose? I got a place I think is safe. Stay under cover a few more hours. Toby Lowell should be on his way by now an' if he's half the man he used to be things are due to begin fallin' back into shape around here.”
“But-” She pulled herself up. “You're right. I shouldn't argue with you. If it hadn't been for you-”
“Fix the little lady up in her blanket again,” Johnny interrupted her. “I'll carry her.” He walked out to the cherry-paneled living room and listened at the door for Jessamyn's tap-tap-tap.
“He's gone,” she reported when he let her in. “He had a cab waiting. I've got one out there for you.”
“Fine.” He looked to the bedroom and then back at her. “When we go you better not hang around here. Somebody's liable to put two an' two together. Go down to the library.”
“With my eyes like this! Don't be ridiculous.”
“Get out of this place. It's only got one door,” he insisted. “Stay out in the bright sunshine. I'm not foolin'. This thing may not be over yet.”
She shook her head firmly. “I have appearances to keep up as far as my job is concerned, you know. I can't appear in public like this.”
He abandoned the argument and went to the bedroom. Genevieve stood on the bed, once again in her blanket cocoon. Johnny picked her up and her arms went around his neck. Micheline followed him back out into the other room. “Thank you,” she said gravely to Jessamyn.
“Be careful,” Johnny warned her as they left the apartment. She nodded silently. At the outer door Johnny spoke to Micheline. “Let's make this fast. The less you're seen in the daylight the better I'll like it.”
They went down the cement to the cab at a fast walk. Johnny handed the girl in to Micheline and climbed in and slammed the door. “The Gamecock,” he said to the cab driver.
CHAPTER XI
“This is close enough,” Johnny called to the taxi driver when they were within half a block of the tavern. He turned to Micheline as the cab swung into the curb. “Wait for me here. I think the boy who runs this place is ready to change horses. It'll make a perfect cover until things quiet down.”