Her sharp fingers tapped on a door near the head of the stairs.
Who's that? a casually curt feminine voice asked.
Landlady.
The chunky girl in blue, without her hat now, opened the door. Alec Rush moved a big foot forward to hold it open, while the landlady said, This is her, the policeman said, You'll have to come along, and Minnie said, Dearie, we want to come in and talk to you.
My God! exclaimed the girl. There'd be just as much sense to it if you'd all jumped out at me and yelled
'Boo!'
This ain't any way, Alec Rush rasped, moving forward, grinning his hideous friendly grin. Let's go in where we can talk it over.
Merely by moving his loose-jointed bulk a step this way, a half-step that, turning his ugly face on this one and that one, he herded the little group as he wished, sending the landlady discontentedly away, marshaling the others into the girl's rooms.
Remember, I got no idea what this is all about, said the girl when they were in her living-room, a narrow room where blue fought with red without ever compromising on purple. I'm easy to get along with, and if you think this is a nice place to talk about whatever you want to talk about, go ahead! But if you're counting on me talking, too, you'd better smart me up.
Boosting, dearie, Minnie said, leaning forward to pat the girl's arm. I'm at Goodbody's.
You think I've been shoplifting? Is that the idea?
Yeah. Exactly. Uh-huh. That's what. Alec Rush left her no doubt on the point.
The girl narrowed her eyes, puckered her red mouth, squinted sidewise at the ugly man.
It's all right with me, she announced, so long as Goodbody's hanging the rap on mesomebody I can sue for a million when it flops. I've got nothing to say. Take me for my ride.
You'll get your ride, sister, the ugly man rasped good-naturedly. Nobody's going to beat you out of it. But do you mind if I look around your place a little first?
Got anything with a judge's name on it that says you can?
No.
Then you don't get a peep!
Alec Rush chuckled, thrust his hands into his trouser pockets, and began to wander through the rooms, of which there were three. Presently he came out of the bedroom carrying a photograph in a silver frame.
Who's this? he asked the girl.
Try and find out!
I am trying, he lied.
You big bum! said she. You couldn't find water in the ocean!
Alec Rush laughed with coarse heartiness. He could afford to. The photograph in his hand was of Hubert Landow.
Twilight was around the gray stone church when the owner of the deserted coupe returned to it. The chunky girlPolly Vanness was the name she had givenhad been booked and lodged in a cell in the Southwestern Police Station. Quantities of stolen goods had been found in her flat. Her harvest of that afternoon was still on her person when Minnie and a police matron searched her. She had refused to talk. The detective had said nothing to her about his knowledge of the photograph's subject, or of her meeting in the railroad station with the dark young man. Nothing found in her rooms threw any light on either of these things.
Having eaten his evening meal before coming back to his car, Alec Rush now drove out to Charles-Street Avenue. Lights glowed normally in the Landow house when he passed it. A little beyond it he turned his coupe so that it pointed toward the city, and brought it to rest in a tree-darkened curbside spot within sight of the house.
The night went along and no one left or entered the
Landow house. '' '
Finger nails clicked on the coupe's glass door. A man stood there. Nothing could be said of him in the darkness except that he was not large, and that to have escaped the detective's notice until now he must have stealthily stalked the car from the rear.
Alec Rush put out a hand and the door swung open.
Got a match? the man asked.
The detective hesitated, said, Yeah, and held out a box.
A match scraped and flared into a dark young face: large nose, high cheekbones: the young man Alec Rush had shadowed that afternoon.
But recognition, when it was voiced, was voiced by the dark young man.
I thought it was you, he said simply as he applied the flaming match to his cigarette. Maybe you don't know me, but I knew you when you were on the force.
The ex-detective-sergeant gave no meaning at all to a husky Yeah.
I thought it was you in the heap on Mount Royal this afternoon, but I couldn't make sure, the young man continued, entering the coupe, sitting beside the detective, closing the door. Scuttle Zeipp's me. I ain't as well known as Napoleon, so if you've never heard of me there's no hard feelings.
Yeah.
That's the stuff! When you once think up a good answer, stick to it. Scuttle Zeipp's face was a sudden bronze mask in the glow of his cigarette. The same answer'll do for my next question. You're interested in these here Landows? Yeah, he added in hoarse mimicry of the de^ tective's voice.
Another inhalation lighted his face, and his words came smokily out as the glow faded.
You ought to want to know what I'm doing hanging around 'em. I ain't tight. I'll tell you. I've been slipped half a grand to bump off the girltwice. How do you like that?
I hear you, said Alec Rush. But anybody can talk that knows the words.
Talk? Sure it's talk, Zeipp admitted cheerfully. But so's it talk when the judge says 'hanged by the neck until dead and may God have mercy on your soul!' Lots of things are talk, but that don't always keep 'em from being real.
Yeah?
Yeah, brother, yeah! Now listen to this: it's one for the cuff. A certain party comes to me a couple of days ago with a knock-down from a party that knows me. See? This certain party asks me what I want to bump off a broad. I thought a grand would be right, and said so. Too stiff. We come together on five hundred. I got two-fifty down and get the rest when the Landow twist is cold. Not so bad for a soft tricka slug through the side of a carhuh?
Well, what are you waiting for? the detective asked. You want to make it a fancy caperkill her on her birthday or a legal holiday?
Scuttle Zeipp smacked his lips and poked the detective's chest with a finger in the dark.
Not any, brother! I'm thinking way ahead of you! Listen to this: I pocket my two-fifty advance and come up here to give the ground a good casing, not \vanting to lam into anything I didn't know was here. While I'm poking around, I run into another party that's poking around. This second party gives me a tumble, I talk smart, and bingo! First thing you know she's propositioning me. What do you guess? She wants to know what I want to bump off a broad! Is it the same one she wants stopped? I hope to tell you it is!
I ain't so silly! I get my hands on another two hundred and fifty berries, with that much more coming when I put over the fast one. Now do you think I'm going to do anything to that Landow baby? You're dumb if you do. She's my meal ticket. If she lives till I pop her, she'll be older than either you or the bay. I've got five hundred out of her so far. What's the matter with sticking around and waiting for more customers that don't like her? If two of 'em want to buy her out of the world, why not more? The answer is, 'Yeah!' And on top of that, here you are snooping around her. Now there it is, brother, for you to look at and taste and smell.
Silence held for several minutes, in the darkness of the coupe's interior, and then the detective's harsh voice put a skeptical question:
And who are these certain parties that want her out of the way?
Be yourself! Scuttle Zeipp admonished him. I'm lay-ing down on 'em, right enough, but I ain't feeding 'em to you.
What are you giving me all this for then?
What for? Because you're in on the lay somewhere. Crossing each other, neither of us can make a thin dimmer. If we don't hook up we'll just ruin the racket for each other. I've already made half a grand off this Landow. That's mine, but there's more to be picked up by a couple of J men that know what they're doing. All right. I'm offering to throw in with you on a two-way cut of whatever else we can get. But my parties are out! I don't mind throwing them down, but I ain't rat enough to put the finger on them for you.