As he thought of it afterward, Bugs was in luck when someone grabbed him by the shoulder and shoved him behind the wheel of a coupe.
"Get goin' Bugs," came a gruff voice. "You gotta drive, while I watch for the bulls."
Avenue lights were dancing ahead of him, but Bugs managed to maneuver the car, while the man beside him occasionally yanked the wheel to keep the coupe off the curb. As Bugs steadied, he kept his eyes straight ahead, while he sidemouthed the inquiry:
"That you, Joey?"
"Yeah," was the reply. "Don't waste no time, though. There's a car tailin'
us. Wait! I guess it's O.K. Just, some more of the mob."
Taking a roundabout course, Bugs finally reached a darkened parking space alongside an old garage. He told Joey to wait, while he talked to the others.
When Bugs returned, he ordered Joey to come up with him.
They entered a doorway; reached the second floor of an old house that looked deserted. There, Bugs left Joey in a darkened hall, while he went in to find Pinkey and Slick.
Bugs didn't have a chance to tell what had happened. Pinkey motioned for silence. Slick was still working on Bron. The confession was nearing its completion. Bugs watched Bron scrawl the last line, then apply his signature.
"Thanks for bringing me here," said Bron, plaintively. "Its quiet. I could
think. I'm ready to go with you to headquarters."
It was Pinkey who snorted a rebuke to Bron's suggestion. Pinkey had snatched the confession, and was reading it.
"You won't have to take a rap for this," he told Bron. "There's an easier way out. Listen, while I tell you."
BRON listened. He was amazed when he learned what Thurley wanted done on the morrow. Even in his present plight, he foresaw bad consequences.
"If I accept those books," he exclaimed, "I can go to jail for it!"
"It would be easier than a murder rap, wouldn't it?" demanded Pinkey.
"Anyway, you won't be found out. And neither will this be."
Thurley waved the confession under Bron's eyes. He made it plain that Detective Quaine was a regular guy; to which Slick added his own declaration.
Bron finally capitulated.
"I'll go through with it," he gasped. "But if you blackmail me once, you may try it again -"
"Not me," interrupted Pinkey. "This is the only deal you can handle for me, Bron. So why should I bother you?"
It became evident that Bron was suspicious of the supposed Bill Quaine.
He
felt that he could trust an ordinary crook; but not a detective who had double-crossed the law. Pinkey listened seriously to that argument.
He nudged Bugs, who caught the idea. Pinkey wanted the gun that had the blank cartridges. Bugs slipped it to him. Shoving his face toward Bron's, Pinkey rasped:
"You've got guts, Bron. That's why I'm listening to what you tell me. You think Quaine's a double-crosser; so do I. We don't need him, neither of us!"
Pinkey jabbed the gun, muzzle against Slick's ribs, so suddenly that the fake dick was startled. There was a tug of the trigger; a muffled shot. For the
moment, Slick thought that Pinkey had actually handed him a bullet. Staggering back, hand against his side, Slick suddenly understood.
The fall that he made won the approval even of Bugs Hopton. Afterward, Bugs was willing to concede that he couldn't have faked a death scene any better. Slick was writhing when he reached the wall; his collapse came with the
same suddenness that Bron had noted in Parrington's death.
Bron stared - partly awed, partly fearful.
"You - you've killed him!" he told Pinkey. "Like I killed Parrington!"
"Yeah," agreed Pinkey, "only there's a difference. They've found Parrington's body; but they won't find Quaine's. I know where to bury my dead.
Anyway, I've done you a favor. There won't be no double-cross while I'm around.
That goes for you, Bron, like it did for Quaine!"
Turning Bron over to Bugs, Pinkey told the mobleader to have one of his men take Bron home. Bug said he'd use Joey, because the latter was in the hall.
He took Bron outside; then returned to find Slick alive again, receiving Pinkey's congratulations.
RIDING in the coupe with Joey, Bron didn't have a word to say. The hoodlum
driver dropped him near his home; watched Bron walk away like a person waking from a dream. When the coupe pulled away from the curb, a whispered laugh came from Joey's lips.
That tone proved that Bugs had made a bad mistake. It wasn't one of his own thugs who had rescued him; it was The Shadow. From beneath his sweater, The
Shadow was producing black hat and cloak, placing them on the seat beside him.
Once he had taken this coupe back where it belonged, he could vanish, letting Bugs think that Joey had simply gone with the rest of the crowd. But it
wasn't his clever ruse, alone, that caused The Shadow's laugh.
A silent witness to the scene at the hideout, The Shadow had linked a few more facts. He was willing to let Bron go through with the matter of the oil company's books. For The Shadow knew that Pinkey Findlen wasn't through with crime.
There was a pay-off coming, larger than any before. That was when The Shadow would find his greatest opportunity to expose the present reign of New York's biggest racketeer.
CHAPTER XV
CARDONA TAKES ADVICE
THE next morning, crooks had more cause to congratulate themselves.
According to the newspapers, the death of Roy Parrington was something of a mystery. The gun battle that had occurred downstairs in the apartment house; had merely served further to confuse the facts.
A few thugs had been captured; but they couldn't have told much, even if they had been willing to squeal. Those hoodlums who formed the core of Bugs Hopton's outfit had all managed to get away in the second car. The rest were recruits who didn't even know who commanded them.
Why had Roy Parrington died?
Even that was a mystery; for the man had no underworld connections, nor was he wealthy. There were persons, of course, who had engineered shady deals through Parrington, but they were keeping strict silence.
All that news unquestionably had its effect upon Lewis Bron. When the auditor visited the offices of the World Oil interests, he certified the books just as they stood. That pleased Giles Jondran, the gray-haired president of the oil company, when Bron stopped in to see him. Jondran always prided himself
on the efficiency of his own staff; and he felt that the auditor's unqualified approval was a tribute to the entire organization.
Despite the comfortable quiet of Jondran's office, Bron felt ill at ease, and was glad to get away. Not only was he conscience stricken when he received Jondran's commendation; but there was a visitor present whose eyes worried Bron.
Jondran introduced that hawkfaced stranger as Lamont Cranston, one of the stockholders of World Oil. Bron had heard of Cranston; knew that he was reputedly a millionaire.
Therefore, it bothered Bron badly, when his mind went skipping back to his
homeward ride from Pinkey's hideout.
Why he kept thinking of Joey, the thug who had driven the car, Bron couldn't guess. He certainly did not link Joey with Cranston.
Afterward, Bron was inclined to believe that his own imagination had been responsible for his nervousness. But he was confident that he had covered all traces of the jitters.
Bron received a telephone call, after he reached his office. When he reported that everything had gone as ordered, he heard a gloating chuckle from the receiver.
That piece of news was all that Pinkey Findlen wanted to know.
The big-shot was confident that The Shadow knew nothing of last night's factors. Pinkey assumed that The Shadow, hard up for a trail, had merely tagged