I drove back downtown and picked out a joint that didn’t look too flashy and went in for a beer. The bartender set one up, took my change and stood by until I finished, then got me another. The slots were making music all around the walls and over the noise there would be an occasional yell from the back room when a number came up on a wheel. The two guys next to me were spending some of their winnings from the craps table and getting ready to go back and give it another whirl.
One of them tried to talk me into making it a threesome and I turned it down and had a beer instead. I had just started on it when somebody moved into the space they left at the bar and said, “Hello, tough boy.”
I said, “Hello, flatfoot,” and Tucker’s beefy face got real nasty.
“I’ve been looking for you.”
“I’m not hard to find.”
“Shut up and pick up your change. You’re going for a ride.”
That was nice. I wanted to tell him I already had one and didn’t feel like another, but I didn’t. I said, “You arresting me?”
“If you want it that way.”
“What for?”
“A little double murder out at the quarry. Suspicion, you know. Captain Lindsey wants to talk to you.”
I picked up my change and went for a little ride.
It was silent all the way. Nobody said anything until I was back in that same office where it all happened before Lindsey was behind the desk and two other guys in suitcoats were sitting beside him. Tucker leaned back against the door and let me stand in the middle of the room.
When I pulled out a cigarette Lindsey barked, “No smoking in here.” I put the butt back and walked over to a chair. “McBride,” Lindsey said, “you stand there until I tell you to sit down, understand?”
I picked the chair up by the legs and looked at him and the rest of them. “I don’t understand a thing, you goddamn pig, you! I’m making it nice and plain so there won’t be any mistake about it. There’s four of you here and some more outside, but just get wise and I’ll smash your lousy head in. I’d like to see who’s got the guts to try and take me.”
Tucker would have tried it. He had his gun out and was moving in when Lindsey stopped him. “Cut it, Tuck. When it comes this guy is mine. He’s talking big and I’ll let him talk big, but by God he’ll be talking mighty small soon and I’m going to show him the kind of gadgets we got in the cellar and let him see how they work.” He nodded to me curtly. “Sit down, sit down. I have some questions to ask you.”
I put the chair down and sat on it. Tucker got behind me and stayed there playing with his gun. “What is it now?”
“I suppose you have an alibi for last night?”
“I got a beauty,” I lied.
It turned out better than I expected. I was doing some fast thinking when Lindsey gave me credit for really having one. I could tell it by his expression. He took in the men beside him with a glance. “We recovered two guns that had several prints on them. Over one was a peculiar sort of smudge. That make any sense to you, McBride?”
“Sure. The killer was wearing gloves.”
“No, the killer had no prints.”
“Good for him.”
“Not so good for him. These men are from Washington. They specialize in that sort of thing. They’re going to take you downstairs and check your fingerprints.”
Then I saw why he wasn’t too concerned about my alibi. Hell, he didn’t care about the two at the quarry. He wanted to get me for Minnow’s murder. There he had a set of prints to go on, not a smudge.
I shrugged like I didn’t give a damn and that much was the truth.
I didn’t give a damn.
For two years I had had experts work those same finger over just to find out who I was, and now I was damn glad nothing came of it. The two guys got up, led the way, I got in the middle and Lindsey and Tucker followed along behind me.
The whole thing took better than an hour. I let them play with their gadgets, do things to my fingers that left them raw and bleeding, take sample impressions one after the other and never squawked when I got blisters from holding my hands too near the ultraviolet lights.
I was the most co-operative subject the boys had ever had and when it was over all they had was a bunch of smudges and a brand-new case history for rookie cops to study because I was the first one who ever had his fingerprints removed completely. The boys were shaking their heads when I left, Lindsey was cursing to himself trying to hold his temper in check and Tucker was watching me like he was glad because he might be able to even things up with me his way.
I went in the barbershop off the lobby and picked out a chair along the wall. Looth Tooth had a customer in the chair and was fidgeting over him like an old woman. A bellboy came in and handed the guy two telegrams and a telephone message slip and when he got a fat tip said, “Thanks, Mayor.”
Two men came in after me, gave the mayor a fat hello, then parked and talked shop. One was a councilman. I was in the Waldorf of Lyncastle. Where the elite meet for a shave and a haircut and some choice cuts of local gossip. Logan should hire Looth Tooth, I thought. It would be better than taking a poll.
When the mayor climbed down I took his place in the chair. Looth Tooth had the apron around my neck and was about to pin it shut when he met my eyes in the mirror and turned white. His hands started to shake when he put the towel 90 around me and I was beginning to think that it wasn’t such a good idea after all.
When he had about five minutes of it I said, “Look, quit being so nervous. You gave me a treatment with the cops and I got back at you in that bar. It’s over. Finished. I’m not mad any more.”
The sigh he let out whistled through his teeth. “I... I’m awfully sorry about that, sir. You see... I thought... well, I do have quite a memory, and I thought the police... well, it was sort of a public duty and...”
“Sure, I would have done the same thing myself. Forget about it.”
“Oh, gladly, sir, gladly!” He laid a hot towel across my face and began to massage in the heat. It felt good. I lay there stretched out in the chair while he went through all his tricks. My eyes closed and the sounds from the street got dimmer and dimmer and the brush was a gentle thing floating across my cheeks.
It was nice for thinking. Johnny and I used to make a habit of being barber-shaved on Saturday afternoons. We’d sit next to each other and crack jokes under the towels and make plans for the day. We sure had a hell of a good time together. It wasn’t so nice without him any more. Wherever he was, I hoped he’d keep an eye on me. Maybe he’d like what I was doing... or maybe he wouldn’t. It wasn’t too nice to bring things back that were better off forgotten, but as long as he was dead now he was going to have died honorably. Somebody else didn’t want that past brought up again... they were scared silly when I came around, enough to try to have me bumped. And somebody else was looking for Vera West too, according to Jack.
I wondered about that.
Looth Tooth rattled something I didn’t hear, something about getting slicked up for tonight. I said, “Make me pretty, mister. Tonight’s a big date night.”
The stuff he patted on my cheeks bit in. “You mean, Miss West? Yes, I remember. You and she... oh, I... I’m sorry, I didn’t mean...”
“Hell, man that’s okay. All over the hill now.”
He was smiling when he dusted me off and I handed him a buck tip. He did everything except kiss me good-by when I left and he was glad to see me go. The poor slob probably figured he had talked his way out of a smearing and would have something else to gas about to the rest of his customers.
A light drizzle had put a slick on the streets. Off in the west, sheet lightning turned the sky a dull orange momentarily and seconds later there was a faint rumble of thunder. I stepped up my pace until I got back to the car, then sat there deciding where to go. A kid in a green sweater came along with a batch of papers under his arm, turned into the gin mill and made the rounds. When he came out I called him over and asked him where the Circus Bar was. He told me it was straight down the avenue and I couldn’t miss it because there were pink elephants painted across the windows. I bought a paper, flipped him a quarter and rolled away from the curb.