Dilwick was watching me closely. “Where did the second one come from?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
I was too slow. The back of Dilwick’s hand nearly rocked my head off my shoulders. The arm of a chair hit my side and before I could spill over into it Dilwick had my shirt front. Price caught his hand before he could swing again.
I kicked the chair away and pulled free as Price stepped between us. “Let me go, Price!” I yelled.
“Damn it, I said to turn it off!”
Dilwick backed off reluctantly. “I’ll play that back to you, Dilwick,” I said. Nobody was pulling that trick on me and getting by with it. It’s a wonder he had the nerve to start something after that last pasting I gave him. Maybe he was hoping I’d try to use my rod . . . that would be swell. He could knock me off as nice as anything and call it police business.
“Maybe you’ll answer the next time you’re spoken to, Hammer. You’ve pulled a lot of shady deals around here lately and I’m sick of it. As for you, Price, you’re treating him like he’s carrying a badge. You’ve got me hog-tied, but that won’t last long if I want to work on it.”
The sergeant’s voice was almost a whisper. “One day you’re going to go too far. I think you know what I mean.”
Evidently Dilwick did. His lips tightened into a thin line and his eyes blazed, but he shut up just the same. “Now if you have anything to say, say it properly.”
With an obvious attempt at controlling his rage, Dilwick nodded. He turned to me again. “Where did you get the other will?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” I repeated.
“You letting him get away with this, Price?”
The trooper was on the spot. “Tell him, Mike.”
“I’ll tell you, Price. He can listen in. I found it among York’s personal effects.”
For a full ten minutes I stood by while the two of them went over the contents of the wills. Price was satisfied with a cursory examination, but not so Dilwick. He read every line, then reread them. I could see the muscles of his mouth twitch as he worked the thing out in his mind. No, I was not underestimating Dilwick one bit. There wasn’t much that went on that he didn’t know about. Twice, he let his eyes slide off the paper and meet mine. It was coming. Any minute now.
Then it was here. “I could read murder into this,” he grated.
Price turned sharply. “Yes?”
“Hammer, I think I’m going to put you on the spot.”
“Swell. You’d like that. Okay, go ahead.”
“Pull up your ears and get a load of this, Price. This punk and the Nichols dame could make a nice team. Damn nice. You didn’t think I’d find out about those pictures, did you, Hammer? Well, I did. You know what it looks like to me? It looks like the Nichols babe blackmailed Grange into making York change his will. Let York see those shots and Grange’s reputation would be shot to hell, she’d be fired and lose out on the will to boot. At least if she came through on the deal, all she’d lose was the will.”
I nodded. “Pretty, but where do I come in?”
“Right now. Grange got hold of those pictures somehow. Only Nichols pulls a fast one and tells York that Grange was the one who was blackmailing her. York takes off for Grange’s apartment in a rage because he had a yen for his pretty little niece, only Grange bumps him. Then Nichols corners you and you bump Grange and get the stuff off her, and the will. Now you turn it up, Nichols comes into a wad of cash and you split it.”
It wasn’t as bad as I thought. Dilwick had squeezed a lot of straight facts out of somebody, only he was putting it together wrong. Yeah, he had gotten around, all right. He had reached a lot of people to get that much and he’d like to make it stick.
Price said, “What about it, Mike?”
I grinned. “He’s got a real sweet case there.” I looked at the cop. “How’re you going to prove it?”
“Never mind,” he snarled, “I will, I will. Maybe I ought to book you right now on what I have. It’ll hold up and Price knows it, too.”
“Uh-uh. It’ll hold up . . . for about five minutes. Did you find Grange yet?”
He said nothing.
“Nuts,” I laughed, “no corpus delicti, no Mike Hammer.”
“Wrong, Hammer. After a reasonable length of time and sufficient evidence to substantiate death, a corpse can be assumed.”
“He’s right, Mike.”
“Then he’s got to shoot holes in my alibi, Price. I have a pretty tight one.”
“Where did you go after you left Alice’s apartment the other night?” Brother, I should have guessed it. Dilwick had put the bee on the Graham kid and the bastard copped a sneak. It was ten to one he told Dilwick he hadn’t seen me.
That’s what I get for making enemies. If the Graham kid thought he could put me on the spot he’d do it. So would Alice for that matter.
But there were still angles. “Go ahead and work on my alibi, Dilwick. You know what it is. Only I’ll give you odds that I can make your witness see the light sooner than you can.”
“Not if you’re in the can.”
“First get me there. I don’t think you can. Even if you did a good lawyer could rip those phonies apart on the stand and you know it. You’re stalling, Dilwick. What’re you scared of? Me? Afraid I’ll put a crimp in your doings?”
“You’re asking for it, punk.”
Price came back into the argument. “Skip it, Dilwick. If you have the goods on him then present it through the regular channels, only don’t slip up. Let you and your gang go too far and there’ll be trouble. I’m satisfied to let Mr. Hammer operate unhampered because I’m familiar with him . . . and you, too.”
“Thanks, pal.”
Dilwick jammed his hat on and stamped out of the room. If I wanted to get anywhere I was going to have to act fast, because my fat friend wasn’t going to let any grass grow under his feet finding enough dope to toss me in the clink. When the door slammed I let Price have my biggest smile. He smiled right back.
“Where’ve you been?”
“New York. I tried to get you before I left but you weren’t around.”
“I know. We’ve had a dozen reports of Grange being seen and I’ve been running them down.”
“Any luck?”
“Nothing. A lot of mistaken identities and a few cranks who wanted to see the police in action. What did you get?”
“Plenty. We’re back to the kidnapping again. This whole pot of stew started there and is going to end there. Ruston wasn’t York’s kid at all. His died in childbirth and another was switched to take its place. The father of the baby was a small-time hoodlum and tried to make a complaint but was dissuaded along the line. All very nicely covered up, but I think it’s a case of murder that’s been brewing for fourteen years.”
During the next half hour I gave him everything I knew, starting with my trip to the local library. Price was a lot like Pat. He sat there saying nothing, taking it all in and letting it digest in his mind. Occasionally he would nod, but never interrupted until I had finished.
He said: “That throws the ball to this Mallory character.”
“Roger, and the guy is completely unknown. The last time he showed up was a few days after the switch took place.”
“A man can change a lot in fourteen years.”
“That’s what I’m thinking,” I agreed. “The first thing we have to do is concentrate on locating Grange. Alive or dead she can bring us further up to date. She didn’t disappear for nothing.”
“All right, Mike, I’ll do my share. I still have men dragging the channel and on the dragnet. What are you going to do?”