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Authors: Louis Trimble

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BOOK: The Duchess of Skid Row
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I pushed Pooly into the path of the gun. It caught him on the side of the head. He went limp. I pushed him harder, rolling him toward Minto’s legs.

Minto tried to dance backward. I got to my knees and pushed myself up and forward. I rammed the top of my head into Minto at the beltbuckle. He went over backwards.

I finished climbing to my feet. Minto wasn’t out and he still had his gun. I didn’t stand a chance of reaching him before he untangled himself and leveled it at me. And Pooly was stirring. I decided not to be brave. I aimed for the front door and ran.

I went over the railing in a headfirst dive. The water was cold and dirty with sewage. But I had my typhoid shots, I figured that a temporary chill was better than the permanent chill Minto would give me.

I kept going down until I wondered if the bottom had fallen out of the Inlet. But suddenly it was there, muddy and thick under my outstretched hands. I pushed at it and started back up, kicking myself toward the surface at an angle.

I broke water carefully. I had aimed for a spot near my cruiser. I surfaced about five feet from its bow. I went down, swam the five feet, and then brought my head up carefully.

I was buried in the shadow of the cruiser’s hull. I put one hand up and clung to the rim of a porthole. I sucked in deep gusts of the chill wet air.

Minto and Pooly were outlined on the after porch of my houseboat. Minto’s voice came softly over the few feet of water separating us.

“McKeon didn’t drown,” he said. “He isn’t that obliging.”

“He better not drown,” Pooly said. “I got a score to settle with him.”

I wished they would argue about me someplace else. My fingers were beginning to cramp from the chill. I couldn’t hang to the edge of the porthole much longer. And my teeth were beginning to click together. I wondered how long it would be before Minto picked up that sound.

He said, “Let’s get out of here. I’m not used to this damn climate.”

I wondered what kind of climate he was used to.

Pooly said something I couldn’t hear. Minto said, “We’ll come back and get him later.”

I heard their footsteps as they stomped away. I followed the sounds off the porch and up the dock toward the street. I gave them another five minutes in case they were setting a trap for me.

And five minutes was all the time I had to give. I was almost too numb to kick my way through the water to the edge of the porch. I pulled myself painfully out of the water. I lay on my belly until I found enough breath to go on. The warmth of the houseboat was a temptation. But Minto had said they would come back later. I didn’t want to be around then. I had too much to do. I couldn’t afford the time to play games with Minto and Pooly.

I walked up the dock, feeling like an old man. My muscles were barely responding to the commands from my brain. I dripped my way to my car, climbed in, and started the motor. I backed around and drove onto Southlake. I wasn’t thinking now; I was just reacting. I drove south and then turned right, heading up the hill. I pulled my car behind Stephanie’s little green coupe. It was parked at the side entrance to her apartment house.

I went in the entrance. I climbed a flight of stairs and hiked down a carpeted hall. I poked my finger at the doorbell.

The door opened. Stephanie was wearing a pale yellow housecoat and an angry expression.

I said, “Sorry I’m a little late. I got caught in the traffic.” I took two steps into the room and folded down onto her floor.

5

STEPHANIE
didn’t ask questions. I liked that about her. She helped me into the bathroom, turned the shower on hot, and left me alone. I stripped down and parboiled myself until I could feel my corpuscles coming back to life. I climbed out of the shower and patted my sore spots dry.

I opened the bathroom door and stuck my head around the edge. Stephanie had put my suitcase in plain sight by her bed. I was glad I’d forgotten it at the office. If she hadn’t brought it here, I would have had to borrow something to wear, and I didn’t think her clothes would fit me.

I began to feel a little better with dry clothes on. I went into the living room, I could hear her rattling around in her kitchenette.

I said, “How about a drink? My insides are still below zero.”

She called, “Help yourself. I’m getting us something to eat.”

I found a bottle of bourbon and a glass. I took a stiff shot straight down and then worked more slowly on a second. I was close to the bottom when she called me into the kitchenette.

It wasn’t the dinner I had planned for her, but I couldn’t think of anything better right now than the two massive bowls of chili and beans and a plate of french bread smelling of garlic butter. She sat down. I sat down. Neither one of us said anything until we reached the bottoms of the bowls.

Stephanie said, “Let’s have our coffee in the living room.”

I sat on the couch and watched her pour out the coffee. She set a brandy bottle beside my cup. I laced my coffee and reached for her cigarets.

I said, “Sometimes you can be the lovable type, babydoll.”

She helped herself to the brandy. “I’m also the curious type,” she said. “And I’ve held myself in about as long as I can stand.”

I told her what had happened. It started with Johnny Itsuko. I ended with her opening the door.

She lit a cigaret and worried the filter tip with her teeth. “I don’t understand, Jeff. You mean Ritter really believes you killed this Johnny Itsuko? He really thinks you have something to do with the Combine coming back to Puget City?”

“That’s right,” I said.

“But the DA doesn’t! He couldn’t!”

I said, “I don’t think he does, yet. But it won’t matter one way or the other. If Ritter can put together enough evidence, he can force Maslin to ask the DA to try to indict me. And the DA will have to do just that. Otherwise Ritter can make a big stink in the newspapers.”

I paused and gulped my coffee. “And you know what that would do to the department.”

Stephanie nodded soberly. She stared at me a moment, her eyes widening. “Jeff, are you hiding out? From Lieutenant Maslin, I mean. Is that why you’re here?”

“I’m hiding out, but not from Maslin. I’m staying away from Minto and Pooly until I can get the strength to handle them.”

“And when you get the strength, then what?”

“Then,” I said, “I’m going to find that pair—and a few other people. And I’m going to get some answers.” I was thinking of Johnny Itsuko and getting angry again. I let my voice show how I felt.

“Johnny Itsuko was a friend of mine. Even if I didn’t have Ritter’s accusations hanging around my neck, I’d do something about Johnny’s murder.”

“What can you do that Maslin can’t?” she demanded.

“Maslin has to play by the rules. I don’t.”

“You’re as much a part of the law as he is,” she said.

“I was. But I won’t be for long.” I emptied my coffee cup and got to my feet. I went to her telephone. I dialed the DA’s home phone.

He sounded irritated when he answered. I said, “Sorry to disturb your after-dinner coffee, sir, but I called to tell you I’m resigning.”

He said, “I talked to Maslin and Ritter, Jeff. I don’t think there’s any reason for you to resign. Not yet anyway.”

“Think it over and you’ll find the reason. Can you notify the newspaper in time for the morning edition?”

He said slowly, “If that’s the way you want it.”

I said, “I’ll write you a letter about it tomorrow.”

“You’d better call me tomorrow,” he said. “Ritter was yelling about getting more conclusive evidence. I may be able to give you a few leads.”

“I’ll do that,” I said.

I hung up and went back to the couch. Stephanie poured me some more coffee. I lit another cigaret. She said, “Did you have to do that?”

“It’s the only way I can work in my own way.”

She nodded. “What did the DA have to say, Jeff?”

I said, “Ritter is claiming he has more evidence.”

“How could he?” she demanded.

“He can make it. Or he can twist real evidence to make me look bad. I hate to make an accusation like that about a police captain. But it’s been done before.”

“I thought Ritter was supposed to have been honest even in the old days,” she said.

“It isn’t a matter so much of dishonesty as it is of prejudice. Ritter has the kind of mind that will use any means to gain the end he thinks is the right one. It’s a dictator’s mind. He has hate pushing him too. Hate pushed by thirty years of narrow, traditional, unimaginative thinking.”

“Then he really might pretend to have the kind of evidence that would force Lieutenant Maslin to arrest you.”

“That’s right,” I said. “And Maslin won’t be able to do anything but act on that evidence.”

“I think,” she said slowly, “you’d better plan to stay here for a while, Jeff.” She worried her cigaret again. “I can take your car downtown in the morning and garage it. You can use my car. That way, you’ll be a little safer from this—this Minto, and from the police too.”

“What if things go sour? Then you’ll be in trouble too.”

Stephanie poured brandy in each of our coffee cups. She said, “I work for the department too. I have as big a stake in its reputation as anyone else.” She slid along the couch until she could touch my arm with her hand.

“Don’t you see, Jeff? I want to help. But there’s so little I can do, except something like this.”

I was surprised. I had always thought of Stephanie as more or less a pleasant decoration for the front office, as someone to drink with, maybe roll in the hay with if I ever had the chance. I’d always felt that her interest seldom went beyond Stephanie. This was quite a switch.

But then, as she said, she hadn’t had much chance to help. And she had never been faced with a possible departmental blowup like the one that could come out of this mess.

I said, “I can use all the help I can get.”

She squeezed her fingers down on my arm. I said, “And if things do go sour, I’ll do what I can to keep you off the hook.”

She said softly, “I’ll give you all the help I can, Jeff—any kind.”

I grinned at her. “That’s a dangerous thing to say, babydoll. It leaves me a lot of room to operate in.”

“I meant for it to,” she said. She moved another foot closer. I took the hint and reached for her. She came up against me with a quick, sinuous movement….

• • •

Daylight hit me across the eyes. I lifted my head and blinked at it. Stephanie stirred beside me. She took one of my hands and laid it on her bare breast.

“Nice to wake up to, darling?”

“It would be nicer if I didn’t have Ritter or Minto hanging over my head.”

Stephanie’s flesh quivered under my fingers. “I forgot about all that. What are you going to do?”

“Send you off to work and go back to sleep. Tell the DA I’ll call him later. And keep your ears open for me. Okay?”

She slid reluctantly out of the bed. “All right. But be careful, darling.”

She had a possessive way of saying
darling
that worried me. I kept my back to her, my eyes closed. I didn’t know when she left the apartment. I’d gone back to sleep.

I awoke just past one o’clock. I was stiff and sore and some of the lumps I’d picked up felt worse than before. I drew a hot bath and soaked in it while I read the morning paper.

There were two front-page stories of interest. One was about Johnny’s death; the other about my resigning. Hal Ewing, who had written both, made no attempt to connect the two events.

I didn’t learn much that I didn’t already know. The police were still looking for Johnny Itsuko’s automobile. Lieutenant Maslin claimed he could find no logical motive for the killing. Captain Ritter wasn’t mentioned. Neither was I. As far as the newspaper story went, Johnny Itsuko’s connection with the police force was still unknown.

I was glad Ritter hadn’t yet shot off his face. The less he said, the more chance I had of uncovering the evidence I needed. Once the truth about Johnny’s work came out, a lot of rats would likely run for cover and wait for the heat to die down.

I left the tub reluctantly and went to see what Stephanie had in her refrigerator. It was after three when I took my last cup of coffee and a cigaret to the telephone.

Stephanie answered the phone. “What happened to you, Jeff?”

“I slept in.”

She said quickly, “I garaged your car, darling. I left my keys on the coffee table. You’ll be all right with my car.”

“No warrant out for me yet?”

I tried to make it sound like a joke, but she answered seriously. “Captain Ritter has been in. So has Lieutenant Maslin, but I haven’t heard anything.”

I said, “Put me through to the bossman, babydoll. Maybe he has some news.”

She said, “Will I see you soon?”

“We still have last night’s dinner date to keep. Just come back here. If I’m not around, wait for me.”

“Be careful, Jeff.”

I said I’d be careful. She switched me over to the DA. I said, “This is your former employee.”

He said, “You were right, Jeff. That was a smart move, your resigning.”

“I couldn’t think of any other way to unzip Ritter in a hurry.”

His voice was tight and cold. “If you think you’ve got Ritter on the run, Jeff, think harder. He came up with his evidence today.”

“What kind of evidence?”

He said, “The kind that would have made me ask for your resignation if you hadn’t already given it to me.”

“I said, “Slow down, sir, and tell me what kind of evidence Ritter claims he has on me.”

He said, “Johnny Itsuko’s taped report. Johnny took it in the house last night. His wife gave it to Ritter.”

I said, “Did you hear it?”

“No, I just heard what Ritter said was on that tape. And he wouldn’t dare lie, Jeff.”

I yelled, “All right, what was on it?”

“It puts the finger on you, Jeff, just as Ritter claimed.”

“If that’s true, why did Johnny Itsuko invite me to talk to him last night? If he thought I sold out to the Combine, he wouldn’t have let me get within fifty feet of him.”

“I can’t answer that,” the DA said. “But maybe Maslin can. He wants to talk to you.”

“You mean he wants to book me.”

“He didn’t a half hour ago,” the DA said. “He told me that if you called to tell you to come down. He wants to ask some questions.”

“I’ll bet that’s all he wants. If Ritter has made as big a sucker out of him as he has out of you, Maslin will throw the key away on me.”

I rammed the phone down. I lit another cigaret and dialed Maslin’s office.

He was down in the forensic lab, but I finally got him on the wire. I said, “McKeon here. The DA said you wanted to talk to me.”

Maslin sounded as unperturbed as ever. “That’s right, Jeff. Can you come down? I have something to show you. I’ll be in the lab.”

I said, “I can come down there, but how long do I have to stay?”

“If I wanted you arrested, I’d have you here by now.”

I said, “You’d have to find me first.”

He said, “That wouldn’t be difficult. Or did Stephanie Bartlett hide your car in a downtown garage just to make us think you’re staying at her place?”

I said, “Go to hell. I’ll be down in twenty minutes.”

I took a cab, leaving Stephanie’s coupe in case I wanted it for a disguise later. The cab dropped me off at the side entrance near the basement. I walked straight to the lab and into the reception room. Maslin was conferring with Tod Billings, the city’s top lab man.

I went up to them. Maslin gave me a faint smile. He said, “Don’t look so put out, Jeff. Since Griselda isn’t in town, I chose the next most likely one.”

I said again, “Go to hell.”

“By the way, Griselda called the DA’s office and left you a message,” he said.

“Now maybe I can throw all this crap back in Ritter’s face.” I reached for a phone. “I’ll let you ask her where she stands yourself.”

I dialed the DA’s extension. I said to Stephanie, “Put me through to the bossman, babydoll.”

She put me straight through. I said, “Jeff here again. What’s this about Griselda Cletis calling?”

The DA said, “From Los Angeles. She said to tell you that she’s back in town and you can call her there. She seems to think you know the number. Nothing urgent.”

I hung up on him. I said to Maslin, “Griselda’s back from the desert. Do you want to talk to her?”

He said quietly, “I already have the L.A. police checking her out, Jeff.” He nodded to Tod Billings. “Tod has something to show us. Let’s go into his lab”

Tod Billings grinned at me as we walked toward the lab. He opened the door to his lab and we went in. Quite a collection of junk littered the workbench along one wall. I could see that it was mostly metal, twisted and burned. I looked inquiringly at Tod Billings.

He said briskly, “This stuff was taken out of what was left of Johnny Itsuko’s car.”

Maslin said, “Maybe Jeff hasn’t heard.” He glanced at me. “The car was found down by the river. Whoever stole it also tried to blow it up.”

“Not quite accurate,” Billings said. He poked a finger at a particularly twisted piece of metal. “He didn’t just try to blow it up. He knew his business. This is the timing mechanism for the bomb. He had it planted in the right place. He just didn’t count on one item.”

Maslin and I both waited. When Billings had something to say about scientific crime detection, everyone listened. He said, “Itsuko drove a small English car. The demolition expert is probably used to blowing up American cars.” He grinned at us. “No offense meant, but some of those little bugs are just tougher. So he got only half as much destruction as he planned.”

I said, “You called him a demolition expert. Does that mean anything?”

BOOK: The Duchess of Skid Row
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