The Mike Hammer Collection, Volume 2 (5 page)

“I found ‘em.”

“Nuts. Sit down, damn it.” I sat down easy again and lit a smoke. It was hard to keep a grin off my mouth. “Once more, Mike, where’d they come from?”

“I told you I found them.”

“Okay, I’ll get very simple in my questioning.
Where
did you find them?”

I was getting tired of wearing the grin. I let it do what it wanted to do and I felt the air dry my teeth. “Look, Pat, remember me? I’m your friend. I’m a citizen and I’m a stubborn jerk who doesn’t like to answer questions when he doesn’t know why. Quit the cop act and ask right. So tell me I handed you a line about a vacation when all I wanted to get was some information. So tell me something you haven’t told me before.”

“All right, Mike, all right. All I want to know is where you got them.”

“I killed a guy and took it off his body.”

“Stop being sarcastic.”

I must have grinned the dirtiest kind of grin there was. Pat watched me strangely, shook his head impatiently and tossed the cards back on the desk. “Are they so important I can’t hear about it, Pat?”

He ran his tongue across his lips. “No, they’re not so important in one way. I guess they could be lost easily enough. There’re plenty of them in circulation.”

“Yeah?”

He nodded briefly and fingered the edge of one. “They’re Communist identification cards. One of the new fronts. The Nazi bund that used to operate in this country had cards just like ‘em. They were red though. Every so often they change the cuts of the edges to try to trip up any spies. When you get in the meeting hall your card has to match up with a master card.”

“Oh, just like a lodge.” I picked one up and tucked it in my coat pocket.

He said, “Yeah,” sourly.

“Then why all the to-do with the door. We’re not in a meeting hall.”

Pat smacked the desk with the flat of his hand. “I don’t know, Mike. Damn it, if anybody but you came in with a couple of those cards I would have said what they were and that’s all. But when it’s you I go cold all over and wait for something to happen. I know it won’t happen, then it does. Come on, spill it. What’s behind them?” He looked tired as hell.

“Nothing, I told you that. They’re curious and I found two of them. I’d never seen anything like it before and thought maybe you’d know what they were.”

“And I did.”

“That’s right. Thanks.”

I put my hat back on and stood up. He let me get as far as the door. “Mike ...” He was looking at his hand.

“I’m on vacation now, pal.”

He picked up a card and looked at the blank sides of it. “Three days ago a man was murdered. He had one of these things clutched in his hand.”

I turned the knob. “I’m still on vacation.”

“I just thought I’d tell you. Give you something to think about.”

“Swell. I’ll turn it over in my mind when I’m stretched out on a beach in Florida.”

“We know who killed him.”

I let the knob slip through my fingers and tried to sound casual. “Anybody I know?”

“Yes, you and eight million others. His name is Lee Deamer. He’s running for State Senator next term.”

My breath whistled through my teeth. Lee Deamer, the people’s choice. The guy who was scheduled to sweep the state clean. The guy who was kicking the politicians all over the joint. “He’s pretty big,” I said.

“Very.”

“Too big to touch?”

His eyes jumped to mine. “Nobody is that big, Mike. Not even Deamer.”

“Then why don’t you grab him?”

“Because he didn’t do it.”

“What a pretty circle
that
is. I had you figured for a brain, Pat. He killed a guy and he didn’t do it. That’s great logic, especially when it comes from you.”

A slow grin started at the corner of his eyes. “When you’re on vacation you can think it over, Mike. I’ll wrap it up for you, just once. A dead man is found. He has one of these cards in his hand. Three people positively identified the killer. Each one saw him under favorable conditions and was able to give a complete description and identification. They came to the police with the story and we were lucky enough to hush it up.

“Lee Deamer was identified as the killer. He was described right to the scar on his nose, his picture was snapped up the second it was shown and he was identified in person. It’s the most open-and-shut case you ever saw, yet we can’t touch him because when he was supposed to be pulling a murder he was a mile away talking to a group of prominent citizens. I happened to be among those present.”

I kicked the door closed with my foot and stood there. “Hot damn.”

“Too hot to handle. Now you know why the D.A. was in such a foul mood.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “But it shouldn’t be too tough for you, Pat. There’s only four things that could have happened.”

“Tell me. See if it’s what I’m thinking.”

“Sure, kid. One: twins. Two: a killer disguised as Deamer. Three: a deliberate frame-up with witnesses paid to make the wrong identification. Four: it was Deamer after all.”

“Which do you like, Mike?”

I laughed at his solemn tone. “Beats me, I’m on vacation.” I found the knob and pulled it open. “See you when I get back.”

“Sure thing, Mike.” His eyes narrowed to slits. “If you run across any more cards, tell me about them, will you?”

“Yeah, anything else?”

“Just that one question. Where did you get them?”

“I killed a guy and took it off his dead body.”

Pat was swearing softly to himself when I left. Just as the elevator door closed he must have begun to believe me because I heard his door open and he shouted, “Mike ... damn it, Mike!”

I called the
Globe
office from a hash house down the street. When I asked the switchboard operator if Marty Kooperman had called in yet she plugged into a couple of circuits, asked around and told me he was just about to go to lunch. I passed the word for him to meet me in the lobby if he wanted a free chow and hung up. I wasn’t in a hurry. I never knew a reporter yet who would pass up a meal he wasn’t paying for.

Marty was there straddling a chair backwards, trying to keep his eyes on two blondes and a luscious redhead who was apparently waiting for someone else. When I tapped him on the shoulder he scowled and whispered, “Hell, I almost had that redhead nailed. Go away.”

“Come on, I’ll buy you another one,” I said.

“I like this one.”

The city editor came out of the elevator, said hello to the redhead and they went out together. Marty shrugged. “Okay, let’s eat. A lousy political reporter doesn’t stand a chance against that.”

One of the blondes looked at me and smiled. I winked at her and she winked back. Marty was so disgusted he spit on the polished floor. Some day he’ll learn that all you have to do is ask. They’ll tell you.

He tried to steer me into a hangout around the corner, but I nixed the idea and kept going up the street to a little bar that put out a good meal without any background noise. When we had a table between us and the orders on the fire, Marty flipped me a cigarette and the angle of his eyebrows told me he was waiting.

“How much about politics do you know, Marty?”

He shook the match out. “More than I can write about.”

“Know anything about Lee Deamer?”

His eyebrows came down and he leaned on his elbows. “You’re an investigator, Mike. You’re the lad with a gun under his coat. Who wants to know about Deamer?”

“Me.”

“What for?” His hand was itching to go for the pad and pencil in his pocket.

“Because of something that’s no good for a story,” I said. “What do you know about him?”

“Hell, there’s nothing wrong with him. The guy is going to be the next senator from this state. He packs a big punch and everybody likes him including the opposition. He’s strictly a maximum of statesman and a minimum of politician. Deamer has the cleanest record of anybody, probably because he has never been mixed up in politics too much. He is independently wealthy and out of reach as far as bribery goes. He has no use for chiselers or the spoils system, so most of the sharp boys are against him.”

“Are you against him, Marty?”

“Not me, feller. I’m a Deamer man through and through. He’s what we need these days. Where do you stand?”

“I haven’t voted since they dissolved the Whig party.”

“Fine citizen you are.”

“Yeah.”

“Then why the sudden curiosity?”

“Suppose I sort of hinted to you ... strictly off the record ... that somebody was after Deamer. Would you give me a hand? It may be another of those things you’ll never get to write about.”

Marty balled his hands into fists and rubbed his knuckles together. His face wasn’t nice to look at. “You’re damn right I’ll help. I’m just another little guy who’s sick of being booted around the block by the bastards that get themselves elected to public office and use that office to push their own wild ideas and line their own pockets. When a good thing comes along those stinking pigs go all out to smear it. Well, not if I can help it, and not if about nine tenths of the people in this burg can help it either. What do you need, kid?”

“Not much. Just a history on Deamer. All his background from as far back as you can go. Bring it right up to date. Pictures too, if you have any.”

“I have folders of the stuff.”

“Good,” I said. Our lunch came up then and we dug into it. Throughout the meal Marty would alternately frown at his plate then glance up at me. I ate and kept my mouth shut. He could come to his own decision. He reached it over the apple pie he had for dessert. I saw his face relax and he let out a satisfied grunt.

“Do you want the stuff now?”

“Any time will do. Stick it in an envelope and send it to my office. I’m not in a hurry.”

“Okay.” He eyed me carefully. “Can you let me in on the secret?”

I shook my head. “I would if I could, pal. I don’t know what the score is yet myself.”

“Suppose I keep my ears to the ground. Anything likely to crop up that you could use?”

“I doubt it. Let’s say that Deamer is a secondary consideration to what I actually want. Knowing something about him might help both of us.”

“I see.” He struck a match under the table and held it to a cigarette. “Mike, if there is a news angle, will you let me in on it?”

“I’d be glad to.”

“I’m not talking about publishable news.”

“No?”

Marty looked through the smoke at me, his eyes bright. “In every man’s past there’s some dirt. It can be dirt that belongs to the past and not to the present. But it can be dirty enough to use to smear a person, smear him so good that he’ll have to retreat from the public gaze. You aren’t tied up in politics like I am so you haven’t got any idea how really rotten it is. Everybody is out for himself and to hell with the public. Oh, sure, the public has its big heroes, but they do things just to make the people think of them as heroes. Just look what happens whenever Congress or some other organization uncovers some of the filthy tactics behind government ... the next day or two the boys upstairs release some big news item they’ve been keeping in reserve and it sweeps the dirt right off the front page and out of your mind.

“Deamer’s straight. Because he’s straight he’s a target. Everybody is after his hide except the people. Don’t think it hasn’t been tried. I’ve come across it and so have the others, but we went to the trouble of going down a little deeper than we were expected to and we came across the source of the so-called ‘facts.’ Because it was stuff that was supposed to come to light during any normal compilation of a man’s background the only way it could reach the public without being suspected of smear tactics by the opposition was through the newspapers.

“Well, by tacit agreement we suppressed the stuff. In one way we’re targets too because the big boys with the strings know how we feel. Lee Deamer’s going to be in there, Mike. He’s going to raise all kinds of hell with the corruption we have in our government. He’ll smoke out the rats that live on the public and give this country back some of the strength that it had before we were undermined by a lot of pretty talk and pretty faces.

“That’s why I want to get the story from you ... if there is one. I want to hold a conference with the others who feel like I do and come to an honest conclusion. Hell, I don’t know why I’ve become so damn public-spirited. Maybe it’s just that I’m tired of taking all the crap that’s handed out.”

I put a light to my butt and said, “Has there been anything lately on the guy?”

“No. Not for a month, anyway. They’re waiting until he gets done stumping the state before they pick him apart.”

Pat was right then. The police had kept it quiet, not because they were part of the movement of righteousness, but because they must have suspected a smear job. Deamer couldn’t have been in two places at once by any means.

“Okay, Marty. I’ll get in touch with you if anything lousy comes up. Do me a favor and keep my name out of any conversation, though, will you?”

“Of course. By the way, that judge handed you a dirty one the other day.”

“What the hell, he could be right, you know.”

“Sure he could, it’s a matter of opinion. He’s just a stickler for the letter of the law, the exact science of words. He’s the guy that let a jerk off on a smoking-in-the-subway charge. The sign said NO SMOKING ALLOWED, so he claimed it allowed you not to smoke, but didn’t say anything about not smoking. Don’t give him another thought.”

I took a bill from my wallet and handed it to the waiter with a wave that meant to forget the change. Marty looked at his watch and said he had to get back, so we shook hands and left.

The afternoon papers were out and the headlines had to do with the Garden fight the night before. One of the kids was still out like a light. His manager was being indicted for letting him go into the ring with a brain injury.

There wasn’t a word about any bodies being found in the river. I threw the paper in a waste barrel and got in my car.

I didn’t feel so good. I wasn’t sick, but I didn’t feel so good. I drove to a parking lot, shoved the car into a corner and took a cab to Times Square and went to a horror movie. The lead feature had an actor with a split personality. One was a man, the other was an ape. When he was an ape he killed people and when he was a man he regretted it. I could imagine how he felt. When I stood it as long as I could I got up and went to a bar.