The Snake mh-8 Page 12

  I took a cab downtown, found Pat alone at his desk buried in the usual paperwork, waited for him to finish, then said, "What officers were in on the Motley holdup? Any still around?"

  "This your day for surprises?"

  "Hit me."

  "Inspector Grebb was one. He was a beat cop who was alerted for the action."

  "Oh hell."

  "Why?"

  "Think he'd remember the details?"

  "I don't remember Grebb ever forgetting anything."

  "Then let's call him in."

  "You sure about this?" Pat asked me.

  "It's the easy way. So we give him a bite after all."

  Pat nodded, lifted, the phone, and made a call. When he hung up he said, "The Inspector will be happy to see you."

  "I bet."

  It didn't take him long to get up there. He didn't have Charlie Force with him either. He came in with the patient attitude of the professional cop, always ready to wait, always ready to act when the time came. He might have been a tough, sour old apple, but he made it the hard way and you couldn't take it away from him.

  Inwardly I laughed at myself because if I wasn't careful I could almost like him.

  "Whose party is it this time?" he asked.

  Pat said, "He's throwing it."

  "I never thought you'd ask, Hammer." He dragged a chair out with his foot, sat in it heavily and sighed, but it was all an act. He was no more tired or bored than I was. "Shoot," he said.

  "Pat tells me you were in on the Motley thing thirty years ago."

  "My second day on the beat, Hammer. That shows you how close to retirement I am. My present job is a gratuity. One last fling for the old dog in a department he always wanted to run."

  "Better luck in your next one."

  "We aren't talking about that. What's with the Motley job?"

  "How did the cops get wise?"

  "Why don't you read the transcript of the trial? It was mentioned."

  "This is easier. Besides, I wanted to be sure."

  Grebb pulled a cigar from his pocket, snapped off the end, and fired it up. "Like a lot of big ones that went bust," he said, "somebody pulled the cork. The department got a call. It went through the D.A.'s office."

  "Torrence?"

  "No, one of the others got it and passed it to him. Torrence handled it personally though."

  "Where were you?"

  "Staked out where the truck was hidden in case they got through somehow. They never made it. We got the truck and the driver. Second day on the beat too, I'll never forget it. Fresh out of school, still hardly shaving, and I get a hot one right off. Made me decide to stay in the department."

  "How long did you have to get ready?"

  "About an hour, if I remember right. It was plenty of time. We could have done it in fifteen minutes."

  "They ever find out who made the call?"

  "Nope."

  "They look very hard?"

  Grebb just shrugged noncommittally. Then he said, "Let's face it, we'd sooner have stoolies on the outside where they can call these things in than a live guy testifying in court who winds up a dead squealer a day later. We didn't break our backs running down anybody. Whoever it was played it the way we liked it. The job was a bust and we nailed the crew."

  "It wasn't a bust, Inspector."

  He stared at me until his face hurt.

  "Nobody ever located the money."

  "That's happened before. One of those things."

  "Blackie Conley simply disappeared."

  The cigar bobbed in his mouth. "And if he lived very long afterward he's a better man than I am. By now he'd be dead anyway." He took the cigar away from his mouth and flipped the ash off with his pinky. "But let's get back to the money... that's the interesting part."

  "I have an idea it might show up."

  "Maybe we better listen to your idea."

  "Uh-uh. Facts I'll give you, ideas stay in my pocket until I can prove them out."

  "Facts then."

  "None you don't already have if you want to check the transcript like you suggested. I just make something different out of them, that's all."

  Grebb put the cigar back between his teeth and pushed himself out of his chair. When he was on his feet he glanced at Pat meaningfully, said, "Don't let me wait too long, Captain," then went out.

  "I wish you'd quit pushing him," Pat told me. "Now what's with this bit?"

  I sat in the chair Grebb had vacated and propped my feet on Pat's desk. "I think Blackie Conley's alive."

  "How'd he do it?"

  "He was the planner behind the operation. He set it up, then phoned in a double-cross. Trouble was, he should have cut it shorter. He almost lost it himself. He laid out one escape plan, but took an alternate. He got away in that cab with the three million bucks and sat on it someplace."

  Pat tapped a pencil on the desk as I gave him the information Annette Lee gave me. Every once in a while he'd make a note on a pad, study it, then make another.

  "We'll have to locate whatever records are left of Howie Green's business. If he was dealing in real estate it will be a matter of public record."

  "You don't think Blackie would use his own name, do you?"

  "We can narrow it down. Look, check your file on Green."

  Pat put in another call and for the twenty minutes it took to get the papers up we went over the angles of the case. I still wouldn't lay it out the way I saw it, but he had enough to reach the same conclusion if he thought the same way.

  The uniformed officer handed Pat a yellowed folder and Pat opened it on his desk. Howie Green, deceased. Known bootlegger, six arrests, two minor convictions. Suspected of duplicity in a murder of one Francis Gorman, another bootlegger who moved into his territory. Charge dropped. Known to have large holdings that were legally acquired as far as the law could prove. His annual income made him a rich man for the times. He was killed by a hit-and-run driver not far from his own house and the date given was three days before the robbery of the three million bucks.

  "Pretty angle, Pat."

  "Spell it out."

  "If Conley did get hideout property from Green, paid for it, made the transaction, and accepted the papers in a phony name and took possession, then killed him before Green knew what he wanted it for, who could say where he was? Chances were that nobody but Conley and Green ever saw each other and Green wasn't around to talk any more."

  Pat closed the folder and shoved it in his desk. "We could check all the transactions Green made in the few weeks prior to his death."

  "Time, buddy. We haven't got the time."

  "But I have one thing you don't have."

  I knew what he was going to say.

  "Men. We can put enough troops on it to shorten the time."

  "It'll still be a long job."

  "You know a better way?"

  The phone rang before I could answer and although I could hear the hurried chatter at the other end I couldn't make it out. When he cradled the phone Pat said, "One of my squad in Brooklyn on that Levitt rundown."

  "Oh?"

  "He was eating with one of the men from the precinct over there when a call came in about a body. He went along with his friend and apparently the dead guy is one of the ones he showed Basil Levitt's picture to."

  "A starter," I said.

  "Could be. Want to take a run over?"

  "Why not?"

  Pat got his car from the lot and we hopped in, cutting over the bridge into the Brooklyn section. The address was in the heart of Flatbush, one block off the Avenue, a neighborhood bar and grill that was squeezed in between a grocery and a dry-cleaning place.

  A squad car was at the curb and a uniformed patrolman stood by the door. Two more, obviously detectives from the local precinct, were in the doorway talking. Pat knew the Lieutenant in charge, shook hands with him, introduced him to me as Joe Cavello, then went inside.

  Squatting nervously on a stool, the bartender watched us, trying to be casual, about the wh
ole thing. Lieutenant Cavello nodded toward him and said, "He found the body."

  "When?"

  "About an hour ago. He had to go down to hook into some fresh beer kegs and found the guy on the floor. He'd been shot once in the head with a small-caliber gun... I'd say about a .32."

  "The M.E. set the time of death?" I asked him.

  "About twelve to fifteen hours. He'll be more specific after an autopsy."

  "Who was he?" Pat said.

  "The owner of the place."

  "You know him?"

  "Somewhat," Cavello said. "We've had him down to the precinct a few times. Twice on wife beating and another when he was picked up in a raid on a card game. This is kind of a chintzy joint. Local bums hang out here because the drinks are cheap. But that's all they sell anyway, cheap booze. We've had a few complaints about some fights in here but nothing ever happened. You know, the usual garbage that goes with these slop chutes."

  Pat said, "I had Nelson and Kiley over here doing a rundown on Basil Levitt. You hear about it?"

  "Yeah, Lew Nelson checked in with me right after it happened. He saw the body. It was the guy he spoke to all right. I asked around but nobody here seemed to know Levitt."

  "How about the bartender?" I said.

  Cavello shook his head. "Nothing there. He does the day work and nothing more. When the boss came on, he went off. He doesn't know the night crowd at all."

  "He live around here?"

  "Red Hook. Not his neighborhood here and he couldn't care less."

  While Pat went over the details of what the police picked up I wandered back to the end of the bar. There was a back room used as a storeroom and a place for the food locker with a doorway to one side that opened into the cellar. The lights were on downstairs and I went down to the spot behind the stairs where the chalk marks outlined the position of the body. They were half on the floor and half on the wall, so the guy was found in a sitting position.

  Back upstairs Cavello had taken Pat to the end of the bar and I got back in on the conversation. Cavello said, "Near as we could figure it out, this guy Thomas Kline closed the bar earlier than usual, making the few customers he had leave. It was something he had never done before apparently. He'd stick it out if there was a dime in the joint left to be spent. This time he bitched about a headache, closed up, and shut off the lights. That was it. We spoke to the ones who were here then, but they all went off to another place and closed it down much later, then went home. Clean alibis. All working men for a change. No records.

  "We think he met somebody here for some purpose. Come here." He led the way to a table in one corner and pointed to the floor. A small stain showed against the oiled wood. "Blood. It matched the victim's. Here's where he was shot. The killer took the body downstairs, dumped it behind the staircase where it couldn't be seen very easily, then left. The door locks by simply closing it so it was simple enough to do. One block down he's in traffic, and anyplace along the Avenue he could have picked up a cab if he didn't have his own car. We're checking all the cabbies' sheets now."

  But I had stopped listening to him about then. I was looking at the back corner of the wall. I tapped Pat on the arm and pointed. "You remember the call you got from someone inquiring about Levitt?"

  "Yeah," he said.

  There was an open pay phone on the wall about four feet away from a jukebox.

  Pat walked over to it, looked at the records on the juke, but who could tell rock-and-roll from the titles? He said to Cavello, "Many places got these open phones?"

  "Sure," Cavello told him, "most of the spots that haven't got room for a booth. Mean anything?"

  "I don't know. It could."

  "Anything I could help with?"

  Pat explained the situation and Cavello said he'd try to find anyone who, saw Kline making a phone call about that time. He didn't expect much luck though. People in that neighborhood didn't talk too freely to the police. It was more likely that they wouldn't remember anything rather than get themselves involved.

  Another plainclothes officer came in then, said hello to Pat, and he introduced me to Lew Nelson. He didn't have anything to add to the story and so far that day hadn't found anybody who knew much about Levitt at all.

  I tapped his shoulder and said, "How did Kline react when you showed him Levitt's photo?"

  "Well, he jumped a little. He said he couldn't be sure and I figured he was lying. I got the same reaction from others beside him. That Levitt was a mean son and I don't think anybody wanted to mess around with him. He wanted to know what he was wanted for and I wouldn't say anything except that he was dead and he seemed pretty satisfied at that.

  "Tell you one thing. That guy was thinking of something. He studied that photo until he was sure he knew him and then told me he never saw him before. Maybe he thought he had an angle somewhere."

  There wasn't much left there for us. Pat left a few instructions, sent Nelson back on the streets again, and started outside. He stopped for a final word to Cavello so I went on alone and stood on the sidewalk beside the cop on guard there. It wasn't until he went to answer the radio in the squad car that I saw the thing his position had obscured.

  In the window of the bar was a campaign poster and on it a full-face picture of a smiling Torrence who was running in the primaries for governor and under it was the slogan, WIN WITH SIM.

  Chapter Nine

  I made the call from the drugstore on the corner. I dialed the Torrence estate and waited while the phone rang a half-dozen times, each time feeling the cold go through me deeper and deeper.

  Damn, it couldn't be too late!

  Then a sleepy voice said, "Yes?" and there was no worry in it at all.

  "Geraldine?"

  "Mike, you thing you."

  "Look..."

  "Why did you leave me? How could you leave me?"

  "I'll tell, you later. Has Torrence come home yet?"

  My voice startled her into wakefulness. "But... no, he's due here in an hour though. He called this morning from Albany to tell me when he'd be home."

  "Good, no listen. Is Sue all right?"

  "Yes... she's still in bed. I gave her another sedative."

  "Well, get her out of it. Both of you hop in a car and get out of there. Now... not later, now."

  "But, Mike..."

  "Damn it, shut up and do what I say. There's going to be trouble I can't explain."

  "Where can we go? Mike, I don't..."

  I gave her my new address and added, "Go right there and stay there. The super has the key and will let you in. Don't open that door for anybody until you're sure it's me, understand? I can't tell you any more except that your neck and Sue's neck are out a mile. We have another dead man on our hands and we don't need any more. You got that?"

  She knew I wasn't kidding. There was too much stark urgency in my voice. She said she'd leave in a few minutes and when she did I could sense the fear that touched her.

  I tapped the receiver cradle down, broke the connection, dropped in a dime, and dialed my own number. Velda came on after the first ring with a guarded hello.

  I said, "It's breaking, baby. How do you feel?"

  "Not too bad. I can get around."

  "Swell. You go downstairs and tell the super that a Geraldine King and Sue Devon are to be admitted to my apartment. Nobody else. Let him keep the key. Then you get down to Sim Torrence's headquarters and check up on his movements all day yesterday. I want every minute of the day spelled out and make it as specific as you can. He got a phone call yesterday. See if it originated from there. I don't care if he took ten minutes out to go to the can... you find out about it. I'm chiefly interested in any time he took off last night."

  "Got it, Mike. Where can I reach you?"

  "At the apartment. When I get through I'll go right there. Shake it up."

  "Chop chop. Love me?"

  "What a time to ask."

  "Well?"

  "Certainly, you nut."

  She laughed that deep, t
hroaty laugh and hung up on me and I had a quick picture of her sliding out of bed, those beautiful long legs rippling into a body... oh hell.

  I put the phone back and went back to Pat.

  "Where'd you go?" he said.

  "We got a killer, buddy."

  He froze for a second. "You didn't find anything?"

  "No? Then make sense out of this." I pointed to the picture of Sim Torrence in the window.

  "Go ahead."

  "Sim's on the way up. He's getting where he always wanted to be. He's got just one bug in his life and that's the kid, Sue Devon. All her life she's been on his back about something in their past and there was always that chance she might find it.

  "One time he defended a hard case and when he needed one he called on the guy. Basil Levitt. He wanted Sue knocked off. Some instinct told Sue what he intended to do and she ran for it and wound up at Velda's. She didn't know it, but it was already too late. Levitt was on her tail all the while, followed her, set up in a place opposite the house, and waited for her to show.

  "The trouble was, Velda was in hiding too. She respected the kid's fears and kept her under cover until she was out of trouble herself, then she would have left the place with her. Hell, Pat, Levitt didn't come in there for Velda... he was after the kid. When he saw me he must have figured Torrence sent somebody else because he was taking too long and he wasn't about to lose his contract money. That's why Levitt bust in like that.

  "Anyway, when Torrence made the deal he must have met Levitt in this joint here thinking he'd never be recognized. But he forgot that his picture is plastered all over on posters throughout the city. Maybe Kline never gave it a thought if he recognized him then. Maybe Kline only got the full picture when he saw Levitt's photo. But he put the thing together. First he called your department for information and grew suspicious when nobody gave him anything concrete.

  "Right here he saw Torrence over a barrel so yesterday he called him and told him to meet him. Sim must have jumped out of his skin. He dummied an excuse and probably even led into a trip to Albany for further cover... this we'll know about when I see Velda. But he got here all right. He saw Kline and that was the last Kline saw of anything."

  "You think too much, Mike."