One Lonely Night Page 19

  Just like that.

  How simple could it get?

  The murder and the wreckage that had been caused by this one fat envelope, and she drops it in my hand just like that. No trouble. No sneaking around with a gun in your hand. No tight spots that left you shaken and trembling. She hands it to me and I take it and leave.

  Isn’t that the way life is? You fight and struggle to get something and suddenly you’re there at the end and there’s nothing left to fight for any longer.

  I threw the works in the glove compartment and drove back to my office. From force of habit I locked the door before I sat down to see what it was all about. There were nine letters and the big one. Of the nine three were bills, four were from female friends and had nothing to say, one was an answer to a letter she sent an employment agency and the other enclosed a Communist Party pamphlet. I threw it in the wastebasket and opened the main one.

  They were photostats, ten in all, both negatives and positives, on extra thin paper. They were photos of a maze of symbols, diagrams and meaningless words, but there was something about them that practically cried out their extreme importance. They weren’t for a mind like mine and I knew it.

  I folded them up into a compact square and took them to the lamp on the wall. It was a tricky little job that came apart in the middle and had been given to me by a friend who dabbled in magic. At one time a bird flew out of the hidden compartment when you snapped the light on and scared the hell out of you. I stuck the photostats in there and shut it again.

  There was an inch of sherry left on the bottom of the bottle in my desk and I put the mouth to my lips.

  It was almost over. I had come to the pause before the end. There was little left to do but sort the parts and make sure I had them straight. I sat down again, pulling the phone over in front of me. I dialed headquarters and asked for Pat.

  He had left for the weekend.

  The next time I dialed Lee Deamer’s office. The blonde at the switchboard was still chewing gum and threw the connection over to his secretary. She said, “I’m sorry, but Mr. Deamer has left for Washington.”

  “This is Mike Hammer. I was there once before. I’d like to get a call in to him.”

  “Oh, yes, Mr. Hammer. He’s registered at the Lafayette. You can call him there. However, you had better call before six because he’s speaking at a dinner meeting tonight.”

  “I’ll call him now, and thanks.”

  I got long distance, gave the number and she told me the lines were all busy and I would have to wait. I hung up and went to the filing cabinet where I had the remains of another bottle of sherry stashed away. There was a box of paper cups with it and I put the makings on my desk and settled back to enjoy the wait.

  After the third half-cup of sherry I snapped the radio on and caught the broadcast. The boy with the golden voice was snapping out the patter in a tone so excited that he must have been holding on to the mike to stay on his feet. It was all about the stolen documents. Suspicions were many and clues were nil. The FBI had every available man on the case and the police of every community had pledged to help in every way.

  He went off and a serious-voiced commentator took his place. He told the nation of the calamity that had befallen it. The secret of our newest, most powerful weapon was now, most likely, in the hands of agents of an unfriendly power. He told of the destruction that could be wrought, hinted at the continuance of the cold war with an aftermath of a hotter one. He spoke and his voice trembled with the rage and fear he tried so hard to control.

  Fifteen minutes later another commentator came on with a special bulletin that told of all ports being watched, the roundup of suspected aliens. The thing that caused the roundup was still as big a mystery as ever, but the search had turned up a lot of minor things that never would have been noticed. A government clerk was being held incommunicado. A big shot labor leader had hanged himself. A group of Communists had staged a demonstration in Brooklyn with the usual scream of persecution and had broken some windows. Twenty of them were in the clink.

  I sat back and laughed and laughed. The world was in an uproar when the stuff was safe as hell not five feet away from me. The guardians of our government were jumping through hoops because the people demanded to know why the most heavily guarded secret we ever had could be swiped so easily. There were shakeups from the top to bottom and the rats were scurrying for cover, pleading for mercy. Investigations were turning up reds in the damnedest spots imaginable and the senators and congressmen who recommended them for the posts were on the hot spots in their bailiwicks. Two had already sent in resignations.

  Oh, it was great. Something was getting done that should have been done years ago. The heat was on and the fire was burning a lot of pants. The music I had on the radio was interrupted every five minutes now with special newscasts that said the people were getting control of the situation at last.

  Of the people, for the people, by the people. We weren’t so soft after all. We got pushed too far once too often and the backs were up and teeth bared.

  What were the Commies doing! They must be going around in circles. The thing that would have tipped the balance back to them again had been in their hands and they’d dropped it. Was the MVD out taking care of those who had been negligent? Probably. Very probably. Pork-Pie Hat would have himself a field day. They were the only ones who knew where those documents weren’t. Our own government knew where they started to go and still thought they were in their hands. I was the only one who knew where they were.

  Not five feet away. Safe as pie, I thought.

  The phone rang and I picked it up. The operator said, “I have your party, sir.”

  I said thanks, waited for the connection and heard Lee saying, “Hello, hello ...”

  “Mike Hammer. Lee.”

  “Yes, Mike, how are you?”

  “Fine. I hear Washington is in an uproar.”

  “Quite. You can’t imagine what it’s like. They tell me the hall is filled to the rafters already, waiting to hear the speeches. I’ve never seen so many reporters in my life.”

  “Going to give ’em hell tonight?”

  “I’ll do my best. I have an important topic to discuss. Was there something special you wanted, Mike?”

  “Yeah, sort of. I just wanted to tell you that I found it.”

  “It?”

  “What Oscar left behind. I found it.”

  His voice held a bitter ring. “I knew it, I knew it! I knew he’d do something like that. Mike ... is it bad?”

  “Oh no. In fact it’s pretty good. Yeah, pretty good.”

  He paused, and when he spoke again he sounded tired. “Remember what I told you, Mike. It’s in your hands. Authenticate what you found, and if you believe that it would be better to publish the facts, then make them public.”

  I laughed lightly. “Not this, Lee. It isn’t something you can print in a paper. It isn’t anything that you nor Pat nor I expected to find. It doesn’t tie you into a damn thing so you can blast ’em tonight and make it good because what I have can push you right up there where you can do a good housecleaning job.”

  The surprise and pleasure showed in his voice. “That is fine news, Mike. When can I see it?”

  “When will you be back in New York?”

  “Not before Monday night.”

  “It’ll keep. I’ll see you then.”

  I pushed the phone back across the desk and started working on the remainder of the sherry. I finished it in a half-hour and closed up the office. It was Saturday night and time to play. I had to wait until Velda came back before I made my decision. I ambled up Broadway and turned into a bar for a drink. The place was packed and noisy, except when the news bulletin came on. At seven o’clock they turned on the TV and all heads angled to watch it. They were relaying in the pics of the dinner in Washington that was to be followed by the speeches. The screen was blurred, but the sound was loud and clear.

  I had a good chance to watch Mr. and Mrs. Average Pe
ople take in the political situation and I felt good all over again. It was no time to come up with the documents. Not yet. Let the fire stay on full for a while. Let it scorch and purify while it could.

  The bartender filled my glass and I leaned forward on my elbows to hear Lee when he spoke.

  He gave them a taste of hell. He used names and quotations and pointed to the big whiskers in the Kremlin as the brother of the devil. He threw the challenge in the faces of the people and they accepted it with cheers and applause that rocked the building.

  I shouted the way I felt louder than anybody and had another drink.

  At midnight I walked back to my car and drove home slowly, my mind miles away from my body. Twice I patted the .45 under my arm and out of force of habit I kept a constant check on the cars behind me.

  I put the car in the garage, told the attendant to service it fully and went out the side door that led to the street. When I looked both ways and was satisfied that I wasn’t going to run into another ambush I stepped out to the sidewalk and walked to my building.

  Before I went upstairs I checked the little panel of lights behind the desk in the lobby. It was a burglar alarm and one of the lights was connected to the windows and doors in my apartment. They were all blank so I took the stairs up and shoved the key in the lock.

  For safety’s sake I went through the place and found it as empty as when I left it. Maybe Pork-Pie was afraid of a trap. Maybe he was waiting to get me on the street. He and the others had the best reason in the world to get me now. It wouldn’t be too long before they figured out where the documents went to, and that was the moment I was hoping for.

  I wanted them, every one of the bastards. I wanted them all to myself so I could show the sons-of-bitches what happened when they tried to play rough with somebody who likes that game himself!

  The late news broadcast was on and I listened for further developments. There weren’t any. I shoved the .45 under my pillow and rolled into the sack.

  CHAPTER TEN

  I SLEPT all day Sunday. At six-fifteen P.M. I got up to answer the persistent ringing of my doorbell and a Western Union messenger handed me a telegram. He got a buck for his persistence and I went into the living room where I opened it up.

  The telegram was from Velda. It was very brief, saying the mission was accomplished and she was carrying the papers out on the first plane. I folded the yellow sheet and stuck it in the pocket of my coat that was draped on the back of the chair.

  I had a combination meal, sent down for the papers and read them in bed. When I finished I slept again and didn’t wake up until twelve hours later. The rain was beating against the windows with a hundred tiny fingers and the street was drenched with an overflow too great to be carried off by the sewers at the end of the block.

  For a few minutes I stood at the window and looked out into the murk of the morning, not aware of the people that scurried by on the sidewalks below, or of the cars whose tires made swishing sounds on the wet pavement. Across the street, the front of the building there wavered as the water ran down the glass, assuming the shape of a face moulded by ghostly hands. The face had eyes like two berries on a bush and they turned their stare on me.

  This is it, Judge. Here is your rain of purity. You’re a better forecaster than I thought. Now, of all times, it should rain. Cold, clear rain that was washing away the scum and the filth and pulling it into the sewer. It’s here and you’re waiting for me to step out into it and be washed away, aren’t you? I could play it safe and stay where I am, but you know I won’t. I’m me, Mike Hammer, and I’ll be true to form. I’ll go down with the rest of the scum.

  Sure, Judge, I’ll die. I’ve been so close to death that this time the scythe can’t miss me. I’ve dodged too often, now I’ve lost the quick-step timing I had that made me duck in time. You noticed it and Pat noticed it ... I’ve changed, and now I notice it myself. I don’t care any more.

  The hell of it is, Judge... your question won’t get answered. You’ll never know why I was endowed with the ability to think and move fast enough to keep away from the man with the reaper. I kept breaking his hour-glass and dulling his blade and he couldn’t do a thing about it.

  Your rain of purity has come, and out there in it is the grim specter who is determined that this time he will not miss. He’ll raise his vicious scythe and swing at me with all the fury of his madness and I’ll go down, but that one wild swing will take along a lot of others before it cuts me in half.

  Sorry, Judge, so sorry you’ll never know the answer. I was curious myself. I wanted to know the answer too. It’s been puzzling me a long, long time.

  I showered and dressed, packing the automatic away in the oiled leather holster under my arm. When I finished I called long distance and was connected with the hospital. Again I was lucky and got the doctor while he was there. I told him my name and that was enough.

  “Miss Brighton is out of danger,” he said. “For some reason she is under police guard.”

  “Studious young men?”

  “Yes.”

  “How about her father?”

  “He visits her daily. His own doctor is prescribing for him.”

  “I see. My time is up, you know. You can talk if you like.”

  “For some reason I prefer not to, Mr. Hammer. I still don’t understand, but I still believe that there is more to this than I can see. Miss Brighton asked me if you had called and I repeated our conversation. She has taken the same attitude of silence.”

  “Thanks, doc. It’s going to be rough when it starts, but thanks. Tell Miss Brighton I was asking for her.”

  “I will. Good day.”

  I put the phone back and shrugged into my raincoat. Downstairs I got my car out of the garage and backed out into the rain. The windshield wipers were little demons working furiously, fighting to keep me from being purified. I drove downtown hoping to see Pat, but he had called in that his car was stuck somewhere along the highway and he might not make it in at all.

  The morning went by without my noticing its passing. When my stomach tightened I went in and had lunch. I bought a paper and parked the car to read it through. The headlines hadn’t changed much. There were pages devoted to the new aspect of the cold war; pages given to the coming election, pages that told of the shake-up in Washington, and of the greater shake-up promised by the candidates running for election.

  Lee had given ’em hell, all right. The editorial quoted excerpts from his speech and carried a two-column cut of him shaking his fist at the jackals who were seeking the protection of the same government they had tried to tear down. There was another Communist demonstration, only this one was broken up by an outraged populace and ten of the reds had landed in the hospital. The rest were sweeping out corridors in the city jail.

  The rain let up, but it was only taking a breather before it came down even harder. I took advantage of the momentary lull to duck into a drugstore and put in a call to Lee’s office. His secretary told me that he wasn’t expected in until evening and I thanked her. I bought a fresh pack of Luckies and went back to the car and sat. I watched the rain and timed my thoughts to its intensity.

  I took all the parts and let them drop, watching to see how they fit in place. They were all there now, every one. I could go out any time and show that picture around and anybody could tell that it was a big red flag with a star and a hammer and sickle. I could show it to them but I’d have to have the last piece of proof I needed and I’d have that when Velda got back. I went over it time after time until I was satisfied, then I reached for a butt.

  There was only one left. I had just bought a pack and there was only one left. My watch was a round little face that laughed at me for thinking the afternoon away and I stared at it, amazed that the night had shifted in around the rain and I hadn’t noticed it. I got out and went back to the same drugstore and looked up the number of the terminal.

  A sugar-coated voice said that all the planes were on schedule despite the rain and the l
ast one from the Midwest had landed at two o’clock. I smacked my hand against my head for letting time get away from me and called the office. Velda didn’t answer so I hung up. I was about to call her apartment when I remembered that she’d probably be plenty tired and curled up in the sack, but she said she’d leave anything she had in the lamp if I wasn’t in the office when she got in.

  I started the car up and the wipers went back into action. The rain of purity was starting to give up and here I was still warm and dry. For how long?

  The lights were on in the office and I practically ran in. I yelled, “Hey, Velda!” the smile I had ready died away because she wasn’t there. She had been there, though. I smelled the faintest trace of the perfume she used. I went right to the lamp and opened the little compartment. She had laid it right on top of the other stuff for me.

  I pulled it out and spread it across my desk, feeling the grin come back slowly as I read the first few lines.

  It was done. Finished. I had it all ready to wrap up nice and legal now. I could call Pat and the studious-looking boys with the FBI badges and drop it in their laps. I could sit back in a ringside seat and watch the whole show and laugh at the judge because this time I was free and clear, with my hands clean of somebody’s blood. The story would come out and I’d be a hero. The next time I stepped into that court of law and faced the little judge his voice would be quiet and his words more carefully chosen because I was able to prove to the world that I wasn’t a bloodthirsty kill-happy bastard with a mind warped by a war of too many dawns and dusks laced by the crisscrossed patterns of bullets. I was a normal guy with normal instincts and maybe a temper that got a little out of hand at times, but was still under control when I wanted it that way.

  Hell, Pat should be back now. I’ll let him get the credit for it. He won’t like it, but he’ll have to do it. I reached for the phone.

  That’s when I saw the little white square of cardboard that had been sitting there in front of me all the time. I picked it up, scowling at the brief typewritten message. CALL LO 3-8099 AT EXACTLY NINE P.M. That was all. The other side was blank.