Extra Kill llm-3

by Dell Shannon

  "That he wasn't," said Laidlaw thoughtfully.

  "But that wasn't any of my business. The guy didn't like it, but he paid up. I didn't need a blueprint to figure he'd been a regular here on account of the deal with Whalen, and the blonde didn't have a glimmer of that, thought he was just free with his money, and naturally he didn't want to look cheap in front of her. Anyway, he paid up and out he goes, and that was the only time I ever laid eyes on him. And can't say I'm sorry. But I was kind of curious, and so I got Bob Trimming-that's our regular cashier-in and asked him about it. I didn't get an awful lot out of him, to make sense. You see, the boys, well, they'd got kind of used to the manager acting nasty with them, and catching 'em out for little things all the time, see, and besides-well, now you tell the gent what you know, Johnny."

  "Now just as it happened," said Laidlaw leisurely-he sat with arms folded across his chest, at magnificent ease, and spoke serenely-"I'd seen that fellow in here, but I'd never waited on him until that night. When he started to kick up the row, Bob called me in on it because I could back up the check, you see. And later on Mr. Stuart asked me to sound Bob out, see if he knew any more about it, as he might talk more openly to me. And I might say I was curious about it too, and I did. Bob's pretty close-mouthed anyway, he doesn't tell all he knows just to be talking, and he'd kept quiet on this, for one reason, because Mr. Whalen isn't a man you'd want to get across. But he knows I don't go talking much either, and he told me the whole thing. I realize, Lieutenant, that all this is hearsay and won't do you any good as evidence, but maybe you'll be interested anyway. What Bob said was this. This fellow came in here quite a bit, once a week at least and sometimes a lot oftener, and he never paid out anything but the tips-and he wasn't a very good tipper. The customer doesn't pay the waiters, as you know, but the cashier out there in the lobby. Bob's on duty, eight to closing time, six nights a week, so he was in a position to see what happened every time this customer came in. The first time he saw the fellow, there was a check for eighteen something, and Mr. Whalen's name signed across it. The customer just tossed it onto the desk and said, ‘That's O.K.,' or something like that. Well, Bob wasn't going to take a chance that way, and he called Mr. Whalen. I might add that the fellow had a blonde with him that night too, whether the same one or not I couldn't say, but she'd stepped into the powder room. Mr. Whalen said to Bob, ‘Oh, yes, that's 0. K. on the house'-but he didn't look as if he liked saying it, so Bob says. And later on that night, after we closed, Bob asked him how to cancel out that check for the accounts, and Mr. Whalen made up the cash out of his own pocket. Well, I don't want to drag this out too long-"

  "You're not boring me," Mendoza told him.

  "-But the point was, every time this customer came in the same thing happened, and it ran into quite a little money Mr. Whalen was paying out to make up the tabs for the accounts. Now, about six weeks before Mr. Whalen was fired, one night Bob wanted to make a phone call on his break, and he slipped into the phone booth in the lobby, as there wasn't a customer in it at the time. You notice where it is?-well, it's down a little corridor toward the men's room, past the check stand-and as he was standing there in the booth, out of sight, you know, sorting out a dime for the call, he heard Mr. Whalen talking to this customer. The customer had just come out of the men's room, and maybe Mr. Whalen was waiting for him. Anyway, Mr. Whalen was mad, and told him he'd got to stop coming in here so often, fun was fun but he couldn't afford it. And the customer just laughed and said Mr. Whalen surely didn't mind standing a few drinks to an old pal now and then, it was cheap at the price when it meant Mr. Whalen's job, because he didn't figure Mr. Whalen would like his boss to know about that taxi he'd done back in Pennsy."

  Mendoza uttered a little exclamation. "Are you quoting this Bob, or were those the actual words?"

  “That's what Bob heard, Lieutenant. Neither of us knew exactly what the fellow might have meant, but it sounded like a threat, which is why it stayed in Bob's mind. In fact, several things that were said sounded like double talk to both of us, and thinking it over I came to the conclusion they must be criminal or professional slang of some sort. The customer told Mr. Whalen not to be such a ringtail, for one thing. And Mr. Whalen said back at him that two could fill in that game, maybe the customer wouldn't like his boss to know he'd done a sleep as a cadet-”

  "Ah," said Mendoza pleasedly. "Which doesn't surprise me. Yes, go on."

  "-And the customer laughed again and said he didn't give a damn, it'd make no difference to him. There was a little more argument, and finally Mr. Whalen got to sounding really desperate, so Bob said, and he said to the customer he'd better not play so deep-meaning, I take it, not to drop in so often for a free ride-if he wasn't looking for a South Gate discharge."

  " Lindo, muy linda, oh, very pretty," said Mendoza. "This I like. And?"

  "That's about all, Lieutenant. Reason Bob remembered it, you see, was that it sounded a little nasty, threats and so on. Nobody liked Mr. Whalen much, and it didn't come as a surprise when he got fired. And so, as you've heard, the next time the customer dropped in, Bob was going to make him pay, and there was this row. Well, when I'd heard all this, I thought Mr. Stuart ought to know it-"

  "And as you can see," said Stuart, "what the hell, it was water under the bridge, and I knew damn well the guy'd never come back again-which he didn't. None of my business what he had on Whalen. But just now, when you come in asking questions, Johnny thought I'd better hear about it, because by all this, both Whalen and this other guy, whoever he is, might be mixed up with some funny characters-if you see what I mean. No offense, Lieutenant, I hope-"

  "No offense," said Mendoza. He was looking rather amused. "I suppose neither of you would know Whalen's whereabouts now?… No, I couldn't expect it. But you've been very helpful, thanks. I may want formal statements from both of you and this Bob."

  "Any time, sir," said Laidlaw. "Glad to oblige you."

  "Oh, sure," said Stuart, "not that I'd like to have to testify or anything, don't look so good in this business, snitching on a customer, whatever kind, but I guess it's up to all of us to help the law when we can. I suppose you can't tell us what this is all about."

  "I'm not just a hundred percent sure myself yet,” said Mendoza. They left Mr. Stuart brooding over the possibility of occupying the witness stand, and Laidlaw gazing serenely at the office ceiling.

  In the car, before he switched on lights or ignition, Mendoza suddenly pulled Alison into his arms and spent several minutes kissing her thoroughly. "Well, and what prompted that?" she asked breathlessly. "You always say a car, of all places-"

  "Just general exuberance. I got so much more than I expected, and I think there's more to come yet."

  "I see. You seemed to know what those two had been talking about-was it criminal slang? And is a translation fit for my ladylike ears?"

  Mendoza laughed. "Yes to both questions. Twelvetrees said to this Whalen that he didn't think Whalen's boss would like hearing that Whalen had done a five-to-fifteen stretch-that's a taxi-back in Pennsylvania. To which Whalen retorted that maybe Twelvetrees wouldn't like it known he'd done one year-that's a sleep-for enticing minors to enter houses of prostitution-that's what a cadet does. And later on Twelvetrees told him not to be such an old grouch, that's a ringtail. But one of the interesting things is that last reported remark of Whalen's, when he said Twelvetrees had better take it easy unless he was looking for a South Gate discharge. That's what the cons call it when a man dies, in or out of jail."

  "Oh, I see. So maybe this Whalen is the one."

  "Maybe, maybe. No, it doesn't surprise me that Twelvetrees had done time-not much, and he wasn't deep in yet-it's on the cards he was smart enough, after one experience, to intend staying inside the law, in one of the rackets that isn't illegal. But a man's past has a way of catching him up sometimes… " He let that trail off, and Alison, knowing his silences, forbore to interrupt his thoughts.

  ***

  It was two in the morning
when he eased the Facel-Vega into the curb just past the entrance to the Voodoo Club's parking lot. The lot was emptying rapidly, the last customer just chased out. He locked the car and walked up through the lot to the narrow space directly behind li the buildings which would be reserved for employees' parking.

  There were eight cars nosed in there. He peered in the drivers' windows, one by one, with his pencil flash; the fifth one down, a six-year-old Ford two-door, had its registration card wrapped around the steering post, old style, and the name on it was John S. Laidlaw. Mendoza leaned on the fender and lit a cigarette.

  He had smoked that and another one-retreating to cover half a dozen times as men came out to their cars-before the rear door, thirty feet away, opened to silhouette briefly a big broad figure he thought was his quarry. The man came down toward the Ford jingling his keys and whistling The St. Louis Blues under his breath.

  Mendoza had no desire for any violent exercise, and when the man was ten feet off he stepped out of the shadow of the car to show himself. Laidlaw checked for one moment and then laughed very softly.

  "You had me scared there a minute, Lieutenant, thinking I'd slipped up on something," he said just above a whisper. "So I didn't put it across you."

  "For a few minutes," said Mendoza. "Who belongs to the Buick?" It was the only other car left in the lot.

  "Stuart. He won't be out for a while, he's working on the books."

  " Muy bien, then we can talk here." They got into the car; in the little flare of the match Laidlaw lit for their cigarettes they looked at each other. "Fox knows fox," said Mendoza dryly. "Though you put up a nice front. But aren't you getting on a bit for a medical student?"

  "Yes, that one won't do much longer. Just second cover anyway."

  "I liked the artistic way this nice honest well-brought-up young fellow puzzled over that talk and finally made it out pro slang. It was about then I pinned you down in my own mind-if we stick to the slang-as a gazer, no es verdad? I suppose you figured to do me a good turn-having spotted me-by handing it to me on a platter. Many thanks."

  "Tell you the truth, I'd be just as happy not to have you city boys sniffing around here too long or too close, which was the main reason. And I've got no credentials on me, on this job."

  "Never mind. I've had enough to do with you Feds that I know lamb from wolf. What is it, dope or illegal liquor?"

  "Some of both. I've been sitting on it for a year waiting for the real big boy-this is a drop, and a good safe one. We've left it that way."

  "Whalen in it?"

  "As a very minor errand boy. He did that stretch for armed robbery with violence-that's his style-a small timer."

  "Well, your business doesn't come into mine, I don't think, so I won't ask you any questions about that-"

  "Which is just as well," said Laidlaw imperturbably, "because I wouldn't answer them."

  "Naturally. The customer who was getting his tabs picked up by Whalen is now dead, and I am, you can appreciate, interested in the fact that Whalen threatened him with a South Gate discharge."

  "Is that a fact?" said Laidlaw. "Interesting. I see that. Now I'll open up enough to say this, Lieutenant. Obviously the customer didn't know what was going on here-in the way of my business-or that Whalen was in it, or he wouldn't have thought telling the tale about Whalen's past could get him fired. But it could have, indeed. Without giving you details, the owner is innocent as day, and so is Stuart. It's quite possible that Whalen was afraid his real bosses wouldn't like it much that someone knew about him, and also there's this aspect: he had a pretty good job a little higher in the organization than he'd been before, and that was largely due to his ostensible job as manager here. He wanted to protect that. It annoyed the boys operating the drop, just a little when he got fired. They've sized up Stuart since, and prudently refrained from sounding him out."

  "Yes, I saw some of that-if Whalen's nominal boss wouldn't have cared, Whalen would never have picked up those tabs. Nice genteel way to blackmail somebody, wasn't it? No vulgar cash changing hands."

  "So it was," agreed Laidlaw. "You understand that we weren't more than casually interested in Whalen as one of the boys, there wasn't any reason to follow up his private troubles with this fellow, as it was pretty clear that one was outside this particular racket. So you probably know more about your corpse than I do."

  "Not as much as I'd like. What I came back for principally was to ask if you know where Whalen is."

  "Sure I know where he is," said Laidlaw. "I read in the papers the other day, Lieutenant, that you L.A. boys got a pat on the back from some Washington office for being tops among the ten most efficient city forces in the country-but outside that category, we sort of fancy ourselves as pretty hot, you know. We're not much interested in Andy Whalen, but we looked to see where he went. He's driving a truck for Orange State Trucking, on the San Diego-L.A. run, and he lives in room number 312 at the Chester Hotel on Fourth."

  "Thanks very much. Would it discommode you at all if I took him in for questioning?"

  "I don't think so," said Laidlaw. "His bosses don't rate him any bigger-time than we do."

  "What about the trucking outfit? Can I take it he's still on the payroll of the gang in another capacity?"

  "Well, now, I don't think we'll go into that, if you don't mind. I'll just say, it's possible."

  "You boys with your secrets," said Mendoza. "Well, I may and I may not, right away. All that rigmarole-your quotes from the cashier-gospel truth?"

  "And nothing but."

  "Mmh. Yes, a couple of little things that occur to me aside from Whalen. But I want to look at him closer, of course. Thanks very much, Laidlaw, and good luck on your business."

  "Same to you-happy to oblige, Lieutenant. We like to cooperate with the locals where we can," said Laidlaw blandly.

  "I might," said Mendoza, sliding out of the car, "like the polite tone of that better if you didn't somehow sound like a professional race driver assuring his little boy he'll teach him to ride his new bicycle."

  "Why, Loo-tenant, suh, I nevah meant no such thing, suh," said Laidlaw. Mendoza laughed, shut the door, and dodged back to the shadow of the wall as the building door opened up there. Laidlaw slid the Ford out to the street; Mendoza waited until Stuart had driven out in the Buick before going back to his own car.

  NINE

  "You want to make it read," said Hackett, "that this Whalen got so mad at Twelvetrees-six months after he stopped paying this genteel blackmail-that he killed him?"

  "I don't want to make it read any way," said Mendoza. "We don't know what dealings they may have had since. All I say is, no harm to look at Whalen."

  "I don't believe it," said Hackett. "In the first place, I can't see a rough-and-ready customer like this Whalen taking the trouble to bury him. And there may have been a renewed motive, but there's nothing to show they ever laid eyes on each other after last August, when Whalen got fired. I don't-"

  " No seas tan exigente -don't be so difficult," said Mendoza. "If I want a warrant for Whalen, I've got to be able to give some logical reason to authority. And it may be that I will. Like-mmh-looking openly pleased to draw a five-spot when I'm already holding a royal flush."

  "Oh!" said Hackett. He laughed. "So that's what's in your mind. It's a thought. Set somebody's mind at rest so maybe he'll do something silly."

  "Did you spot, in all these inverted quotes I've been giving you, the one really interesting little thing? You remember that Whalen suggested to Twelvetrees that his boss might not like hearing about the little stretch Twelvetrees had done-and Twelvetrees just laughed and said it wouldn't matter a damn."

  "Which of course sounds as if these Kingmans knew all about him.

  "Yes. You're laying your blue chips on the Kingmans?"

  Mendoza swiveled around in his desk-chair to look out the window at the hazy panorama of the city stretching away to hills invisible this gray morning. "I've sent out queries to Pennsylvania on Twelvetrees and the Kingmans-we'll
see what they can give us, if anything. Unfortunately I didn't have the Kingmans' prints to send, but I sent Twelvetrees', of course. I don't know, Art, there's a couple of things that say this and that to me, on that deal. Look at the way Twelvetrees landed here and slid into such a soft spot-five hundred a month, for what? Woods says, he ingratiated himself. Well, somehow I don't think Mr. Dale Carnegie himself would find it very easy to ingratiate that far with Mr. Martin Kingman. What it amounted to was muscling in on Mr. Kingman's own racket and cutting Mr. Kingman's net take by that five hundred."

  "Yes, and you know the thought I had about that? Considering the times. It sounds to me as if just maybe those three had made up a crowd before, and for some reason-maybe because he was inside-Twelvetrees was a little late joining them out here."

  "Also a thought. But I don't like it nearly so well as I like mine-that he might have pulled exactly the same sort of genteel blackmail on the Kingmans that he did on Whalen. Look. The Temple's been a going concern for over a year when Twelvetrees lands here. You never did catch up to this Mona Ferne yesterday but you will today, and I think what she'll tell you is that her original contact with Twelvetrees wasn't through the Temple, but that she met him somewhere in connection ith his movie aspirations. And that she was the one who led him to the Temple. Because he took a job when he got here, remember?-not a very good job, clerking in a store-he was broke, or close to it. I get the picture of this fairly canny young fellow, who's taken one rap and means to find some legal racket-where he doesn't have to work too hard. He'd like to get into pictures-he's got all the requirements, so he thinks, but he finds it isn't so easy. Then, by accident, he discovers the Kingmans and their Temple. And almost immediately he becomes 'secretary-treasurer' or whatever they call it and starts drawing that nice salary for practically no work. Now that looks to me as if he had something on them. That he took one look at Mr. Martin Kingman, maybe, and said, ‘Ah, my old friend Giovanni Scipio-or Mike O'Connor-or Harold J. Cholmondeley-from good old Philly.' Comprende? And Kingman had to kick in, let him in on the racket, to protect the investment-because, while the people who've fallen for Mystic Truth aren't exactly Einsteins, most of them would think again about dropping folding money into the collection bag if they knew, for instance, that Kingman had done a stretch for fraud or something like that."