One Lonely Night

by Mickey Spillane

  “That’s all?”

  “What else can there be, Mike? Oscar probably read about me in the papers and trailed me here. He knew what it would mean if I was known to have a brother who wasn’t quite ... well, normal. He made a demand for money and told me he’d have it one way or another.”

  Pat reached for the shaker and filled the glasses again. I held mine out and our eyes met. He answered my question before I could ask it. “Lee was afraid to mention Oscar, even when he was identified as the killer of Moffit. You can understand why, can’t you?”

  “Now I can,” I said.

  “Even the fact that Lee was identified, although wrongly, would have made good copy. However, the cop on the beat brought the witnesses in before they could speak to the papers and the whole thing was such an obvious mistake that nobody dared take the chance of making it public.”

  “Where are the witnesses now?”

  “We have them under surveillance. They’ve been instructed to keep quiet about it. We checked into their backgrounds and found that all of them were upright citizens, plain, ordinary people who were as befuddled as we were about the whole thing. Fortunately, we were able to secure their promise of silence by proving to them where Lee was that night. They don’t understand it, but they were willing to go along with us in the cause of justice.”

  I grunted and pulled on the cigarette. “I don’t like it.”

  Both of them looked at me quickly. “Hell, Pat, you ought to smell the angle as well as I do.”

  “You tell me, Mike.”

  “Oscar served his warning,” I said. “He’ll make another stab at it. You can trap him easily enough and you know it.”

  “That’s right. It leaves one thing wide open, too.”

  “Sure it does. You’ll have another Lee Deamer in print and pictures, this one up for a murder rap which he will skip because he’s nuts.” Lee winced at the word but kept still.

  “That’s why I wanted you here,” Pat told me.

  “Fine. What good am I?”

  The ice rattled against the side of his glass. Pat tried to keep his voice calm. “You aren’t official, Mike. My mind works with the book. I know what I should do and I can’t think of anything else.”

  “You mean you want me to tell you that Oscar should be run down and quietly spirited away?”

  “That’s right.”

  “And I’m the boy who could do it?”

  “Right again.” He took a long swallow from the glass and set it on the table.

  “What happens if it doesn’t work out? To you, I mean.”

  “I’ll be looking for a job for not playing it properly.”

  “Gentlemen, gentlemen.” Lee Deamer ran his hand through his hair nervously. “I-I can’t let you do it. I can’t let you jeopardize your positions. It isn’t fair. The best thing is to let it come to light and let the public decide.”

  “Don’t be jerky!” I spat out. Lee looked at me, but I wasn’t seeing him. I was seeing Marty and Pat, hearing them say the same thing ... and I was hearing that judge again.

  There were two hot spaces where my eyes should have been. “I’ll take care of it,” I said. “I’ll need all the help I can get.” I looked at Pat. He nodded. “Just one thing, Pat. I’m not doing this because I’m a patriot, see? I’m doing it because I’m curious and because of it I’ll be on my toes. I’m curious as hell about something else and not about right and wrong and what the public thinks.”

  My teeth were showing through my words and Pat had that look again. “Why, Mike?”

  “Three green cards with the edges cut off, kid. I’m curious as hell about three green cards. There’s more to them than you think.”

  I said good night and left them sitting there. I could hear the judge laughing at me. It wasn’t a nice laugh. It had a nasty sound. Thirteen steps and thirteen loops that made the knot in the rope. Were there thirteen thousand volts in the chair too? Maybe I’d find out the hard way.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  I SLEPT for two hours before Velda called me. I told her I wouldn’t be in for a good long while, and if anything important came up she could call, but unless it was a matter of life or death, either hers or mine, to leave me be.

  Nothing came up and I slept once around the clock. It was five minutes to six when my eyes opened by themselves and didn’t feel hot any more. While I showered and shaved I stuck a frozen steak under the broiler and ate in my shorts, still damp.

  It was a good steak; I was hungry. I wanted to finish it but I never got the time. The phone rang and kept on ringing until I kicked the door shut so I wouldn’t hear it. That didn’t stop the phone. It went on like that for a full five minutes, demanding that I answer it. I threw down my knife with a curse and walked inside.

  “What is it?” I yelled.

  “It took you long enough to wake up, damn it!”

  “Oh, Pat. I wasn’t asleep. What’s up this time?”

  “It happened like we figured. Oscar made the contact. He called Lee and wants to see him tonight. Lee made an appointment to be at his apartment at eight.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Lee called me immediately. Look, Mike, we’ll have to go this alone, just the three of us. I don’t want to trust anybody else.”

  The damp on my body seemed to turn to ice. I was cold all over, cold enough to shake just a little. “Where’ll I meet you, Pat?”

  “Better make it at my place. Oscar lives over on the East Side.” He rattled off the address and I jotted it down. “I told Lee to go ahead and keep his appointment. We’ll be right behind him. Lee is taking the subway up and we’ll pick him up at the kiosk. Got that?”

  “I got it. I’ll be over in a little while.”

  We both stood waiting for the other to hang up. Finally, “Mike. ...”

  “What?”

  “You sure about this?”

  “I’m sure.” I set the receiver back in its cradle and stared at it. I was sure, all right, sure to come up with the dirty end of the stick. The dam would open and let the clean water through and they could pick me out of the sewer.

  I pulled on my clothes halfheartedly. I thought of the steak in the kitchen and decided I didn’t want any more of it. For a while I stood in front of the mirror looking at myself, trying to decide whether or not I should wear the artillery. Habit won and I buckled on the sling after checking the load in the clip. When I buttoned up the coat I took the box from the closet shelf that held the two spare barrels and the extra shells, scooped up a handful of loose .45s and dropped them in my pocket. If I was going to do it I might as well do it right.

  Velda had just gotten in when I called her. I said, “Did you eat yet, kitten?”

  “I grabbed a light bite downtown. Why, are you taking me out?”

  “Yeah, but not to supper. It’s business. I’ll be right over. Tell you about it then.”

  She said all right, kissed me over the phone and hung up. I stuck my hat on, picked up another deck of Luckies and went downstairs where I whistled for a cab.

  I don’t know how I looked when she opened the door. She started to smile then dropped it like a hot rivet to catch her lower lip between her teeth. Velda’s so tall I didn’t have to bend down far to kiss her on the cheek. It was nice standing there real close to her. She was perfume and beauty and all the good things of life.

  She said, “Come into the bedroom, Mike. You can tell me while I’m getting dressed.”

  “I can talk from out here.”

  Velda turned around, a grin in her eyes. “You have been in a woman’s bedroom before, haven’t you?”

  “Not yours.”

  “I’m inviting you in to talk. Just talk.”

  I faked a punch at her jaw. “I’m just afraid of myself, kid. You and a bedroom could be too much. I’m saving you for something special.”

  “Will it cost three dollars and can you frame it?”

  I laughed for an answer and went in after her. She pointed to a satin-covered boudoir chair an
d went behind a screen. She came out in a black wool skirt and a white blouse. God, but she was lovely.

  When she sat down in front of the vanity table and started to brush her hair I caught her eyes in the mirror. They reflected the trouble that was in mine. “Now tell me, Mike.”

  I told her. I gave her everything Pat gave me and watched her face.

  She finished with the brush and put it down. Her hand was shaking. “They want a lot of you, don’t they?”

  “Maybe they want too much.” I pulled out a cigarette and lit one. “Velda, what does this Lee Deamer mean to you?”

  This time she wouldn’t meet my eyes. She spaced her words carefully. “He means a lot, Mike. Would you be mad if I said that perhaps they weren’t asking too much?”

  “No ... not if you think not. Okay, kid. I’ll play the hand out and see what I can do with a kill-crazy maniac. Get your coat on.”

  “Mike ... you haven’t told me all of it yet.”

  She was at it again, looking through me into my mind. “I know it.”

  “Are you going to?”

  “Not now. Maybe later.”

  She stood up, a statuesque creature that had no equal, her hair a black frame for her face. “Mike, you’re a bastard. You’re in trouble up to your ears and you won’t let anybody help you. Why do you always have to play it alone?”

  “Because I’m me.”

  “And I’m me too, Mike. I want to help. Can you understand that?”

  “Yes, I understand, but this isn’t another case. It’s more than that and I don’t want to talk about it.”

  She came to me then, resting her hands on my shoulders. “Mike, if you do need me ... ever, will you ask me to help?”

  “I’ll ask you.”

  Her mouth was full and ripe, warm with life and sparkling with a delicious wetness. I pulled her in close and tasted the fire that smoldered inside her, felt her body mold itself to mine, eager and excited.

  My fingers ran into her hair and pulled her mouth away. “No more of it, Velda. Not now.”

  “Some day, Mike.”

  “Some day. Get your coat on.” I shoved her away roughly, reluctant to let her go. She opened the closet and took the jacket that matched the skirt from a hanger and slipped into it. Over her shoulder she slung a shoulderstrap bag, and when it nudged the side of the dresser the gun in it made a dull clunk.

  “I’m ready, Mike.”

  I pushed the slip of paper with Oscar’s address on it into her hand. “Here’s the place where he’s holed up. The subway is a half-block away from the place. You go directly there and look the joint over. I don’t know why, but there’s something about it I don’t like. We’re going to tag after Lee when he goes in, but I want somebody covering the place while we’re there.

  “Remember, it’s a rough neighborhood, so be on your toes. We don’t want any extra trouble. If you spot anything that doesn’t seem to be on the square, walk over to the subway kiosk and meet us. You’ll have about a half-hour to look around. Be careful.”

  “Don’t worry about me.” She pulled on her gloves, a smile playing with her mouth. Hell, I wasn’t going to worry about her. That rod in her bag wasn’t there for ballast.

  I dropped her at the subway and waited on the curb until a cab cruised by.

  Pat was standing under the canopy of his apartment building when I got there. He had a cigarette cupped in the palm of his hand and dragged on it nervously. I yelled at him from the taxi and he crossed the street and got in.

  It was seven-fifteen.

  At ten minutes to eight we paid off the cab and walked the half-block to the kiosk. We were still fifty feet away when Lee Deamer came up. He looked neither to the right nor left, walking straight ahead as if he lived there. Pat nudged me with his elbow and I grunted an acknowledgement.

  I waited to see if Velda would show, but there wasn’t a sign of her.

  Twice Lee stopped to look at house numbers. The third time he paused in front of an old brick building, his head going to the dim light behind the shades in the downstairs room. Briefly, he cast a quick glance behind him, then went up the three steps and disappeared into the shadowy well of the doorway.

  Thirty seconds, that’s all he got. Both of us were counting under our breaths, hugging the shadows of the building. The street boasted a lone light a hundred yards away, a wan, yellow eye that seemed to search for us with eerie tendrils, determined to pull us into its glare. Somewhere a voice cursed. A baby squealed and stopped abruptly. The street was too damn deserted. It should have been running with kids or something. Maybe the one light scared them off. Maybe they had a better place to hang out than a side street in nowhere.

  We hit the thirty count at the same time, but too late. A door slammed above our heads and we could hear feet pounding on boards, diminishing with every step. A voice half sobbed something unintelligible and we flew up those stairs and tugged at a door that wouldn’t give. Pat hit it with his shoulder, ramming it open.

  Lee was standing in the doorway, hanging on to the sill, his mouth agape. He was pointing down the hall. “He ran ... he ran. He looked out the window ... and he ran!”

  Pat muttered, “Damn ... we can’t let him get away!” I was ahead of him, my hands probing the darkness. I felt the wall give way to the inky blackness that was the night behind an open door and stumbled down the steps.

  That was when I heard Velda’s voice rise in a tense, “Mike ... MIKE!”

  “Over here, Pat. There’s a gate in the wall. Get a light on!”

  Pat swore again, yelling that he had lost it. I didn’t wait. I made the gate and picked my way through the litter in the alley that ran behind the buildings. My .45 was in my hand, ready to be used. Velda yelled again and I followed her voice to the end of the alley.

  When I came to the street through the two-foot space that separated the buildings I couldn’t have found anybody, because the street was a funnel of people running to the subway kiosk. They ran and yelled back over their shoulders and I knew that whatever it was happened down there and I was afraid to look. If anything happened to Velda I’d tear the guts out of some son-of-a-bitch! I’d nail him to a wall and take his skin off him in inch-wide strips!

  A colored fellow in a porter’s outfit came up bucking the crowd yelling for someone to get a doctor. That was all I needed. I made a path through that mob pouring through the exit gates onto the station and battled my way up to the front.

  Velda was all right. She was perfectly all right and I could quit shaking and let the sweat turn warm again. I shoved the gun back under my arm and walked over to her with a sad attempt of trying to look normal.

  The train was almost all the way in the station. Not quite. It had to jam on the brakes too fast to make the marker farther down the platform. The driver and two trainmen were standing in front of the lead car poking at a bloody mess that was sticking out under the wheels. The driver said, “He’s dead as hell. He won’t need an ambulance.”

  Velda saw me out of the corner of her eye. I eased up to her, my breath still coming hard. “Deamer?”

  She nodded.

  I heard Pat busting through the crowd and saw Lee at his heels. “Beat it, kid. I’ll call you later.” She stepped back and the curious crowd surged around her to fill the spot. She was gone before Pat reached me.

  His pants were torn and he had a dirty black smear across his cheek. He took about two minutes to get the crowd back from the edge and when a cop from the beat upstairs came through the gang was herded back to the exits like cattle, all bawling to be in on the blood.

  Pat wiped his hand across his face. “What the hell happened?”

  “I don’t know, but I think that’s our boy down there. Bring Lee over.”

  The trainmen were tugging the remains out. One said, “He ain’t got much face left,” then he puked all over the third rail.

  Lee Deamer looked over the side and turned white. “My God!”

  Pat steadied him with an arm around his wai
st. They had most of the corpse out from under the train now. “That him?” Pat asked.

  Lee nodded dumbly. I could see his throat working hard.

  Two more cops from the local precinct sauntered over. Pat shoved his badge out and told them to take over, then motioned me to bring Lee back to one of the benches. He folded up in one like a limp sack and buried his face in his hands. What the hell could I say? So the guy was a loony, but he was still his brother. While Pat went back to talk to the trainmen I stood there and listened to him sob.

  We put Lee in a cab outside before I had a chance to say anything. The street was mobbed now, the people crowding around the ambulance waiting to see what was going in on the stretcher. They were disappointed when a wicker basket came up and was shoved into a morgue wagon instead. A kid pointed to the blood dripping from one corner and a woman fainted. Nice.

  I watched the wagon pull away and reached for a butt. I needed one bad. “It was an easy way out,” I said. “What did the driver say?”

  Pat took a cigarette from my pack. “He didn’t see him. He thinks the guy must have been hiding behind a pillar then jumped out in front of the car. He sure was messed up.”

  “I don’t know whether to be relieved or not.”

  “It’s a relief to me, Mike. He’s dead and his name will get published but who will connect him with Lee? The trouble’s over.”

  “He have anything on him?”

  Pat stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out some stuff. Under the light it looked as if it had been stained with ink. Sticky ink. “Here’s a train ticket from Chicago. It’s in a bus envelope so he must have taken a bus as far as Chi then switched to rail.” It was dated the 15th, a Friday.

  I turned the envelope over and saw “Deamer” printed across the back with a couple of schedule notations in pencil. There was another envelope with the stuff. It had been torn in half and used for a memo sheet, but the name Deamer, part of an address in Nebraska and a Nebraska postage mark were still visible. It was dated over a month ago. The rest of the stuff was some small change, two crumpled bills and a skeleton key for a door lock.