42 Days For Murder

Chapter Nineteen

I left the place two hours after Hazel and Lester had taken my car away and I went out the back way. Quietly. That is, comparatively quietly. I’d have done better if the Spanish hadn’t been hanging to me and begging me to stay the rest of the night where I’d be safe. She argued that all I could lose was sleep, if I stayed, and I told her that she had something there, undoubtedly, but that I had work to do.

I got to the Palace without seeing a soul that looked like anyone I shouldn’t see and I went in the side door of the place as quietly as I could. But not quietly enough to keep Maude, the landlady, from hearing me. She came out of the kitchen, with a wrapper around her, and said:

“I told you it was trouble, mister. They’re up in your room waiting for you.”

“How many of them?”

“Two. One of them is Billy Montez and the other guy I don’t know. He’s a tough baby, or I’m wrong. I watched them sneak in the place.”

“Who’s Billy Montez?”

“He’s Mexican. He smokes the weed. He’s on the junk, besides that, but not bad I hear. He’s a knife man, I hear. The other one is the guy that was waiting across the street for you this afternoon.”

I started up the stairs and she grabbed me by the arm and said: “Oh, no you don’t. I won’t have trouble in my place. I won’t have the spot hotted up because you want to start something you maybe can’t finish. Two to one don’t make sense, mister. I tell you they’re waiting for you.”

“What d’ya want me to do?”

“Use your head for once. Call Mac. How can you lose? I’ll get him for you.”

She went to a phone she had in the kitchen and got Mac, where he stayed. She naturally knew his number. I talked to him and told him what was going on and he said he’d be right over. So I sat in the kitchen and waited for him. He came in as quietly as I had, and said to her: “Now it’s all right, Maude. I’ll take ’em out with no fuss or confusion and there won’t be a come-back on the place.” And to me: “Let’s do it.”

“What’ll you do with ’em after you got ’em?”

“Put ’em where I put Wendel. I’ll have that jail filled up, first thing I know.”

I said okey and up we went. We stopped outside my door and he called out softly: “Montez! This is Macintosh. Len Macintosh. Come out of there quietly and with your hands in sight. Or I’ll come in. You hear me?”

Nobody answered. Macintosh said again: “This is Macintosh. Come out or I’ll come in.”

We could hear whispering then. Finally a voice with an accent said: “We come out. You no shoot.”

“I no shoot,” Macintosh said.

He had his gun out and I had him backed with mine. The door opened and a guy with a brown, scarred face peeked out first. He saw Mac’s gun staring him in the face and squealed: “No shoot! No shoot!”

“Come on out. You and your partner.”

The Mex came out, followed by a man that stood at least three inches over six feet. And who didn’t weigh over a hundred and twenty pounds. Just skin and bone. Mac looked him over and said: “Hagh! Boney Seitz, hunh?”

The thin man said: “Yes!” very sullenly.

We fanned them for guns and knives and didn’t find a thing on either of them. I went in the room and looked around and found a Marble hunting knife under the mattress. Then an old .38 Smith and Wesson way back on the top closet shelf. And a pocket knife with a blade at least five inches long between the sheets. The knife was the kind that has a spring to snap the blade out when a release button is pressed. I said:

“Here’s their hardware. There’s maybe more scattered around the place but this is enough. Neither of them have a permit to carry concealed weapons, I’m willing to bet.”

Seitz snarled: “You didn’t find ’em on us, did you?”

Macintosh said, very softly: “That’ll be all right. By the time I’m through with you boys, you’re going to be glad to claim them. Now get down them stairs and don’t give me an argument. You coming, Connell?”

“Sure.”

“You don’t need to.”

We got them outside and to his car. He had a sedan, with a coat rail on the back of the front seat, and he cuffed them together so the coat rail had the cuffs over it. Montez’s right hand was below the rail and Seitz’s left was over it. He said then, to me: “Go on back and get some sleep. I can take ’em over alone, as well as not.”

“With the two of them in the back seat? Hell, man, I’ll go with you, of course.”

He grinned wickedly and said: “I don’t need you. Do I, boys?”

Montez said: “You no shoot. I do nothing.”

Seitz said nothing. Macintosh waited a moment, then asked: “What about you, Boney?”

“I’m not starting anything,” Boney said. “I can get bailed two hours after I’m in. Why should I start something?”

Macintosh climbed back of the wheel and I went back in the place. Maude was waiting for me and she said: “Both those boys know Mac and both of them are scared to death of him. He’s got a reputation around this country.”

“If anything happened to him we’d know who did it. That ought to keep them in line if nothing else does.”

“They’ll keep in line. God help ’em if they don’t.”

I said goodnight and went to bed. Between Spanish and the company waiting for me it had been a large evening and I was tired.

The thing had dropped into place and all I had to do was wait for somebody to break it. For somebody to get impatient and start the fireworks. But Macintosh came in the next morning and, when I’d told him what I’d figured out, said: “Why wait? Why not we start it?”

“Why not let them start it? They will soon.” His eyes got red and he said: “I want it to break before that bastard of a young Rucci gets out of town. He brought two girls in with him and I can stick him on a slave charge but I want to get Gino right along with him. Let’s clean it up all at once.”

I said: “You’re the doctor, mister,” and got Lester on the phone. I said: “We’re going to break it tonight, kid, if we can. Now I’ve got Wendel where he’s safe but I don’t want Joey Free worrying about him and getting things screwed up. So tell Joey that Wendel’s safe in the Federal can over in Carson City. That he’s being held there and isn’t charged. And tell him that when I have Wendel turned loose I’ll have somebody stay with him all the time to make sure he’s kept safe. That I’m going to get him out tomorrow. Get it all?”

“I’ll tell him, Shean. Gee, I had an awful time last night. Hazel wouldn’t get out of the car. She wanted to stay in the car and ride around and see the sun rise. It was terrible.”

“You came to the right place for sympathy, kid. Now listen. Tell Joey I said not to bail Wendel out. That I’ll get him out tomorrow. That Joey’s to leave him there today.”

I winked at Macintosh with this. Macintosh whispered: “Better men than Free have tried to get people out of that jail. They got locks on the doors there.”

Lester said: “I’ll tell Joey what you said. Your girl called and wanted to know how you are. She wants you to call her.”

“Quit calling her my girl, damn you.”

“You were with her last night, weren’t you?”

I said: “Okey, we break even on the women,” and hung up. Then I called Amos Mard and said: “Now look, Mard. Don’t miss on this. Your client Wendel’s over in the Federal jail in Carson City. He’s just held; not charged. Get over there and wait for somebody to get him out. Don’t you do it, understand. Just hang around, out of sight, and wait for somebody to do it for you. I’ll have it fixed for you. Get it?”

“Not exactly. What’s it all about?”

“It’s wheels within wheels. That sort of stuff. Now when Wendel gets loose, you stick with him every second. It’s important. It’ll keep the damned fool from getting himself killed.”

Mard said: “I thought of that angle. Wendel’s undoubtedly carrying insurance and his wife would be the beneficiary. A dead man couldn’t fight a divorce action and none would be necessary. I’ll stick with him. Don’t you worry.”

“When you get him back here, take him up to my partner’s room. That is, if you’re alone. Lester will get in touch with me; I don’t want you to leave Wendel even long enough to phone. It’s putting you in a sort of spot but I don’t think this crew is ready for wholesale murder yet. I don’t think they know the break is coming as soon as it is.”

“I understand.”

“And if Joey Free wanders in don’t crack to him about it. Even if he’s sober he might not stay that way.”

“I understand. But it’s all right to tell Wendel the situation, isn’t it? Your partner knows what’s going to happen, doesn’t he?”

“Hell, no. I don’t myself, for sure.”

“You’re forcing a showdown, isn’t that it?”

“That’s it. Just find out who gets Wendel out of jail and then stay with Wendel every second. If he doesn’t want to go to the hotel call Lester there and tell him where you are. Or better, stop by for him. He can be the contact man between us. I don’t want Wendel left alone for a second.”

“He’s in that much danger, you think?”

“I think.”

He hung up and Macintosh got the Federal jail. He told them what was going to happen and to let Wendel loose as soon as anybody tried to get him out. But not before. They said okey and he quit talking and said to me:

“They think I’m nuts. But the trouble with so damn many of the Eastern men that come out here and try to crack up a set-up is that they think the Eastern way. It don’t work out against a Western proposition. That’s why I get away with the things I do; I get results every now and then.”

I said: “I gather that from what I hear.”

Lester called a half hour later. He said: “I saw Joey and told him what you told me to tell him. He said he wouldn’t try to get Wendel out. He’s drunk again; said he woke up drunk.”

“Did he seem worried about Wendel?”

“At first. He said he’d been looking for him.”

I said: “Okey, kid! Now Mard is coming up with Wendel, sometime during the day. Stick there and wait for them. Be ready to go out, if Wendel shouldn’t want to stay there but if you go out call me and tell me where you’re going! Take Joey with you if you want; it makes no difference. But don’t say anything to him about waiting for Mard and Wendel. That’s complicated, but you understand, don’t you?”

“You mean that Mard is going to get Wendel out of jail? And that I’m not to say anything to Joey about knowing it. Is that it?”

“That’s the general idea.”

“All right, Shean! But I don’t understand what you’re doing. I don’t know half of what’s going on. I wish you’d tell me so I could be prepared.”

I said: “Hell! I don’t understand half of what’s going on myself. I wish I knew what was going on so I could be prepared. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m just guessing myself.”

He said, very confidently: “It’ll come out the way you want it to, Shean. I know that.”

“I wish I had your faith. Call me and tell me if anything happens. I don’t want Mard to let Wendel out of his sight for a minute, so you do the telephoning. Get it?”

“I could watch Wendel while Mard telephoned.”

“You do like I ask you to,” I said, and hung up before he had a chance to argue it. I said to Macintosh: “The kid fancies himself as a bodyguard. He’s a nice boy but he can’t see more than ten feet away from his nose. Mard has an idea what he’s facing and will have his eyes open.”

“Mard’s a pretty good guy. Hardly the man for the job he’s got.”

“He’ll do. He won’t let Wendel wander off into trouble and that’s all I’m asking of him. The kid thinks everything’s going to come out okey. He’s got faith.”

Macintosh said: “I think it is myself. So does Kirby.”

“I’ve got an idea why you’re playing along with me, but why is Kirby? I don’t quite get that.”

He said slowly: “I’ve known Kirb for fifteen years and worked with him, off and on, for over half of that. We’re friends. He’ll play it the way I ask him if he can possibly do it. I’ve asked him. He... ugh... he knows this is sort of a personal thing with me.”

“I understand.”

“So does Kirby. I’ll ask you just one thing. If there’s trouble, leave the Rucci brothers to me. Let me take care of them. You understand; Maude told me she got wordy with you.”

“I understand.”

“So does Kirby,” he said again.