Anything But Saintly

Chapter 13

Jake Stark kept me waiting only four minutes, which led me to believe he was anxious to keep me away from Artie Nowak. The curb-side door opened and he slid in next to me.

“All right,” he growled. “Now what’s on your mind?”

“A number of things,” I said. “We’ll start with your little sideline racket. Does Artie know you’re the guy responsible for his girls rolling customers?”

“You’re nuts,” he said in a voice he tried to make sound indignant, but which had a tremor in it.

“That means he doesn’t know,” I said. “He’ll beat you silly and kick you out in the gutter if he ever finds out. Why’d you ever take a chance like that?”

His voice climbed a notch. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about, Rudd.”

“Oh, can it,” I said disgustedly. “I didn’t come down here to waltz around in circles with you. I’m not just guessing, Jake. I know you talked the girls into rolling customers. You take a cut for promising to protect them against Artie in case they get caught.”

After a moment of silence, he said in a thick voice, “Who talked?”

“So you can give her what you gave Kitty? Not a chance.”

There was another period of silence. Then he said, “What do you mean by that?”

“I’ll keep it simple,” I said. “You and Artie lied to the homicide cops who dropped by the tavern a while back.”

“Huh? You’re off your rocker. The lieutenant asked if Artie had left the place today. I told him no, which was the truth.”

“That isn’t the lie I’m talking about. Didn’t Lieutenant Wynn ask if you had left?”

In the darkness his eyes were studying me narrowly. “He asked it. Artie told him I hadn’t. Which was also the truth.”

I gave my head a slow shake. “Between one and two P.M. you visited 125 Ormond Place. The witness isn’t sure of the exact time, but there isn’t any doubt it was you.”

I was deliberately giving him the impression he had been seen entering Kitty’s apartment house in order to protect Dinny. If he thought my only information was that he was gone from the tavern between one and two that afternoon, he would know the old man was my informant. And I didn’t want to read in the paper that Dinny had been found floating in the river.

“What witness?” he demanded.

“That’s a professional secret. We want the witness to live long enough to testify in court.”

He didn’t say anything for several seconds. Then he said, “You’re bluffing, Rudd. Nobody saw me there because I wasn’t there.”

I said, “Tell you what we’ll do, Jake. We’ll go talk to Artie. When he hears how you’ve been undermining his call-girl operation, I wonder if he’ll still feel like alibiing for you. I’ve got an idea he’ll admit he sent you to collect the five hundred from Kitty.”

Even in the darkness I could see beads of sweat glistening on his upper lip. “Listen, Rudd. I didn’t kill her. Honest to God I didn’t.”

“I’m listening,” I said.

“If I level with you, are you going to tell Artie anyway?”

“Depends on how level you sound.”

He took a deep breath. “I’m gonna take a chance on you being a square guy. Yeah, Artie took over the bar for a while this afternoon and sent me to collect from Kitty. She was dead when I got there.”

I gave him a bleak smile. “Coincidental, wasn’t it?”

“It’s the truth,” he said on a high note. “Why the hell would I want to kill the girl?”

“To shut her up. If she told Artie she was rolling clients on your instructions, you’d be in the soup.”

He made an impatient gesture. “I didn’t have to shut her up, for cripes sake. If Artie hadn’t sent me, I was going to talk him into letting me handle it, so I’d get to her first. I figured I’d collect the five hundred and tell her to keep her mouth shut. Then I’d tell Artie I’d belted her around a little and she promised she wouldn’t pull the stunt any more. Artie wouldn’t have gone after her again, so long as he thought she’d been learned a lesson. He’s got more on his mind than straightening out tarts. That kind of stuff he delegates to the hired help.”

“Not always,” I said. “I happen to know of one girl he beat up.”

“Yeah? Who?”

“Never mind. It still looks to me as though you had a hell of a good motive to kill the girl.”

“If I had, you think I’d admit ever being near the place?” he demanded.

He had a point there. I didn’t think he was either intelligent enough or subtle enough to attempt getting away with a partially true story. If he were guilty, it would be more in character for him to deny everything and squawk for a lawyer. I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“Okay,” I said. “Tentatively I’ll accept your word that you didn’t kill her. What time did you get to her apartment?”

“About a quarter of two. When nobody answered the door, I tried the knob. It was unlocked. I walked in and found her in the bedroom. God, she was a sight! Somebody had beat her face all out of shape before he strangled her. I wiped off the front doorknob where I’d touched it and scrammed out of there fast.”

I examined him in silence for a time. Eventually I said, “Her purse was on the dresser. Did you collect the five hundred?”

He shook his head. “All I wanted was to be gone. I came back to the tavern and told Artie what had happened. It’s only about ten minutes from Kitty’s place to here, so I got back about two. Artie said just to sit tight, and if anybody asked, neither of us left the tavern all day. You going to relay this on to the homicide cops?”

“You don’t think I’d sit on a material witness, do you?”

In an earnest tone he said, “Listen, Rudd, I’ll make you a proposition. Give me twenty-four hours before you turn me in, and maybe we can break the case for you.”

“Who’s we?”

“Me and Artie. If I tell him a witness saw me enter the apartment building, and you’re going to blow my alibi wide open, I know he’ll get to work on it. Cripes, even if he wasn’t interested in protecting me, he won’t want it all over the papers that his chief assistant was arrested as a material witness in the murder of one of his call girls. Because to protect myself, I’d have to tell why I went to Kitty’s place.”

“What the devil can you and Artie do that Homicide Division can’t do better?”

“We’re on the inside. The other call girls are going to tell us things they’d never tell the cops. Artie can get them all together in a group and put on the pressure. The girls all know each other’s business, and if there’s anything at all they know about Kitty which might bear on her murder, we’ll find it out. We’ll have to deliver you the killer in self-defense. And you can take the credit.”

“I’m not interested in credit,” I said. “All I want is the killer to turn over to Homicide. What makes you think Artie won’t work just as hard to get you off the hook if you’re in jail?”

“Why should he? If you pull me in, the whole inside story comes out. I can’t explain why Artie sent me to Kitty’s place without telling that she was one of his call girls. And once the papers tie him into the call-girl racket, he’ll say the hell with it. I know him. He’ll throw me to the wolves. He doesn’t have to worry about being tagged for the murder because he never left the tavern. The only lever you’ve got to make him work on the case is keeping his name out of the papers.”

After musing over this, I decided it made sense. “I’ll give you until this time tomorrow night,” I decided. “If you haven’t come through with anything by then, you can talk to the homicide cops from a cell. And they get the full story, including your little sideline racket with the girls.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s fair enough. I’ll go talk to Artie right now.”

“You don’t have to wait until the deadline to let me know how you’re doing,” I told him. “The minute you hear anything, phone me either at home or at the Vice, Gambling and Narcotics Division. My home number’s in the book under Mathew Rudd.”

“Sure, Sarge,” he said. Pushing open the door, he climbed out and stood on the sidewalk, looking in at me. “Thanks for the break.”

“I’m not doing you any favors,” I growled at him. “You get twenty-four hours because I think you and Artie really may be able to get farther than Homicide Division. If you don’t come through, I’ll toss you in the can so fast, you’ll still be spinning when the door clangs shut.”

“Okay, okay,” he said soothingly. “We’ll come through.”

He pushed the door shut; I started the engine and drove away. In the rear-view mirror I could see him still standing there gazing after me until I swung left at the next corner.