Extortion by Hartley Howard

Author:Hartley Howard
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448211142
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-11-22T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER X

That was when I took my hat away from where I’d been holding it against my middle and showed her what I’d been nursing behind it. I said, “Surprise for you, sister. One teeny-weeny squawk and you’ll be sent back home to Newhampton in a box.”

Her eyes tried to crawl inside her head. Slowly and stiffly she lowered her arms and swallowed a couple of times like her throat was closing up.

In a faint dry voice, she said, “You—wouldn’t.”

“Why not? What’ve I got to lose? You’d sell me up the river as a rape-hound. A guy’s got no chance when a woman puts the crooked finger on him for a thing like that. I’d get two-to-five … and when I came out I’d be all washed up … because you framed me … because somebody hired you to frame me. Who was it? So help me, if you don’t talk….”

“It was Lou, Lou Kaltenbach. I didn’t wanna do it. Believe me, mister, I didn’t wanna do it….” She couldn’t keep her sick eyes off the gun.

“For a few bucks a dame like you will do most anything,” I said. “Take off your dress and put on another one. And don’t worry about me being embarrassed. You’re not the first tomato I’ve seen half-undressed. Besides, you’ve got nothing that could boost my blood-pressure. Move!”

She sidled past me to the clothes closet and brought out a dress that hadn’t seen a press iron in a long time. As she began pulling the torn one off over her head she looked up into my face and swallowed again.

With terror distorting her voice, she said, “You won’t—do it, will you? I won’t make no trouble for you, honest I won’t.”

I said, “One way or another, you won’t make any trouble, that’s for sure. Now, fasten up that strap or you’ll catch one-sided pneumonia. Then get the other dress on. You’ve got some talking to do.”

Her hands were clumsy. She had trouble fastening up her dress at the back and once or twice I thought she was going to ask me to zip it up for her.

When she looked respectable again, I said, “Go comb you hair. If the comb’s in your purse, I’ll get it for you—just in case.”

There was nothing in her purse except the usual junk a dame carries around. She fixed her hair and stood fiddling with the comb while she watched me with the same frightened look in her eyes.

I said, “Sit down there on the edge of the bed.… Now, what do you know about Lou Kaltenbach?”

It took a couple of attempts before she managed to say, “I—I met him in a bar two-three days ago. He asked me if I’d like to pick up some easy money.…”

There she dragged her frightened eyes away from my face and looked down at the gun and shivered uncontrollably. I put the Smith and Wesson back where it belonged and stood over her.

“So you don’t get any wrong ideas,” I said, “I’ll tell you something before we go any further.

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