The Hoods Take Over (Black Gat Books Book 19) by Ovid Demaris

Author:Ovid Demaris [Demaris, Ovid]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, General, Hard-Boiled
ISBN: 9781944520731
Publisher: Stark House Press
Published: 2020-01-12T11:00:00+00:00

12.

At seven o’clock that evening, Merkle was sitting in the basement of Marsha Brown’s call house. It had been a tough day. His visit at Kahn’s place had him worried. He would have to be especially careful in the future when dealing with extortion victims. If Kahn ever got wise to him, he was as good as dead.

His first job that evening had been to remove all evidence of a tap on Marsha’s line. It would mean more work for him now, but it was going to be a lot safer. He would have to tap directly into the phone line, and it meant that he had to be there to listen to the calls instead of having them recorded on tape in his shop. But that wouldn’t be too difficult, since all the important calls came between seven and eight every evening. That was when gentlemen arranged for their evening’s entertainment with Marsha’s high-class call girls.

The arrangement usually called for a meeting at a swanky hotel in the Hollywood area. The girl handled all the details, rented the room, provided the liquor and food, and the flesh. All the gentleman needed was the money.

Whenever possible Merkle would rent an adjoining room. Sometimes when the contact was important enough and he couldn’t get a room, Merkle would find other means of getting the evidence on tape, and these often led to ingenious innovations.

Now he listened as the telephone rang and Marsha’s husky voice came alive in his ear.

“Hollywood 8-4993,” she said.

“Marsha. Bobbie here. Can you recommend a good book for tonight?”

“How about something with a redhead heroine. Very sexy.”

“Sounds delightful. Where can I get it?”

“Bela-Woods.”

“How many pages?”

“Four hundred and thirty-four.”

“Great. What else is new?”

“Not much. I read ten books last week.”

“Gads! You’re so ambitious.”

“Gotta keep up, you know.”

“Righto. Well, dig you later.”

The line went dead and Merkle quickly translated the information: Bela-Woods Hotel, Room 434 at ten o’clock. The redhead would be Niki, a twenty-two-year-old pro with a lot of class. The Bela-Woods was a plush hostelry and Room 434, as Merkle remembered from previous occasions, was a three-room suite, and with a balcony, yet. Bobbie had to be plenty loaded. Merkle smiled. He had his pigeon for tonight. He started to disconnect the tap when the telephone rang again.

“Hollywood 8-4993.”

“Marsha?”

“Yeah.”

“This is Reggie.”

“Don’t bother me. I’m busy.”

“Hey, wait. How about a good book for tonight?”

“Call the public library.”

“Now, Marsha, be a good sport.”

“Drop dead.”

“You’re mad about the check, aren’t you?”

“You goddam right.”

“I’ll make it good. I promise. Friday for sure.”

“This is Friday.”

“Next Friday.”

“Good-by!”

And the line went dead for a few seconds then rang again.

“Yeah.”

“Listen, Marsha. My word is good around this town. Friday for sure.”

“I don’t give a damn about your word. No check, no book.”

“I promise. You’ll get it Friday. My word of honor.”

“Nothing doing. From now on it’s cash in advance.”

“Okay, Marsha. But how about tonight?”

“No soap.”

“Just this once.”

“No, no, no.”

“Jesus, Marsha, you can’t do this to me. I’ve got myself in the mood. Have a heart.”

“Take a cold shower.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.