The Killing (aka. 'Clean Break') by Lionel White

Author:Lionel White [White, Lionel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Munsey's
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Randy Kennan sat in back of the wheel of the sedan, a newspaper held in front of his face. He hadn't long to wait. At exactly eight forty, the front door of the apartment house opened and Marvin Unger walked out and turned west, looking neither to right or to left. Randy gave him an extra minute or two after he had passed the corner and turned downtown. Then he climbed out of the car and entered the building.

Johnny had a cup of black coffee in his hand when he answered the soft knock on the door.

“Glad you got my message,” he said, smiling at the other man and quickly stepping aside to let him enter.

Randy smiled back.

“Gotta 'nother cup?” he asked.

Johnny nodded and went into the kitchen. Randy followed him.

“What's the rub?” the cop asked. “I thought we planned the meet for tonight?”

“No rub,” Johnny said. “It's just that I want to talk to you first—alone.”

Randy took the cup of coffee Johnny held out and reached for a chair.

“Everything all right with the others?”

“Everything's set,” Johnny said. “I just wanted to talk to you alone.” He hesitated a second, watching Randy closely, and then went on.

“It's like this,” he said. “When the cards are down, here's the way it stacks up. You and I are the ones who are really carrying the ball. And you are the only one I can actually count on. Not,” he added quickly, seeing the suddenly startled look on the policeman's face, “not that the others aren't all right as far as they go. The trouble is, they just don't go far enough.

“Right now, Unger's out getting the five grand I'm going to need today to tie up the boys who are helping me out at the track. That's fine. We need Unger and that's why he's in. We need Big Mike, too, and we can count on him. He's old, he's tired and discouraged and God knows he probably has plenty of problems of his own. But he's invaluable to us and won't let us down. The same goes for Peatty.”

He stopped then for a minute and refilled his cup.

“What's on your mind, kid?” Randy said. “We already been over all that.”

“Right. We have,” Johnny said. “But coming to Peatty, we come to another problem. Peatty's wife. As far as George goes, he knows what he has to do and he'll do it. We can trust him. But that business of his wife showing up still bothers me. Let me tell you exactly what happened after you guys left the other night.”

For the next ten minutes Johnny talked and as he went over the details of the scene between himself and Sherry Peatty, Randy once or twice grinned widely. He didn't interrupt until Johnny was through talking.

“So what,” he said at last. “The kid's got hot pants and George can't take care of her. That's all it amounts to. That and the fact that she's nosy.”

“You may be right. On the other hand, the dame worries me.

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.