Lone Wolf #12 by Mike Barry

Author:Mike Barry [Barry, Mike]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781440542459
Publisher: Adams Media
Published: 1975-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

XI

The other houseman, Dick, found the bodies. The one in the living room led him inevitably to the bedroom, and the one in the bedroom led him on a slow, careful prowl through the rest of the house to make sure that Carlin himself had not been killed. The houseman did not really think he had been; everything here pointed to only one conclusion, and although Dick was not a thoughtful man he could have said, if pressed, that he had seen it coming. He had waited for it for a long time. There was every indication that someday Carlin was going to do something and if Dick had not been receiving two salaries for his services instead of just one he would not have stayed in the house. As it was, it was just barely worth it. Looking at Joe crumpled on the floor Dick could see how close the calculation had been. Fifty-fifty, that was all. Still, if you got lucky there was no reason to question that luck. He would not have wanted Joe killed, but if it came down to a simple matter of choice … well, Dick thought, better him than me.

Having satisfied himself that there were only two bodies and that Carlin had not hanged or shot himself but had definitely gone, Dick made the first of his two necessary calls. It was not the one to the police; the police were going to be very tricky to handle, but Dick thought he saw a way of managing this if his timing was right and if he worked it out sufficiently in his head beforehand. Certainly there was no percentage in not informing the police. If he could face one thing right off, it was that if he was not the one who reported the crimes suspicion would come right down on him, and even though he had, as everyone in his business ought to, a spare identity or two lying around, it was better not to count upon that except if everything else had failed. He would have to report the crimes and take a good deal of heat but that was all right. He had been taking heat in one form or another for most of his life, and the Phoenix cops, compared to some of the scenes that he had gone through, figured to be a piece of cake. There were ways. But the other call was far more important, focusing as it did on the man who was Dick’s second and now only employer and who had been, even at the time there were two, by far the more important. Whatever the Phoenix PD did to him would be nothing compared to what this man would do if he were not contacted and as quickly as possible.

Dick put the call through collect to Mexico City. He did not want this showing up on the dead man’s phone bill; there would be investigators crawling around. The man in Mexico City was

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