The King Killers by Thomas B. Dewey

Author:Thomas B. Dewey [Dewey, Thomas B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: When Mac tries to help a friend collect an unpaid bill, he gets more than he bargained for...including a corpse!
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Published: 2018-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

They decided not to have a drink with me. Donovan was the senior officer, so he got to do the talking. The first thing he said was, “Planning to skip town?”

“No,” I said. “I talked to Lieutenant Preston about it. I got an assignment—”

“But you were to check in with Lieutenant Preston. You went ahead and made a reservation, at Midway, for tonight.”

“There wasn’t going to be any point in checking with Lieutenant Preston if I couldn’t get out of town anyway—”

I couldn’t figure out why they were giving me a bad time, except that they were both in a bad mood. One reason for the bad mood could be that their case had gone wrong, that they had been let down by the real big shots, such as the governor and probably the D.A., and as a result they were badly frustrated and felt like losers. There was also a possibility that they actually thought I was mixed up in some way with Schneider or Royal and was holding out on them. There wasn’t anything I could do for them on either count. I could only ride out the storm.

“How come you didn’t say anything to me about these two goons or whatever they were, the two that hung around Fielding and Mrs. Royal?” Preston said. “I mean when I was on the scene there and you were telling me what happened.”

“I forgot about them,” I said. “It didn’t come up, I mean, I hadn’t put that much together at that time.”

“What have you put together now?” Donovan said.

“Nothing. All I know is that I saw these two at the hotel and they acted like bodyguards. I figure it took two at least to bang Schneider up like that. But I don’t know it was them.”

“Ed Croft at the Palmer House told us,” Donovan said, “that you called him on the phone while we were in the middle of the investigation. What was that about?”

“It was about this guy Barnes, and the girl, Eloise, who had picked me up there—”

“You didn’t call in about the girl.”

“I…”

I cut myself off. Everything I said made it worse. They were after me for something, and I would have to find out what it was before I would know what to say.

“I give up,” I said. “What do you want from me?”

They studied me from two angles. It was a rough study that didn’t exactly warm the cockles of my heart.

“All of them took off for California. Barnes took off for California. Schneider flew to California early this morning. Now you.”

I stared at them.

“You were in that apartment with Royal,” Preston said, “with the murder knife practically in your hand. You had Royal’s blood all over you. When the juvenile people caught up with the Royal girl, they caught up with you at the same time.”

Donovan was looking at me head on, his eyes far back and flat, his big jaw set crookedly.

“You’re in it, Mac.”

I was beginning to get scared. I couldn’t make myself believe that Donovan would do this to me.

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