Time to Prey by Frank Kane

Author:Frank Kane [Kane, Frank]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4405-3991-6
Publisher: Prologue Books
Published: 2012-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

14

The city room of the Dispatch was just beginning to come to life. Half a dozen reporters, their hats shoved on the backs of their heads, jackets hanging over the backs of chairs, sat with ears glued to telephones. At other desks, typewriters chattered about the day’s doings for the early edition. From a partitioned area, the teletypes added their deeper tones with an occasional pinging of a bell.

Johnny Liddell picked his way down an aisle between desks to a glass door that bore the legend Managing Editor.

A thin man with the sharp, inquisitive eyes of a good reporter, long thin nose of a ferret and a shock of untidy white hair looked up from the room’s only desk as the door slammed shut. His face was tired, lined under the green eyeshade he wore. In his mouth he clamped a short-stemmed bulldog pipe. He nodded as he recognized Liddell.

“Well, Johnny. Been expecting to hear from you. What’ve you been doing?”

“About three rounds with Porky Daniels and his merry men. I gather he’s out to get me.”

Muggsy’s editor-father, Jim Kiely, pulled the pipe from between his teeth, whistled softly. “That’s Big Casino. Word is that when he’s on your tail, you quietly cash in your chips.”

“Where’s his weak spot, Jim?”

The editor shook his head. “If he had one, we’d have nailed him years ago. We’ve been on top of that stinking mess on the docks ever since Porky moved up. But every time we think we can nail him, our witnesses develop speech defects. They turn up dead.” He replaced the pipe between his teeth. “What’s he after you for?”

Liddell shrugged. “Hardly worth mentioning. I merely told him I intended to prove that he ordered the murders of Blossom Lee and Roger Chan. He took it personally.”

“Then Muggs’s hunch was right. There was more to that suicide-murder than the cops gave out.” He dragged a sheaf of copy paper to the edge of the desk, found a sharpened pencil. “Give.”

“All I could give you would be the makings of a libel suit,” Liddell complained. “I know Porky Daniels was up to his neck in both kills, but I can’t prove a thing. And neither can the police.”

Jim Kiely bounced the pencil off the top of the desk. “What do you mean you’re sure then?”

“Tell me if this smells like coincidence to you. A thug follows a Chinese girl who hires me to make a delivery. That night, after he takes the package away from me, the girl turns up dead. A couple of days later, the guy who’s supposed to have killed her does the dutch. Only thing is, that same afternoon the same thug goes into a house down the block and heads for the roof.”

“But how is Porky involved?”

Liddell grinned crookedly. “Tonight I get an invitation to meet someone. The invitation is delivered in person by the same thug. The invitation was backed up by a.38.” The smile faded. “The gent throwing this party was none other than Porky Daniels.

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