Fletcher Flora - The First Golden Age of Mystery & Crime MEGAPACK™ - 26 Stories by Fletcher Flora

“Sure, Corey. Come on over.”

“Give me thirty minutes.”

He hung up, and so did I. It must be a big favor he wanted, I thought, to make him so accommodating. I had an uneasy feeling that it was related to something that I didn’t want to think about, and I wished I could quit. I got out of bed and shaved and showered and dressed, which used up the thirty minutes. I had just finished when the door buzzer sounded, and I went out across the living room to the door and opened it.

“Right on time,” I said. “Come on in.”

He came in and tossed his hat into one chair and sat down in another. His hair was cut short, a thick brown stubble, and he looked trim and hard. Right now, leaning back and smiling, relaxed.

“You’ve got a nice place, Mark. You live well.”

“Heels always live well. It’s expected of them.”

“You’re not a heel, Mark. You’re just a reasonably good guy with kinks.”

“Thanks.” I walked over to a table and lifted a glass. “You want some breakfast?”

“Out of a bottle?”

“Is there another place to get it?”

“I had mine out of a skillet. You go ahead.”

I poured a double shot of bourbon and swallowed it fast. Then I went back and threw his hat on the floor and took its place. The double helped me feel as relaxed as he looked.

“Go on,” I said. “Convince me.”

“Don’t rush me. I’m trying to think of the best approach.”

“The best is the simplest. You want a favor. Tell me what it is.”

“Let me ask you a question first. You seen Nora lately?”

“No. It’s been forever. Why?”

“I thought you might have looked her up when Jack Kirby was murdered.”

“I didn’t.”

“That’s strange. Old friends and all, I mean. The least an old friend can do when an old friend’s boy friend is killed is to offer sympathy and condolences and all that.”

“My personal opinion is that congratulations were in order. I didn’t think it would be in good taste to offer them.”

He looked across at me, shaking his burr head and grinning. The grin got vocal and became a loud laugh.

“You see, Mark? All you’ve got are a few kinks. A real twenty-four carat heel like Jack Kirby offends your sensibilities.”

“Go to hell.”

“Sure, sure. Anything to oblige. What I’m leading up to is, this favor isn’t really for me at all. Oh, incidentally it is, maybe, but mostly it’s a favor for Nora.”

“You sound like a man about to be devious, Corey.”

“Not me, Mark. Whatever I may be that makes me different from you, I’m not devious. I haven’t got the brains for it.”

“O.K. Tell me the favor for Nora that’s one for you incidentally.”

“I’ll tell you, but let’s get the circumstances in focus. Did you read the news stories about Jack Kirby’s murder?”

“Once over, lightly.”

“In that case, you’ll remember what the evidence indicated. He had an appointment with someone in his apartment. At least someone came to see him there, and this someone, whoever it was, killed him. Cracked his skull with a heavy cut-glass decanter, to be exact. This was all in the news stories, and it’s all true. What wasn’t in the stories, because we put the lid on it, is that someone pretty definitely knew who it was in the apartment with Kirby that night. That someone is Nora.”

“How do you know?”

“Never mind how. We know.”

“That won’t do, Corey. You can’t expect to clam up on the guy you’re asking for a favor.”

“All right. I’ll tell you this much. The day of Kirby’s murder, Nora told a friend that she was going to Kirby’s apartment that night, but she couldn’t go until late because Kirby was expecting someone earlier that she didn’t want to meet. This friend is a woman whose testimony can be relied on. We’re convinced of that.”

“Didn’t Nora mention the name of Kirby’s expected guest?”

“No. No name. Just that it was someone she didn’t want to meet there.”

“Did you ask Nora?”

Corey looked down at his hands in his lap. He folded and unfolded the blunt fingers. On his face for a few seconds there was a sour expression as he recalled an experience that he hadn’t liked and couldn’t forget.

“We hauled her in and asked her over and over for a long while. She wouldn’t say. She denied ever having told her friend that she knew.”

“I wonder why. You’d think she’d want to help.”

“Come off it, Mark. You know why as well as I do. Jack Kirby was a guy who associated with dangerous characters. One of these characters killed him, and he wouldn’t think twice about killing a material witness. Either to keep her from talking or in revenge if she did. If he couldn’t do it personally, he’d have it done for him. Today or tomorrow or next year. Nora’s been associating with some dangerous characters herself, including Kirby. She knows how they operate, Mark. She won’t talk because she’s afraid.”

“Well, Nora’s not exactly a strong personality. She’ll break eventually. Why don’t you ask her again?”

“I wish I could.”

“Why can’t you? Like you said, she’s a material witness. You can arrest her and hold her.”

“I could if I could get hold of her.” He looked down at his hands again, at the flexing fingers. His face was smooth and hard now, the sour expression dissolved. “I should have held her when I had her, but that was my mistake. A man makes lots of mistakes for old times’ sake.”

“Asking and giving favors, you mean. That sort of thing.”

“Maybe. We’ll see.”

“Speaking of favors, where do I come in? If you think I know where Nora is, you’re wrong.”

“That’s not the problem. I already know where she is.”

“In that case, why don’t you pick her up?”

“Because she’s across the state line. You may know that we don’t have any extradition agreement with our neighbor covering material witnesses.”

“I didn’t know, as a matter of fact. Thanks for telling me. It may come in handy. I don’t seem to remember reading any of this about Nora in the papers.”

“I told you. It wasn’t there. We’ve kept the lid on it. The point is, we can’t keep the lid on any longer. The story’s going to break in the evening editions, and that’s what worries me.”

“I can see why. You won’t look so good, letting a material witness slip away from you. Tough. You expect me to bleed, Corey?”

“It’s not that. I’ll survive a little criticism. It’s Nora I’m worried about.”

“Old times’ sake again?”

“Call it what you like, but you can see her position. She’s a constant and deadly threat to Jack Kirby’s killer, whoever he is, and the moment the story breaks, the killer is going to know it. He’ll also know where to find her.”

“I see what you mean. The threat works two ways.”

“That’s it. And that’s where you come in.”

“Don’t tell me. You want me to go and talk to her and convince her that she’s got to come back and turn herself in for her own good.”

“You’re a smart guy, Mark. You always were.”

“Sure. With kinks. To tell you the truth, I’m not quite convinced that this mysterious visitor of Kirby’s is going to be so desperate as you imagine.”

“You think he won’t? Why?”

“Well, Nora knows he was supposed to be at Kirby’s at a certain time. At the time Kirby was killed. So she knows. That’s not absolute proof that he was actually there. Even if he was there, it’s not proof that he did the killing. It’s a lead, Corey, not a conviction.”

“A lead’s all we need. The visitor killed Kirby. We’re certain of it. Once we know who he was, we’ll find more evidence fast enough. We’ll know what to look for, and how and where to find it.”