Brett Halliday: Win Some, Lose Some

She would have liked to puncture that conceit by telling him that the reason she had been out of breath was that he had rammed it out of her. She hadn’t felt a thing. She stifled the impulse.

He buckled himself into his harness and poured more scotch. He wasn’t quite smiling, but there was something different about him.

“You think I’m a slob, don’t you? You and your long-fingernailed boy friend.”

“Slob is a bit strong. I was just thinking you remind me of Humphrey Bogart.”

“Who?”

“Bogart. He made a million movies. Short legs like you. He looked funny in a bathing suit, but he was very popular in his day.”

“I look funny with no clothes on, is that the message?”

She came up on her elbows. “You wanted to get laid. You got laid. Of course you’re a bit of a slob, for Christ’s sake. That’s part of your charm.”

“You don’t surprise me a bit, you know that? Now I want to take a look at Eddie.”

“Don’t worry, he’s taped up. He’s not going anywhere.”

“For laughs.”

A tag attached to the padlock gave the combination. The unconscious loan shark lay on his side as they had left him, forcing the air in and out through his nose, having bad dreams.

“Eddie, you prick,” Downey said with loathing. “Any towels in the bathroom?”

“A couple, why?”

“Bring them.”

When she came back, he was fitting a small metal nub to the barrel of his pistol.

“What’s that?”

“You ask too many fucking questions.”

He folded one of the towels the long way and wound it around Maye’s forehead, putting the other folded towel underneath like a pillow. Pam’s mind was working slowly after all the scotch. She didn’t understand what was happening until Downey picked his gun off the mattress, pointed it at Maye’s head, and fired.

It made a snick, not a bang. The body jerked.

Pam seized Downey’s shoulder, yelling, “What are you-”

Maye was obviously already dead. His body had arched, and he was lying on his taped wrists. The towel had slipped over his eyes and was already beginning to redden.

“Damn you, you killed him, what did you do that for?”

Downey unscrewed the silencer so he could put his pistol away. She shook his arm and threw it away from her so hard that he had to stagger to keep his balance. She couldn’t believe it had happened. Everything was much brighter, in sharper focus, as though the overhead bulb had gone from fifty watts to two hundred.

“Don’t worry about it,” Downey told her.

“Don’t worry about it! Don’t worry about it! You killed him!”

She came at him again. He lifted an elbow hard against her breast. The pain cleared her head, and the light in the room returned to normal. She forced herself to look at the dead man, as though hoping he could give her an explanation.

“What are you going to do, bawl?” Downey demanded. “That cock-sucker is a pure Mafia Shylock. Do you know what those people do? If I told you, you’d hold the tears, believe me. They’re one hundred percent bad. No redeeming features. Shoot one of them in the head, you’re doing a service. Aah-have a drink. We’ve got to talk before the kid gets back.”

Her cheekbones ached, and she could feel needlepoints of pain against her eyelids. She covered her face and continued to stand there helplessly until he turned her and forced her out of the room.

“Now I don’t want a lot of Goddamn argument. I was going to tell you first, but what’s the percentage? You notice I didn’t call for a vote. This saves a lot of conversation. It’s the only way to get any real money, so for God’s sake have a drink and listen.”

He pushed her into the chair and splashed scotch into her glass.

“Now drink it, do you want me to pour it in with a funnel? Is that the first stiff you ever saw? You act like it. When you shoot them in the head from six inches they get dead-that’s the rule. Think back a half hour. He had a gun, he was trying to kill you. And if I hadn’t been there, he would have. And you’re crying?”

She tried to say something. All she could manage was, “In cold blood-”

“Cold blood, hot blood, what difference? He’s dead, and I’ll tell you why I did it if you’ll do me the courtesy of listening. Do you think this hasn’t crossed my mind dozens of times? You saw one little write-up in a New York paper. Hell, this is happening all over. It’s like an epidemic. But you really must be out of your fucking mind if you think I’d take that kind of risk for a piddling forty-one grand.”

“The whole idea was that it had to be small.”

“That was Wernie-boy’s idea, not mine. Look at the stakes here. You stand to lose however many years they decide to give you. I lose that plus my investment in the pension. So I want a big man, and I want big money.”

“Who?”

“O.K., now you’re asking the right questions. As long as you realize you’re not the prosecuting attorney, you’re a co-defendant. I didn’t pull that trigger all by myself, you helped.”

When she started to protest, he said roughly, “That’s the law. It’s called conspiracy. You brought me the towels. We’re all in the kidnapping, we’re all in the killing.”

“I’m going to be sick.”

“No time. Get used to the idea-you can’t take the bullet out of his head and put it back in the gun. The cock-sucker’s dead, so what do we do now? We move on. I want you to get yourself together so you can explain it to Werner. He’s such a daisy, who knows how he’ll react? You’re tough, kid. You’re going to be fine. Because what we’re shooting for here is a million bucks, one third of a million apiece. How does it sound?”

She touched the glass to her lips and tossed it back. “Larger.” She could feel some of the pounding start to subside.

“That’s my little girl,” Downey said with satisfaction, sitting down. “It sounds a lot larger. We’re going for the top, Big Larry Canada. He’s number one on the charts, and if one-twenty-five was right for Eddie Maye, an even million is right for Larry. When you were hinting around about was I open to a proposition, that night you did it with your mouth, I almost busted out laughing. Honey, I’ve been looking and looking for a couple of birds like you. You’re such virgins, nobody would have the least idea. You’re going to be out in front, and I’ll give odds they’ll put me in charge of the investigation. How can we miss?”

“Why did you have to-”

“Stomp on Eddie? Shit, think about it. The bad thing about amateurs is how far can you trust them. This way, you stay in line because you’ve got to. The only plea you can cop is second-degree, and that carries a twenty-year ticket. No way you can start worrying and back out when I need you.”

“But that’s not all.”

“Baby, I love you. The old brain is beginning to squirm. This way, Larry and his people will know we mean it. Eddie got cute and tried to escape so we put him out of his misery, and we’ll do the same with whoever. I mean, we aren’t fooling around. They’ll have to buy it, and Larry will be very, very cooperative, is my forecast for today.”

“But will Werner buy it? If you thought I freaked out, wait till you see him.”

“No, we don’t want to upset his delicate stomach. Better if he thinks it was an accident. I got it worked out.” He patted her hand. “You look great. If we had time, I’d give you a nice couple of licks. Here’s the scam. You let down, had too many drinks. We went in to make Eddie comfortable. When we came out, you forgot to put the lock on the door. Eddie butted it open. That was bad because he saw us without the masks. You he wouldn’t know, but me, he knows my name and address and what I do for a living. That changed all the plans. We couldn’t pick up the ransom and let him go home, could we? They’d come looking for me with guns. So I had to blast him. Werner will see that. It was your fault for leaving the door unlocked, and you have to sound sorry as hell. He’ll forgive you, and after a couple of double scotches he’ll be willing to listen to the Canada idea.”