Микки Спиллейн - The Erection Set

Balls.

Inside pages of the edition covered the activities of the S. C. Cable production crews setting up for the forthcoming Fruits of Labor picture, the society pages went all out on the party given for prominent local citizens and the picture company and the rest of the world news was sandwiched in the last section.

Even the New York papers were having a field day with the topic and even if Fruits of Labor hadn’t been a great book to begin with, it sure was getting one hell of a push with all the notoriety going on around it. Mona Merriman ran a full-column plug with details obviously supplied by Lee and the publicity department, another Hollywood columnist gave it two paragraphs and Dick Lagen hinted at a more sinister possible aspect and stated flatly that this was only the beginning of the unrest that was bound to come. If he did have anything substantial, either it wasn’t provable or he wasn’t ready to break it yet.

Chet Linden had listened while I told him what happened and told me to get lost.

I said, “Buddy, I’m getting highly pissed off and I don’t want any crap from you at all. I told you what could happen and you wouldn’t listen and if you feel like stranding me, old pal, I’ll blow the whistle on the whole damn shebang and bring it down on everybody’s head.”

His voice was flat and cold. “We don’t take that stuff, Dog.”

But I could be just as cold and a lot more deadly I had four more kills in my pocket to prove it and he damn well kept count too. “You don’t have any choice, Chet. Just do it.”

I heard him suck in his breath with disgust. “Okay, where’s the car?”

When I gave him the directions I said, “They have tire impressions from the area, so just switch shoes of the same type and the rental company will never notice it. Do the window, wash down the undersides, run it through the countryside a little bit to pick up traces of dirt other than that beside the hotel and leave it where you found it.”

“You think their labs can’t pick up something if they nail you?”

“They won’t have time. I’m not on anybody’s list yet.”

“You’re on ours now.”

“Come get me then. And, Chet...”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t try booby-trapping the car. I know all the gimmicks too... and you just might get some innocent slob killed.”

He didn’t answer me. He just hung up and I grinned because the choice was all mine. But from now on I had something else to look out for.

Rose was waiting for me at the back table of the Arcade Bar and Grill, a little place struggling for survival without seeming to care what happened. The couple who ran the place had aged along with the building and looked more like wooden fixtures than people. She had gotten there five minutes early and had ordered a hamburger, getting ready to bite into it when I arrived. I called for one myself and sat down opposite her.

She smiled a faint hello, but there was a cloud across her face that hadn’t been there before. I said, “How’d you make out, kid?”

“You picked a live one.”

“Any trouble?”

She shook her head. “He took me out for a snack and a drink, then dropped me off at the hotel.”

“You didn’t invite him up?”

“Let me play the johns my way. He wants to be the aggressor.”

I took my hamburger when it came and doused it with ketchup. “I may be wrong.”

“You aren’t wrong. I know the signs. I told you, I had it happen to me before.” She looked at me a few long seconds, the cloud still there veiling her feelings. “I thought I could handle this when I took you up on the deal. Now I’m not so sure.”

“Why?”

“Dog... if this were just a badger game...”

“It isn’t,” I said.

“Your games are all for keeps,” she told me softly. “Like last night.”

“Last night?” I took a big bite out of the hamburger and watched her.

“Don’t be so damn cool, Dog.”

“See me in jail, Rose?”

“Maybe they haven’t caught you yet.”

“Let’s wait until it happens.”

I saw her eyes go past my head and she nodded. “Could be it’s about to.”

But I had seen Bennie Sachs in the mirror I was facing and was all ready for him when he walked up and gave a curt nod to both of us. I stood up, still chewing and offered to buy him coffee.

He said No, glanced at Rose, then back to me and said, “Can I see you alone, Mr. Kelly?”

I put the rest of the hamburger down, wiped my mouth and nodded. “Sure. Where?”

“They got a back room here.”

“Let’s go.”

“You first.” He pointed toward a door in the far comer. “Over there.” He kept his hand close to the police special on his hip and followed me through the door into a storeroom, then into a smelly toilet reeking of filth and stagnating water on the floor.

“Now what?” I asked him.

“Let’s see that rod of yours.”

I handed him the .45. He smelled it, checked the action, snapped out the clip then slammed it back in again. “Stand against the wall,” he said.

I shrugged and did what he told me. Bennie kept me in sight while he took the lid off the tank of the bowl. The water was low so he held down the float until it was brimful, then raised my .45 over one corner at an angle and fired. The damn blast nearly wrecked our eardrums and the burst of spray drenched us both. He let down the cocked hammer with his thumb, pushed the flushing lever and when the tank had emptied, spilling its guts out all over the floor because the drain was clogged, reached down and picked up the spent slug from the bottom barely getting his fingers wet.

“Neat,” I said.

“Consider yourself getting VIP status,” he told me.

“If you’d have asked I would have given you the piece to check out without all the fuss.”

“I like it better this way.”

“Suit yourself.”

“Mr. Kelly...”

“I know. Don’t leave town. Incidentally, if you want my car...”

“We’ve already impounded it. I called a cab to take you home.”

“Very efficient.”

“You should know cops.”

“That I do, my friend. Have my car delivered when you’re done with it.”

“I will.” His look was one of total inspection. “I have a feeling you’re a quick thinker, Mr. Kelly.”

“Sometimes you have to be,” I said.

He handed my .45 back, nodded again and this time he walked out ahead of me. He nodded to Rose too and I heard the door close behind him when I sat down to finish my hamburger. Rose couldn’t finish hers at all. Her lower lip was trembling and she had to lock her fingers together to keep them from shaking.

I said, “Come on, kid, he was showing me a gun trick. All sound and no fury.”

My tone was so complacent that she let out a nervous little giggle. It had all been so casual that she couldn’t see an angle to hook her fears on and she finally unwound her fingers and waved her hands at me with a disgusted grimace. “Someday, Dog, I hope you’ll tell me what this is all about.”

“Someday,” I said. “When do you see our boy again?”

“Tonight. He said he may call, so I did make an impression.”

“Okay, the setup stays as is. You know how to reach me.”

“Don’t worry.”

“I never worry when pros are involved. It’s the amateurs who give you trouble.”

“Thanks a lot.”

“My pleasure. Give me a few minutes before you leave.” I tossed a five-dollar bill on the table and got up.

Outside it was clouding up again and you could smell a mist in the air. A taxi stood by the curb, the engine turning over slowly. I got in, told him to take me to the Barrin plant where they were setting up the picture, had him wait in the parking lot with a twenty as a retainer and got out to find Lee.