Микки Спиллейн - Together We Kill

He stopped at the door marked STAR DISTRIBUTING, smiled to himself and fitted the key he had been given into the lock. It opened easily and he stepped inside. As the diagram showed, he was in a small anteroom, and facing him was the lighted square of a frosted glass door. That had no lock. Rudolph Less smiled again.

He heard someone cough and nodded to himself. Feet shuffled and a chair scraped back. He heard a phone picked up and dialed and held his position. He could not enter while the phone was on. There was no need for someone else giving an alarm. The way it was, if done right, the body wouldn’t be found until it started to stink and that would be several days. No, he could wait a minute.

Inside, his assignment said, “You got everything ready for tonight... yeah... yeah... okay, I’ll call you. I’m going to make up the payroll now. Sure... sure... so long.” The phone clicked and the man coughed again.

Rudolph said softly, “Now,” and opened the door.

He smiled at his assignment.

His assignment looked startled, then frowned uncomprehendingly at the Browning with the silencer pointing at his chest. He was a big man, thick through the chest and neck, his hair grey at the sides. He was well dressed and from first glance Rudolph wouldn’t have taken him for someone in the rackets. But appearances were deceiving, weren’t they? Who would take him for an eliminator? Now that was a good word.

The man said, “What do you want?”

Rudolph’s eyes took him in quickly. He was big, all right. Most likely it would take more than one shot. Two quick body hits to stop him if he tried to move, then a head shot to complete the job. One thing about a silencer, you could hear the bullets hit too. Not so much in the stomach, of course, but if they went through a rib or in the skull...

“What I want is your money,” Rudolph said. It sounded peculiar to him. Shoddy, somehow. “Where is it?”

“In the safe, that’s where, and if you expect...”

“If I don’t get it I’ll kill you anyway,” Rudolph told him.

There was no mistaking the tone of his voice. The big guy nodded, was about to say something and stopped. He walked across the room to the safe and dragged out a small, obviously heavy, steel box. Rudolph saw the combination lock on it and waved the gun to the desk. He surely couldn’t carry the box out of here. “Open it,” he said.

The guy sat down and began spinning the dial. Outside there was a burst of laughter and a key rattled the lock. The door opened and two girls laughed again. A male voice joined theirs.

Rudolph’s heart jumped, but then quieted. He had been in situations like this before. He put the gun into the folio, keeping his hand on it and casually sat down. The door to the office opened and a girl said, “Mr. Riley, your friend Mr. Brisson is here. Do you want...” She glanced around the door and saw Rudolph. “Oh,” she giggled, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you had company. I thought this man was Mr. Brisson before.”

“That’s all right,” Mr. Riley told her. “I’ll be out shortly.”

The girl giggled again and closed the door. Outside several more people came in and typewriters began to rattle. Two men were discussing a sales meeting.

Rudolph could feel the dryness of his skin, but still he could smell sweat. Sweat? Or was it fear? Someplace something had gone wrong. This was supposed to be an empty office. Just one man. Damn! Why didn’t he do the job the way he had done all the others. That’s what happens when you leave the details up to somebody else. Damn it all to hell! But you wouldn’t know that was what Rudolph Less was thinking because he was smiling in a very friendly fashion.

The big man said softly, “You’re in trouble, friend,” and as he said it opened the lid of the box. The money was there as it was supposed to be. Packets of hundreds and Riley was dumping it out on the desk. He looked across the room at his smiling visitor. “You can’t get out very well and pretty soon somebody will be coming in here. If you do get out you won’t be a hard one to identify. Those girls out there are all artists and could sketch you to perfection. Show it to the papers and you’d be turned in in no time.”

“That is problematical,” Rudolph said.

“You picked a lousy time for a stickup, mister.”

Rudolph smiled again. “Yes, I did.” The smile didn’t last long because Riley was smiling too.

He said, “Buddy, if I could get the jump on you, you’d be in a mess.”

“Oh?” His teeth flashed and he lifted the Browning out of the folio.

“You had a key to this place, you came on a day when the payroll was being made up and you came armed. A planned stickup. I kill you...” he shrugged... “one day in court is all. Self defense.”

“That could hardly happen,” Rudolph said. For some reason he felt edgy. Events weren’t at all like they should be. His assignment, a better word than victim, was being too aggressive. What had to be done had to be done quickly and his mind raced over the possibilities. Several were available to him. He would take the money, of course. He would tell them outside that Mr. Riley would be busy all day and not to disturb him. He’d hate to leave his house, especially his paraphernalia he had so carefully assembled, but he lived there under a fictitious name and he could do it over again, perhaps this time with certain innovations he desired. Suntan, hair dye, whiskers in any number of combinations could alter his appearance sufficiently. No it wouldn’t be an insurmountable problem at all.

He was so engrossed in his thoughts, that although his eyes were on Riley, the big man’s voice came to him as a steady drone.

“...it took so long to find you. You’re mighty clever, I guess you know. Proof for a court of law would be impossible to obtain. And me, I don’t want to stick my neck out. I’m not going to kill somebody who needs killing bad then pay for it myself. I’m a little on the smart side too.

“But contacts I made. Finally the right guy put me through. In returning a big favor I did him he put me in touch with you. We made the arrangements together, you and I. Clever, eh?”

The big guy smiled and sucked in his breath. He was too big, Rudolph thought. Maybe even two chest hits wouldn’t do it. He carried five in the Browning so what he’d have to do was give him four in the chest quickly and then hold the last one for the coup. Nobody could take four. The smashing impact in the lungs even prevents a yell and the only sound would be the body falling. However, the noise outside would cover that up.

Somehow the droning voice made sense. His mind, charged now to frenzied activity, raced back over the words, picked them up and went over them again. There was something here now that shouldn’t be at all. Something terrible if he heard right. The smile seemed frozen on his face now and for the first time his eyes made a little rat’s movement around the room.

“I hired you to kill me,” Riley said. “I never knew who you were or where you were and I finally figured out the only way to have you in front of me so you could die where I can see it happen without any heat coming my way at all.”

Rudolph’s voice was strained. “You can’t!”

“I have, pal, I have. But first let me tell you thanks. I have a nice straight business going for me and there won’t be any heat. In fact, I’ll be a hero. How about that.”

He felt cold. He had never felt so cold as now. There was no spit in his mouth and his insides were rolling. Had he eaten earlier he was sure he would have vomited at that moment. For some reason he could hear the voices of Cindy and Lulu and Francie and Joan and all those others and far away mocking him with a Cuban accent the untasted one he hungered after, and somewhere from a deep invisible fog came the scared bleatings of the ones he would have had by cajolery or by force if necessary.