Paul Cain - The Paul Cain Omnibus

We went home about six-thirty and caught up with our drinking. Harry finagled with the radio and I sat and made a light luncheon of my fingernails and waited for Delavan to call. He didn’t, but Frank Curley called and said Axiotes was out, that he’d been out all day. Frank had followed him as far as Crenshaw and Wilshire and lost him in traffic and gone back to wait.

Then he said a woman who had been in and out with Axiotes twice in two days had driven up to his place in her own car about five o’clock and he’d got a peep at her license after she went into the apartment. Her name was Maude Foley and she had another gal with her who was pie-eyed.

I tried to get Delavan at his hotel, but no go.

Then Charley Hollberg called up and said he had to see me right away and asked if I could come over to his bungalow at the Ambassador. I told him I was busy but he kept insisting that it was very important and he couldn’t tell me about it over the phone and I finally said I’d come, figuring that maybe it really was important.

I left word at the desk that if Delavan called to tell him I’d be back in an hour or call in for a message.

Hollberg had a swell set of jitters. He gave us a quick drink and waved his eyebrows around mysteriously and said he couldn’t talk in the house and we went out and started walking across the lawn towards the hotel. It was pretty dark.

Hollberg said: “I’m sorry to inconvenience you like this, Finn, but—”

There was sudden crashing sound and a long spurt of blue fire from the darkness of the arbor near the bungalow. Something burnt its way into my shoulder and I fell down on my face.

I twisted on to my side and pulled my knees up. Harry was squatting a few feet away and Hollberg was lying on his back between us with his arms and legs spread out. The sound and the blue fire had stopped. There were several figures running towards us from the far side of the lawn, beyond Harry, and suddenly the sound and fire began again. I set myself for a slug, and then Delavan was kneeling beside me.

He asked: “How is it, Finn?”

I sat up. “Shoulder... just a little one.” It wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d figured when it hit — just a crease across the muscle.

The men with Delavan had gone on towards the arbor, there were several more scattered shots.

Harry said: “Hollberg got it in the belly.”

I got up and took off my coat. Harry ripped off my shirt-sleeve and folded it and tied it around my shoulder. There wasn’t very much blood.

One of Delavan’s men came running back from the arbor, wheezed: “They had a car on the other side.”

Delavan was bending over Hollberg, snapped, “See if you can head ’em off at Seventh Street,” without looking up.

The man galloped back into the darkness.

Delavan straightened up, spoke to Harry: “Take care of Hollberg.” He turned to me. “I’m going to Axiotes’... You’d better get to a doctor.”

I told him I was okay and I’d come along. He shrugged, said, “Suit yourself” — we ran across the lawn to Wilshire where his car was parked. There was a man standing beside it and Delavan told him to go back and give Harry a hand.

Axiotes’ apartment was only a few blocks away. As we swung into Kenmore, Delavan said: “I got to your place a few minutes after you left; the telephone girl told me about Hollberg calling and I took a chance on you being there.”

I told him it was the best chance I’d heard about for a long time.

Frank Curley spotted us when we pulled up in front of the apartment. He said Axiotes hadn’t come back and so far as he knew, no one had been in or out of the place since he’d talked to me. We told him to give us two buzzes on the downstairs bell if Axiotes or anybody he recognized started up. Delavan took a big blue automatic out of the side pocket of the car and handed it to me and we went in and got into the elevator.

On the way up I said: “You’ve got a pretty good idea who we’re going to find here, haven’t you?”

He smiled a little, nodded. “Fair. I’ve had Foley followed for two days...” He was silent a moment, went on: “Axiotes’ brother was her first husband.”

There was a small door a little ways down the hall from Apartment M that looked like it might be the kitchen entrance. Delavan rang the front doorbell and I stood flat against the wall near the small door; it opened at the second ring and one of the biggest, broadest guys I’ve ever seen stuck his knob out and peeked down the hall at Delavan.

I shoved the muzzle of the automatic against the back of his neck and told him to take it easy. Delavan came down and the three of us went into the kitchen.

The big fella belonged in a sideshow; he stood about six-six and was almost as wide. The best part was his head though — it looked like it had been made for him when he was a baby and he’d never got around to having it changed. He looked at us reproachfully as if he was pretty hurt at the dirty trick we’d played on him, and he kept his hands up and went ahead of us into the living room.

Maude Foley was standing in the middle of the room; she stared at the giant and then she moved her blank eyes to Delavan and then to me. Her face was as expressionless as a mop.

As I went towards her the giant moved a little to one side and as I passed he shifted suddenly and aimed a haymaker at me that would probably have caved my skull in. Delavan tapped him as pretty a tap as I’ve ever seen behind the ear with the butt of the gun and he went down like a dynamited chimney.

I went past Maude to the bedroom door; Barbara Kiernan was stretched out on the bed snoring peacefully.

Maude said dully: “I guess it’s all over but the shouting.” Her voice was surprisingly even, unemotional. She went over to a wide divan and sat down.

The bell rang sharply, twice.

Delavan crossed and flattened himself against the wall so the door would cover him when it sprung open. He bobbed his head at me and I snapped off the bedroom lights and stood in the darkness just inside the doorway.

In a little less than a minute a key clicked in the lock and the door opened. Axiotes stood a split second staring at the giant who was curled up comfortably on the floor. There was a man behind him, in the hall, carrying a violin case. Axiotes’ eyes jerked to Maude and in the same instant his hand flashed upward across his chest.

Delavan said: “Easy does it, George.”

He stepped around the door and jammed his gun against Axiotes’ side. The man in the hall half-turned as I went into the light with the big automatic; he saw me and stopped and the two of them came in and Delavan closed the door. Then he took their guns and motioned for them to sit down.

Axiotes crossed and sank into a big chair near the bedroom door and the other man — a thin, tubercular looking youngster — sat on the opposite side of the divan from Maude.

Delavan called his headquarters and told them to send another car and a couple of men; then he sat down facing Axiotes, purred: “Want to tell us all about it now, or are you too tired?”

Axiotes grinned with his mouth but his eyes were sombre; he didn’t say anything. Maude spoke suddenly: “I want to tell about it, and I’ll be goddamned glad to get it off my chest!...”

Axiotes looked at her but his expression didn’t change.

Delavan mumbled, “That’ll be fine,” softly.

Maude stood up and went to a cabinet against the wall and poured herself a stiff drink. She tossed off most of it, turned and leaned against the cabinet, said:

“Axiotes is my brother-in-law. We always got along pretty well and when he came out from New York seven or eight weeks ago I invited him down to my place at Palm Springs.”

She spoke of Axiotes as if he wasn’t there. She finished her drink and put the glass down, went on: “He met Barbara there and started romancing her. She liked him and they got pretty chummy...”