Paul Cain - The Paul Cain Omnibus

Kells held a glass of whiskey to Kastner’s mouth. Kastner drank as if he wanted it very much.

Kells looked up at Rainey. He dipped his head towards Kastner and said: “This is the young fella who rubbed Doc.”

Rainey twisted his mouth to a slow sneer. His eyes dulled. He said: “You shot Doc, you son of a bitch — and tried to hang it on Ruth.” Kells stood up slowly.

Kastner laughed quietly, carefully, as though it hurt his chest. “God almighty!” he said. “What a bunch of suckers.”

Kells and Rainey stood looking at one another for a little while.

Then the woman said: “You’d better get a doctor for his nibs.” She was sitting with her elbows on the desk, holding her face tightly between her hands.

Kastner shook his head. He laughed again as though moved by some secret, uncontrollable mirth. There was a little blood on his mouth.

Kells said: “You want a drink.” He poured more whiskey into the glass and sat down beside Kastner.

“What a bunch of suckers!” Kastner looked at the glass of whiskey. He looked at, and through, Kells. “Rose called Eddie O’Donnell and me after you left him this afternoon. He said Dave Perry had called while you were there and told him that Doc was at the joint in Hollywood waiting for you...”

Kells held the glass to Kastner’s mouth. He drank, closed his eyes for a moment, went on: “Perry knew that Rose was going to have Doc bumped — and he knew that Rose wanted to frame it on you. Only he’d figured on doing it on the boat. It looked like a good play.”

Kells said: “Why me?”

Kastner coughed and held one hand very tightly against his chest. “Rose thinks you’re a wrong guy to be on somebody else’s side — and he wanted to tie it up to Rainey.”

Kastner’s dark, near-sighted eyes wandered for a moment to Rainey. “Rose figures on airing everybody he ain’t sure of — he’s got a list. That’s why he sent for Eddie and me. He wants to move in on the whole town — him and Dave Perry and Reilly.”

Kastner stopped, closed his eyes. Then he went on with his eyes closed: “Doc was in their way, and besides, Rose wanted the boat for himself.”

Kells poured more whiskey into the glass. He said: “The Joanna came out tonight; how did they get the load?”

Kastner said: “She came out last night, and they worked all night transferring cargo from a couple schooners — twelve hundred cases. The play was to run it in, three cases to a launch, each trip. They’ve got a swell Federal connection at the wharf; the point was to get it by the cutters.”

Kastner coughed again. “That’s about all,” he said.

Rainey went back to the desk, sat down. Kells held the glass of whiskey toward Kastner, but Kastner shook his head. Kells drank a little of it.

Kastner went on listlessly: “Eddie and me went to Perry’s and I busted in and waited for you. Doc was scared. That’s the reason he’d wanted to see you: he had some kind of an in on what Rose was going to do and wanted help. He was scared pea green.”

Kells grinned at Rainey.

Kastner twisted on the couch. Then, suddenly, he spoke rapidly, as if he wanted to say a great many things all at once: “Eddie waited down on the street to give me a buzz on the downstairs bell when you started up. Rose had called Reilly and he was all set with three men to make the pinch — two in front and one in the alley.”

Kells asked, “How come you sapped Dave?”

“He was putting on an act for the girl so she wouldn’t think he was in on it. He got too realistic.”

Kells looked at Rainey and spoke to Kastner: “I thought Reilly was L.D.’s man.”

“He was . He was L.D.’s spot in the Police Department until Rose started selling him big ideas.” Kastner’s face was growing very white.

Kells said: “There’ll be a doctor here in a little while; I sent the launch ashore for one.” Then he walked to a port and looked out at the slowly lightening sky. He spoke without turning: “Reilly’s the Lou that Rose and O’Donnell were waiting for at the hotel...”

“And he’s the Lou they were waiting for on the boat — so they could let you have it resisting arrest — make it legal.”

Kells went over to the desk. Rainey was abstractedly playing with a little penknife; the woman still sat with her face between her hands.

Kells turned his head toward Kastner, asked very casually: “Who popped you?”

Kastner smiled a little. He said: “I don’t remember.”

The woman laughed. She put her hands on the table and threw her head back and laughed very loudly.

Kastner looked at her and there was something inexpressibly cold and brittle in his eyes.

Kells bent over the desk and took up a pen and wrote a few words on a piece of paper. He took the paper and the pen over to Kastner. He said, “It’ll make things a lot simpler if you sign this.”

The little man glanced at the paper and looked up at Kells. He said: “Nuts.” He grinned at Kells, and then his face tightened and he died.

Kells and Rainey sat at a table in Rainey’s apartment in Long Beach. The woman, Granquist, was asleep in a big chair. It was about eight-thirty, and outside it was gray and hot.

Kells said: “That’s the way it’ll have to be. None of us is worth a nickel as a witness.”

Rainey sipped his coffee and sat still for a little while, then he got up and went to the telephone and called Long Distance. He asked for a number in Los Angeles. He said: “Hello. This is Grant Rainey. I want to talk to L.D....” There was a pause, and then he said: “Wake him up.”

He waited a little while and then he said, “Hello, L.D.... There’s a friend of mine here with an idea...”

Rainey gestured and Kells got up and went to the phone. He said: “This is Kells... Reilly is double-crossing you. He and Jack Rose aim to take over the town. They’re importing a lot of boys from the East, and you’re on the wrong side of their list...”

There was a long silence during which Kells held the receiver to his ear and grinned at Rainey. Then he said: “My idea is that you reach Ruth Perry right away. She’s incommunicado , but you can beat that. Tell her there isn’t any use trying to protect Dave any longer. Tell her that I said so... Then see that she gets bail. When Dave finds out she’s confessed, he’ll have a lot of things to tell you... Sure — he’s guilty as hell...”

Kells hung up and went back to the table. He said: “That oughta be that.” He sat down and poured himself another cup of coffee and inclined his head towards Granquist.

Rainey said: “She came out to the boat last night and said she’d been here about a week from Detroit. She says she’s got a million dollars’ worth of information that she wants to peddle for five grand. She says it’ll crack the administration wide open, and that we can call our own shots next election.”

Kells laughed quietly.

Rainey went on expressionlessly: “I told her I wasn’t in politics and wasn’t in the market for her stuff, but she thought I was kidding her. She soaked up a couple bottles of Scotch and finally got down to twenty-five hundred. A few more slugs and she’d probably sell for a dollar ninety-eight. She says she needs new shoes.”

Rainey’s Negro houseboy came in from the kitchen and cleared away the breakfast things.

Kells stood up. He said: “I’m going to take a nap while the wheels of justice make a couple turns.” He went to the bedroom door, turned and spoke to the boy: “Call me in two hours.” He went into the bedroom.

When the houseboy woke Kells, Rainey had gone. Kells asked the boy to make some more coffee and shook Granquist awake.

“How about some Java?”