Ник Картер - The Code

His persistence was amazing. Once again he staggered to his feet.

I was getting tired. This was the most I had exerted myself since I’d been shot and I was feeling the drain on my energies. Compared to Joe, the Mighty Shang had been an easy mark.

“The party is over,” I told him. I slid Hugo down into my palm. “I was saving you for talk, but I can change my mind.”

Sunlight glinted on the stiletto’s blade as I weaved toward him. Joe put up his good hand. “I’m not about to try to take that thing away from you. Let’s talk.”

“Which of you worked on Trudy?”

“The guy you kayoed. But I would have done it. Business is business.”

I stepped closer and put the point of the knife to his Adam’s apple. “Who’s your boss?”

“Valante. Marco Valante.”

“And what did you have to tell him the last time you reported?”

“That you’re looking for a heist man named Moose. We got that from the girl. Valante told us to stick with you.”

I gathered up the weapons, thrust his .45 in my belt, sheathed the stiletto, and marched him back to Shorty with the Luger against his spine.

Joe looked down at his partner. “He’s going to have one hell of a headache tomorrow. Valante warned us you were no pushover.”

“How long have you been tailing me?”

“We picked you up in L.A., but there’s been somebody on you since you got out of that hospital. Valante kept switching the troops.”

Valante was a clever man. If he had stuck with one set of soldiers, I’d have noticed them.

I flipped Shorty over and extracted the gun from his shoulder holster. I straightened up and looked at Joe, wondering how much he knew. He was a young, good-looking Italian, neatly and expensively dressed. I couldn’t believe he was a run-of-the-mill thug. He was too cool, too tough, standing there with his broken wrist hanging but holding back any signs of pain except the lines tightening near his dark eyes.

“I’m flattered that Valante put your kind of talent on my tail. You must be his number one boy.”

“I was until this happened. Maybe I won’t be anymore.”

“Who killed Meredith?” I asked the question suddenly, hoping to get a reaction that would tell me if he lied.

What I got was a puzzled scowl. He clasped his broken wrist to his belly, flinching slightly. “Who’s Meredith?”

“He worked at a service station in Idaho. Someone cut his throat.”

“Not me. Not anybody I know. Valante was in Idaho, but he didn’t see any action. It was over when he got there. He found the girl dead and you shot up. Man, you know all this. Valante stopped you from bleeding to death.”

“He had a use for me. He wanted to know what I’d found out.”

It had worked, too. He’d had to wait until I left the hospital and give me a loose rein, but his boys had stayed with me long enough to obtain Moose’s name. The way matters stood, my venture to L.A. had proved more profitable to the Mob than to me. Hawk wouldn’t be very happy about that.

“Valante may have had his own reason for helping you, but you’re still alive,” Joe said. “I wouldn’t knock it.”

“How would you like to enjoy the same privilege?”

“Living, you mean?” He laughed nervously. “I’ve answered all your questions, man. What more do you want?”

“So far you’ve told me no big secrets. Nothing Valante would mind me knowing, considering the circumstances. The tough questions are coming up.” I pointed the Luger at his heart. “Think carefully now. How did Valante know about me in the first place?”

“He went to a meeting of the board, the top men in the Organization. They talked about the Frank Abruze killing. Your name was laid on the table. The board voted to turn the matter over to Valante. He had a special interest. He and Abruze were close.”

“There was another man in Bonham, Idaho. He went there to hit the girl. He tried to kill me.” I held the Luger steady, still aiming at his heart “What do you know about Coogan?”

“The Mob didn’t send him. They sent Valante.”

“What will Valante do now?”

“I can’t read his mind, man.” Joe was beginning to speak in a tighter voice. “I can guess a part of it. He’ll ask for a meeting of the board. He’ll throw down Moose’s name. The word will go out to every family in the country and they’ll start combing the places where the crazy bastard could be hiding.”

“I take it you’d heard of Moose before Trudy gave you his name.”

“Just gossip. Talk of the trade. He’s a psychopath. The Organization try to steer clear of his type these days. That’s the reason he operates on his own. But word about a guy like that gets around.”

“That’s good, Joe. You’ve been a lot of help.” My lips peeled back from my teeth in a cold smile. “There’s just one more point to cover. Which one of you tried to pick me off this morning?”

“Me or Shorty, you mean? Valante told us to stay with you, but we had no orders to make a hit. We didn’t do it.”

“Don’t kid me, Joe. The man was a pro, like you.”

Joe was sweating. “There’s a joker in this deck somewhere. Meredith, Coogan — those aren’t people I know anything about. The board didn’t want Abruze’s girl friend dead before she’d sung them a song. I told you my orders from Valante. He said stay with this guy Carter, he’s smart, he may help us to find the Moose. He said I wasn’t to plug you unless it became absolutely necessary. Didn’t I have a chance just a little while ago?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Sure, you did And you’re right. There is a joker in the deck.”

There had been one there ever since Bonham. A man who knew what the Mafia knew and a lot about AXE. A man who had hired Coogan, slit Meredith’s throat, and set the trap for me at the motel. I lowered the Luger and left Joe and his unconscious companion on the hillside. I paid the wide-eyed attendant for the gas he’d pumped into the Ford. Then I raised the hood of the Buick and ripped out the wiring.

“They’ll be along,” I said. But they wouldn’t get away from the station in time to catch up with me.

I drove the rest of the 110 miles to San Diego with the speedometer needle steady on the limit. By noon I was within sight of the bay. Circling gulls rode the wind with stylish grace.

While I ate a hurried lunch, I made my plans. I had to call Hawk. There was something I wanted him to have AXE sources check out.

But first there was Therese, who had inspired the second glowing passage in Moose’s black book. By now I knew all the telephone numbers in the book by heart I dialed. Therese’s and talked to a woman with a whiskey voice.

She cut through the preliminaries. “You want a date with Therese?”

“Yeah.” The question didn’t surprise me. There was a strong possibility that every girl in the book was a hooker or a call girl.

“You got any special tastes, sweetheart?”

“I’d rather not discuss them on the telephone.”

She laughed and gave me an address. It was in a rundown neighborhood near the waterfront, in the middle of a street that looked as inviting as a cellblock.

I locked the door of the Ford when I got out, wondering if even that precaution would assure the car’s being there when I returned. This was a part of town where a man could get rolled in church.

The building I approached was an eyesore that should have been razed years before, but the buzzer set in the worn door frame worked. A woman with yellow hair peered out, then glanced up and down the street as if to make sure I hadn’t brought a paddy wagon with me.

“I called,” I said. “I came to see Therese.”

She was suspicious. Maybe I didn’t look like her usual customer. “You aren’t one of Therese’s regular friends.”