James Chase: Safer Dead

‘I’ll take care of him if he starts anything.’

I looked at my wristwatch. The time was ten minutes past eleven.

‘Well, keep your eyes open,’ I said. ‘He’s due to start any minute now.’

Creed said, ‘Maybe you’d better stay here until we pick him up.’

‘The quickest way to get him is for me to show myself on the street. Then your boys can take him when he starts something.’

Creed didn’t seem to think much of this idea.

‘You stick around here until it’s dark. Showing yourself in daylight will make it too easy for him. We may have picked him up by then.’

I saw the sense of that.

‘Well, okay. You wouldn’t give me a gun, would you?’

‘Sure, you can have a gun.’ Creed looked over at Peters. ‘Get him a gun and watch him. You’re responsible for him.’

‘Yes, sir.’

Peters didn’t look as if the responsibility was weighing him down. He got to his feet.

‘What do you want - a .45 or a .38?’

‘I’ll have a .45,’ I said. ‘I want something that’ll stop him dead in his tracks.’

‘Have an elephant gun,’ Peters said humorously. ‘We’ve got one in the armoury.’

‘A .45 will do.’

While he was out of the room, I told Creed about the guy in the camel hair coat.

He listened attentively, made a few notes and said he would send a man down to talk to Larson.

‘We should be able to get a line on him,’ he said. ‘The boys are after the charm bracelet and we’re getting the girl’s picture in the papers. By the way, she wasn’t one of the girls in the Paris troupe. We located the agent who got Joan Nichols and the other girls the job in Paris, and he couldn’t identify her picture.’

He looked at the pile of papers spread out on his desk.

‘I’ll have to get on with my other work, Sladen. You stick around downstairs. The boys will fix you up. Come and see me around five o’clock, and we’ll work out a campaign for tonight.’

I said I would and went downstairs where I ran into Peters coming from the armoury. He handed me a .45 and a clip of ammunition.

‘Have you handled one of these before?’

‘Sure,’ I said, ‘but give me lots of room. I haven’t done any serious shooting since I was in the army.’

‘Well, be careful,’ Peters said. ‘You better leave him to me.’

‘Only if you see him first.’

I found Bernie in a room with a high barred window, sitting at a table, scowling at his portable typewriter. Sitting by the door was Scaife, Bernie’s bodyguard; a tough looking cop with sandy hair and a thick, short nose that someone had tried to push through his face at one time.

‘How are you getting on?’ I asked Bernie.

‘How can a guy concentrate when he’s expecting to be shot at any moment?’ Bernie complained. ‘I’m not getting on.’

Scaife laughed.

‘He thinks I can’t look after him,’ he said. ‘Why, there’s nothing to it. I keep telling him he’s safe, but he won’t believe me.’

‘I’ve never trusted a cop,’ Bernie said, ‘and I never will.’ He looked suspiciously at me. ‘What’s cooking?’

‘We’re waiting until it’s dark, then we’ll go out and set a trap for this gunman.’

Bernie’s eyes popped.

‘What do you mean - a trap?’

‘Well, we’ll walk, arm-in-arm, around town, hoping he’ll spot us, and when he starts something, these two guys will fill him with lead.’

‘That’s nice. Suppose they miss him?’

I pulled out the .45 and flourished it.

‘Then I’ll take care of him. I used to be pretty good with a rod. They didn’t call me Killer Sladen for nothing.’

Scaife and Peters laughed, but Bernie recoiled.

‘Put it away. That’s how accidents happen.’ He leaned forward and shoved his fat chin at me. ‘Where do you get this “we” stuff from? You won’t catch me on the streets after dark. I’m going to stay right here until he’s caught. If you want to be a hero, go ahead and be a hero. I’m staying right here.’

I looked helplessly at Peters and Scaife.

‘See what I have to put up with? The guy’s got no enterprise.’

‘What are you worrying about, kid?’ Scaife asked Bernie. ‘I’ll take care of you.’

‘I’m staying right here,’ Bernie said firmly.

I sat down.

‘Relax,’ I said. ‘Let’s do some work.’

‘I don’t mind working, that’s what I get paid for, but I’m not going to be used as bait for a trap,’ Bernie said. ‘I want that understood.’

‘Okay, okay,’ I said. ‘I’ll do it on my own.’ I lit a cigarette. ‘Now come on, let’s get this story on the mat.’

II

Around five o’clock I went up to Creed’s office with Peters tagging along behind.

‘Any ideas?’ Creed asked, shoving aside a file he was working on and waving me to a chair.

‘I’m doing this solo,’ I said. ‘Low doesn’t like the idea, and I can’t say I blame him. Anyway, it’ll make it easier for your men to cover one of us instead of two. As soon as it’s dark, I’ll leave here in a taxi and go to the hotel. I want to get out of this light suit and put on something that won’t show up in the dark. Then I’ll walk from the hotel to the restaurant on the corner. I’ll have dinner there. You can have a couple of men posted in the bar. The restaurant is through the bar at the back. I’ll sit with my back to the wall. If he starts anything in there, we’ll have him. If he doesn’t, I’ll walk from the restaurant to the Gaumont cinema. If still nothing happens, I’ll walk on to Mike’s bar at the back of the Florian. From there I’ll walk back to the hotel.’

Creed was making notes as I talked.

‘It’d be better if you walked from here to the hotel,’ he said. ‘Taxis can get lost in the traffic. We don’t want to lose sight of you, but at the same time, we don’t want this guy to know we’re following you. It’s got to be a trap, Sladen, if it is going to work at all. You’ll be on your own. Peters is a dead shot, but he’ll have to keep out of sight. This could be tricky; you might get hurt.’

I suddenly realized I was sticking my neck out recklessly, and perhaps Bernie wasn’t such a dope as I thought he was. But it was too late now to pull back.

‘Just so long as Peters wings him before he starts anything, I’m not grumbling,’ I said.

‘Peters won’t be the only one,’ Creed said grimly. ‘I’ve got forty men on the job. They’ll be covering every twenty yards of the route. You won’t know them. Some of them will be in cars; some got up as loafers, some will be hidden. If this punk starts something, he’ll wonder what’s hit him.’

‘Fine,’ I said, immensely relieved. ‘In about a couple of hours, it should be dark enough.’

‘I’ll go and fix the details. You take it easy,’ Creed said.

I spent the next two hours playing gin rummy with Bernie.

Bernie said it was customary to play cards with a condemned man, and although cards bored him, he felt it his duty to try to take my mind off the immediate future. He wasn’t much of a card player, and I pretty soon won three dollars off him.

‘This dough might not be of any use to you, Chet,’ he said when I asked him to pay up. ‘I’ll give you an I.O.U. if you like.’

‘I’ll take cash,’ I said, holding out my hand. ‘My estate might not be able to collect from you, Bernie.’

He handed over the money.

‘Talking about your estate, Chet,’ he said, ‘have you made a will?’

Peters came in.

‘You all set?’ he asked. ‘We’re ready when you are.’

I got to my feet.

‘So long, Bernie,’ I said. ‘I’ve left everything to you if I don’t come back.’

‘Honest?’ Bernie asked, his face brightening. ‘Your television set too?’