Ed Lacy - Dead End

My “vacation” was a horror. It was impossible to hang around the house, and I couldn't even tramp the streets—it turned raw and snowed. I spent the first week in and out of cheap movies. One day I stopped at Shep's office, to get warm, and when he got rid of a customer, he said, excitement in his voice, “I've been looking for you, Bucky!”

“I'm on vacation—it says in fine print. I—”

“Listen, I'm positive I've seen Batty Johnson!”

For a few seconds the name didn't mean a thing to me.

“Batty Johnson!” Shep repeated.

Then I got it. Johnson was at the top of the F.B.I. wanted list. I vaguely knew he was a rough thug with a long yellow sheet for murder, assault, and armed robbery. When he started out he was called Bat because he was always saying, “I'll bat you around.” He was said to be very handy with his mitts. Later the nickname became Batty because he was considered to be nuts. All of this I hadn't learned from the post condition board in the station house, but from the crime mags Elma stuffed herself with. I grinned at little Shep, asked, “Since when did you become a crime bug?”

“Bucky, I'm serious. Here, take a look at this. It came in the mail a few days ago.” He fumbled in a drawer, handed me an F.B.I. wanted flyer with Johnson's hard puss staring out at us. Shep also got out his bottle, poured a couple of drinks.

“You'll notice they say he has a muscular defect in his left eye, a form of phoria that—well, no point in my getting technical about it. It's a fairly rare defect. The eye has a tendency to turn up. In addition he is extremely nearsighted. The F.B.I. obviously is circularizing all optometrists and oculists in the nation because this thug wears glasses and if he should ever break the pair he has, or needs new ones, well...”

“You mean he came in here?”

“No, no. I saw him working in a car wash. His hair has been shaved around the temples and dyed white, and he's grown a mustache. He also has some sort of scar on his cheek. But I know it's him.”

“Yeah? How?”

Shep came over, put his arm on my shoulder as he pointed at the flyer with his free hand. “Bucky, I'm positive. When I was thinking of studying medicine, I wanted to go in for plastic surgery. Seemed like the best money deal. I made a study of the planes and bones of the face. When I first got this from the F.B.I. I studied his face and wondered why they hadn't put down in the physical description the fact that his ears are high up. And also notice the distance between the bridge of his nose and the big cheekbones—it's far too wide. Actually the bone structure of his face is abnormal, and that's something you can't disguise. This car washer had the same abnormalities.”

I stared at the mug shot again. “The ears seem okay to me.”

“You're a layman. In a normal face the top of the ear should be in line with the eyebrows, and the bottom of the ear is about in line with the end of the nose. His ears are much higher. Bucky, I know what I'm talking about!”

Shep got off my shoulders to take another drink. I asked, “When did you see him?”

“Day before yesterday. My car was splattered with slush. I happened to pass this auto laundry away uptown, and drove in.”

“Have you told the police?”

“I'm telling you. Bucky, Johnson's last job was robbing and killing an optometrist. I imagine that's how the F.B.I. got on to his faulty vision. I don't want to be the second eye man he murders. You're always talking about making that big arrest. I waited to tell you.”

I studied the flyer again, not believing Shep. “Could you tell from his glasses—I mean by looking at him—if he had whatever you said was wrong with his eye?”

“No, the lenses would correct the muscular condition. But he wasn't wearing glasses!” Shep said happily, as if we were playing guessing games.

“You just told me he needs—”

“What I meant was, he was using contact lenses!”

“Start the record again, Shep. I'm not reading you.”

“Don't you get it, Bucky? This proves he's your man! According to this wanted circular, Johnson is supposed to have ordered frame glasses from this Topeka optometrist, returned a few days later to pick them up, then killed and robbed the fellow, and destroyed the optometrist's office records. He did this under a phony name, but they knew it was Johnson. The F.B.I. then assumes there's something wrong with his sight, hence the reason for doing away with the records. They recheck his prison files and come up with the eye defect. All right, they were correct up to a point; but I started thinking. Johnson wore glasses all the time, even in prison, so that wasn't anything new—anything to destroy records over. Another thing: Why did he have to wait a few days for his glasses?”

“Don't you have your customers return in a couple of days?”

“Of course, but we usually carry a supply of various types of lenses in stock. If a customer is in a big rush, I could make up his glasses within an hour. Now, Johnson was in a hurry; it was dangerous for him to hang around for several days. Since he was going to kill the man, why didn't he force him at gun point to make his glasses at once?”

“Why?”

“Because he'd ordered a set of contact lenses and you have to send for them! An optometrist doesn't stock contact lenses. So when Johnson returns he not only picks up the frame glasses he ordered, but the contact lenses. He has the optometrist give them a final check, then he murders the fellow and destroys the records. The police are looking for a man with frame glasses, and Johnson is walking around wearing contacts! It lines up, Bucky.”

“I don't know. The F.B.I. would have thought of the contact lenses, too.”

“Why? They haven't any record of the dead man ordering the lenses. I think they slipped up. I only stumbled upon it, as I told you, because of the few days' delay in getting his frame glasses. Anyway, I'm certain this car washer has the same facial structure as Johnson and that he was wearing contact lenses!”

I began to have a warm glow of excitement in the pit of my belly. Collar a Batty Johnson and I'd be set. “Shep, can the average person tell if a guy is wearing contact glasses?”

“No. But I can.”

“Doesn't a contact-lens wearer have to take them off every few hours?”

“Now they can be worn for almost twenty-four hours. I get what you mean. You'd want to take him when he isn't wearing them. I'm sure he changes to ordinary glasses when he's in his room. Also, although he is very nearsighted, he has some vision without any glasses. He'd be able to walk the street, for example, without feeling his way, but he'd have to walk slowly, and he'd be lucky if he didn't bump into something or somebody. You see how smart he is? As I told you, the main description point is he has to be wearing these frame glasses they know the Topeka man made. But I'm certain he also had him make contact lenses.”

“Did his height and weight match? Five eleven, a hundred and eighty pounds?”

“The height is right, but he's put on weight. I'd judge he was close to two hundred and fifty now. Of course, that could be padding; these washers are bundled up. Bucky, I tell you I'm positive. When I was driving down here, after the car had been washed, I kept trying to place the man's face. I had a feeling I'd seen the odd structure someplace before. Then I studied this wanted flyer and on my way home I stopped in at the car wash again, and said I wondered if I'd dropped my overshoes out of the car. This time I knew exactly what I was looking for in Johnson's face—it was all there! It's an odd face.”

“Wish you hadn't gone back,” I said, getting up. “Could have made him nervous, might have taken off. Where is this place?”