Ed Lacy - Dead End

Weeks would pass without my seeing Elma, going “home.” And when I did see her, her grossness left me disgusted. She seemed to believe my yarns about working day and night. I was giving her fifty a week and all she did was lay around the house, stuffing her fat head with candy, TV, and her crime magazines.

At times—not often—I felt guilty about Elma, I'd remember how she'd stuck by me when everybody else on the block was sneering at my being a bastard; the way she'd saved our money when I was in the Army. Sometimes I'd suggest we take in a movie, or a bar, but she had grown into such a lard monster we were both embarrassed by her size. Elma's idea of a big time was for us to watch TV, eating candy and popcorn. She had a special game: Whenever she saw a crime story on TV she would ask me during a commercial, “You're a hot-shot detective—who did the murder, Bucky?” Or, “How would you go about capturing the guy?”

The trouble was, most times I would guess wrong and it would send Elma rocking with laughter, as if she had pulled a fast one on me. Once we were watching an old whodunit movie and I said it was obvious the gal had done it. Elma bet me a dollar the mother was the killer, then got hysterical when I paid off and told me she had seen the picture a couple times before. Although I couldn't stand her, I still had this sense of shame, as if in my own little way I was doing to Elma what Nate had done to Daisy. I mean, I had this feeling that somehow I must be responsible for Elma being so dull, so fat. I knew it wasn't my fault, but then Nate had said he hadn't made a slavey out of Daisy, too.

The few times I was with Elma—usually to change my clothes—I could hardly wait to see Betty. Sometimes I'd leave the apartment at six in the morning and get Betty up, have breakfast with her before I reported for duty. It was like getting the taste of Elma out of my system. Poor Betty never complained about my breaking into her sleep. She was as happy as a pet dog to see me.

When was .it—six or seven days ago?—when all this really started? Doc and I had just finished our tour and were off on a two-day swing. Usually when we were off, Doc would want to go to some off-beat restaurant and talk, but he said he was tired and went to his hotel. I got Betty up and took her out for Chinese food. She phoned the bartenders not to send up any customers for a few days. We were sleeping late the next morning when the phone rang. I wanted to let it ring, but Betty couldn't stand a ringing phone. I answered it and Doc asked, “What are you two doing? I wore out my hand ringing the bell.”

“I disconnected the bell.”

“I'm at the corner drugstore. Coming right up.”

“What's cooking, Doc?”

“Cut the corn and get dressed, be ready to go. Big case.”

I took a shave, thinking that Doc could only get this worked up over a big gravy deal, and I might show Betty the Miami palm trees sooner than I expected. As I was showering, I heard Doc come in. Betty said she'd make us coffee, but Doc, who had busted right into the bathroom, told her, “No time, honey. We're in a big hurry. Here.” He yanked a thin box of stockings out of his inside pocket. “Picked these up for you yesterday. A gift. Now, honey, take a walk. Try them on—in the next room. Bucky and I have some talk.”

She left as I toweled myself down and Doc said, “We're in for a lot of work. All off-time has been canceled. I got the call an hour ago. We're on fly assignment to the Park Precinct, Lieutenant Bill Smith's squad. A good cop and a smart man.”

“What's the large deal?”

“You're about to witness, and take part in, one of our society's stupid circus acts. Somebody driven by need commits a crime. Society then rushes in about fifty thousand dollars' worth of time and money to collar him. One of the illogical bumps of our system. If they had given the guy—or girl—only a small part of that sum to start with, there would have been no reason to turn to crime and—”

“Stop talking me to death. What's happened?”

“A kid was snatched about three hours ago. Ever hear of a Leonard Wyckoff?”

“No. Who he?” I was disappointed; this wasn't going to be any pocket money deal.

Doc shook his head. “Stop going for cute, Bucky. We'll probably be working around the clock for the next couple of days. This—”

“Then why all the rush in finding me? We could have reported in this afternoon. Let's have a decent breakfast first and then—”

“No, we have to report immediately. It's an important case. This Wyckoff is a wealthy plastics manufacturer with a house on Park West. His wife died in a car accident last year and now his four-year-old daughter, Joan, has been snatched.”

I slipped into my shorts. “Where?”

“From her nursery school.”

“You said it was done a few hours ago. What makes them go for the kidnapping angle? Three hours—the girl could have walked out of school, be lost, hiding, or—”

“Wyckoff's already been contacted. They're asking for a million bucks.” Doc jammed a cigarette in his mouth, looked around. “Where's some fire?”

10—

Lieutenant Bill Smith was one of these wiry, lean guys with an iron-gray crew-cut topping off a rugged puss. He always had a pipe stuck in his face, smoking a sweet mixture that made me slightly sick. I don't know, there was something both hard and quiet about his voice, his looks, that said this was a character who knew his stuff.

It sure was big. There were at least thirty detectives on fly assignment to this ancient precinct house that must have been a police station in Washington's time. As we reported in we were briefed by Smith. If he had repeated the story a dozen times, his voice didn't seem bored. “We haven't much to work on, but we have to make it do, and do it fast. This is what we know: The kid went to a fancy nursery school facing the park, a few blocks from here. Wyckoff dropped her off every morning at ten, on the way to his factory. At ten twenty this morning the school received a call, supposedly from Mr. Wyckoff, saying he was sending his secretary, a Mr. Jackman, right over to pick up Joan—an aunt was in town and it was going to be a surprise for the kid. There wasn't any reason for the school to check the call and anyway, before they had a chance to, this tall man, about thirty-five, average face, dark brown hair, conservative clothes, and speaking with a mild twang, appeared. He said he was Jackman and took the girl. No one at the school knows if he came and left in a car or cab. Within a half hour Wyckoff received a call at his office telling him to get a million dollars ready, nothing higher than hundreds, and to wait for another call. There was the usual threat not to contact the police.

“Mr. Wyckoff immediately called both the press and the police. Too bad he let the papers in, but it's done. His idea was to publicly broadcast that he will not work with the police, will carry out the kidnappers' instructions to the letter. Maybe that was a stupid way of working it; maybe it was very smart. He's a rich man and the girl is his only child. Of course, once we know about it, we have to take a hand. So does the F.B.I. Our job is to act fast and quietly. Everybody understand that?

“Now, this is obviously an inside job. For example, a Howard Jackman is Mr. Wyckoff's secretary. Also, whoever phoned knew that Wyckoff had a gruff way of speaking. We're checking all the past and present household help Wyckoff ever had, his factory employees. I want the rest of you to mosey around, ask for a tall, thin stranger who talks with a Western twang. Of course, the twang could be a phony. From the description given by the school head, we've had an artist make up a picture of the man. It isn't too accurate—the school head is a hysterical biddy. One thing she's positive about: The man has long, slim fingers, like those of a concert pianist, she says. In cases like this, the guy is probably an out-of-towner brought in for the job. And we're almost certain the man hasn't left town with the girl; that's about the best bit we have going for us. Ask around. A job this size is impossible to keep quiet.”