Ralph Compton - Bounty Hunter

“To witness Bandy’s statement, huh?”

“Yes, just that. And now I have a statement of my own to make, bounty hunter.”

That last surprised Tone. It was not unfriendly; rather, Langford said it in a very matter-of-fact voice.

“All right, let’s hear it,” he said.

“Tomorrow night I want you to go to Sprague’s house, before, during or after the meeting, and I want you to kill him. The same for as many of the other five as your guns can reach.” Langford managed a thin smile. “How you manage it is up to you, but it’s in your line of work.”

“That’s why you called me bounty hunter.”

“Yes. Only there will be no bounty, unless you count my sincere thanks.”

Tone’s eyes dropped to the star again. “Mr. Langford, you’re asking me to commit suicide. Sprague’s house will be heavily guarded.”

“Yes, it will.”

After a silence that lasted a slow minute, Tone said, “I guess it could be done. I don’t know exactly how, but it’s possible.”

“I’ll leave that up to you, Tone. But stop Sprague and it’s over.”

“What about Bandy’s testimony?”

“A court case, an expensive lawyer, a not guilty verdict. That’s also possible. Sprague walks free and resumes his old criminal ways.”

Tone was thinking. Absently he said, “I can’t shoot my way in. If I could only get inside the house somehow. . . .”

“Will you try?”

Tone looked into Langford’s cold eyes, gray as winter mist. “Yes, I’ll try. But after I scout the lay of the land I may walk away from it.”

“That’s fairly spoken. I would ask no more of you.”

Langford holstered his gun, shoved the knife into the sheath built into the inside of his tunic and pinned on the badge. He looked at Tone. “What the hell were we just talking about? I’ve forgotten.”

“Me too, Sergeant Langford.” Tone grinned. “I guess it couldn’t have been too important.”

Chapter 32

Langford arrived back at the house in time to greet Inspector Muldoon, who was in a less than convivial mood.

“This better be important, Sergeant,” he snapped. “I’ve got a mountain of paperwork waiting for me back at the station, to say nothing of six—count ’em, six—know-nothing rookies out on patrol.”

Muldoon studied Langford’s face. “You’ve had an eventful day, Sergeant. And your nose seems like it’s broken. Lucky for you it doesn’t spoil your looks. I mean, you being so downright homely to begin with, and all.”

“Thank you for the kind words, Inspector,” Langford said. “My nose has been broke three times before. A man gets used to it.”

Muldoon smiled, removed his gloves and laid them on the table with his hat and swagger stick. “Now, why am I here?”

“I found a survivor from the Benton , the freighter pirated by Lambert Sprague.”

“We don’t know that was the case, Sergeant,” Muldoon said.

“A man named Bandy Evans says it was the case. I believe he can identify Sprague as the pirate leader.”

Muldoon was thoughtful for a few moments, then asked, “Is this so-called survivor in any way connected to the death of Wee Willie Winkie Sullivan, of hallowed memory?”

“Willie told me where Evans was located, a charity patient at St. Mary’s. Tone and me were bringing him back here when we were attacked in the street.”

The sergeant’s stare moved beyond Muldoon into the hallway. “Sprague’s men must have followed Sullivan here, then disemboweled him in my bedroom.”

Langford had carefully avoided any mention of the time and place of Sprague’s peace meeting, an omission Tone noted and understood.

“You were lucky today,” Muldoon offered. When Langford made no answer, he said, “And this Evans fellow, he’s here?”

“In my spare bed, Inspector. I want you to hear his statement.”

“Before I talk with him, tell me what you know about his miracle escape.”

“I don’t know much. He was in the water for several days before he was picked up by the whaling barque Derwent Hunter , Captain Saul Tanner commanding. It was Tanner who dropped Evans off at the hospital.”

Obviously feeling that he was expected to add more, Langford said, “Evans is in poor shape, but he’ll survive.” He sat back in his chair and looked at Muldoon expectantly.

“All right, let’s hear what he has to say,” the inspector said.

Tone decided to throw a chip into the pot. “Inspector, as far as I can tell, you don’t seem very excited about Bandy Evans.”

“I’m not. Again, I don’t think we can rely on one man’s say-so. How did he recognize Sprague though the smoke and flame of a ship that was sinking under him? Did his days in the water affect his recollection of what happened, and perhaps his sanity? Is he trying to railroad a respectable businessman for reasons of his own?”

Muldoon turned bleak eyes to Langford and then to Tone. “Maybe, when the word goes out that the police have a Benton survivor in protective custody, we can scare Sprague into making yet another stupid move.”

“Inspector, Sprague doesn’t scare worth a damn, and his move against Evans today wasn’t stupid. He was just unlucky.”

Muldoon smiled. “Good. Then maybe his luck is running out. Now, where do we interview Evans?”

“I’ll bring him out here,” Langford said.

The sergeant was gone for what seemed a very long while, time enough for Muldoon to comment on the unseasonably wet weather, the rambling roses in his backyard and how the oysters at the Tadich Grill were excellent this time of the year.

The heads of both men turned to look at Langford when he stepped slowly into the kitchen. The big cop’s battered face was stricken, his normally quiet hands trembling at his sides.

“Inspector, I’ve brought you here on a wild-goose chase,” he said. “Bandy Evans won’t be giving us any testimony. He’s dead. I think every last bone in his body is broken.”

Tone jumped to his feet and rushed past Langford. The bedroom was dark and he lit the gas lamp above the fireplace.

Bandy Evans lay on his back, his bulging eyes staring at the ceiling but seeing nothing. His chest looked like it had been crushed by a force so tremendous that a couple of splintered rib bones were sticking through the skin. His head was arched back so far that his prominent Adam’s apple looked like it was going to pop out of his throat, and his mouth was black with blood. The unnatural twist to the body told Tone that Evans’ back was broken, probably in several places, and the outsides of his upper arms were covered in massive bruises.

“My God, what happened?”

Tone turned and looked at Muldoon. “Inspector, he was hugged to death,” he said. “Squeezed to a pulp.”

“But, who—”

“The man who came through that window, I’d guess,” Tone said. “It wasn’t open when we checked on Evans earlier.”

He crossed the room to the window and looked outside. “Inspector,” he said, “here’s how the killer got inside.”

A ladder was still propped against the wall, but outside in the shrouded darkness there was no sound and nothing moved but the wind.

Muldoon stepped back to the body. “Who could do that, Tone? I mean, have the strength to crush a man to death?”

“I can take a guess, Inspector. Lambert Sprague employs a giant of a man named Blind Jack. He acts as his personal bodyguard and—”

“Yes, I know,” Muldoon said. “Blind Jack is a pirate scoundrel and murderer who should have been hanged years ago.” He looked at the broken thing on the bed. “Yes, Jack would have had the strength to do this terrible thing, and he can find his way in the dark like a bat.”