bourbon,” I said, eyeing the joint. The place was almost empty, but there were one or two characters who’d obviously been there throughout the night.
The barman poured the drink, then settled his elbows on the bar and eyed me curiously.
“Been doing the town?” he inquired.
“Some,” I agreed. “Why, anything happened?”
He polished a glass in an absent manner, then the leaned over the bar so that his face almost touched mine. “They say that Maxie Temple tried to make a comeback last night, only they got him at the airport. Only just stepped off the plane, so they say.”
“Maxie Temple, eh?” I feigned surprise. “Have they got the guy who did it?”
“No. The cops couldn’t pick anybody up even if they saw him do it with their own eyes.” The barman sounded sarcastic.
“You got all this information from the police?”
He looked scared for a minute, licking his lips as he eyed me up and down.
“Just who are you?” he asked thinly.
“Don’t worry about that,” I said quickly. “I’m not from the police, if that’s what you’re worried about. It’s just that I knew Maxie in the old days. We weren’t exactly friends, but now that he’s dead, I thought there might be something I could do to find his killer.”
“Don’t bother about that. Clancy Snow was around here last night. Seems he’s interested in that, too.”
I kept quiet and finish my drink. Clancy Snow! It hadn’t taken him long to get his teeth into the case. He wouldn’t mention my name, of course. Everything would have to be done efficiently, and discreetly.
Do something, Johnny. Don’t just sit there drinking bourbon and wait for them to close in on you. Maybe, even now, they’re outside, cruising around in their lush limousines, eyes alert, scanning the early morning crowds, hoping to pick you out.
I got up, tossed a coin onto the polished top of the bar and hurried out. I would learn nothing there.
Twenty minutes later I was cruising through the slum quarter of Los Angeles, watching the bars and the people on the sidewalks. Somewhere, behind one of the hundreds of faces, in a quick and furtive brain, there would be the information I wanted. But how to find it?
It wasn’t until an hour later that I spotted a face among the others that I recognised immediately. Square-jawed, with a thin, clipped moustache. The soft, brimmed hat was there, too, pulled low over the eyes, and it was that which first attracted my attention to him. I slowed the car to a crawl, following him at a respectable distance.
He gave no sign that he knew he was being followed, and a moment later disappeared down a small back alley. I stopped the car, got out, and went after him.
A door closed softly halfway down the alley. There was urgent tension building up inside me again, and I was suddenly glad of the .38 in my pocket. I slipped it out, checked it, then pushed open the door.
There was a hallway beyond and a half-open door at the end of it. Cautiously, I pushed it open, kicked it hard so that it slammed back against the wall, then went inside.
The hoodlum was coming for me fast and I tried to bring the gun up to cover him, even though I knew at the back of my mind that there wasn’t time for that.
I was half-turned by the time he got to me, standing as a solid target for the straight right that he threw at my jaw. The blow knocked me against the table. He was lunging forward again, but I slid sideways to the right, going down onto the rough carpet as my feet caught up against a chair.
The gun was knocked spinning from my hand and clattered into a corner of the room, where it slid out of sight. So this was it. A fight to the finish with all the advantage of surprise on his side this time.
I swung the chair up as he turned, got it between us and lifted it towards his face. It blocked his headlong rush, but he pulled it savagely away from me before I could use it as a club to batter over his head.
His body twisted as he threw the chair across the room and I kicked out at him, sending him sprawling. He drew his lips back over his teeth in a grin of savage fury. His breath was whistling between his teeth as he tried to pull himself upright.
I lashed out at him again, but he rolled out of range, got to his feet with an agility that belied his bulk, and then he got to me with both fists pummelling my chest with rib-crushing blows that knocked all the wind from my body.
I doubled up, tried to get my breath back, and caught a savage blow on the chin that sent me reeling backwards, hitting the floor with my shoulders and spine. From the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of the hoodlum’s distorted features leaning over me as he drew back his foot to kick me in the small of the back.
I could see his face quite clearly, his teeth showing white in a tight grin of savage pleasure, his chest heaving beneath his torn coat. He looked down at me, then laughed harshly.
“I warned you last night I’d remember that beating, Merak,” he gasped. “Now the boot’s on the other foot and this is where you get what’s coming to you.”
He turned his attention away from me for a moment as he looked across to where the .38 had fallen, and it was that momentary mistake on his part that gave me the chance I needed.
Before he could move, I lashed out with my right foot, kicking him with all my strength on the ankle. With a yelled, he jumped backward and tripped over my other foot hooked behind his knee.
It wasn’t easy to get up after the pummelling I had received earlier, but I managed it with a supreme effort. My head was spinning like a top and every breath seemed to rip my chest into a thousand pieces.
I knew inwardly that I had to move. Maybe the hoodlum would have killed me if I hadn’t got the gun first. I don’t know. He was almost on his feet when my fingers closed around it and I swung round, pointing it at his stomach.
“Just stay where you are, punk,” I muttered, holding onto the table for support. “Otherwise I’ll let you have it.”
He stopped, glaring at me, his face twisting, his mouth working.
I knew the kind of man this hoodlum was. If he thought there was a chance in a million of taking back the gun from me, he’d have jumped at it. I could see by the glint in his eyes that if I let him go this time, no place on earth would be sufficiently distant for me to hide from him.
I wasn’t really afraid, but it was a hell of a peculiar feeling.
“Sit down,” I ordered. “There are a few questions I want to ask you.”
He hesitated, then thought better of it, and sat down in one of the chairs. I moved around to where I could see him more clearly.
“It’s obvious you knew I was following you, so it’s pretty clear to me that you haven’t let up on me.”
“We never let up. You ought to know Clancy Snow better than that.”
“Ah, so it’s Clancy you’re working for. I wondered about that, you know.”
