(17 page)

“
You’re
already talking to us. Right now.”

I
lit my cigarette. I ran the risk that my hands wouldn’t be
steady, but they were.

“
I’ll
talk to George Moon,” I repeated stolidly.

In
the hall a dragging voice said: “Did I hear my name mentioned?”

CHAPTER
FOURTEEN

He
was so tall that he had to duck to get through the doorway. Not big.
Just very long, built something like myself, but without my
shoulders, and topping my own height by five or six inches. Suddenly
everybody in the room was a midget.

Lazily
he came into the room. He wore no hat and a curly brown forelock
dangled boyishly over his high, narrow forehead. His mild brown eyes
looked at me over the heads of the others, then down at the gun Rufus
Lamb held along his thigh, then down at Tilly's neat hairdo.

“
What's
up.?” he asked in that slow voice which had been so terrifying
when I had heard it over the phone. It was terrifying now too.

Tilly
said eagerly: “Did you get it?”

“
Not
yet, Breen is — “ George Moon checked himself. His eyes,
cautious now, were back on me. “Who're you?”

I
blew out smoke. “I'm a good mechanic. Before he was killed, Ray
Teacher told me I could find a job here.”

“
He's
a cop,” Rufus Lamb growled.

“
He's
been acting like one.”

“
Let
Tilly tell me,” George Moon said.

While
Tilly told him, I drew cigarette smoke into my lungs and tried to
look merely patient. But my thoughts were frantic. I could no longer
avoid making direct answers to questions, and I hadn't the knowledge
to make up satisfactory lies.

“
Where's
his wife?” George Moon asked when Tilly had finished.

Tilly
thought that she was still upstairs. Milton was sent to bring her
down. I started to wonder again where she could have gone, and then I
had more immediate worries.

“
Well?”
Moon said to me.

My
stomach bounced, but my voice was reasonably calm. “If Ray
Teacher were alive, he’d vouch for me.”

“
Convenient
having a dead man recommend you. Where did you know him?”

“
Out
west.”

“
The
West is a big place.”

“
Frisco,
I think. I’m not sure. I’ve been, all over.”

“
How
long ago did you know him?”

“
Years
ago.” I was like a man dancing barefoot on a hot stove, trying
to keep both feet in the air at the same time. “For the last
four years I was out of circulation. I was in the army.”

“
And
before that?”

I
said sullenly: “There are things in my record I’d rather
not talk about.”

“
Tell
us the things you’re not afraid to talk about,” Moon
persisted relentlessly.

He
had me hemmed in. Each evasive answer led to another direct question.
I tried again. “What’s all the fuss about? If you’ve
got a job for me, okay. If not, tell me and I’ll beat it.”

“
You
won’t 'beat it,” Rufus Lamb said softly. “You know
too much already. What are you throwing a bluff for if you’re
clean? I can smell cop a mile.” He glanced up at Moon. “It’ll
be dark soon, boss. We can take him back of the reservoir.”

George
Moon scratched his nose. There was silence. The boss was deciding my
fate.

Then
there were feet coming down the stairs. Two pairs. Milton had found
Molly and was returning with her. They would do to her whatever they
did to me.

Heads
turned, all except Rufus Lamb’s. He kept his eyes and his gun
on me. Milton entered first, shuffling into the room with his
chinless face sagging like an idiot’s. Molly was right behind
him. She stepped around him, sidled past Beezie, and turned at the
end of the couch. Her pearl-handled automatic was in her hand.

“
It’s
my play,” she said crisply.

She
had put herself-as far as possible from the others and to the left of
Rufus Lamb. Her mouth was tight and her gray eyes were big with
tension, but the steadiness with which she held her gun was
impressive. At that moment nobody counted but the two who had guns,
Molly and Rufus.

“
Drop
your gun,” she ordered him.

He
was looking at her over his left shoulder. His body was between his
gun and her; he was calculating his chance if he swung and shot. He
must have been very fast with a gun, because I could see that he had
decided to take the chance. His right shoulder drew up. His muscles
coiled for the pivot. So I hit him.

His
eyes were off me, and my fist was on his jaw before he knew that I
had covered the distance between us. He crashed against Tilly and
jammed her against the radio cabinet. He bounced off her fatness and
staggered. I hit him again. He sat down.

“
Hold
it!” Molly barked.

George
Moon had started to shift his loose-jointed body toward her. She
waved her gun at him and then brought it back to Rufus in a single
fluid motion. Rufus was helpless for at least a tencount; his head
sagged and his gun hand was useless. I stooped and plucked the gun
from him. When I rose, I saw that Moon had made no further move.
Molly and I had all the visible weapons in the room.

There
were two sounds, Beezie swearing and Tilly panting raggedly as she
rubbed her plump hip where it had been slammed against the radio
cabinet. Milton continued to catch flies with his mouth. Rufus held
his long stubbed jaw in both hands and shook fog out of his head.
George Moon completely relaxed, studied Molly's figure.

“
Let's
get out of here,” I said hoarsely.

Molly
said, “Don't be absurd, honey,” and rested the backs of
her calves against the arm of the couch. A few hours ago in our room
she had been morose and irritable because she had been scared. Now
that an actual situation had developed only a twitch at a corner of
her eye indicated that she wasn't wholly at ease. She never stopped
bewildering me.

Then
George Moon laughed. His laughter was as languid as his speaking
voice. I backed to the window, my finger tight on Rufus' gun. What
was there for Moon to laugh about? The guns were in our possession.

“
You're
not cops,” Moon drawled. “Cops would have a pat story
ready and pour it out as soon as they got a chance. Besides, you're
too damn pretty to be a cop, sweetheart. Just a couple of babes in
the woods trying to act tough.”

Molly
gave him her deluxe smile. “You'd be surprised at how tough Lou
Darby's daughter can get.”

That
was sensational news to everybody but me and possibly Beezie. Tilly
stopped rubbing her hip, Rufus took his hands from his Jaw, Milton's
mouth hung wider.

“
So
Lou Darby had a daughter?” Moon said, never taking his eyes
from Molly. “Or did he?”

“
Only
his close friends knew that he had a wife and child in Denver,”
Molly said.

“
Yeah,
Denver.” Rufus Lamb pulled himself up to his feet, and there
was a look of wonder on his face. “A little white house —
what was the name of that street?”

Always
there were traps in the form of questions. I pushed my gun out.

“
Atterkill
Drive,” Molly said glibly and pulled her sweater down with her
left hand.

“
Yeah,
Atterkill Drive.” Rufus turned his head to Moon, “I
visited Lou Darby in '35. Stayed three-four days in his place. Tried
to talk him into coming east on a hundred grand heist. He thought it
over and turned me down. There'll never be another guy who could case
a bank like Lou Darby. He'd spend weeks just looking over the layout.
He'd make blueprints and time schedules and the job would go off like
clockwork. Did you know him, boss?”

“
No,
but everybody's heard of Lou Darby.” Moon leaned against the
air and measured Molly's body. I could see his eyes taking in the
fact that here was enough woman for a man like him, and beautiful
enough for a man of any size.

Rufus
went on: “Then after a job Lou’d ' go back to his little
house in Denver and his wife and kid, and nobody in town ever knew he
was Lou Darby. His neighbors thought he was a retired businessman. I
remember his wife, lots younger than him and a looker. And there was
a yella-haired girl around thirteen.” He turned back to Molly.
“What’s your name?”

“
Clara
Darby,” she said. “My mother was Ann. I called my father
Pops.”

Rufus
nodded his head vigorously. “Yeah, yeah. You was tall even
then. Built like a matchstick. I never saw Lou again. He got it a
year later.”

“
Two
years later,” Molly said. “One of his boys sold him out
to the cops. A rat named Shorty Wheel. The cops were hidden in the
bank and they cut Pops down without giving him a chance.”

Rufus
clucked his tongue. “That’s the way I heard it. I used to
know Shorty Wheel. A no-good rat.” He beamed at her. “I’ll
be damned, Lou Darby’s girl!”

She
had everything a salesman needed — facts and glibness and
confidence and sex appeal. She had sold Rufus Lamb, and through him
the others, all except Tilly. I didn’t like the unyielding set
of Tilly’s doughy face and the narrowness of her eyes.

“
And
I came near pluggin’ Lou’s girl!” Rufus was saying.
“That’s a sweet sock you got, fella.”

It
was a time for goodwill and gallantry. “I’m sorry I had
to clip you,” I said.

“
Good
thing you did. I'm mighty fast on the pivot. I would’ve put a
slug in her.” Rufus frowned suddenly. He remembered that there
was a great deal as yet unexplained. “Who’re you?”
he demanded.

“
A
guy who can take care of himself.” I left it in the air for
Molly to pick up.

She
did. “He’s Bert Hemsley.”

I
would need a little black book to keep track of all my names. This
one fell flat. It seemed to mean no more to any of them than it did
to me.

“
An
old-timer like you must have heard of Bert Hemsley,” she said
to Rufus. “He was one of Pop’s boys. He was in on that
last bank job when Pops was killed. Bert got winged in the leg and a
few days later he was picked up by the state cops. He got out of the
big house after a six-year stretch. A few weeks later we were
married.”

“
Hemsley?”
Rufus pondered. “Well, I didn’t know many of Lou’s
boys. I never worked with him myself.”

“
Ray
Teacher did for a while,” Molly said. “That’s how
Bert happened to know him.”

The
first week I had sold cars I had learned that whenever sales
resistance reared its ugly head you chopped it down by pointing out
another virtue in your product. Molly had the technique down pat.

“
That’s
right,” Rufus said eagerly. “Ray used to work with Lou.”
He tossed me a grin. “Any of Lou’s boys are aces with
me.”

Tilly
said: “You men are idiots.”

She
waddled to. the center of the room and glared up at Moon who towered
ridiculously over her short, wide, body. “Idiots!” she
said. “I see the way you're looking at her, George. You've
fallen so hard your mind has stopped working.”

The
corner of Moon's mouth lifted. “Has Rufus fallen for her?”

“
Rufus
has fallen for the idea that she's Lou Darby's daughter.”

Rufus
took it as a personal affront. “Well, she is. Hardly nobody
knew where Lou lived and that he had a wife and kid. This here girl
was only a kid when Lou was killed, but she knows the street and the
names and that she called him Pops and everything. How'd she know if
she wasn't his daughter? Besides, I seen her, didn't I? She's grown
up now, but she had light hair and was built tall and pretty even
then.”

Tilly
refused to backtrack. “So her father was Darby or the man in
the moon. It doesn't explain the way they acted since they came here.
Why didn't this man, Thomas Rover or Bert Hemsley or whatever his
name is — why didn't he come right out and say who he was? Why
was he acting like a spy? Why did they try to get a room here without
saying anything about themselves?”

They
were good questions. I could see that they bothered Moon and Rufus.
They bothered me a lot more, especially when I saw Molly's teeth
worrying her lower lip. The gun had a comforting feel against my
palm.

Molly
turned her head to me. “Should we tell them, honey?”

Why
ask me? I was merely a spectator like Milton and Beezie. “Why
not?” I said, handing it back to her.

She
waved her gun at Moon. “Listen,” she said tensely. “A
dirty doublecrossing stool pigeon got my father. I don't want the
same thing to happen to me.”

“
So?”
Moon looked around as if to make sure everybody was still in the
room. “Nobody rats here.”

“
We
heard talk in New York about Jasper Vital and Larry Goodby.”

“
That
was different,” Moon said. “They tried to take over. What
is it, sweetheart? A reward?”

“
Five
grand,” Molly told him. “Did you hear of the payroll
stickup in Nashville last week?”