Lacy (35 page)

"Don't you want to throw a punch at
me?"Turk asked curtly. "God knows you've every right."

Cole shook his head. "You haven't been the
same since she left." Cole grimaced at the look on the other man's face.
"I have to take some of the blame. You were a rounder, and I knew you'd
never gotten over your wife. I didn't want Katy hurt." He laughed coldly.
"Funny, isn't it? I tried to spare her, and caused her more grief."

"You did what you thought was best for
her," Turk said quietly. "I couldn't blame you for that. You were
probably right. But everything is different now, including the way I feel
about Katy."

"You might tell her that," Cole said
gently.

The pale eyes that met his were anguished.
"I tried to tell her, in there. But she thinks it's just pity. She won't
believe me."

Before Cole could react, a returning Lacy did.
"I told Faye. She's going to be all right, isn't she?" she added
worriedly.

"Of course she is,"Turk said
stubbornly. "She's still upset and blames herself for a lot of stupid
reasons. But I think she'll be all right, in time." He grimaced. "God
almighty, she won't have to go back and testify, will she?" he added,
remembering the sordid circumstances under which her husband had met his fate.

"No," Cole said shortly. "I'll
hide her out if I have to. It will be bad enough when the papers get hold of
it. I'll bet Ben's newspaper friends will have him out here on our throats the
second they get wind of it."

"Ben's gone to Paris,"Turk said.
"I didn't have time to tell you.

He sent a message by a neighbor. 'Sorry for the
trouble, I'm off to Paris.' That was all he said."

"Just as well," Cole said. "I
told him he couldn't come back. He won't know about Katy unless he reads it in
a paper."

"It will kill her soul to have it all come
out,"Turk said angrily.

"It won't do Mother's health much good,
either," Cole replied. He took off his hat and sailed it onto the sofa.
"What a hell of a mess."

"Amen."

Lacy took off her coat. "I'll fix some
coffee and some lunch. Katy will probably sleep the clock around. "I'll
see if Faye is hungry."

THEY ATE IN A GLOOMY SILENCE.
Cole
and Turk went out to work, but not before Turk warned them about Katy's
confused mental condition. He cautioned them not to leave her alone for a
minute, and made the women promise they wouldn't before he'd even leave the
house. Faye and Lacy took turns sitting with Katy, but Katy still hadn't
awakened when Cole came in after dark.

He was cleaning up when the telephone rang. Lacy
answered it, but the operator asked for Cole.

She went to get him, wondering why he looked so
worried.

"Whitehall," he said curtly, hoping he
wasn't going to have to tell the police lieutenant that Katy was herself again.
He couldn't let her go to Chicago and get embroiled with that bunch again.

"You don't know me," came the deep,
gruff reply. "I just wanted to know how Katy is."

Cole knew instantly who it was. The mobster had
grit—he'd have to give him that—to call here to ask about Katy under the
circumstances. But he'd been kind to Katy, in his way, so Cole curbed his
anger. "She said a few words to my foreman earlier. She's sleeping
now."

"Thank God. Best thing for her, sleep.
Damned sordid mess..."

"This is a party line," Cole cautioned
curtly. "Wait a minute," he added, and listened to make sure nobody
was eavesdropping. Fortunately that didn't happen often, and it was pretty
obvious when somebody was. The line seemed secure for the moment. "All
right, go ahead."

"I won't talk long. Listen, I took care of
everything. Nobody's going to know anything. Not one word leaked out."

"How in hell...?" Cole demanded.

"People love me. They keep quiet and I love
them back," came the dry reply. "Don't ask. You tell Katy I said it's
all over. My lawyer says he'll spring me without any trouble. Even your pal
Higgins doesn't think I'll have to bribe a jury. So tell Katy not to worry
about things. She's safe. I made sure of it. I won't have her name bandied
about in sick gossip."

Cole hesitated. The man sounded pretty
protective. "She can't testify," he said.

"Hell, man, I'd go to the chair before I'd
ask her to!" he said huskily. "What do you think I am?"

His opinion of the mobster took a
three-hundred-and-sixty-degree turn. If Wardell cared that much, he couldn't be
all bad. "Thank you," he said finally.

"They said something about a sanitarium..
."Wardell choked.

"There's no chance of that," he
assured the man. "She's going to be fine. We'll take good care of
her."

"You and the blond ace, right?" He
laughed coolly. "I know about him. Katy cried all over me when she lost
the kid. You know about the kid?"

"I know," he said uncomfortably.

"She loves that guy like I love her. Maybe
he's got a little more sense now. If he doesn't, you knock some into him. He
hurts her, he'll answer to me!"

"It isn't like that," Cole replied,
almost smiling at the idea of a notorious mobster so concerned over a woman's
happiness. "He'd never hurt her. He didn't know about the child. He's
pretty torn up."

"He should have been better to her. Look,
I've got to go. You need anything—money, nurses, anything—you let me know.
Higgins knows how to get in touch with me."

Cole bristled. "We won't need any
help."

"You and your damned black pride!" the
deep voice raged. "I know you wouldn't even talk to me in the street, but
this is for Katy! I feel responsible for what happened. You tell her I'm sorry,
and she only has to let me know if she ever needs help. There won't be any
strings, either. You got that?"

"I'll give her the message," Cole said
stiffly.

"Don't do me any favors."

The sarcasm was potent. Cole calmed down.
"I just put my mother in the hospital with a near heart attack," he
said impatiently. "My brother's run off to Paris, leaving a pregnant
girlfriend behind. Katy's half-crazy, and the blond ace is eaten up with
guilt—dodging me with half a bottle of illegal Russian vodka looking for his
service revolver so he can blow his head off the minute I turn my back! I
couldn't do you a favor if I wanted to!"

There was a pause. "Ever think about
writing a dime novel?" came the dry reply.

Cole laughed in spite of himself. "Go rob a
bank. I've got enough on my plate without adding a mob figure with a conscience
to it."

"I'm not so bad "Wardell said.
"I've never stolen anything from an honest man, and I don't usually kill
people. You tell Katy she's in no danger from Danny's pals, either. I took care
of that little complication."

"How about Danny's mother?"

"On her way back to Italy. See? No loose ends."

"You're tidy," Cole agreed.

"Pays to be, in my business. She's really
okay? I knew he was roughing her up pretty bad. I tried to get her away, but
she was too scared of him to come with me. I'm not sorry about what I did to
him, either. He'd have killed her one night when he was hopped up on
dope."

"I didn't even know," Cole said
heavily.

"She said you'd go gunning for him if she
told you," he replied. "And that he'd probably catch you with your
back turned and let his gangsters fill you full of lead." He hesitated. "I
guess that flying ace would have done the same."

"In a second," Cole agreed. "He's
not usually quite so stupid. But I complicated things by warning him off Katy
in the first place."

"Interfering in people's lives is
stupid." "As you're certainly qualified to know," Cole shot
back. Cool laughter came over the line. "Yeah. Right. Too bad Katy
couldn't love me back. I'd make a hell of a brother-in-law."

"I'd spend my life bailing you out of jail,
so it's just as well," Cole muttered. He sighed heavily. "Don't worry
about Katy. And thank you for keeping her name out of it." He paused.
"Is your attorney certain about your chances?"

"This is Chicago," Wardell said, a
shrug in his voice. "If I don't have enough influence, I've got plenty of
friends who have. Nobody liked Marlone."

"Katy will recover," Cole told him.
"I'm sure of it. If worse comes to worse, she can give a deposition about
what happened that night."

There was a stiff hesitation. "I'm the mug
who got her into this mess, remember?"

"You're the mug who tried to get her out of
Marlone's clutches, too," Cole said imperturbably. "I want to know
the outcome of the coroner's inquest."

The silence lengthened. "Okay."

The receiver went down, and Cole hung up.

"Who was it?" Lacy asked gently,
standing just in front of him with wide, curious eyes.

"Wardell."

"The gangster?" She gasped.

"He's not so bad. He loved Katy enough to
keep her name out of the papers," he added.

"Oh, thank God," she breathed.
"Thank God! But, what about him?"

"If I were a betting man,"he said,
moving closer to her, "I'd stake the ranch and everything else here on
Wardell." He chuckled. "You smell sweet "he whispered, bending
toward her mouth. "Kiss me."

"Cole!" she protested at the very
public living room. But his lips settled gently on hers, and then not gently at
all, and she gave in at once.

They were feverish when the front door
slammed;Turk cleared his throat audibly.

Cole let Lacy go and watched her flee, blushing,
into the kitchen. He grinned at Turk.

"Better wire Valentino to hold on to his
bedsheet,"Turk said. He was a little unsteady on his feet.

Cole glared at him. "Get rid of that
vodka."

"What vodka?"

"Don't play games." He moved closer.
"You can stop worrying about Katy. She won't have to testify. Her name
isn't even going to be connected with the case. Her mobster pal has covered it
all up. He said he'd go to the chair before he'd ask her to go to bat for him,
in fact."

Turk's face darkened. "He'd better stay in Chicago, if he knows what's good for him."

Dark eyebrows arched. "You sound pretty
possessive for a man who's determined to die a bachelor."

Turk swayed a little more, feeling the effects
of the alcohol. "He can't have Katy. You tell him I said so."

"Sit down before you fall down."

He resisted Cole's efforts to get him to a
chair. "I won't. I have to see Katy."

Cole knew the set of his jaw and the fire in
those pale eyes. It would take a free-for-all to get his friend out of the
house. Much simpler to let him have his way.

"All right," he agreed. "But only
for a minute. It's late, and we could all use a good night's sleep. Lacy and
Faye are setting the table now for a late supper. I'll see about some black
coffee to go with it," he added, with a meaningful stare, before he left
Turk at Katy's door.

Chapter Sixteen

Turk knocked at Katy's door, hardly waiting for
the murmured reply before he walked in. A small lamp with a lacy cover thrown
over it burned softly by the bed; Katy lay under a thick quilt in a
lace-trimmed, yellow flannel gown that covered her arms.

Her long hair, which had obviously been washed,
was spread on the pillow and she was still very pale, but there was more life
in her than there had been when Turk left her earlier in the day.

"How are you?" he asked, his voice
faintly slurred.

"I'm all right." Katy, who'd seen her
share of intoxicated men, sighed. She stared at him, her eyes lingering on his
towering physique, from long, powerful legs to narrow hips and broad shoulders.
He had the athletic build of a working cowboy, without an ounce of fat on his
tall frame. He still delighted her eyes, even after what she'd been through.
But right now, he was more disheveled than usual, the top buttons of his shirt
undone over a chest thick with dark brown hair, his thick blond hair drooping
onto his forehead. It didn't need much thought to know he'd been at the bottle,
even without his pale, bloodshot eyes to tell her, or his unsteady gait. "Oh,Turk!
You've been drinking, haven't you?" she asked quietly.