Микки Спиллейн - Everybody's Watching Me

I could almost hear him think. Finally he said, “Car parked across the street. Think there was a guy in it.” Then, “Yeah, yeah, wait up. Somebody was giving the old lady some lip this morning. Guess I was still half asleep. Heard your name mentioned.”

“Brother!”

“What’s up, pal?”

“I can’t tell you now. You tell Gordon I’m sick or something, okay?”

“Nuts. I’ll tell him you’re in the clink. He’s tired of that sick business. You ain’t been there long enough to get sick yet.”

“Tell him what you please. Just tell him. I’ll call you tonight.” I slipped the phone back and turned around. I hadn’t been as quiet as I thought I’d been. Helen was standing there in the doorway of her bedroom, a lovely golden girl, a bright morning flower wrapped in a black stem like a bud ready to pop.

“What is it, Joe?”

There wasn’t any use hiding things from her. “Somebody’s watching the house. They were looking for me this morning.”

“Scared, Joe?”

“Darn right I’m scared! I don’t want to get laid out in some swamp with my neck broken. That guy Renzo is nuts. He’ll do anything when he gets mad.”

“I know,” Helen said quietly. Her hand made an unconscious movement across her mouth. “Come on, let’s get some breakfast.”

***

We found out who Vetter was that morning. At least Helen found out. She didn’t cut corners or make sly inquiries. She did an impossible thing and drove me into town, parked the car and took a cab to a big brownstone building that didn’t look a bit different from any other building like it in the country. Across the door it said, PRECINCT NO. 4 and the cop at the desk said the captain would be more than pleased to see us.

The captain was more than pleased, all right. It started his day off right when she came in and he almost offered me a cigar. The nameplate said his name was Gerot and if I had to pick a cop out to talk to, I’d pick him. He was in his late thirties with a build like a wrestler and I’d hate to be in the guy’s shoes who tried to bribe him.

It took him a minute to settle down. A gorgeous blonde in a dark green gabardine suit blossoming with curves didn’t walk in every day. And when he did settle down, it was to look at me and say, “What can I do for you?” but looking like he already knew what happened.

Helen surprised him. “I’d like to know something about a man,” she said. “His name is Vetter.”

The scowl started in the middle of his forehead and spread to his hairline.

“Why?”

She surprised him again. “Because he promised to kill Mark Renzo.”

You could watch his face change, see it grow intense, sharpen, notice the beginning of a caustic smile twitch at his lips. “Lady, do you know what you’re talking about?”

“I think so.”

“You think?”

“Look at me,” she said. Captain Gerot’s eyes met hers, narrowed and stayed that way. “What do you see, Captain?”

“Somebody who’s been around. You know the answers, don’t you?”

“All of them, Captain. The questions, too.”

I was forgotten. I was something that didn’t matter and I was happy about it.

Helen said, “What do you think about Renzo, Captain?”

“He stinks. He operates outside city limits where the police have no jurisdiction and he has the county police sewed up. I think he has some of my men sewed up too. I can’t be sure but I wish I were. He’s got a record in two states, he’s clean here. I’d like to pin a few jobs on that guy. There’s no evidence, yet he pulled them. I know this…if I start investigating I’m going to have some wheels on my neck.”

Helen nodded. “I could add more. It really doesn’t matter. You know what happened to Jack Cooley?”

Gerot’s face looked mean. “I know I’ve had the papers and the state attorney climb me for it.”

“I don’t mean that.”

The captain dropped his face in his hands resignedly, wiped his eyes and looked up again. “His car was found with bullet holes in it. The quantity of blood in the car indicated that nobody could have spilled that much and kept on living. We never found the body.”

“You know why he died?”

“Who knows? I can guess from what I heard. He crossed Renzo, some said. I even picked up some info that said he was in the narcotics racket. He had plenty of cash and no place to show where it came from.”

“Even so, Captain, if it was murder, and Renzo’s behind it, you’d like it to be paid for.”

The light blue of Gerot’s eyes softened dangerously. “One way or another…if you must know.”

“It could happen. Who is Vetter?”

He leaned back in his chair and folded his hands behind his neck. “I could show you reams of copy written about that guy. I could show you transcripts of statements we’ve taken down and copies that the police in other cities have sent out. I could show you all that but I can’t pull out a picture and I can’t drop in a print number on the guy. The people who got to know him and who finally saw him, all seem to be dead.”

My voice didn’t sound right. “Dead?”

Gerot’s hands came down and flattened on the desk. “The guy’s a killer. He’s wanted every place I could think of. Word has it that he’s the one who bumped Tony Briggs in Chicago. When Birdie Cullen was going to sing to the grand jury, somebody was paid fifty thousand to cool him off and Vetter collected from the syndicate. Vetter was paid another ten to knock off the guy who paid him the first time so somebody could move into his spot.”

“So far he’s only a name, Captain?”

“Not quite. We have a few details on him but we can’t give them out. That much you understand, of course.”

“Of course. But I’m still interested.”

“He’s tough. He seems to know things and do things nobody else would touch. He’s a professional gunman in the worst sense of the word and he’ll sell that gun as long as the price is right.”

Helen crossed her legs with a motion that brought her whole body into play. “Supposing, Captain, that this Vetter was a friend of Jack Cooley? Supposing he got mad at the thought of his friend being killed and wanted to do something about it?”

Gerot said, “Go on.”

“What would you do, Captain?”

The smile went up one side of his face. “Most likely nothing.” He sat back again. “Nothing at all…until it happened.”

“Two birds with one stone, Captain? Let Vetter get Renzo…and you get Vetter?”

“The papers would like that,” he mused.

“No doubt.” Helen seemed to uncoil from the chair. I stood up too and that’s when I found out just how shrewd the captain was. He didn’t bother to look at Helen at all. His blue eyes were all on me and being very, very sleepy.

“Where do you come in, kid?” he asked me.