Don't Look Behind You Read Online Free PDF

version.”
    “Come off it, Mike. Who they tryin’ to kid? A hold-up guy in
your
office building? If they said he was a sex pervert and going after Velda, I mighta gone for it. But busting into a private cop’s office, for money he wouldn’t keep there, even if he had any? Weak, man, real weak.”
    “Don’t look to get original fiction out of homicide cops, Billy. They’re not trained that way, and they got limited imaginations.”
    He worked the fig leaf of his coin changer for another customer. “So lay the real spiel on me, man. I ain’t the general public.”
    “Simple,” I said. “The guy tried to tap me out.”
    “Somebody with a grudge?”
    “Somebody paid a wad of dough to have the deed done.”
    Billy gave me an incredulous look that ended in a laugh. “A hitman… for Mike Hammer?”
    “Why not?”
    “Well, hell’s bells, Mike… it’s like tryin’ to assassinate the Abominable Snowman.”
    “Thanks a bunch.”
    “Yeah, well, look what it got the guy. Anyway, that this-gun-for-hire stuff comes high. What did you ever do to deserve that kind of fancy treatment?”
    “I wish I knew.”
    He eyed me suspiciously. “You ain’t been messin’ around with some other guy’s broad, have you?”
    Little Billy had a big yen for Velda, and me cheating on her would just about make a hit justifiable in his mind.
    “Nobody’s broad but my own,” I assured him.
    “Big beautiful Velda.”
    “Big beautiful Velda.”
    He made change again for a customer buying two papers, something he could do in his sleep. “Maybe you’re steppin’ on the wrong toes. Mob guys, maybe. I remember when you was pretty good at that.”
    “I haven’t rated more than a frown from that bunch or anybody else for a good three years. Those headlines this morning were the first in a long damn time. You know that, Billy.”
    His wrinkled puss wrinkled some more. “Then your past is catching up to you, my friend. Maybe somebody you goosed once upon a time finally got enough loot together to get you splashed but good.”
    “Yeah? At this rate they’ll run out of money fast.”
    Billy shrugged and grunted another laugh, a humorless one. “One killing does not necessarily a bankruptcy make, old buddy.”
    “Sounds like you’ve been reading again,” I said. “Stick to the funny books.”
    He ignored that, sold another paper, then said, “If you rated a contract, they’ll try again, you know.”
    “Should make for an interesting autumn,” I told him. “How are you doing with that identification? Getting anywhere?”
    Just shy of a month ago, a hit-and-run driver had killed a customer strolling away from this newsstand. Billy was the only witness who got a good look at the driver.
    Billy shrugged, shaking his head, unconcerned. “My eyes are shot from goin’ through mug books lookin’ at ugly faces. Twice last week they took me downtown for a line-up, but it didn’t do no good. The guy I saw wasn’t one of those slobs. I keep tellin’ ’em. He was class, I could see that easy.”
    “Too bad nobody got the license plate. That the victim was a regular of yours makes it personal, I bet.”
    “Oh yeah, and it’s a damn shame. Dick Blazen. Did you know him, Mike?”
    “Naw. Papers said he was some kind of freelance PR guy.”
    Billy nodded. “Been around forever. Retired last year. Then retired into that gutter over there and after that a box in the ground. How I would love to help nail the bastard who made road refuse outa that sweet old bird.”
    I lifted a shoulder and put it back down. “The cops do all right on that kind of thing. They’ll come up with the right guy for you to ID yet.”
    “Hope so.” He passed out a couple more papers, taking correct change, then asked, “What’s up for tonight? Got a hot date with that doll of yours?”
    I shrugged. “Not exactly a date. Velda and I are going to put our heads together over dinner. See if we can come up with somebody who doesn’t love