Hard Case Crime: Baby Moll Read Online Free PDF

impress me. I said sit down! ”
    I sat on the edge of the bed, holding the glass tightly.
    “You gonna do a job for me or are you gonna sit around and pout?”
    “I’m going to do a job,” I said, “because I can’t do anything else.”
    “I don’t care what your goddam reasons are!” he snapped. Then, more calmly, he said, “All right. We work on that basis. You don’t like it but you do it because Macy says you do it. So naturally you don’t like Macy. But I don’t want nothin’ half-ass.”
    “You’ll get your dollar’s worth,” I said.
    “I always did, with you,” Macy said grudgingly. “Okay. Rudy tell you what I want? Put up that damn glass before you bust it.”
    I put up the glass. He was still giving orders with every breath, but they didn’t have the old cocksure ring of authority.
    “You been getting letters with the same message,” I said. “Somebody’s sore at you for burning out a tailor’s shop twenty-five years ago and killing a few people. He’s getting even by hunting down your old gang and knifing them. You’re on the list but he’s saving you until you’ve had time to think about it.”
    Macy nodded morosely. “There’s an envelope in the middle drawer of that desk over there. Get it, will you, Pete?”
    The envelope contained all the clippings Macy had received. I read one of them about the fire. The tailor’s name was Kennedy. He had a wife and two children. Nobody knew how the fire started. One of the children somehow survived, was in the hospital with serious burns. The child’s name wasn’t given.
    Macy told me to keep the envelope. “What happened to the other kid?” I asked him.
    He seemed indifferent. “I don’t know. I haven’t looked into this thing. That’s your job.”
    “You worry about anything at all these days?” I said bitingly. He looked at me with a flash of anger in his eyes but didn’t speak.
    “What chance that Stan Maxine’s behind this?” I said.
    “No chance. He wouldn’t be so cute. Stan don’t know how to be subtle-like. It ain’t his way of doing things.”
    “I hear he’s got fat and happy lately. You should have killed him a dozen years ago. I should have killed him. I never killed anybody in my life, not counting the war, but if I had to choose somebody it would be Maxine.”
    Macy smiled slightly. “You ain’t changed so much,” he said in a low thick voice. “You’re older, but your face don’t show it. You got a girl now.”
    I nodded.
    He looked up at me eagerly. “A real beauty? I know she must be. I’ll bet she’s a smart one, too, and knows how to talk, and things like that. She knows about you?”
    “No, I never told her.” I cut it short. “What about Maxine?”
    “Maxine?”
    “Why don’t you stand up to him now, before he gets too hard to handle. Boot his tail back where it belongs.”
    “I’m afraid to try,” he said, watching me almost ashamedly. “I’m afraid to find out I’m not strong enough any more. Sometimes it’s better just to hang on, Pete.”
    He got up then and went to the window. One of his pockets was bulky with a gun. He pulled the blinds open and looked out at the moon shining on the dark sea.
    “I’ll be working alone,” I said. “I’ll need a car.” He nodded. “How many men have you got around?”
    “Three. Rudy and two other boys, Reavis and Taggart. Top guns. Taggart’s not around right now. I sent him to Tampa yesterday. He should pull in before long.”
    “Not enough to carry your coffin.”
    His shoulders flexed. “Nobody’s going to kill me, Pete. Not while I’m here. Your room’s in the west wing, just off the patio, if you want to go on to bed.” He spoke tiredly, dismissing me. I picked up the envelope with the newspaper clippings and went downstairs.

Chapter Five
    I unpacked most of the clothes from the suitcase, then threw it and the ruined stuff away. My other suit wasn’t bad and I decided I could still wear it.
    I turned down the covers on