Killer Mine Read Online Free PDF

killed.”
    “Yeah. Shot. Lots of that going on around here,”
    “Always trouble, Joe. You know that.”
    “René making it big here?” She understood me, but waited a long moment before acknowledging it. “Not so big like he talked always. Big shot, that guy. Always talking about them… them shooters. His friends. Huh!”
    “He always had a big mouth,” I said. “Who’d he say his buddies were?”
    Her typical Italian gesture was eloquent. “Who cares? Tough guys he likes. Always somebody in the papers who got trouble is his pal.”
    “He didn’t have any loot around when he died.”
    “Always broke, that one. He pays his bills. Sometime take a month, but he come across.”
    “You’re lucky,” I said.
    “What the cops do about it, eh, Joe?”
    It was my turn to shrug. “He’s on the books. Something’ll turn up.”
    Her wise black eyes looked into me. “Like you maybe?”
    I put down my fork. “Mary, I’m brass. I’m a lieutenant. You think I’m going to do legwork in this part of town?”
    “So?”
    “So let ’em shoot each other up all they want to. I’m going to make a pass at this mouse here and try to snag her out of this place.”
    Mary said, “Some mouse,” and Marta jabbed me with her fork under the table. “Joe, no foolin’. You gonna do somethin’ ’bout René?”
    “What for?”
    “You cop. We pay taxes and…” From behind the bar Tony growled in his usual way. Mary gave him a dirty look.
    I said, “The cops were here and asked all the questions, weren’t they?”
    “Sure. They come. They ask. We tell. But what? Who knows from what, Joe? From a kid, like you, I know that one. He’s what they call a sharpie. So what else?”
    “Nothing else. What else is there?”
    She drummed her fingers on the table top and pursed her mouth in thought. Then her finger went up dramatically. “Wait. I think of something.” With a practiced motion she squeezed her bulk out of the seat and walked across the room with that peculiar lightness you sometimes see in fat people. A hurried talk in Italian with Tony got her yelled at, but she yelled back, then Tony rummaged around some papers beside his cash register and handed them to her. When she came back she laid them down and spread them open.
    Marta and I looked at each other briefly. Mary said, “He left them here couple of nights before he get killed.”
    One was a four-color brochure on new model Caddies. The other was the same, but for the Chrysler and it was folded back to the page showing the luxurious Imperial.
    Mary was looking at me with raised eyebrows, waiting. I said, “He sure was thinking big, that’s for sure.”
    She nodded. “This night he leave thees things, he pay his bill.”
    “How much?”
    “T’ree hundred fifty somethin’.”
    “That’s pretty steep to go, isn’t it?”
    “You know Tony,” she said. “Most of that thees René drink. Tony, he buy him plenty booze and bring it to his room just before that.”
    “Oh?” I didn’t want to push her.
    “Tells me bunch of guys up there. They don’t let him in. Just take the stuff and tell him pay later. You know Tony.”
    “So they were playing cards maybe,” I said.
    “Sure, maybe,” she said and all her curiosity left.
    I paid the bill, said so-long to Mary and Tony and took Marta out of there. She was all primed for a big talk, but inside, couldn’t say anything that might have official sounding overtones. Now she wanted to talk and I wouldn’t tell her anything. I just walked beside her grinning to see how much she could take.
    We hit a couple of bars then, saying hello here and there, finding some of the old bunch still around. I made no bones about being a cop, but by then the news had preceded us anyway so it didn’t make much difference. But one look at Marta and they knew I had a good reason to be around without wanting to get involved in police work. The winks were big and broad and I accepted them with a wink back.
    It was a great