Lady, Here's Your Wreath Read Online Free PDF Page A

Lu Spencer's gunmen.”
     I put my glass on the bar with a sharp little click. “Lu Spencer?” I said.
     Ackie nodded. “Yeah... looks to me like they're watchin' you already.”
     “What makes Hank get the jitters about a dope like that?” I asked.
     “Katz a dope?” Ackie wagged his bullet head. “You're crazy. That guy's as deadly as a rattlesnake. Don't go gettin' ideas about him. Why, Hank and the rest of us are scared sick of him.”
     I took another poke at the rye. “Well, I don't mind telling you,” I said quietly, “that guy ain't goin' to make me nervous.”
     Ackie shrugged. “You wait till you know him,” he said.
     I glanced round the room, but the place was still empty except for Hank, who was keeping away from us. I lowered my voice. “I had a little adventure last night. A dame dropped in and pinched some dough off me.”
     Ackie looked interested. “You mean she came in and took your roll or somethin'?”
     “I was havin' a shower and she got in, knocked off a nice slice of my rent and skipped without me seein' her. A guy who lives opposite me saw her go. I'm tyin' her up to this business, an' I wondered if you might know who she was.”
     Ackie looked incredulous. “Why the hell should I know?”
     “Can you fit in a dame that's blonde and dresses in black? Wears a big felt hat and looks like a real hot mamma?”
     Ackie shook his head. “Why should you tie her up to the Vessi business?” he asked.
     I wasn't going to tell him that, but just as I was getting set to air off my imagination he got it. Ackie had a lot of brain under his hat. “Jeeze! That's a howl,” he said, smacking his thigh and giving one of his grunting laughs. “You got paid, huh? They slipped you the ten grand already, an' someone pinches it.” He leant against the counter and hooted.
     When he'd got through with his fun, he mopped his eyes with his sleeve and grinned at me maliciously. “Gee! That's tough,” he said. “So a blonde hotcha got away with your dough.”
     I said “Yeah,” and gave myself another drink. “Suppose you cut out the sympathy and bend your brains on this. Can't you give me a lead on the blonde?”
     Ackie shook his head. “What do you take me for? Think I know all the blondes in town?”
     I said slowly, “It wouldn't be Vessi's moll, would it?”
     Ackie looked suddenly uncomfortable. “Listen, Nick,” he said, “I like you, but I've got to keep out of this... do you understand? You go ahead if you want a funeral on your hands, but you've gotta keep me out of it.”
     “All right, all right,” I said, “Forget it. I'll look into this on my own.”
     Ackie nodded. “You're the sorta guy who might crack this without gettin' hurt.”
     A nice line in comfort this guy had got, I thought. I looked at my watch. It was getting on for lunchtime. “Okay, Mo,” I said, “I'll be seeing you.” I left him giving himself another rye.
     I stood on the kerb thinking. It was a theory of mine to take the fight always to the other guy. I was not quite sure if I was going to be right this time. Maybe I'd start something that I couldn't finish. I didn't know. Then I thought I might as well go ahead and see what happened, so I signalled a taxi and told the driver to take me to the Hoffman Building quick.
     

CHAPTER FOUR
         
     THE TAXI TURNED me loose outside the Hoffman Building, and I took the elevator to the tenth floor.
     The Mackenzie Fabric Corporation was some joint. The entrance was the finest exhibition for chromium wear I'd seen all in one spot, and, once inside, I nearly sank up to my knees in the pile of the carpet. The big reception lobby was as busy as a main-line railway station. At the far end I could make out the reception-desk, that was pretty near swamped by a crowd of