Murder Spins the Wheel Read Online Free PDF Page A

He had a rugged, outdoors face, with a quick smile and sun crinkles at the corners of his eyes. It was true, as Shayne had told him, that he was a few pounds over his best weight, but he had the arms and shoulders of a professional fighter.
    “And a bourbon for me,” he added.
    “No,” Theo said, “not till the doctor says so.”
    “I know what the doctor will say—bouillon. I’ve got to tell Mike something, and I can’t do it without a drink.”
    She looked up at Shayne.
    “It won’t kill him,” Shayne said.
    “All right, but it’s against my better judgment.”
    Harry watched her leave the room. Her walk was lithe and athletic.
    “There’s a real woman,” he said. “Mike, sit down. Here’s the problem.”
    Shayne moved a straight chair closer to the sofa. “What do you want me to do with Waters, throw him out?”
    “No, I’d better have him here where I can watch him.” His face twisted suddenly and he put his hand lightly against the top of his head. “I really think they may have busted something. I relaxed at the wrong time, Mike. One of them kept saying, ‘Don’t kill him, don’t kill him.’ I don’t know why he thought it mattered.”
    “If it’ll make you feel better,” Shayne said, “two of them are dead.”
    Harry looked at him questioningly, and Shayne told him about his chase of the holdup men and its abrupt ending on the 39th Street cloverleaf in Miami.
    “That’s two out of three,” Harry said. “Never mind. Those were the troops. I want to know who’s behind it. That was no spur-of-the-moment job. It was planned. Somebody knew about Doc’s cash situation. The bastard has no margin at all. Sting him twice in an afternoon, and they knew he’d have to call on me for backing. A long shot at Tropical, a football game, a stickup. They could be three accidents, or they could be connected. I think they’re connected.”
    “What’s your idea, Harry, that the real reason for the fixes wasn’t just to beat Doc, but to get your cash out where they could take a crack at it?”
    “That’s my idea. I’m getting dizzier by the minute so I’ll say it fast. Florida Christian against Southern Georgia. We had Florida at eleven points. A rush of last-minute money came in on Georgia, most of it in Doc’s territory. You don’t get that kind of late action against the local team unless somebody thinks they know something.”
    “What did the Christians win by?” Shayne said. “Six points, wasn’t it?”
    “Yeah,” Harry said bitterly, “six points. One more touchdown and we’d have been in. I watched the last half. It’s one of those stymie situations where both lines are so strong that nobody gains on the ground and it’s up to the quarterback to break it open with passes. And it seemed to me he was a tick slow about getting off his shots. They red-dogged him, sure. But a couple of times he had a receiver wide open and he let himself get blitzed with the ball still in his mitt. Other times he just missed the receiver.”
    “That happens, Harry.”
    “Yeah, but I’ve got a suspicious mind. If the betting had been normal, but it wasn’t. Well, we get taken once in a while, you know that, and what can you do? But I like to know what’s happening to me so it won’t happen again. That’s what I wanted you to look into, this quarterback. What kind of car does he drive? Does he have a safe-deposit box, and what’s in it?”
    Shayne scraped his thumb along his stubbled jaw. “Harry, you’re talking about Johnny Black. He’s All-American. These days the pros are handing out bonuses of a hundred thousand and up, and he’s going to get offers. How much would you have to pay him to take that kind of chance in his last college game? Too damn much.”
    “I could be wrong,” Harry admitted. “What time is it?”
    Shayne looked at his watch. “Five of eight.”
    “There’s a sports program at eight, highlights of the games. See what you think.”
    Doc Waters came in from the