Street of No Return Read Online Free PDF Page B

soft lazy smile.
The smile seemed to drift across the table, almost like a floating leaf in a gentle breeze. The Lieutenant was saying, "Tell me why you did it."
"I didn't do it," Whitey said.
"All right." The Lieutenant shifted in his chair, facing the wall on the other side of the room. "Let's take it slower. We'll talk about the weapon. What'd you hit him with?"
"I didn't hit him," Whitey said. "I didn't touch him."
Pertnoy smiled at the wall. He waved his hand lazily toward Whitey and said, "Look at your clothes. Look at the blood on you."
"I got that trying to help him. He was sitting there and I was holding him to keep him from falling."
Pertnoy gave a slow nod of assent. "That ain't bad. It might even stand up in court."
"Will it reach court?"
Pertnoy looked at Whitey and said, "What do you think?"
"I think you oughta go look for the man who did it."
"You mean you didn't do it?"
"That's what I been saying."
"Maybe you'll get tired saying it."
"Maybe." Whitey shrugged. "I'm getting tired now."
"Wanna break down?"
"And do what?"
"Cry a little," Pertnoy said. "Make some noise. Confess."
"No," Whitey said. "I'm not that tired."
"Come on." The Lieutenant's voice was very soft and kindly, like a doctor's voice. "Come on," the Lieutenant said, opening the table drawer and taking out a pencil and a pad of paper. "Come on."
"Nothing doing," Whitey said.
The pencil was poised. "Come on. You can spifi it in just a few words. He's chasing you down the alley and you pick up a brick or something. You don't really mean to finish him. All you wanna do is knock him down so you can get away."
Whitey smiled sadly. "You putting words in my mouth?"
"I wanna put some words on this paper," Pertnoy said. He flicked another glance at his wrist watch. "We only got a couple of minutes."
Whitey stopped smiling. "Until what?"
"Until I break it to the Captain."
"Then what?"
"God knows," Pertnoy said. And then his expression changed. His face became serious. It was the same seriousness he'd displayed outside the front entrance of the station house when he'd told the two policemen about the Captain.
Whitey sat there blinking and not saying anything.
"Look," Pertnoy said. "It's like this. You give me a confession and I'll put you in a cell. Then you'll be safe."
"Safe?" Whitey blinked hard. "From what?"
"Don't you see?" The Lieutenant leaned forward sort of pleadingly. "From the Captain."
Whitey gazed past the gray face of Lieutenant Pertnoy. But the wall of the room was also gray and it seemed to be moving toward him. "God," Whitey said to the wall. "Is that the way it is?"
"That's exactly the way it is," the Lieutenant said. He pointed his thumb over his shoulder to indicate something. It was the noise coming from the big room at the end of the corridor. It was the clashing mixture of shouts and curses in Spanish and English. There was a thud and another thud and then more shouting. "You hear that?" the Lieutenant said. "Listen to it. Just listen to it."
Whitey listened. He heard the cracking, squishy sound of someone getting hit very hard in the mouth. And then he heard the voice of the Captain saying, "Want more?" There was a hissing defiance in the voice replying, "Got any sisters?" Then a very cold quiet and then the Captain saying, "Sure. I got three." And there were three separate, precisely timed sounds, the sounds of knuckles smashing a face. After that it was just the vague noise of someone crumbling to the floor.
"You hear it?" Pertnoy said.
Whitey sat very low in the chair. He nodded slowly. He looked at Pertnoy's hand and saw the pencil poised above the pad of paper.
He heard Pertnoy saying, "You see what I mean?"
"Can't you stop him? Can't you do anything?"
"No," Pertnoy said. "We'd be crazy if we tried. There's no telling what he'd do. You heard what I told the blue boys. He's a sick man. He's getting sicker. I feel sorry for him, I swear I do. He's been trying his best to stop these riots, and the more he tries, the worse it gets. He's