The By-Pass Control Read Online Free PDF Page A

back. “No trouble, gentlemen,” I said. “I was just going to make the same suggestion myself.”
     
    I met Charlie Corbinet in the Blue Ribbon Restaurant on Forty-fourth just off Seventh Avenue at five in the afternoon. The afteroffice crowd had just started to filter in, but I had a corner table in the bar by myself and a cold beer to keep me company while I waited.
    He slid in, ordered the same and said, “You’re a cagey bastard, Tiger.”
    “Yeah, I know. How’d it come out?”
    “All your way. I’m appointed the official baby sitter and you’re to report through me.” He gave me a dubious grin and added, “You’re getting closer all the time. You’re practically an agency man.”
    “Screw that stuff.”
    “Well, you’re in the Army now. They’ve expedited your papers. You’d better behave. Delaney wasn’t kidding about a court-martial. Don’t slip up.”
    “I haven’t in twenty years.”
    “You almost did a few months ago.”
    Rondine again. He meant the thing with her.
    “But I didn’t.”
    “Let’s say you were lucky.”
    “That’s why I’m still alive.”
    Charlie nodded and took a sip of his beer. “What’s your first step?”
    “Trying to get your department to give me all the details on Louis Agrounsky.”
    “You’ll get that tomorrow. That wasn’t what I meant.”
    “How long can I have before you file a report on my activities?”
    “At your discretion. I know you can play the game. Maybe the others don’t but we’re the same breed, or have you forgotten?”
    I laughed and finished my beer. The waiter asked if I wanted another but I waved him off. I said, “I haven’t forgotten anything.”
    “Then?”
    “There’s a funny little guy who doesn’t belong in the picture, yet he’s there.”
    Charlie saw the point immediately. “Doug Hamilton?”
    “Vito Salvi killed him along with the other two. His abduction was deliberate and that torture murder had a purpose. I want to know why.”
    “You could have asked Salvi,” Charlie said quietly.
    “Not when I was shot to hell and bleeding all over the floor. I wasn’t taking any chances on Salvi getting me after I dropped in a faint, old friend. I wasn’t thinking fast at that point or I might have sweated it out a little, but what’s done is done.”
    “Sure,” Charlie nodded. “Incidentally, you’re off the hook on that one. They dreamed up a cutie to cover those kills.”
    “I’ll read about it in the papers.”
    “All part of the terms of the agreement you made.”
    “Great.” My voice sounded sour. I wasn’t very happy about the bed I had made or the others who were going to sleep in it with me. I laid a couple of bucks on the table and got up. “I’ll call you, Charlie,” I said.
    “I’ll be waiting.”
     
    I had scheduled Don Lavois to meet me at Ernie Bentley’s lab at nine with the information I requested. I got there a little early and caught Ernie with a fresh pot of coffee and let him pour me one in a beaker. It was black and thick, almost a distant cousin of some of the explosives he was expert at concocting.
    He handed me a bag of doughnuts and perched on the edge of a work table. “Hear you have a big priority job going.”
    “Grady set any limitations on you?”
    “None. Fullest cooperation. I passed on the authorization to London and Paris and they’re set to roll if they have to. Martin sent a draft through to the bank to cover any emergency.” He took half a doughnut, dunked it and stuffed it in his mouth. “What’s the procedure?”
    “Right now, I haven’t any. When Don gets in I’ll probably know the direction it’ll take.” I checked my watch, found it almost nine when the buzzer flashed from downstairs and Ernie touched the unlock button beside his desk.
    Don Lavois was a big guy, wide in the shoulders with one of those pleasant faces that had seen a lot of action. There was a slight twist to his nose and a little scar tissue gave a lift to one eyebrow. A fine