The Duchess of Skid Row Read Online Free PDF Page B

was a man who knew how to reserve judgment until all the evidence was in. He said, “A toolshed is a funny place to meet an old friend.”
    “I explained that.” We had talked for a half hour. My throat was beginning to hurt. The back of my head still throbbed. Small spots on my face and hands smarted where exploding embers had hit my bare skin.
    He said, “Why all the secrecy, Jeff? What or who do you think Johnny was hiding from?”
    I had an idea but I wasn’t ready to tell it to Maslin. Not yet. I said, “I can’t answer that. I’ve been away, remember.”
    “If he pushed something down in that file drawer and then told you to get it, where did it go?”
    I hadn’t told him about Hoxey Creen yet, either. Johnny Itsuko had been Ritter’s man. Maslin would tell Ritter everything he knew, out of courtesy to a fellow cop, if for no other reason. I had no intention of handing Ritter my best chance of breaking the frame I could see shaping against me.
    “That one beats me, Lieutenant.”
    He grunted. He started to say something and stopped. Captain Ritter was charging toward us like a bull hunting someone to gore.
    “You, McKeon!”
    I said sharply, “Get off my back, Captain. Johnny Itsuko was my friend.”
    He swung his big head toward Maslin. “Did McKeon tell you about the fight he had with Itsuko today?”
    “He told me,” Maslin said. His voice gave none of his attitude toward Ritter away.
    “Did he tell you that Itsuko was the man in charge of investigating him?” Ritter demanded.
    “Investigating him for what?”
    Ritter pushed his face at me. “Tell him, McKeon!”
    I tried to keep my feeling about Ritter out of my voice. “Someone sent the Captain here an anonymous letter accusing me of trying to help set the rackets up in Puget City again. He didn’t stop to think. He grabbed onto that letter as irrefutable evidence of my guilt. He wants the DA and me out so badly it makes him drool.”
    Ritter was breathing like a stallion after a mare. “Your lawyer lingo won’t do you any good, McKeon. The evidence is good enough. And if it isn’t, I have more.”
    I said, “All you have is hope, Captain.”
    “What you did to Johnny Itsuko is evidence enough!”
    I looked at Maslin. He still showed no expression. Ritter’s reasoning would have been laughable in any other situation. But it wasn’t now. And there was no doubt he meant everything he said. I couldn’t doubt, not when I saw the hatred in his eyes, the harsh lines of his mouth.
    I said, “While you hamper police work with your accusations, Johnny Itsuko’s killer could be getting away, Captain.”
    Ritter ignored me. He said, “Well, Maslin?”
    Maslin said quietly, “Are you charging McKeon, Captain?”
    “Yes, by God!”
    “On what evidence. Your circular reasoning?” Maslin was quiet and patient as always. He was a lean, gray man with a soft, dangerously calm voice.
    Ritter started to speak but Maslin said, “Captain, you accuse McKeon of guilt on the basis of an anonymous letter. You seem to think that the letter proves he killed Itsuko because his killing Itsuko proves the truth of the letter. I’ll need more evidence than that to book a man with McKeon’s record.”
    Ritter flushed. “I’ll find all the evidence you need, Lieutenant. McKeon killed Johnny Itsuko, and I’m going to prove it!”
    I said, “Johnny was the top judo man on the force. Do you think he’d stand still long enough for me to get close enough to beat him up if he believed I was guilty of selling out to the Combine?”
    “That’s a point,” Maslin said. “And it appears he was beaten to death, Captain.”
    I said, “And then why was his car stolen? Why was the shack blown up? What reason would I have for doing those things?”
    “I’ll find out,” Ritter said.
    “While you’re at it, find out why I would haul him out of the shack. If I’d killed him, I’d have let him burn.”
    Ritter wasn’t buying it. “I say you killed him, McKeon.