“He’s getting tough in his old age.” The thin lips curved in another smile. He didn’t seem to think much of the fat chief’s deadliness. “Any time he rubs me out I deserve rubbing. What’s he got against you?”
“He’s guessed I’m going to make a nuisance of myself.”
“Too bad. Dinah told me you were a pretty good guy, except kind of Scotch with the roll.”
“I had a nice visit. Will you tell me what you know about Donald Willsson’s killing?”
“His wife plugged him.”
“You saw her?”
“I saw her the next second–with the gat in her hand.”
“That’s no good to either of us,” I said. “I don’t know how far you’ve got it cooked. Rigged right, you could make it stick in court, maybe, but you’ll not get a chance to make your play there. If Noonan takes you at all he’ll take you stiff. Give me the straight of it. I only need that to pop the job.”
He dropped his cigarette on the floor, mashed it under his foot, and asked:
“You that hot?”
“Give me your slant on it and I’m ready to make the pinch–if I can get out of here.”
He lit another cigarette and asked:
“Mrs. Willsson said it was me that phoned her?”
“Yeah–after Noonan had persuaded her. She believes it now– maybe.”
“You dropped Big Nick,” he said. “I’ll take a chance on you. A man phoned me that night. I don’t know him, don’t know who he was. He said Willsson had gone to Dinah’s with a check for five grand. What the hell did I care? But, see, it was funny somebody I didn’t know cracked it to me. So I went around. Dan stalled me away from the door. That was all right. But still it was funny as hell that guy phoned me.
“I went up the street and took a plant in a vestibule. I saw Mrs. Willsson’s heap standing in the street, but I didn’t know then that it was hers or that she was in it. He came out pretty soon and walked down the street. I didn’t see the shots. I heard them. Then this woman jumps out of the heap and runs over to him. I knew she hadn’t done the shooting. I ought to have beat it. But it was all funny as hell, so when I saw the woman was Willsson’s wife I went over to them, trying to find out what it was all about. That was a break, see? So I had to make an out for myself, in case something slipped. I strung the woman. That’s the whole damned works–on the level.”
“Thanks,” I said. “That’s what I came for. Now the trick is to get out of here without being mowed down.”
“No trick at all,” Thaler assured me. “We go any time we want to.”
“I want to now. If I were you, I’d go too. You’ve got Noonan pegged as a false-alarm, but why take a chance? Make the sneak and keep under cover till noon, and his frame-up will be a wash-out.”
Thaler put his hand in his pants pocket and brought out a fat roll of paper money. He counted off a hundred or two, some fifties, twenties, tens, and held them out to the chinless man, saying:
“Buy us a get-away, Jerry, and you don’t have to give anybody any more dough than he’s used to.”
Jerry took the money, picked up a hat from the table, and strolled out. Half an hour later he returned and gave some of the bills back to Thaler, saying casually:
“We wait in the kitchen till we get the office.”
We went down to the kitchen. It was dark there. More men joined us.
Presently something hit the door.
Jerry opened the door and we went down three steps into the back yard. It was almost full daylight. There were ten of us in the party.
“This all?” I asked Thaler.
He nodded.
“Nick said there were fifty of you.”
“Fifty of us to stand off that crummy force!” he sneered.
A uniformed copper held the back gate open, muttering nervously: