I couldn’t see Whisper. The girl was between us. He said:
“Not now. Where’s Dan?”
The angular blond youngster said:
“Up on the bathroom floor. I had to sap him.”
Dinah Brand turned around to face Thaler. Stocking seams made s’s up the ample backs of her legs. She said:
“Max Thaler, you’re a lousy little–”
He whispered, very deliberately:
“Shut up and get out of the way.”
She surprised me by doing both, and she kept quiet while he spoke to me:
“So you and Noonan are trying to paste his brother’s death on me?”
“It doesn’t need pasting. It’s a natural.”
He curved his thin lips at me and said:
“You’re as crooked as he is.”
I said:
“You know better. I played your side when he tried to frame you. This time he’s got you copped to rights.”
Dinah Brand flared up again, waving her arms in the center of the room, storming:
“Get out of here, the whole lot of you. Why should I give a Goddamn about your troubles? Get out.”
The blond kid who had sapped Rolff squeezed past Jerry and came grinning into the room. He caught one of the girl’s flourished arms and bent it behind her.
She twisted toward him, socked him in the belly with her other fist. It was a very respectable wallop–man-size. It broke his grip on her arm, sent him back a couple of steps.
The kid gulped a wide mouthful of air, whisked a blackjack from his hip, and stepped in again. His grin was gone.
Jerry laughed what little chin he had out of sight.
Thaler whispered harshly: “Lay off!”
The kid didn’t hear him. He was snarling at the girl.
She watched him with a face hard as a silver dollar. She was standing with most of her weight on her left foot. I guessed blondy was going to stop a kick when he closed in.
The kid feinted a grab with his empty left hand, started the blackjack at her face.
Thaler whispered, “Lay off,” again, and fired.
The bullet smacked blondy under the right eye, spun him around, and dropped him backwards into Dinah Brand’s arms.
This looked like the time, if there was to be any.
In the excitement I had got my hand to my hip. Now I yanked the gun out and snapped a cap at Thaler, trying for his shoulder.
That was wrong. If I had tried for a bulls-eye I would have winged him. Chinless Jerry hadn’t laughed himself blind. He beat me to the shot. His shot burnt my wrist, throwing me off the target. But, missing Thaler, my slug crumpled the red-faced man behind him.
Not knowing how badly my wrist was nicked, I switched the gun to my left hand.
Jerry had another try at me. The girl spoiled it by heaving the corpse at him. The dead yellow head banged into his knees. I jumped for him while he was off-balance.
The jump took me out of the path of Thaler’s bullet. It also tumbled me and Jerry out into the hall, all tangled up together.
Jerry wasn’t tough to handle, but I had to work quick. There was Thaler behind me. I socked Jerry twice, kicked him, butted him at least once, and was hunting for a place to bite when he went limp under me. I poked him again where his chin should have been–just to make sure he wasn’t faking–and went away on hands and knees, down the hall a bit, out of line with the door.
I sat on my heels against the wall, held my gun level at Thaler’s part of the premises, and waited. I couldn’t hear anything for the moment except blood singing in my head.
Dinah Brand stepped out of the door I had tumbled through, looked at Jerry, then at me. She smiled with her tongue between her teeth, beckoned with a jerk of her head, and returned to the living room. I followed her cautiously.
Whisper stood in the center of the floor. His hands were empty and so was his face. Except for his vicious little mouth he looked like something displaying suits in a clothing store window.