“Yeah. They’d see to that. I also advertised the fact–at least, it looks like a fact to me–that Reno plugged Lew Yard. This Reno is a tough egg, isn’t he? Noonan went watery, but all they got out of Reno was a ‘What of it?’ It was all nice and gentlemanly. They were evenly divided–Pete and Whisper against Noonan and Reno. But none of them could count on his partner backing him up if he made a play, and by the time the meeting was over the pairs had been split. Noonan was out of the count, and Reno and Whisper, against each other, had Pete against them. So everybody sat around and behaved and watched everybody else while I juggled death and destruction.
“Whisper was the first to leave, and he seems to have had time to collect some rods in front of Noonan’s house by the time the chief reached home. The chief was shot down. If Pete the Finn meant what he said– and he has the look of a man who would–he’ll be out after Whisper. Reno was as much to blame for Jerry’s death as Noonan, so Whisper ought to be gunning for him. Knowing it, Reno will be out to get Whisper first, and that will set Pete on his trail. Besides that, Reno will likely have his hands full standing off those of the late Lew Yard’s underlings who don’t fancy Reno as boss. All in all it’s one swell dish.”
Dinah Brand reached across the table and patted my hand. Her eyes were uneasy. She said:
“It’s not your fault, darling. You said yourself that there was nothing else you could do. Finish your drink and we’ll have another.”
“There was plenty else I could do,” I contradicted her. “Old Elihu ran out on me at first simply because these birds had too much on him for him to risk a break unless he was sure they could be wiped out. He couldn’t see how I could do it, so he played with them. He’s not exactly their brand of cut-throat, and, besides, he thinks the city is his personal property, and he doesn’t like the way they’ve taken it away from him.
“I could have gone to him this afternoon and showed him that I had them ruined. He’d have listened to reason. He’d have come over to my side, have given me the support I needed to swing the play legally. I could have done that. But it’s easier to have them killed off, easier and surer, and, now that I’m feeling this way, more satisfying. I don’t know how I’m going to come out with the Agency. The Old Man will boil me in oil if he ever finds out what I’ve been doing. It’s this damned town. Poisonville is right. It’s poisoned me.
“Look. I sat at Willsson’s table tonight and played them like you’d play trout, and got just as much fun out of it. I looked at Noonan and knew he hadn’t a chance in a thousand of living another day because of what I had done to him, and I laughed, and felt warm and happy inside. That’s not me. I’ve got hard skin all over what’s left of my soul, and after twenty years of messing around with crime I can look at any sort of a murder without seeing anything in it but my bread and butter, the day’s work. But this getting a rear out of planning deaths is not natural to me. It’s what this place has done to me.”
She smiled too softly and spoke too indulgently:
“You exaggerate so, honey. They deserve all they get. I wish you wouldn’t look like that. You make me feel creepy.”
I grinned, picked up the glasses, and went out to the kitchen for more gin. When I came back she frowned at me over anxious dark eyes and asked:
“Now what did you bring the ice pick in for?”
“To show you how my mind’s running. A couple of days ago, if I thought about it at all, it was as a good tool to pry off chunks of ice.” I ran a finger down its half-foot of round steel blade to the needle point. “Not a bad thing to pin a man to his clothes with. That’s the way I’m betting, on the level. I can’t even see a mechanical cigar lighter without thinking of filling one with nitroglycerine for somebody you don’t like. There’s a piece of copper wire lying in the gutter in front of your house–thin, soft, and just long enough to go around a neck with two ends to hold on. I had one hell of a time to keep from picking it up and stuffing it in my pocket, just in case–“