Part 20 (1/2)
”His ex-wife or girlfriend? There's usually a dame behind these things.”
I told him why I didn't think they were likely prospects.
He was unimpressed. ”Maybe you haven't seen how worked up a woman can get when she's mad enough. I have, and it's d.a.m.ned scary.”
Actually I had seen a small woman take on two grown men and nearly win before the handcuffs were safely in place and we could call the cops on her. Escott still had the scars. Mine had healed. ”I don't get that feeling here.”
”Feeling. Uh-huh.” Kroun clearly didn't think much of my instincts, and he was probably right. Just because I liked Jewel and thought Evie was cute was no reason to take them out of the running.
”Okay, they're on the list. Might as well add in the chorus girls and the band.”
”The band was performing the whole time. Listen, let's just go find these two dames, have a talk, and settle it.”
”Why are you so lathered to find the killer?” I asked.
More of the deadpan stare. ”Why not?”
Couldn't think of a reply to that one. I'd rather have Kroun stay out of the way, but he was the big boss, and I still had to listen to him. It rankled not being able to influence him to my way of thinking. I'd gotten too used to the luxury of being able to order people around.
Derner came back to say arrangements were in hand, and he also had addresses for Jewel, Evie, and Hoyle. ”I'm sending some of the boys for Hoyle. You want him alive?”
”Yes. Even if he didn't kill Caine, he owes me for those d.a.m.n tires. What about Ruzzo?”
”They move around a lot. Landlords keep kicking them out.”
”Lemme know when you bring 'em in. I need a car, too.”
”Gordy's is back, but Strome took off to fix things. I can get another driver.”
”I'll drive myself. You check everything on everyone who was backstage. Make up whatever story you need for cover and make it reasonable; don't leave them room to guess what really happened.”
Derner nodded, then reached in again from the hall to shut the light off before locking up. Apparently he didn't like putting himself any closer to the dead man than the rest of us.
Kroun and I left by the club's back door. The outside cold abruptly and painfully meshed with my inside chill.
Ganged up on me like that, I didn't stand a chance and nearly doubled over from the s.h.i.+vering that hit like a gut punch.
”You okay? What's the matter?” Kroun paused from opening the pa.s.senger side of the Caddy, looking over the roof at me, half-annoyed, half-concerned.
”Freezing my a.s.s off,” I muttered, and slammed in behind the wheel. The keys were in their slot. No need to worry about anyone thieving this car. I tried to control the shaking to get it going.
”Stop,” Kroun said. I wasn't used to being ordered, even when I knew it was part of the job. ”What?”
He made no reply, just walked around and opened my door. ”Move over, I'll drive.”
”But-”
”Do it.”
I did it.
Kroun gave me an irritated up-and-down. ”You got a fever or what? Only time I saw a man in your kind of shape he had the DTs. You sick?”
”I donno. Don't feel sick.” I hated that he was picking me apart.
”You don't look sick. Not much.” He figured out the starter, put the car in gear, and we glided forward. ”Which way?”
”Left at the corner, then right.”
He drove as directed, throwing a glance my way now and then. The car was still warmed up from taking Gordy to the Bronze Belt. Kroun fiddled with the heater and opened the vents wide. Hot air breathed on my feet and legs.
”Better?”
”A little.”
He looked unconvinced but kept it to himself. ”So what's really wrong with you?”
”Nothing.”
”Fleming, you don't have DTs, St. Vitus Dance, or malaria, and that's the limit of my educated guessing. You know what's wrong.”
”It's probably the shot I had.”
He threw a hostile glare remarkably similar to Mitch.e.l.l's. ”Shot. There's no medicine makes a man cold like that. If it was the winter getting to you, then your teeth would be chattering, too. This has to do with what Bristow did to you.”
I shook my head to mean I didn't want to talk about it.
”Yeah, and it's got you bad. I've seen guys just like you going right off the dock, but because they were in the War.
It did that to them. You didn't have the War; you had Bristow. The son of a b.i.t.c.h is dead, he can't come at you again.”
Which I knew very well. Funny, but Escott had been on this same trail the night before.
”I told you to ease off on yourself, so when's it going to commence?”
No answer to that one, since I sure as h.e.l.l didn't know. ”Let's stick to business, if you don't mind.”
”Business. That's what we call it. It's what got you where you are. It's what killed that guy back there, sure as s.h.i.+t.
Business.” He sounded none too pleased with it.
What was this about? But he shut down.
The heater was a good one. Eventually the hot air blowing against my legs filled up the rest of the car, blunting the edge. The pain from the inner cold eased, whether from the warmth or Kroun trying to talk some sense into me, I couldn't tell.
He turned on the radio. ”This okay with you?”
”Go ahead.” I was surprised he'd bothered to ask.